gave him a bitter,
sideways
look.
The Trial by Franz Kafka
However, when this
happens, you should never trust them too far, as however firmly they may
have declared this new point of view in favour of the defendant they
might well go straight back to their offices and write a report for the
court that says just the opposite, and might well be even harder on the
defendant than the original view, the one they insist they've been fully
dissuaded from. And, of course, there's no way of defending yourself
from this, something said in private is indeed in private and cannot
then be used in public, it's not something that makes it easy for the
defence to keep those gentlemen's favour. On the other hand, it's also
true that the gentlemen don't become involved with the defence - which
will of course be done with great expertise - just for philanthropic
reasons or in order to be friendly, in some respects it would be truer
to say that they, too, have it allocated to them. This is where the
disadvantages of a court structure that, right from the start,
stipulates that all proceedings take place in private, come into force.
In normal, mediocre trials its officials have contact with the public,
and they're very well equipped for it, but here they don't; normal
trials run their course all by themselves, almost, and just need a nudge
here and there; but when they're faced with cases that are especially
difficult they're as lost as they often are with ones that are very
simple; they're forced to spend all their time, day and night, with
their laws, and so they don't have the right feel for human
relationships, and that's a serious shortcoming in cases like this.
That's when they come for advice to the lawyer, with a servant behind
them carrying the documents which normally are kept so secret. You
could have seen many gentlemen at this window, gentlemen of whom you
would least expect it, staring out this window in despair on the street
below while the lawyer is at his desk studying the documents so that he
can give them good advice. And at times like that it's also possible to
see how exceptionally seriously these gentlemen take their professions
and how they are thrown into great confusion by difficulties which it's
just not in their natures to overcome. But they're not in an easy
position, to regard their positions as easy would be to do them an
injustice. The different ranks and hierarchies of the court are
endless, and even someone who knows his way around them cannot always
tell what's going to happen. But even for the junior officials, the
proceedings in the courtrooms are usually kept secret, so they are
hardly able to see how the cases they work with proceed, court affairs
appear in their range of vision often without their knowing where they
come from and they move on further without their learning where they go.
So civil servants like this are not able to learn the things you can
learn from studying the successive stages that individual trials go
through, the final verdict or the reasons for it. They're only allowed
to deal with that part of the trial which the law allocates them, and
they usually know less about the results of their work after it's left
them than the defence does, even though the defence will usually stay in
contact with the accused until the trial is nearly at its end, so that
the court officials can learn many useful things from the defence.
Bearing all this in mind, does it still surprise K. that the officials
are irritated and often express themselves about the litigants in
unflattering ways - which is an experience shared by everyone. All the
officials are irritated, even when they appear calm. This causes many
difficulties for the junior advocates, of course. There is a story, for
instance, that has very much the ring of truth about it. It goes like
this: One of the older officials, a good and peaceful man, was dealing
with a difficult matter for the court which had become very confused,
especially thanks to the contributions from the lawyers. He had been
studying it for a day and a night without a break - as these officials
are indeed hard working, no-one works as hard as they do. When it was
nearly morning, and he had been working for twenty-four hours with
probably very little result, he went to the front entrance, waited there
in ambush, and every time a lawyer tried to enter the building he would
throw him down the steps. The lawyers gathered together down in front
of the steps and discussed with each other what they should do; on the
one hand they had actually no right to be allowed into the building so
that there was hardly anything that they could legally do to the
official and, as I've already mentioned, they would have to be careful
not to set all the officials against them. On the other hand, any day
not spent in court is a day lost for them and it was a matter of some
importance to force their way inside. In the end, they agreed that they
would try to tire the old man out. One lawyer after another was sent
out to run up the steps and let himself be thrown down again, offering
what resistance he could as long as it was passive resistance, and his
colleagues would catch him at the bottom of the steps. That went on for
about an hour until the old gentleman, who was already exhausted from
working all night, was very tired and went back to his office. Those
who were at the bottom of the steps could not believe it at first, so
they sent somebody out to go and look behind the door to see if there
really was no-one there, and only then did they all gather together and
probably didn't even dare to complain, as it's far from being the
lawyers' job to introduce any improvements in the court system, or even
to want to. Even the most junior lawyer can understand the relationship
there to some extent, but one significant point is that almost every
defendant, even very simple people, begins to think of suggestions for
improving the court as soon as his proceedings have begun, many of them
often even spend time and energy on the matter that could be spent far
better elsewhere. The only right thing to do is to learn how to deal
with the situation as it is. Even if it were possible to improve any
detail of it - which is anyway no more than superstitious nonsense - the
best that they could achieve, although doing themselves incalculable
harm in the process, is that they will have attracted the special
attention of the officials for any case that comes up in the future, and
the officials are always ready to seek revenge. Never attract attention
to yourself! Stay calm, however much it goes against your character!
Try to gain some insight into the size of the court organism and how, to
some extent, it remains in a state of suspension, and that even if you
alter something in one place you'll draw the ground out from under your
feet and might fall, whereas if an enormous organism like the court is
disrupted in any one place it finds it easy to provide a substitute for
itself somewhere else. Everything is connected with everything else and
will continue without any change or else, which is quite probable, even
more closed, more attentive, more strict, more malevolent. So it's best
to leave the work to the lawyers and not to keep disturbing them. It
doesn't do much good to make accusations, especially if you can't make
it clear what they're based on and their full significance, but it must
be said that K. caused a great deal of harm to his own case by his
behaviour towards the office director, he was a very influential man but
now he might as well be struck off the list of those who might do
anything for K. If the trial is mentioned, even just in passing, it's
quite obvious that he's ignoring it. These officials are in many ways
just like children. Often, something quite harmless - although K. 's
behaviour could unfortunately not be called harmless - will leave them
feeling so offended that they will even stop talking with good friends
of theirs, they turn away when they see them and do everything they can
to oppose them. But then, with no particular reason, surprisingly
enough, some little joke that was only ever attempted because everything
seemed so hopeless will make them laugh and they'll be reconciled.
It's both difficult and hard at the same time to deal with them, and
there's hardly any reason for it. It's sometimes quite astonishing that
a single, average life is enough to encompass so much that it's at all
possible ever to have any success in one's work here. On the other
hand, there are also dark moments, such as everyone has, when you think
you've achieved nothing at all, when it seems that the only trials to
come to a good end are those that were determined to have a good end
from the start and would do so without any help, while all the others
are lost despite all the running to and fro, all the effort, all the
little, apparent successes that gave such joy. Then you no longer feel
very sure of anything and, if asked about a trial that was doing well by
its own nature but which was turned for the worse because you assisted
in it, would not even dare deny that. And even that is a kind of self-
confidence, but then it's the only one that's left. Lawyers are
especially vulnerable to fits of depression of that sort - and they are
no more than fits of depression of course - when a case is suddenly
taken out of their hands after they've been conducting it satisfactorily
for some time. That's probably the worst that can happen to a lawyer.
It's not that the accused takes the case away from him, that hardly ever
happens, once a defendant has taken on a certain lawyer he has to stay
with him whatever happens. How could he ever carry on by himself after
he's taken on help from a lawyer? No, that just doesn't happen, but
what does sometimes happen is that the trial takes on a course where the
lawyer may not go along with it. Client and trial are both simply taken
away from the lawyer; and then even contact with the court officials
won't help, however good they are, as they don't know anything
themselves. The trial will have entered a stage where no more help can
be given, where it's being processed in courts to which no-one has any
access, where the defendant cannot even be contacted by his lawyer. You
come home one day and find all the documents you've submitted, which
you've worked hard to create and which you had the best hopes for, lying
on the desk, they've been sent back as they can't be carried through to
the next stage in the trial, they're just worthless scraps of paper. It
doesn't mean that the case has been lost, not at all, or at least there
is no decisive reason for supposing so, it's just that you don't know
anything more about the case and won't be told anything of what's
happening. Well, cases like that are the exceptions, I'm glad to say,
and even if K. 's trial is one of them, it's still, for the time being, a
long way off. But there was still plenty of opportunity for lawyers to
get to work, and K. could be sure they would be made use of. As he had
said, the time for submitting documents was still in the future and
there was no rush to prepare them, it was much more important to start
the initial discussions with the appropriate officials, and they had
already taken place. With varying degrees of success, it must be said.
