The Castle

by Franz Kafka

The only difference is that Frieda did what Amalia refused to do.”

attacks against Frieda are at the same time attacks against my existence.

after all this it seems as if Frieda in her innocence has done more than Amalia in all her arrogance,

sovereignty we had never noticed in her before, that one shouldn’t put one’s trust in speeches like that from the gentlemen, for on such occasions the gentlemen liked to say agreeable things, but they had little or no significance and, once uttered, they were forgotten for all time, but, admittedly, on the very next occasion one got caught again in their trap.

people were happy to be able to break off the connection with us quickly, completely, even at some loss to themselves, that wasn’t an issue.

it was all due to the influence of the Castle.”

Instead of begging each of you all over again for forgiveness every day, she carries her head higher than everybody else, doesn’t look after anything other than your parents—and then only barely, as an act of mercy—refuses to be initiated into anything, as she herself puts it, and when she finally does speak to you, she is ‘mostly serious, but sounds ironic.’

we had only gone and presented ourselves of our own accord, taken up our old connections again without wasting a word about the letter affair, that would have been enough, everyone would have gladly stopped talking about the matter, for in addition to fear it was the painful embarrassment of the matter that had made them break with us, simply so that they would no longer have to hear anything about the matter or speak about it or think of it or be in any way touched by it.

So if we had simply come out again, let the past rest, shown through our behavior that we had overcome the matter, regardless of how, and if the public had been thus persuaded that whatever the entire matter might have been about, it would never be discussed again, even then everything would have been fine, and we would have encountered the same old helpfulness everywhere; even if we had only partly forgotten the matter, they would have understood this and helped us to forget it entirely. Instead we sat at home.

this was all quite natural and unavoidable, but not good,

They are ruminating unable to give themselves closure

People noticed that we hadn’t the strength to extricate ourselves from the letter affair and held this very much against us, it wasn’t that they underestimated the grave nature of our fate, although they did not know exactly what it was; if we had overcome this they would certainly have honored us accordingly, but since we hadn’t succeeded they made definitive what they had done only temporarily till then, they banished us from all circles, knowing that they themselves probably wouldn’t have withstood the test any better, but that this made it all the more necessary to make a complete break with us.

was the Castle supposed to take care of everything? But in reality it did take care of everything, yet it couldn’t crudely intervene in developments for no reason other than to serve the interests of one individual.

But to obtain pardon, he first had to establish guilt, and that’s precisely what they denied him at the offices.

instead of becoming more skeptical, Father became ever more gullible.

The officials are highly educated, but only one-sidedly so, in his own area an official can on hearing a single word dart at once through complete trains of thought, but if someone explains cases from another department to him for hours on end, he may nod politely, but he won’t understand a word.

since ambition seeks fulfillment in work and the task itself becomes paramount, eventually all ambition disappears;

This change, if it actually is a change in fortune rather than an illusion—illusions are more common than changes in fortune—

licentious

indefatigable

In that case you fail to appreciate the system of order here.

Ever since you ceased to be his master’s fiancée, you are no longer the temptation you once were for him.

“for you certainly don’t love him, you only think you do, and you’ll be grateful when I deliver you from that illusion.

for I’m constantly running after things that aren’t entirely comprehensible to you, that annoy you, that bring me together with people who seem despicable to you, and some of that gets carried over to me in all my innocence. All of this is simply a malicious, though certainly very clever, exploitation of the shortcomings in our relationship. Every relationship has its shortcomings, even ours; we came together, each of us from a completely different world, and ever since getting to know each other, each of our lives has taken a completely new path, we still feel uncertain, all of this is too

you were yearning, poor child, for something that was only half-defined, and at moments like that all that was needed was that the right people be posted in the direction you were looking and you were lost to them, you succumbed to the illusion that all of this, which was nothing but moments, ghosts, old memories, mostly your past and constantly receding former life, was still your real life right then.

Although one doesn’t realize it at the time, one ends up sacrificing one’s health for things that are truly not worth it.

his misery was not due to his cold but was innate in him and could not be chased away by any medicinal tea—

K. had told himself several times not to underestimate Bürgel, but in his present state it was hard to be a fair judge of anything other than his own weariness.

I don’t want to get into the question of the true state of affairs, the illusion may actually correspond to reality, in my position I lack the distance that is necessary to establish that, but listen carefully to what I am saying, sometimes opportunities do arise that aren’t altogether in keeping with the situation in general, opportunities through which more can be achieved with a word, with a glance, with a sign of trust, than with a lifetime of grueling effort.

