The Castle

The evening continues at the inn. K. and the two assistants sit together, and K. tells them that he will call them both Artur as he cannot tell them apart. He expects them both to answer to that name and do all tasks together, sharing the responsibility. The assistants say that will be unpleasant but immediately compete to fulfil K.’s order to call for permission to go to the Castle. Their call receives the answer “No […] Neither tomorrow nor at any other time” (20). K. decides to call himself and, after listening to the sound of many voices humming together, is answered by an Oswald. This person has also heard of “the eternal land surveyor” (21). K. pretends to be one of his new assistants, but Oswald seems to know he is lying. To the question about when K. can come to the Castle, Oswald replies, “Never” (21). This whole conversation is witnessed at close quarters by the peasant crowd in the inn. They clear away, seeming satisfied at the conclusion of the call.

A man enters the inn, resembling one of K.’s assistants but inspiring more confidence than they do through his determined gait, fancy clothing, and open and generous features. He introduces himself as Barnabas, a messenger, and hands K. a letter. The letter explains in formal but brief terms that K. has been accepted into the Count’s service but that he will be accountable to the village council chairman. It also informs K. that Barnabas will be the intermediary between K. and the letter writer, the unnamed Director of Bureau No. 10. K. retires with the landlord to a new lodging, the maids’ room, which has been vacated for him. He reads the letter again and ponders its contradictory messages, which at times address K. as a free man and others as a lowly worker. K. wonders how he can achieve anything at the Castle, given the “discouraging surroundings and the increasing familiarity with the ever more predictable disappointments, the force of scarcely perceptible influences at every moment” (24).

K. returns to the taproom and finds Barnabas there. The peasants follow K. about, as has become their habit, and he reflects on whether their behavior is driven by “stubborn malice” or is “merely childlike” (25). K. discusses the letter with Barnabas, who tells him it was sent by Klamm. Barnabas leaves the inn; soon after, K. follows him outside and calls for him. Barnabas returns, and they discuss Barnabas’s role as messenger between K. and the authorities. The conversation becomes frustrating and overly complicated. Still, reassured by Barnabas’s presence, K. leans on the messenger’s arm as they walk through the streets. On the long walk, K. reflects on his childhood memory of conquering a wall that had long evaded him. Their destination is unknown to K., but he is surprised to find that it is not the Castle but Barnabas’s family home. The family also know of the surveyor. Their peasant status disappoints K., as he had expected more from Barnabas, who takes off his fancy jacket and reveals his shabby clothes. K. realizes Barnabas will not be his passport to the Castle.

K. is accompanied by one of Barnabas’s sisters, Olga, to a different inn, one reserved for gentlemen from the Castle called The Gentlemen’s Inn. The landlord here explains that K. cannot stay at the inn. K. tries to persuade the landlord of his connection to the Castle, but the landlord is not convinced. K. is told that there is only one gentleman from the Castle at the inn tonight: Klamm. K. feels it might be embarrassing to stay at the inn with his superior present and suspects “that the consequences he feared, such as his being a subordinate, a worker, were becoming evident and that he couldn’t overcome them even here” (34). K. reluctantly agrees to stay the night at Olga’s family home.

Olga and K. reenter the inn. The customers here are also peasants but are more neatly dressed in a kind of uniform. Their silent watchfulness of K. makes him uneasy. Arm in arm, Olga and K. go to the bar, where they meet the young serving girl Frieda. When K. asks if Frieda knows Klamm, Olga laughs. Frieda leads K. to a peephole, through which he observes a “medium sized, fat ponderous gentleman” (36), who is Klamm. He has a beer and a cigar. Now alone with Frieda, K. asks if she knows Klamm well, and she replies that she is his mistress while flirtatiously touching her low-cut blouse. K. asks if she has been to the Castle, but the proud and ambitious Frieda replies, “No, but isn’t it sufficient that I’m here in the taproom” (37). K. and Frieda flirt, and K. flatters her until her attitude changes and she returns to work. K. pursues her and jokingly declares that his intention was to steal her from Klamm but that now he would go. He calls for Olga, but she is encircled by dancing peasants. Frieda tells K. he can spend the night in the inn after she gets rid of the peasants. She expresses disdain at the “despicable and repulsive creatures” (39), who are Klamm’s servants and brought to the inn by him. She tells K. that Klamm is asleep, as he often is, and then she drives the peasants out to the shed with a whip. Meanwhile, K. hears a noise in the taproom and hides under the counter. The landlord appears and, when Frieda returns, questions her about K.’s whereabouts. Frieda claims ignorance and then moves close to the counter, from where K. touches her foot. She leans down, supposedly to look for K., and kisses him. The landlord suspects nothing and goes off to look for K., concerned about following “the regulation” (41). Frieda turns off the light and joins K. under the counter. They spend the night rolling around in ecstasy on the beer-sodden taproom floor. K. experiences “meaningless enticements” that lead him further and further into “foreign lands” (41).