It was much better not to give away any details before their time, as in
that way K. could only be influenced unfavourably and his hopes might be
raised or he might be made too anxious, better just to say that some
individuals have spoken very favourably and shown themselves very
willing to help, although others have spoken less favourably, but even
they have not in any way refused to help. So all in all, the results
are very encouraging, only you should certainly not draw any particular
conclusions as all preliminary proceedings begin in the same way and it
was only the way they developed further that would show what the value
of these preliminary proceedings has been. Anyway, nothing has been
lost yet, and if we can succeed in getting the office director, despite
everything, on our side - and several actions have been undertaken to
this end - then everything is a clean wound, as a surgeon would say, and
we can wait for the results with some comfort.
When he started talking on in this way the lawyer was quite
tireless. He went through it all again every time K. went to see him.
There was always some progress, but he could never be told what sort of
progress it was. The first set of documents to be submitted were being
worked on but still not ready, which usually turned out to be a great
advantage the next time K. went to see him as the earlier occasion would
have been a very bad time to put them in, which they could not then have
known. If K. , stupefied from all this talking, ever pointed out that
even considering all these difficulties progress was very slow, the
lawyer would object that progress was not slow at all, but that they
might have progressed far further if K. had come to him at the right
time. But he had come to him late and that lateness would bring still
further difficulties, and not only where time was concerned. The only
welcome interruption during these visits was always when Leni contrived
to bring the lawyer his tea while K. was there. Then she would stand
behind K. - pretending to watch the lawyer as he bent greedily over his
cup, poured the tea in and drank - and secretly let K. hold her hand.
There was always complete silence. The lawyer drank. K. squeezed
Leni's hand and Leni would sometimes dare to gently stroke K. 's hair.
"Still here, are you? " the lawyer would ask when he was ready. "I
wanted to take the dishes away," said Leni, they would give each other's
hands a final squeeze, the lawyer would wipe his mouth and then start
talking at K. again with renewed energy.
Was the lawyer trying to comfort K. or to confuse him? K. could
not tell, but it seemed clear to him that his defence was not in good
hands. Maybe everything the lawyer said was quite right, even though he
obviously wanted to make himself as conspicuous as possible and probably
had never even taken on a case as important as he said K. 's was. But it
was still suspicious how he continually mentioned his personal contacts
with the civil servants. Were they to be exploited solely for K. 's
benefit? The lawyer never forgot to mention that they were dealing only
with junior officials, which meant officials who were dependent on
others, and the direction taken in each trial could be important for
their own furtherment. Could it be that they were making use of the
lawyer to turn trials in a certain direction, which would, of course,
always be at the cost of the defendant? It certainly did not mean that
they would do that in every trial, that was not likely at all, and there
were probably also trials where they gave the lawyer advantages and all
the room he needed to turn it in the direction he wanted, as it would
also be to their advantage to keep his reputation intact. If that
really was their relationship, how would they direct K. 's trial which,
as the lawyer had explained, was especially difficult and therefore
important enough to attract great attention from the very first time it
came to court? There could not be much doubt about what they would do.
The first signs of it could already be seen in the fact that the first
documents still had not been submitted even though the trial had already
lasted several months, and that, according to the lawyer, everything was
still in its initial stages, which was very effective, of course, in
making the defendant passive and keeping him helpless. Then he could be
suddenly surprised with the verdict, or at least with a notification
that the hearing had not decided in his favour and the matter would be
passed on to a higher office.
It was essential that K. take a hand in it himself. On winter's
mornings such as this, when he was very tired and everything dragged
itself lethargically through his head, this belief of his seemed
irrefutable. He no longer felt the contempt for the trial that he had
had earlier. If he had been alone in the world it would have been easy
for him to ignore it, although it was also certain that, in that case,
the trial would never have arisen in the first place. But now, his
uncle had already dragged him to see the lawyer, he had to take account
of his family; his job was no longer totally separate from the progress
of the trial, he himself had carelessly - with a certain, inexplicable
complacency - mentioned it to acquaintances and others had learned about
it in ways he did not know, his relationship with Miss Burstner seemed
to be in trouble because of it. In short, he no longer had any choice
whether he would accept the trial or turn it down, he was in the middle
of it and had to defend himself. If he was tired, then that was bad.
But there was no reason to worry too much before he needed to. He
had been capable of working himself up to his high position in the bank
in a relatively short time and to retain it with respect from everyone,
now he simply had to apply some of the talents that had made that
possible for him to the trial, and there was no doubt that it had to
turn out well. The most important thing, if something was to be
achieved, was to reject in advance any idea that he might be in any way
guilty. There was no guilt. The trial was nothing but a big piece of
business, just like he had already concluded to the benefit of the bank
many times, a piece of business that concealed many lurking dangers
waiting in ambush for him, as they usually did, and these dangers would
need to be defended against. If that was to be achieved then he must
not entertain any idea of guilt, whatever he did, he would need to look
after his own interests as closely as he could. Seen in this way, there
was no choice but to take his representation away from the lawyer very
soon, at best that very evening. The lawyer had told him, as he talked
to him, that that was something unheard of and would probably do him a
great deal of harm, but K. could not tolerate any impediment to his
efforts where his trial was concerned, and these impediments were
probably caused by the lawyer himself. But once he had shaken off the
lawyer the documents would need to be submitted straight away and, if
possible, he would need to see to it that they were being dealt with
every day. It would of course not be enough, if that was to be done,
for K. to sit in the corridor with his hat under the bench like the
others. Day after day, he himself, or one of the women or somebody else
on his behalf, would have to run after the officials and force them to
sit at their desks and study K. 's documents instead of looking out on
the corridor through the grating. There could be no let-up in these
efforts, everything would need to be organised and supervised, it was
about time that the court came up against a defendant who knew how to
defend and make use of his rights.
But when K. had the confidence to try and do all this the
difficulty of composing the documents was too much for him. Earlier,
just a week or so before, he could only have felt shame at the thought
of being made to write out such documents himself; it had never entered
his head that the task could also be difficult. He remembered one
morning when, already piled up with work, he suddenly shoved everything
to one side and took a pad of paper on which he sketched out some of his
thoughts on how documents of this sort should proceed. Perhaps he would
offer them to that slow-witted lawyer, but just then the door of the
manager's office opened and the deputy-director entered the room with a
loud laugh. K. was very embarrassed, although the deputy-director, of
course, was not laughing at K. 's documents, which he knew nothing about,
but at a joke he had just heard about the stock-exchange, a joke which
needed an illustration if it was to be understood, and now the deputy-
director leant over K. 's desk, took his pencil from his hand, and drew
the illustration on the writing pad that K. had intended for his ideas
about his case.
K. now had no more thoughts of shame, the documents had to be
prepared and submitted. If, as was very likely, he could find no time
to do it in the office he would have to do it at home at night. If the
nights weren't enough he would have to take a holiday. Above all, he could
not stop half way, that was nonsense not only in business but always and
everywhere. Needless to say, the documents would mean an almost endless
amount of work. It was easy to come to the belief, not only for those
of an anxious disposition, that it was impossible ever to finish it.
This was not because of laziness or deceit, which were the only things
that might have hindered the lawyer in preparing it, but because he did
not know what the charge was or even what consequences it might bring,
so that he had to remember every tiny action and event from the whole of
his life, looking at them from all sides and checking and reconsidering
them. It was also a very disheartening job. It would have been more
suitable as a way of passing the long days after he had retired and
become senile. But now, just when K. needed to apply all his thoughts
to his work, when he was still rising and already posed a threat to the
deputy-director, when every hour passed so quickly and he wanted to
enjoy the brief evenings and nights as a young man, this was the time he
had to start working out these documents. Once more, he began to feel
resentment. Almost involuntarily, only to put an end to it, his finger
felt for the button of the electric bell in the ante-room. As he
pressed it he glanced up to the clock. It was eleven o'clock, two
hours, he had spent a great deal of his costly time just dreaming and
his wits were, of course, even more dulled than they had been before.