But then again these opportunities are actually in keeping with the situation in general inasmuch as nobody ever takes advantage of them. Now why does nobody ever take advantage of them, that’s the very question I keep asking myself.”

At night one involuntarily inclines to judge matters from a more private point of view, the presentations of the parties are given more weight than should be the case, entirely irrelevant considerations about the parties’ circumstances in other respects, their sorrows and their fears, interfere with the judgment, the necessary barrier between parties and officials, even if outwardly still intact, begins to crumble, and in places where usually, as should happen, there were only questions and answers going back and forth, the persons involved switched places in a strange and absolutely inappropriate manner.

their resilience is almost equal to their vulnerability.”

office—it is absolutely unthinkable. And yet we are happy. How suicidal happiness can be!

To his mind, it was probably only for indifferent, accidental reasons—exhaustion, disappointment, inconsiderateness, and indifference—that he had out of exhaustion and disappointment penetrated into a room that was not the one he wanted, and sits there in complete ignorance, preoccupied with thoughts—if preoccupied with anything whatsoever—of his error or of his weariness.

Without sparing oneself in the least, one must show him exactly what has happened and why it has happened, how extremely rare and singularly great an opportunity this is, one must show the party how, even though he has stumbled into this affair in an utter helplessness that no being other than a party is capable of, he can now, if he wants, Surveyor, take control of the entire situation, and to this end need only somehow present his request, for which the fulfillment is ready and even heading toward him—one must show all this to him; for the official, it’s the most difficult hour.

here everything is full of opportunities. Except that some opportunities are, as it were, too great to be acted upon; there are things that fail through nothing other than themselves.

intransigence

And even if it was an irregularity, that was forgivable, for under the conditions that prevailed here the servant could not work without error, and at some point the pent-up irritation, the pent-up unrest, would have to erupt, and if this expressed itself merely in the tearing up of a little note, that was still innocent enough.

They don’t know or in their friendliness and disdain don’t want to know that there are insensitive, hard hearts that cannot be softened even by reverence.

for after all each gentleman serves only the cause, never thinks of personal gain, and therefore had to work with all his strength to ensure that the distribution of files, this important, essential work, proceed quickly, easily, and without error?

Somebody who puts himself above everything, above the law and above the most ordinary human consideration with that stolid indifference and drowsiness of his, who doesn’t care that he not only makes it almost impossible for the files to be distributed and damages the reputation of the inn and who brings about an entirely unprecedented situation, namely, that the gentlemen, who have been reduced to despair, begin to fight and after an inner struggle inconceivable to ordinary people reach for the bell and call for help in order to drive away the otherwise unshakable K.

as though she had meanwhile become acquainted with the malice of the world, in the face of which all one’s own malice gives way and becomes meaningless; she spoke to K. as though to a fellow sufferer,

But when she’s on duty, all her doubts disappear, she thinks she’s the most beautiful of all and knows how to convince everybody of that. She understands people, and that is her true skill.

And he still makes demands; without having the least bit of support he makes demands, not directly but you can still see he’s making certain demands, and naturally this is irritating enough.

This constant disappointment made her tired, perhaps that’s why she did not accomplish as much as she might have accomplished.

“It’s not at all true that you’ve only just discovered all this, those are only dreams from your dark narrow chambermaids’ room downstairs, which are not out of place there, but here in the public taproom they sound odd. You couldn’t make your mark here with ideas like that, well, that’s quite understandable.

You chambermaids are used to spying through a keyhole, and so from the tiny details that you actually see you often draw grand but false conclusions about the whole thing.

“So long as you complain about being deceived,” said K., “I cannot reach an understanding with you. You’re constantly wishing to have been deceived, because it’s flattering and because it moves you. But the truth is that you aren’t suited for that position.

It’s a position like any other, but to you it is heaven, so you seize everything with exaggerated eagerness and pretty yourself just as, in your opinion, the angels pretty themselves—but in reality they’re different—you tremble for the position, feel you’re constantly being hounded, seek to win over through exaggerated friendliness everyone who could to your mind support you, but you only disturb and disgust them, for what they want at the inn is peace, and not the barmaids’ worries on top of their own worries.

anybody who found these shortcomings disturbing would simply have demonstrated his incapacity to appreciate higher things.

And you don’t realize how you’re exposing yourself, and the lack of experience you are revealing in this way.