The Trial Essay Research Paper THE TRIALby — страница 8

stockings, look! And she shows them to him. Bertold has entered the room at some point and is hulking towards them. Nevertheless the woman insinuates that K. can have her, only to be interrupted by Bertold, who carries her off. K. chases them into the court offices but loses them. The usher comes in and complains about Bertold chasing his wife (even though she throws herself at him) and how he would love to see him flattened. He tries to interest Joseph in this matter and they start walking through the labyrinthine, dark, stifling offices. Along the way they get to a hallway filled with men waiting for word on their cases. K. gets spooked and wants to leave, but he’s lost. He begins to feel faint and has to sit down, helped by a young woman and a man. He finally makes his way

out, carried along by the man and young woman, badly shaken and not wanting to come back. Chapter 4: Fr?ulein B?rstner’s Friend (Editors’s note: In the new edition, this chapter is consigned to the Fragments section, so it goes straight from the empty courtroom to the whipper.) Joseph wants to talk to Fr?ulein B?rstner again, but she hasn’t been around. One day he notices an awful racket coming from her room and finds out that her friend, Fr?ulein Montag, a sickly French teacher, is moving in with her. He talks to Frau Grubach about it, who says she’ll stop the noise if he wants but that yes, Fr?ulein B?rstner is indeed having Fr?ulein Montag move in with her. Joseph is upset over this turn of events, apparently started by his own behavior, and goes to see the room for

himself, where he meets Fr?ulein Montag. She won’t tell him exactly why she’s moving in, and says that Fr?ulein B?rstner doesn’t want to talk to him. He goes back to his room, thinking about what all this might mean. Chapter 5: The Whipper K. is walking to his office in the Bank when he hears a horrible scream. He investigates and finds that Franz and Willem, the warders, are being whipped in a dark little storeroom. They plead with him to let them off, they have their own troubles, but the whipper is adamant about doing his duty. K. tries to buy him off, but no, that won’t do. Finally he tries to pull them out of the room but is foiled. For the next week he can’t get it out of his mind and goes back to look at the room, only to find everything as it was last week, with

the whipper and the two warders there again. K. slams the door and yells for someone to clean out the closet. Chapter 6: K.’s Uncle / Leni K.’s uncle Karl (or Albert) visits him in his office. He has come in from the country, upset over his nephew’s case and wanting to help him. They go to see one of his uncle’s school friends, Dr. Huld, who is very sick but knows all about Joseph’s case. He has just been talking to the Chief Clerk, and the three of them begin talking. Meanwhile Joseph’s mind is on the nurse, a young woman called Leni. In the middle of the conversation he hears a crash, and goes to check it out, finding out that Leni just wanted to get him alone with her. She wants him to like her, she insists, but Joseph is more interested in his case. This painting

of an important-looking judge, for instance. Will he be his judge? Oh, no, no, he’s just an examining magistrate, done up as if he were important. In fact, he’s just a midget. Leni advises him to confess and not be so unyielding. She wants to know all about his girlfriend Elsa, a waitress in a club, and he shows her a photograph. She is less than impressed, saying that she looks hard and wouldn’t he like to trade her for a better one? Does she have a defect, like Leni’s webbed hand? Joseph seems intrigued and kisses it, only to be hauled onto the floor by an exultant Leni. Later she gives him a key so he can come back anytime he wants. He promptly bumps into his uncle who berates him for fooling around with what is obviously the lawyer’s mistress, and they leave.

Chapter 7: Lawyer / Manufacturer / Painter K. is now totally obsessed over his case, which is now about six months along. He sometimes meets with Dr. Huld, who tells him that yes, he’s doing everything he can, but things have to go slowly. One needs to understand how things work, the lawyer tells him, and you definitely need someone who knows the ropes. Without that, your case is hopeless. K. can’t figure out what exactly the purpose of these speeches is, but he’s getting impatient. Nothing seems to be happening with his case, and he decides to do more himself, as the lawyer isn’t doing anything for him. At work, where he’s feeling increasingly threatened by the Assistant Manager, one of his clients, a manufacturer, knows about his case and tells him about the painter