But the time had, nonetheless, not been wasted, he had come to some
decisions that could be of value. As well as various pieces of mail,
the servitors brought two visiting cards from gentlemen who had already
been waiting for K. for some time. They were actually very important
clients of the bank who should not really have been kept waiting under
any circumstances. Why had they come at such an awkward time, and why,
the gentlemen on the other side of the closed door seemed to be asking,
was the industrious K. using up the best business time for his private
affairs? Tired from what had gone before, and tired in anticipation of
what was to follow, K. stood up to receive the first of them.
He was a short, jolly man, a manufacturer who K. knew well. He
apologised for disturbing K. at some important work, and K. , for his
part, apologised for having kept the manufacturer waiting for so long.
But even this apology was spoken in such a mechanical way and with such
false intonation that the manufacturer would certainly have noticed if
he had not been fully preoccupied with his business affairs. Instead,
he hurriedly pulled calculations and tables out from all his pockets,
spread them out in front of K. , explained several items, corrected a
little mistake in the arithmetic that he noticed as he quickly glanced
over it all, and reminded K. of a similar piece of business he'd
concluded with him about a year before, mentioning in passing that this
time there was another bank spending great effort to get his business,
and finally stopped speaking in order to learn K. 's opinion on the
matter. And K. had indeed, at first, been closely following what the
manufacturer was saying, he too was aware of how important the deal was,
but unfortunately it did not last, he soon stopped listening, nodded at
each of the manufacturer's louder exclamations for a short while, but
eventually he stopped doing even that and did no more than stare at the
bald head bent over the papers, asking himself when the manufacturer
would finally realise that everything he was saying was useless. When
he did stop talking, K. really thought at first that this was so that he
would have the chance to confess that he was incapable of listening.
Instead, seeing the anticipation on the manufacturer's face, obviously
ready to counter any objections made, he was sorry to realise that the
business discussion had to be continued. So he bent his head as if he'd
been given an order and began slowly to move his pencil over the papers,
now and then he would stop and stare at one of the figures. The
manufacturer thought there must be some objection, perhaps his figures
weren't really sound, perhaps they weren't the decisive issue, whatever
he thought, the manufacturer covered the papers with his hand and began
once again, moving very close to K. , to explain what the deal was all
about. "It is difficult," said K. , pursing his lips. The only thing
that could offer him any guidance were the papers, and the manufacturer
had covered them from his view, so he just sank back against the arm of
the chair. Even when the door of the manager's office opened and
revealed not very clearly, as if through a veil, the deputy director, he
did no more than look up weakly. K. thought no more about the matter,
he merely watched the immediate effect of the deputy director's
appearance and, for him, the effect was very pleasing; the manufacturer
immediately jumped up from his seat and hurried over to meet the deputy
director, although K. would have liked to make him ten times livelier as
he feared the deputy director might disappear again. He need not have
worried, the two gentlemen met each other, shook each other's hand and
went together over to K. 's desk. The manufacturer said he was sorry to
find the chief clerk so little inclined to do business, pointing to K.
who, under the view of the deputy director, had bent back down over the
papers. As the two men leant over the desk and the manufacturer made
some effort to gain and keep the deputy director's attention, K. felt as
if they were much bigger than they really were and that their
negotiations were about him. Carefully and slowly turning his eyes
upwards, he tried to learn what was taking place above him, took one of
the papers from his desk without looking to see what it was, lay it on
the flat of his hand and raised it slowly up as he rose up to the level
of the two men himself. He had no particular plan in mind as he did
this, but merely felt this was how he would act if only he had finished
preparing that great document that was to remove his burden entirely.
The deputy director had been paying all his attention to the
conversation and did no more than glance at the paper, he did not read
what was written on it at all as what was important for the chief clerk
was not important for him, he took it from K. 's hand saying, "Thank you,
I'm already familiar with everything", and lay it calmly back on the
desk. K.
gave him a bitter, sideways look. But the deputy director did
not notice this at all, or if he did notice it it only raised his
spirits, he frequently laughed out loud, one time he clearly embarrassed
the manufacturer when he raised an objection in a witty way but drew him
immediately back out of his embarrassment by commenting adversely on
himself, and finally invited him into his office where they could bring
the matter to its conclusion. "It's a very important matter," said the
manufacturer. "I understand that completely. And I'm sure the chief
clerk . . . " - even as he said this he was actually speaking only to the
manufacturer - "will be very glad to have us take it off his hands.
This is something that needs calm consideration. But he seems to be
over-burdened today, there are even some people in the room outside
who've been waiting there for hours for him. " K. still had enough
control of himself to turn away from the deputy director and direct his
friendly, albeit stiff, smile only at the manufacturer, he made no other
retaliation, bent down slightly and supported himself with both hands on
his desk like a clerk, and watched as the two gentlemen, still talking,
took the papers from his desk and disappeared into the manager's office.
In the doorway, the manufacturer turned and said he wouldn't make his
farewell with K. just yet, he would of course let the chief clerk know
about the success of his discussions but he also had a little something
to tell him about.
At last, K. was by himself. It did not enter his head to show
anyone else into his office and only became vaguely aware of how nice it
was that the people outside thought he was still negotiating with the
manufacturer and, for this reason, he could not let anyone in to see
him, not even the servitor. He went over to the window, sat down on the
ledge beside it, held firmly on to the handle and looked down onto the
square outside. The snow was still falling, the weather still had not
brightened up at all.
He remained a long time sitting in this way, not knowing what it
actually was that made him so anxious, only occasionally did he glance,
slightly startled, over his shoulder at the door to the outer room
where, mistakenly, he thought he'd heard some noise. No-one came, and
that made him feel calmer, he went over to the wash stand, rinsed his
face with cold water and, his head somewhat clearer, went back to his
place by the window. The decision to take his defence into his own
hands now seemed more of a burden than he had originally assumed. All
the while he had left his defence up to the lawyer his trial had had
little basic affect on him, he had observed it from afar as something
that was scarcely able to reach him directly, when it suited him he
looked to see how things stood but he was also able to draw his head
back again whenever he wanted. Now, in contrast, if he was to conduct
his defence himself, he would have to devote himself entirely to the
court - for the time being, at least - success would mean, later on, his
complete and conclusive liberation, but if he was to achieve this he
would have to place himself, to start with, in far greater danger than
he had been in so far. If he ever felt tempted to doubt this, then his
experience with the deputy director and the manufacturer that day would
be quite enough to convince him of it. How could he have sat there
totally convinced of the need to do his own defence? How would it be
later? What would his life be like in the days ahead? Would he find
the way through it all to a happy conclusion? Did a carefully worked
out defence - and any other sort would have made no sense - did a
carefully worked out defence not also mean he would need to shut himself
off from everything else as much as he could? Would he survive that?
And how was he to succeed in conducting all this at the bank? It
involved much more than just submitting some documents that he could
probably prepare in a few days' leave, although it would have been great
temerity to ask for time off from the bank just at that time, it was a
whole trial and there was no way of seeing how long it might last. This
was an enormous difficulty that had suddenly been thrown into K. 's life!
And was he supposed to be doing the bank's work at a time like
this? He looked down at his desk. Was he supposed to let people in to
see him and go into negotiations with them at a time like this? While
his trial trundled on, while the court officials upstairs in the attic
room sat looking at the papers for this trial, should he be worrying
about the business of the bank? Did this not seem like a kind of
torture, acknowledged by the court, connected with the trial and which
followed him around? And is it likely that anyone in the bank, when
judging his work, would take any account of his peculiar situation? No-
one and never. There were those who knew about his trial, although it
was not quite clear who knew about it or how much. But he hoped rumours
had not reached as far as the deputy director, otherwise he would
obviously soon find a way of making use of it to harm K. , he would show
neither comradeship nor humaneness. And what about the director? It
was true that he was well disposed towards K. , and as soon as he heard
about the trial he would probably try to do everything he could to make
it easier for him, but he would certainly not devote himself to it. K.
at one time had provided the counter-balance to what the deputy director
said but the director was now coming more and more under his influence,
and the deputy director would also exploit the weakened condition of the
director to strengthen his own power. So what could K. hope for? Maybe
considerations of this sort weakened his power of resistance, but it was
still necessary not to deceive oneself and to see everything as clearly
as it could be seen at that moment.