The morning comes, and with it a cry from Klamm for Frieda. She tells K. she will never go to Klamm again, and he feels happy and strengthened by her presence. Frieda, however, knocks on Klamm’s door and tells him she is with the surveyor. K. is shocked by her bravado and feels he has lost all his hope now. K. is alerted to the presence of his two laughing assistants sitting on the counter. They claim to have been there all night. K. tells them he needs them by day, not night, to which they retort that it is indeed day now. The peasants and a disappointed Olga return, and K. and Frieda leave for the Bridge Inn. Frieda is warmly welcomed by the landlady, and K., Frieda, and the assistants settle into K.’s room. The day passes with many interruptions from the maids, yet K. sleeps well and awakes to the realization that it is his fourth day in the village.

When K. is awake, he observes how the assistants have made themselves a space in his room and spend their time playing silly games together and with Frieda. All three rush over to serve him as soon as they see him stir. He asks the assistants to leave so he can have some privacy with Frieda. The couple become intimate but without reaching the satisfaction of their first encounter.

K. later awakes to find the assistants have returned and the landlady is sitting by the bed, knitting. She informs K. that she has been waiting a long time, and there begins a long conversation with the greater part being the landlady’s portentous pronouncements. K. asks her to postpone the meeting until he has visited the council chairman, but the landlady claims her matter, which is Frieda, is more important. K. assures the landlady that he will marry Frieda but acknowledges that the girl has lost a lot through her association with him, namely her position at the Gentlemen’s Inn and her friendship with Klamm. Frieda voices despair at this idea but soon throws herself upon K. with wild kisses. The landlady tearfully asks K. what assurances he will give Frieda, as they know nothing about him. K. states that he has to speak to Klamm before the wedding, and if not him, then Frieda. However, Frieda claims these are “utter impossibilities” (47). The landlady resumes her monologue and compares Klamm, “a gentleman from the Castle […] a very high rank” (48), with K., who is “nothing […] superfluous […] a constant source of trouble” (48) and Frieda’s seducer. She asks how K. could even look at Klamm, who would never direct a word at anyone in the village. She then laments the “great distinction” (49) that Frieda enjoyed when Klamm would just call her name, which she has now lost. She finally wonders how Frieda could let K. touch her.

K. insists he must talk to Klamm and asks if the all-powerful and worldly landlady can arrange a meeting with him. Again, he is told this is impossible. The landlady claims that such an idea “runs counter to the rules and the old traditions” (51). Her speech becomes more vitriolic as she tells K. she warned her husband to stay away from him and that now she is only tolerating him for Frieda’s sake. K. stays calm and polite. The landlady then rails against Barnabas, “that slippery riffraff!” (52). She addresses the assistants, but this riles K., who forbids her to speak to them, to great derision from the landlady and the pair.

Frieda interjects and seems to regret Klamm abandoning her. The landlady takes this opportunity to berate K. further for enticing Frieda away from Klamm and from “the happiest state ever granted her” (53). K. responds that the landlady should keep out of his and Frieda’s affairs and issues a dark warning. He tells her that he is only staying at her inn because of a directive from the Count and that he will write a report and gladly leave. He is about to go see the council chairman when the landlady resumes her insults, calling K. “dreadfully ignorant about the situation here” (54). She pleads with K. not to speak to Klamm. K. retorts that he may be ignorant but he will take the risk, and if he disappears in the end, then the landlady will be happier.