For no particular reason, just to avoiding returning to his desk
for a while, he opened the window. It was difficult to open and he had
to turn the handle with both his hands. Then, through the whole height
and breadth of the window, the mixture of fog and smoke was drawn into
the room, filling it with a slight smell of burning. A few flakes of
snow were blown in with it. "It's a horrible autumn," said the
manufacturer, who had come into the room unnoticed after seeing the
deputy director and now stood behind K. K. nodded and looked uneasily
at the manufacturer's briefcase, from which he would now probably take
the papers and inform K. of the result of his negotiations with the
deputy director. However, the manufacturer saw where K. was looking,
knocked on his briefcase and without opening it said, "You'll be wanting
to hear how things turned out. I've already got the contract in my
pocket, almost. He's a charming man, your deputy director - he's got
his dangers, though. " He laughed as he shook K. 's hand and wanted to
make him laugh with him. But to K. , it once more seemed suspicious that
the manufacturer did not want to show him the papers and saw nothing
about his comments to laugh at. "Chief clerk," said the manufacturer,
"I expect the weather's been affecting your mood, has it? You're looking
so worried today. " "Yes," said K. , raising his hand and holding the
temple of his head, "headaches, worries in the family. " "Quite right,"
said the manufacturer, who was always in a hurry and could never listen
to anyone for very long, "everyone has his cross to bear. " K. had
unconsciously made a step towards the door as if wanting to show the
manufacturer out, but the manufacturer said, "Chief clerk, there's
something else I'd like to mention to you. I'm very sorry if it's
something that'll be a burden to you today of all days but I've been to
see you twice already, lately, and each time I forgot all about it. If
I delay it any longer it might well lose its point altogether. That
would be a pity, as I think what I've got to say does have some value. "
Before K. had had the time to answer, the manufacturer came up close to
him, tapped his knuckle lightly on his chest and said quietly, "You've
got a trial going on, haven't you? " K. stepped back and immediately
exclaimed, "That's what the deputy director's been telling you! " "No,
no," said the manufacturer, "how would the deputy director know about
it? " "And what about you? " asked K. , already more in control of
himself. "I hear things about the court here and there," said the
manufacturer, "and that even applies to what it is that I wanted to tell
you about. " "There are so many people who have connections with the
court! " said K. with lowered head, and he led the manufacturer over to
his desk. They sat down where they had been before, and the
manufacturer said, "I'm afraid it's not very much that I've got to tell
you about. Only, in matters like this, it's best not to overlook the
tiniest details. Besides, I really want to help you in some way,
however modest my help might be. We've been good business partners up
till now, haven't we? Well then. " K. wanted to apologise for his
behaviour in the conversation earlier that day, but the manufacturer
would tolerate no interruption, shoved his briefcase up high in his
armpit to show that he was in a hurry, and carried on. "I know about
your case through a certain Titorelli. He's a painter, Titorelli's just
his artistic name, I don't even know what his real name is. He's been
coming to me in my office for years from time to time, and brings little
pictures with him which I buy more or less just for the sake of charity
as he's hardly more than a beggar. And they're nice pictures, too,
moorland landscapes and that sort of thing. We'd both got used to doing
business in this way and it always went smoothly. Only, one time these
visits became a bit too frequent, I began to tell him off for it, we
started talking and I became interested how it was that he could earn a
living just by painting, and then I learned to my amazement that his
main source of income was painting portraits. 'I work for the court,'
he said, 'what court? ' said I. And that's when he told me about the
court. I'm sure you can imagine how amazed I was at being told all
this. Ever since then I learn something new about the court every time
he comes to visit, and so little by little I get to understand something
of how it works. Anyway, Titorelli talks a lot and I often have to push
him away, not only because he's bound to be lying but also, most of all,
because a businessman like me who's already close to breaking point
under the weight of his own business worries can't pay too much
attention to other people's. But all that's just by the by. Perhaps -
this is what I've been thinking - perhaps Titorelli might be able to
help you in some small way, he knows lots of judges and even if he can't
have much influence himself he can give you some advice about how to get
some influential people on your side. And even if this advice doesn't
turn out to make all the difference I still think it'll be very
important once you've got it. You're nearly a lawyer yourself. That's
what I always say, Mr. K. the chief clerk is nearly a lawyer. Oh I'm
sure this trial of yours will turn out all right. So do you want to go
and see Titorelli, then? If I ask him to he'll certainly do everything
he possibly can. I really do think you ought to go. It needn't be
today, of course, just some time, when you get the chance. And anyway -
I want to tell you this too - you don't actually have to go and see
Titorelli, this advice from me doesn't place you under any obligation at
all. No, if you think you can get by without Titorelli it'll certainly
be better to leave him completely out of it. Maybe you've already got a
clear idea of what you're doing and Titorelli could upset your plans.
No, if that's the case then of course you shouldn't go there under any
circumstances! And it certainly won't be easy to take advice from a lad
like that. Still, it's up to you. Here's the letter of recommendation
and here's the address. "
Disappointed, K. took the letter and put it in his pocket. Even
at best, the advantage he might derive from this recommendation was
incomparably smaller than the damage that lay in the fact of the
manufacturer knowing about his trial, and that the painter was spreading
the news about. It was all he could manage to give the manufacturer, who
was already on his way to the door, a few words of thanks. "I'll go
there," he said as he took his leave of the manufacturer at the door,
"or, as I'm very busy at present, I'll write to him, perhaps he would
like to come to me in my office some time. " "I was sure you'd find the
best solution," said the manufacturer. "Although I had thought you'd
prefer to avoid inviting people like this Titorelli to the bank and
talking about the trial here. And it's not always a good idea to send
letters to people like Titorelli, you don't know what might happen to
them. But you're bound to have thought everything through and you know
what you can and can't do. " K. nodded and accompanied the manufacturer
on through the ante-room. But despite seeming calm on the outside he
was actually very shocked; he had told the manufacturer he would write
to Titorelli only to show him in some way that he valued his
recommendations and would consider the opportunity to speak with
Titorelli without delay, but if he had thought Titorelli could offer any
worthwhile assistance he would not have delayed. But it was only the
manufacturer's comment that made K. realise what dangers that could lead
to. Was he really able to rely on his own understanding so little? If
it was possible that he might invite a questionable character into the
bank with a clear letter, and ask advice from him about his trial,
separated from the deputy director by no more than a door, was it not
possible or even very likely that there were also other dangers he had
failed to see or that he was even running towards? There was not always
someone beside him to warn him. And just now, just when he would have
to act with all the strength he could muster, now a number of doubts of
a sort he had never before known had presented themselves and affected
his own vigilance! The difficulties he had been feeling in carrying out
his office work; were they now going to affect the trial too? Now, at
least, he found himself quite unable to understand how he could have
intended to write to Titorelli and invite him into the bank.
He shook his head at the thought of it once more as the servitor
came up beside him and drew his attention to the three gentlemen who
were waiting on a bench in the ante-room. They had already been waiting
to see K. for a long time. Now that the servitor was speaking with K.
they had stood up and each of them wanted to make use of the opportunity
to see K. before the others. It had been negligent of the bank to let
them waste their time here in the waiting room, but none of them wanted
to draw attention to this. "Mr. K. , . . . " one of them was saying, but K.
had told the servitor to fetch his winter coat and said to the three of
them, as the servitor helped him to put it on, "Please forgive me,
gentlemen, I'm afraid I have no time to see you at present. Please do
forgive me but I have some urgent business to settle and have to leave
straight away. You've already seen yourselves how long I've been
delayed. Would you be so kind as to come back tomorrow or some time?
Or perhaps we could settle your affairs by telephone? Or perhaps you
would like to tell me now, briefly, what it's about and I can then give
you a full answer in writing. Whatever, the best thing will be for you
to come here again. " The gentlemen now saw that their wait had been
totally pointless, and these suggestions of K. 's left them so astounded
that they looked at each other without a word. "That's agreed then, is
it? " asked K. , who had turned toward the servitor bringing him his hat.
Through the open door of K. 's office they could see that the snowfall
outside had become much heavier. So K. turned the collar of his coat up
and buttoned it up high under his chin. Just then the deputy director
came out of the adjoining room, smiled as he saw K. negotiating with the
gentlemen in his winter coat, and asked, "Are you about to go out? "
"Yes," said K. , standing more upright, "I have to go out on some
business. " But the deputy director had already turned towards the
gentlemen. "And what about these gentlemen? " he asked. "I think
they've already been waiting quite a long time. " "We've already come to
an understanding," said K. But now the gentlemen could be held back no
longer, they surrounded K. and explained that they would not have been
waiting for hours if it had not been about something important that had
to be discussed now, at length and in private. The deputy director
listened to them for a short while, he also looked at K. as he held his
hat in his hand cleaning the dust off it here and there, and then he
said, "Gentlemen, there is a very simple way to solve this. If you
would prefer it, I'll be very glad to take over these negotiations
instead of the chief clerk. Your business does, of course, need to be
discussed without delay. We are businessmen like yourselves and know
the value of a businessman's time. Would you like to come this way? "
And he opened the door leading to the ante-room of his own office.
The deputy director seemed very good at appropriating everything
that K. was now forced to give up! But was K. not giving up more than
he absolutely had to? By running off to some unknown painter, with, as
he had to admit, very little hope of any vague benefit, his renown was
suffering damage that could not me repaired.
happens, you should never trust them too far, as however firmly they may
have declared this new point of view in favour of the defendant they
might well go straight back to their offices and write a report for the
court that says just the opposite, and might well be even harder on the
defendant than the original view, the one they insist they've been fully
dissuaded from. And, of course, there's no way of defending yourself
from this, something said in private is indeed in private and cannot
then be used in public, it's not something that makes it easy for the
defence to keep those gentlemen's favour. On the other hand, it's also
true that the gentlemen don't become involved with the defence - which
will of course be done with great expertise - just for philanthropic
reasons or in order to be friendly, in some respects it would be truer
to say that they, too, have it allocated to them. This is where the
disadvantages of a court structure that, right from the start,
stipulates that all proceedings take place in private, come into force.
In normal, mediocre trials its officials have contact with the public,
and they're very well equipped for it, but here they don't; normal
trials run their course all by themselves, almost, and just need a nudge
here and there; but when they're faced with cases that are especially
difficult they're as lost as they often are with ones that are very
simple; they're forced to spend all their time, day and night, with
their laws, and so they don't have the right feel for human
relationships, and that's a serious shortcoming in cases like this.
That's when they come for advice to the lawyer, with a servant behind
them carrying the documents which normally are kept so secret. You
could have seen many gentlemen at this window, gentlemen of whom you
would least expect it, staring out this window in despair on the street
below while the lawyer is at his desk studying the documents so that he
can give them good advice. And at times like that it's also possible to
see how exceptionally seriously these gentlemen take their professions
and how they are thrown into great confusion by difficulties which it's
just not in their natures to overcome. But they're not in an easy
position, to regard their positions as easy would be to do them an
injustice. The different ranks and hierarchies of the court are
endless, and even someone who knows his way around them cannot always
tell what's going to happen. But even for the junior officials, the
proceedings in the courtrooms are usually kept secret, so they are
hardly able to see how the cases they work with proceed, court affairs
appear in their range of vision often without their knowing where they
come from and they move on further without their learning where they go.
So civil servants like this are not able to learn the things you can
learn from studying the successive stages that individual trials go
through, the final verdict or the reasons for it. They're only allowed
to deal with that part of the trial which the law allocates them, and
they usually know less about the results of their work after it's left
them than the defence does, even though the defence will usually stay in
contact with the accused until the trial is nearly at its end, so that
the court officials can learn many useful things from the defence.
Bearing all this in mind, does it still surprise K. that the officials
are irritated and often express themselves about the litigants in
unflattering ways - which is an experience shared by everyone. All the
officials are irritated, even when they appear calm. This causes many
difficulties for the junior advocates, of course. There is a story, for
instance, that has very much the ring of truth about it. It goes like
this: One of the older officials, a good and peaceful man, was dealing
with a difficult matter for the court which had become very confused,
especially thanks to the contributions from the lawyers. He had been
studying it for a day and a night without a break - as these officials
are indeed hard working, no-one works as hard as they do. When it was
nearly morning, and he had been working for twenty-four hours with
probably very little result, he went to the front entrance, waited there
in ambush, and every time a lawyer tried to enter the building he would
throw him down the steps. The lawyers gathered together down in front
of the steps and discussed with each other what they should do; on the
one hand they had actually no right to be allowed into the building so
that there was hardly anything that they could legally do to the
official and, as I've already mentioned, they would have to be careful
not to set all the officials against them. On the other hand, any day
not spent in court is a day lost for them and it was a matter of some
importance to force their way inside. In the end, they agreed that they
would try to tire the old man out. One lawyer after another was sent
out to run up the steps and let himself be thrown down again, offering
what resistance he could as long as it was passive resistance, and his
colleagues would catch him at the bottom of the steps. That went on for
about an hour until the old gentleman, who was already exhausted from
working all night, was very tired and went back to his office. Those
who were at the bottom of the steps could not believe it at first, so
they sent somebody out to go and look behind the door to see if there
really was no-one there, and only then did they all gather together and
probably didn't even dare to complain, as it's far from being the
lawyers' job to introduce any improvements in the court system, or even
to want to. Even the most junior lawyer can understand the relationship
there to some extent, but one significant point is that almost every
defendant, even very simple people, begins to think of suggestions for
improving the court as soon as his proceedings have begun, many of them
often even spend time and energy on the matter that could be spent far
better elsewhere. The only right thing to do is to learn how to deal
with the situation as it is. Even if it were possible to improve any
detail of it - which is anyway no more than superstitious nonsense - the
best that they could achieve, although doing themselves incalculable
harm in the process, is that they will have attracted the special
attention of the officials for any case that comes up in the future, and
the officials are always ready to seek revenge. Never attract attention
to yourself! Stay calm, however much it goes against your character!
Try to gain some insight into the size of the court organism and how, to
some extent, it remains in a state of suspension, and that even if you
alter something in one place you'll draw the ground out from under your
feet and might fall, whereas if an enormous organism like the court is
disrupted in any one place it finds it easy to provide a substitute for
itself somewhere else. Everything is connected with everything else and
will continue without any change or else, which is quite probable, even
more closed, more attentive, more strict, more malevolent. So it's best
to leave the work to the lawyers and not to keep disturbing them. It
doesn't do much good to make accusations, especially if you can't make
it clear what they're based on and their full significance, but it must
be said that K. caused a great deal of harm to his own case by his
behaviour towards the office director, he was a very influential man but
now he might as well be struck off the list of those who might do
anything for K. If the trial is mentioned, even just in passing, it's
quite obvious that he's ignoring it. These officials are in many ways
just like children. Often, something quite harmless - although K. 's
behaviour could unfortunately not be called harmless - will leave them
feeling so offended that they will even stop talking with good friends
of theirs, they turn away when they see them and do everything they can
to oppose them. But then, with no particular reason, surprisingly
enough, some little joke that was only ever attempted because everything
seemed so hopeless will make them laugh and they'll be reconciled.
It's both difficult and hard at the same time to deal with them, and
there's hardly any reason for it. It's sometimes quite astonishing that
a single, average life is enough to encompass so much that it's at all
possible ever to have any success in one's work here. On the other
hand, there are also dark moments, such as everyone has, when you think
you've achieved nothing at all, when it seems that the only trials to
come to a good end are those that were determined to have a good end
from the start and would do so without any help, while all the others
are lost despite all the running to and fro, all the effort, all the
little, apparent successes that gave such joy. Then you no longer feel
very sure of anything and, if asked about a trial that was doing well by
its own nature but which was turned for the worse because you assisted
in it, would not even dare deny that. And even that is a kind of self-
confidence, but then it's the only one that's left. Lawyers are
especially vulnerable to fits of depression of that sort - and they are
no more than fits of depression of course - when a case is suddenly
taken out of their hands after they've been conducting it satisfactorily
for some time. That's probably the worst that can happen to a lawyer.
It's not that the accused takes the case away from him, that hardly ever
happens, once a defendant has taken on a certain lawyer he has to stay
with him whatever happens. How could he ever carry on by himself after
he's taken on help from a lawyer? No, that just doesn't happen, but
what does sometimes happen is that the trial takes on a course where the
lawyer may not go along with it. Client and trial are both simply taken
away from the lawyer; and then even contact with the court officials
won't help, however good they are, as they don't know anything
themselves. The trial will have entered a stage where no more help can
be given, where it's being processed in courts to which no-one has any
access, where the defendant cannot even be contacted by his lawyer. You
come home one day and find all the documents you've submitted, which
you've worked hard to create and which you had the best hopes for, lying
on the desk, they've been sent back as they can't be carried through to
the next stage in the trial, they're just worthless scraps of paper. It
doesn't mean that the case has been lost, not at all, or at least there
is no decisive reason for supposing so, it's just that you don't know
anything more about the case and won't be told anything of what's
happening. Well, cases like that are the exceptions, I'm glad to say,
and even if K. 's trial is one of them, it's still, for the time being, a
long way off. But there was still plenty of opportunity for lawyers to
get to work, and K. could be sure they would be made use of. As he had
said, the time for submitting documents was still in the future and
there was no rush to prepare them, it was much more important to start
the initial discussions with the appropriate officials, and they had
already taken place. With varying degrees of success, it must be said.
It was much better not to give away any details before their time, as in
that way K. could only be influenced unfavourably and his hopes might be
raised or he might be made too anxious, better just to say that some
individuals have spoken very favourably and shown themselves very
willing to help, although others have spoken less favourably, but even
they have not in any way refused to help. So all in all, the results
are very encouraging, only you should certainly not draw any particular
conclusions as all preliminary proceedings begin in the same way and it
was only the way they developed further that would show what the value
of these preliminary proceedings has been. Anyway, nothing has been
lost yet, and if we can succeed in getting the office director, despite
everything, on our side - and several actions have been undertaken to
this end - then everything is a clean wound, as a surgeon would say, and
we can wait for the results with some comfort.
When he started talking on in this way the lawyer was quite
tireless. He went through it all again every time K. went to see him.
There was always some progress, but he could never be told what sort of
progress it was. The first set of documents to be submitted were being
worked on but still not ready, which usually turned out to be a great
advantage the next time K. went to see him as the earlier occasion would
have been a very bad time to put them in, which they could not then have
known. If K. , stupefied from all this talking, ever pointed out that
even considering all these difficulties progress was very slow, the
lawyer would object that progress was not slow at all, but that they
might have progressed far further if K. had come to him at the right
time. But he had come to him late and that lateness would bring still
further difficulties, and not only where time was concerned. The only
welcome interruption during these visits was always when Leni contrived
to bring the lawyer his tea while K. was there. Then she would stand
behind K. - pretending to watch the lawyer as he bent greedily over his
cup, poured the tea in and drank - and secretly let K. hold her hand.
There was always complete silence. The lawyer drank. K. squeezed
Leni's hand and Leni would sometimes dare to gently stroke K. 's hair.
"Still here, are you? " the lawyer would ask when he was ready. "I
wanted to take the dishes away," said Leni, they would give each other's
hands a final squeeze, the lawyer would wipe his mouth and then start
talking at K. again with renewed energy.
Was the lawyer trying to comfort K. or to confuse him? K. could
not tell, but it seemed clear to him that his defence was not in good
hands. Maybe everything the lawyer said was quite right, even though he
obviously wanted to make himself as conspicuous as possible and probably
had never even taken on a case as important as he said K. 's was. But it
was still suspicious how he continually mentioned his personal contacts
with the civil servants. Were they to be exploited solely for K. 's
benefit? The lawyer never forgot to mention that they were dealing only
with junior officials, which meant officials who were dependent on
others, and the direction taken in each trial could be important for
their own furtherment. Could it be that they were making use of the
lawyer to turn trials in a certain direction, which would, of course,
always be at the cost of the defendant? It certainly did not mean that
they would do that in every trial, that was not likely at all, and there
were probably also trials where they gave the lawyer advantages and all
the room he needed to turn it in the direction he wanted, as it would
also be to their advantage to keep his reputation intact. If that
really was their relationship, how would they direct K. 's trial which,
as the lawyer had explained, was especially difficult and therefore
important enough to attract great attention from the very first time it
came to court? There could not be much doubt about what they would do.
The first signs of it could already be seen in the fact that the first
documents still had not been submitted even though the trial had already
lasted several months, and that, according to the lawyer, everything was
still in its initial stages, which was very effective, of course, in
making the defendant passive and keeping him helpless. Then he could be
suddenly surprised with the verdict, or at least with a notification
that the hearing had not decided in his favour and the matter would be
passed on to a higher office.
It was essential that K. take a hand in it himself. On winter's
mornings such as this, when he was very tired and everything dragged
itself lethargically through his head, this belief of his seemed
irrefutable. He no longer felt the contempt for the trial that he had
had earlier. If he had been alone in the world it would have been easy
for him to ignore it, although it was also certain that, in that case,
the trial would never have arisen in the first place. But now, his
uncle had already dragged him to see the lawyer, he had to take account
of his family; his job was no longer totally separate from the progress
of the trial, he himself had carelessly - with a certain, inexplicable
complacency - mentioned it to acquaintances and others had learned about
it in ways he did not know, his relationship with Miss Burstner seemed
to be in trouble because of it. In short, he no longer had any choice
whether he would accept the trial or turn it down, he was in the middle
of it and had to defend himself. If he was tired, then that was bad.
But there was no reason to worry too much before he needed to. He
had been capable of working himself up to his high position in the bank
in a relatively short time and to retain it with respect from everyone,
now he simply had to apply some of the talents that had made that
possible for him to the trial, and there was no doubt that it had to
turn out well. The most important thing, if something was to be
achieved, was to reject in advance any idea that he might be in any way
guilty. There was no guilt. The trial was nothing but a big piece of
business, just like he had already concluded to the benefit of the bank
many times, a piece of business that concealed many lurking dangers
waiting in ambush for him, as they usually did, and these dangers would
need to be defended against. If that was to be achieved then he must
not entertain any idea of guilt, whatever he did, he would need to look
after his own interests as closely as he could. Seen in this way, there
was no choice but to take his representation away from the lawyer very
soon, at best that very evening. The lawyer had told him, as he talked
to him, that that was something unheard of and would probably do him a
great deal of harm, but K. could not tolerate any impediment to his
efforts where his trial was concerned, and these impediments were
probably caused by the lawyer himself. But once he had shaken off the
lawyer the documents would need to be submitted straight away and, if
possible, he would need to see to it that they were being dealt with
every day. It would of course not be enough, if that was to be done,
for K. to sit in the corridor with his hat under the bench like the
others. Day after day, he himself, or one of the women or somebody else
on his behalf, would have to run after the officials and force them to
sit at their desks and study K. 's documents instead of looking out on
the corridor through the grating. There could be no let-up in these
efforts, everything would need to be organised and supervised, it was
about time that the court came up against a defendant who knew how to
defend and make use of his rights.
But when K. had the confidence to try and do all this the
difficulty of composing the documents was too much for him. Earlier,
just a week or so before, he could only have felt shame at the thought
of being made to write out such documents himself; it had never entered
his head that the task could also be difficult. He remembered one
morning when, already piled up with work, he suddenly shoved everything
to one side and took a pad of paper on which he sketched out some of his
thoughts on how documents of this sort should proceed. Perhaps he would
offer them to that slow-witted lawyer, but just then the door of the
manager's office opened and the deputy-director entered the room with a
loud laugh. K. was very embarrassed, although the deputy-director, of
course, was not laughing at K. 's documents, which he knew nothing about,
but at a joke he had just heard about the stock-exchange, a joke which
needed an illustration if it was to be understood, and now the deputy-
director leant over K. 's desk, took his pencil from his hand, and drew
the illustration on the writing pad that K. had intended for his ideas
about his case.
K. now had no more thoughts of shame, the documents had to be
prepared and submitted. If, as was very likely, he could find no time
to do it in the office he would have to do it at home at night. If the
nights weren't enough he would have to take a holiday. Above all, he could
not stop half way, that was nonsense not only in business but always and
everywhere. Needless to say, the documents would mean an almost endless
amount of work. It was easy to come to the belief, not only for those
of an anxious disposition, that it was impossible ever to finish it.
This was not because of laziness or deceit, which were the only things
that might have hindered the lawyer in preparing it, but because he did
not know what the charge was or even what consequences it might bring,
so that he had to remember every tiny action and event from the whole of
his life, looking at them from all sides and checking and reconsidering
them. It was also a very disheartening job. It would have been more
suitable as a way of passing the long days after he had retired and
become senile. But now, just when K. needed to apply all his thoughts
to his work, when he was still rising and already posed a threat to the
deputy-director, when every hour passed so quickly and he wanted to
enjoy the brief evenings and nights as a young man, this was the time he
had to start working out these documents. Once more, he began to feel
resentment. Almost involuntarily, only to put an end to it, his finger
felt for the button of the electric bell in the ante-room. As he
pressed it he glanced up to the clock. It was eleven o'clock, two
hours, he had spent a great deal of his costly time just dreaming and
his wits were, of course, even more dulled than they had been before.
But the time had, nonetheless, not been wasted, he had come to some
decisions that could be of value. As well as various pieces of mail,
the servitors brought two visiting cards from gentlemen who had already
been waiting for K. for some time. They were actually very important
clients of the bank who should not really have been kept waiting under
any circumstances. Why had they come at such an awkward time, and why,
the gentlemen on the other side of the closed door seemed to be asking,
was the industrious K. using up the best business time for his private
affairs? Tired from what had gone before, and tired in anticipation of
what was to follow, K. stood up to receive the first of them.
He was a short, jolly man, a manufacturer who K. knew well. He
apologised for disturbing K. at some important work, and K. , for his
part, apologised for having kept the manufacturer waiting for so long.
But even this apology was spoken in such a mechanical way and with such
false intonation that the manufacturer would certainly have noticed if
he had not been fully preoccupied with his business affairs. Instead,
he hurriedly pulled calculations and tables out from all his pockets,
spread them out in front of K. , explained several items, corrected a
little mistake in the arithmetic that he noticed as he quickly glanced
over it all, and reminded K. of a similar piece of business he'd
concluded with him about a year before, mentioning in passing that this
time there was another bank spending great effort to get his business,
and finally stopped speaking in order to learn K. 's opinion on the
matter. And K. had indeed, at first, been closely following what the
manufacturer was saying, he too was aware of how important the deal was,
but unfortunately it did not last, he soon stopped listening, nodded at
each of the manufacturer's louder exclamations for a short while, but
eventually he stopped doing even that and did no more than stare at the
bald head bent over the papers, asking himself when the manufacturer
would finally realise that everything he was saying was useless. When
he did stop talking, K. really thought at first that this was so that he
would have the chance to confess that he was incapable of listening.
Instead, seeing the anticipation on the manufacturer's face, obviously
ready to counter any objections made, he was sorry to realise that the
business discussion had to be continued. So he bent his head as if he'd
been given an order and began slowly to move his pencil over the papers,
now and then he would stop and stare at one of the figures. The
manufacturer thought there must be some objection, perhaps his figures
weren't really sound, perhaps they weren't the decisive issue, whatever
he thought, the manufacturer covered the papers with his hand and began
once again, moving very close to K. , to explain what the deal was all
about. "It is difficult," said K. , pursing his lips. The only thing
that could offer him any guidance were the papers, and the manufacturer
had covered them from his view, so he just sank back against the arm of
the chair. Even when the door of the manager's office opened and
revealed not very clearly, as if through a veil, the deputy director, he
did no more than look up weakly. K. thought no more about the matter,
he merely watched the immediate effect of the deputy director's
appearance and, for him, the effect was very pleasing; the manufacturer
immediately jumped up from his seat and hurried over to meet the deputy
director, although K. would have liked to make him ten times livelier as
he feared the deputy director might disappear again. He need not have
worried, the two gentlemen met each other, shook each other's hand and
went together over to K. 's desk. The manufacturer said he was sorry to
find the chief clerk so little inclined to do business, pointing to K.
who, under the view of the deputy director, had bent back down over the
papers. As the two men leant over the desk and the manufacturer made
some effort to gain and keep the deputy director's attention, K. felt as
if they were much bigger than they really were and that their
negotiations were about him. Carefully and slowly turning his eyes
upwards, he tried to learn what was taking place above him, took one of
the papers from his desk without looking to see what it was, lay it on
the flat of his hand and raised it slowly up as he rose up to the level
of the two men himself. He had no particular plan in mind as he did
this, but merely felt this was how he would act if only he had finished
preparing that great document that was to remove his burden entirely.
The deputy director had been paying all his attention to the
conversation and did no more than glance at the paper, he did not read
what was written on it at all as what was important for the chief clerk
was not important for him, he took it from K. 's hand saying, "Thank you,
I'm already familiar with everything", and lay it calmly back on the
desk. K.
gave him a bitter, sideways look. But the deputy director did
not notice this at all, or if he did notice it it only raised his
spirits, he frequently laughed out loud, one time he clearly embarrassed
the manufacturer when he raised an objection in a witty way but drew him
immediately back out of his embarrassment by commenting adversely on
himself, and finally invited him into his office where they could bring
the matter to its conclusion. "It's a very important matter," said the
manufacturer. "I understand that completely. And I'm sure the chief
clerk . . . " - even as he said this he was actually speaking only to the
manufacturer - "will be very glad to have us take it off his hands.
This is something that needs calm consideration. But he seems to be
over-burdened today, there are even some people in the room outside
who've been waiting there for hours for him. " K. still had enough
control of himself to turn away from the deputy director and direct his
friendly, albeit stiff, smile only at the manufacturer, he made no other
retaliation, bent down slightly and supported himself with both hands on
his desk like a clerk, and watched as the two gentlemen, still talking,
took the papers from his desk and disappeared into the manager's office.
In the doorway, the manufacturer turned and said he wouldn't make his
farewell with K. just yet, he would of course let the chief clerk know
about the success of his discussions but he also had a little something
to tell him about.
At last, K. was by himself. It did not enter his head to show
anyone else into his office and only became vaguely aware of how nice it
was that the people outside thought he was still negotiating with the
manufacturer and, for this reason, he could not let anyone in to see
him, not even the servitor. He went over to the window, sat down on the
ledge beside it, held firmly on to the handle and looked down onto the
square outside. The snow was still falling, the weather still had not
brightened up at all.
He remained a long time sitting in this way, not knowing what it
actually was that made him so anxious, only occasionally did he glance,
slightly startled, over his shoulder at the door to the outer room
where, mistakenly, he thought he'd heard some noise. No-one came, and
that made him feel calmer, he went over to the wash stand, rinsed his
face with cold water and, his head somewhat clearer, went back to his
place by the window. The decision to take his defence into his own
hands now seemed more of a burden than he had originally assumed. All
the while he had left his defence up to the lawyer his trial had had
little basic affect on him, he had observed it from afar as something
that was scarcely able to reach him directly, when it suited him he
looked to see how things stood but he was also able to draw his head
back again whenever he wanted. Now, in contrast, if he was to conduct
his defence himself, he would have to devote himself entirely to the
court - for the time being, at least - success would mean, later on, his
complete and conclusive liberation, but if he was to achieve this he
would have to place himself, to start with, in far greater danger than
he had been in so far. If he ever felt tempted to doubt this, then his
experience with the deputy director and the manufacturer that day would
be quite enough to convince him of it. How could he have sat there
totally convinced of the need to do his own defence? How would it be
later? What would his life be like in the days ahead? Would he find
the way through it all to a happy conclusion? Did a carefully worked
out defence - and any other sort would have made no sense - did a
carefully worked out defence not also mean he would need to shut himself
off from everything else as much as he could? Would he survive that?
And how was he to succeed in conducting all this at the bank? It
involved much more than just submitting some documents that he could
probably prepare in a few days' leave, although it would have been great
temerity to ask for time off from the bank just at that time, it was a
whole trial and there was no way of seeing how long it might last. This
was an enormous difficulty that had suddenly been thrown into K. 's life!
And was he supposed to be doing the bank's work at a time like
this? He looked down at his desk. Was he supposed to let people in to
see him and go into negotiations with them at a time like this? While
his trial trundled on, while the court officials upstairs in the attic
room sat looking at the papers for this trial, should he be worrying
about the business of the bank? Did this not seem like a kind of
torture, acknowledged by the court, connected with the trial and which
followed him around? And is it likely that anyone in the bank, when
judging his work, would take any account of his peculiar situation? No-
one and never. There were those who knew about his trial, although it
was not quite clear who knew about it or how much. But he hoped rumours
had not reached as far as the deputy director, otherwise he would
obviously soon find a way of making use of it to harm K. , he would show
neither comradeship nor humaneness. And what about the director? It
was true that he was well disposed towards K. , and as soon as he heard
about the trial he would probably try to do everything he could to make
it easier for him, but he would certainly not devote himself to it. K.
at one time had provided the counter-balance to what the deputy director
said but the director was now coming more and more under his influence,
and the deputy director would also exploit the weakened condition of the
director to strengthen his own power. So what could K. hope for? Maybe
considerations of this sort weakened his power of resistance, but it was
still necessary not to deceive oneself and to see everything as clearly
as it could be seen at that moment.
For no particular reason, just to avoiding returning to his desk
for a while, he opened the window. It was difficult to open and he had
to turn the handle with both his hands. Then, through the whole height
and breadth of the window, the mixture of fog and smoke was drawn into
the room, filling it with a slight smell of burning. A few flakes of
snow were blown in with it. "It's a horrible autumn," said the
manufacturer, who had come into the room unnoticed after seeing the
deputy director and now stood behind K. K. nodded and looked uneasily
at the manufacturer's briefcase, from which he would now probably take
the papers and inform K. of the result of his negotiations with the
deputy director. However, the manufacturer saw where K. was looking,
knocked on his briefcase and without opening it said, "You'll be wanting
to hear how things turned out. I've already got the contract in my
pocket, almost. He's a charming man, your deputy director - he's got
his dangers, though. " He laughed as he shook K. 's hand and wanted to
make him laugh with him. But to K. , it once more seemed suspicious that
the manufacturer did not want to show him the papers and saw nothing
about his comments to laugh at. "Chief clerk," said the manufacturer,
"I expect the weather's been affecting your mood, has it? You're looking
so worried today. " "Yes," said K. , raising his hand and holding the
temple of his head, "headaches, worries in the family. " "Quite right,"
said the manufacturer, who was always in a hurry and could never listen
to anyone for very long, "everyone has his cross to bear. " K. had
unconsciously made a step towards the door as if wanting to show the
manufacturer out, but the manufacturer said, "Chief clerk, there's
something else I'd like to mention to you. I'm very sorry if it's
something that'll be a burden to you today of all days but I've been to
see you twice already, lately, and each time I forgot all about it. If
I delay it any longer it might well lose its point altogether. That
would be a pity, as I think what I've got to say does have some value. "
Before K. had had the time to answer, the manufacturer came up close to
him, tapped his knuckle lightly on his chest and said quietly, "You've
got a trial going on, haven't you? " K. stepped back and immediately
exclaimed, "That's what the deputy director's been telling you! " "No,
no," said the manufacturer, "how would the deputy director know about
it? " "And what about you? " asked K. , already more in control of
himself. "I hear things about the court here and there," said the
manufacturer, "and that even applies to what it is that I wanted to tell
you about. " "There are so many people who have connections with the
court! " said K. with lowered head, and he led the manufacturer over to
his desk. They sat down where they had been before, and the
manufacturer said, "I'm afraid it's not very much that I've got to tell
you about. Only, in matters like this, it's best not to overlook the
tiniest details. Besides, I really want to help you in some way,
however modest my help might be. We've been good business partners up
till now, haven't we? Well then. " K. wanted to apologise for his
behaviour in the conversation earlier that day, but the manufacturer
would tolerate no interruption, shoved his briefcase up high in his
armpit to show that he was in a hurry, and carried on. "I know about
your case through a certain Titorelli. He's a painter, Titorelli's just
his artistic name, I don't even know what his real name is. He's been
coming to me in my office for years from time to time, and brings little
pictures with him which I buy more or less just for the sake of charity
as he's hardly more than a beggar. And they're nice pictures, too,
moorland landscapes and that sort of thing. We'd both got used to doing
business in this way and it always went smoothly. Only, one time these
visits became a bit too frequent, I began to tell him off for it, we
started talking and I became interested how it was that he could earn a
living just by painting, and then I learned to my amazement that his
main source of income was painting portraits. 'I work for the court,'
he said, 'what court? ' said I. And that's when he told me about the
court. I'm sure you can imagine how amazed I was at being told all
this. Ever since then I learn something new about the court every time
he comes to visit, and so little by little I get to understand something
of how it works. Anyway, Titorelli talks a lot and I often have to push
him away, not only because he's bound to be lying but also, most of all,
because a businessman like me who's already close to breaking point
under the weight of his own business worries can't pay too much
attention to other people's. But all that's just by the by. Perhaps -
this is what I've been thinking - perhaps Titorelli might be able to
help you in some small way, he knows lots of judges and even if he can't
have much influence himself he can give you some advice about how to get
some influential people on your side. And even if this advice doesn't
turn out to make all the difference I still think it'll be very
important once you've got it. You're nearly a lawyer yourself. That's
what I always say, Mr. K. the chief clerk is nearly a lawyer. Oh I'm
sure this trial of yours will turn out all right. So do you want to go
and see Titorelli, then? If I ask him to he'll certainly do everything
he possibly can. I really do think you ought to go. It needn't be
today, of course, just some time, when you get the chance. And anyway -
I want to tell you this too - you don't actually have to go and see
Titorelli, this advice from me doesn't place you under any obligation at
all. No, if you think you can get by without Titorelli it'll certainly
be better to leave him completely out of it. Maybe you've already got a
clear idea of what you're doing and Titorelli could upset your plans.
No, if that's the case then of course you shouldn't go there under any
circumstances! And it certainly won't be easy to take advice from a lad
like that. Still, it's up to you. Here's the letter of recommendation
and here's the address. "
Disappointed, K. took the letter and put it in his pocket. Even
at best, the advantage he might derive from this recommendation was
incomparably smaller than the damage that lay in the fact of the
manufacturer knowing about his trial, and that the painter was spreading
the news about. It was all he could manage to give the manufacturer, who
was already on his way to the door, a few words of thanks. "I'll go
there," he said as he took his leave of the manufacturer at the door,
"or, as I'm very busy at present, I'll write to him, perhaps he would
like to come to me in my office some time. " "I was sure you'd find the
best solution," said the manufacturer. "Although I had thought you'd
prefer to avoid inviting people like this Titorelli to the bank and
talking about the trial here. And it's not always a good idea to send
letters to people like Titorelli, you don't know what might happen to
them. But you're bound to have thought everything through and you know
what you can and can't do. " K. nodded and accompanied the manufacturer
on through the ante-room. But despite seeming calm on the outside he
was actually very shocked; he had told the manufacturer he would write
to Titorelli only to show him in some way that he valued his
recommendations and would consider the opportunity to speak with
Titorelli without delay, but if he had thought Titorelli could offer any
worthwhile assistance he would not have delayed. But it was only the
manufacturer's comment that made K. realise what dangers that could lead
to. Was he really able to rely on his own understanding so little? If
it was possible that he might invite a questionable character into the
bank with a clear letter, and ask advice from him about his trial,
separated from the deputy director by no more than a door, was it not
possible or even very likely that there were also other dangers he had
failed to see or that he was even running towards? There was not always
someone beside him to warn him. And just now, just when he would have
to act with all the strength he could muster, now a number of doubts of
a sort he had never before known had presented themselves and affected
his own vigilance! The difficulties he had been feeling in carrying out
his office work; were they now going to affect the trial too? Now, at
least, he found himself quite unable to understand how he could have
intended to write to Titorelli and invite him into the bank.
He shook his head at the thought of it once more as the servitor
came up beside him and drew his attention to the three gentlemen who
were waiting on a bench in the ante-room. They had already been waiting
to see K. for a long time. Now that the servitor was speaking with K.
they had stood up and each of them wanted to make use of the opportunity
to see K. before the others. It had been negligent of the bank to let
them waste their time here in the waiting room, but none of them wanted
to draw attention to this. "Mr. K. , . . . " one of them was saying, but K.
had told the servitor to fetch his winter coat and said to the three of
them, as the servitor helped him to put it on, "Please forgive me,
gentlemen, I'm afraid I have no time to see you at present. Please do
forgive me but I have some urgent business to settle and have to leave
straight away. You've already seen yourselves how long I've been
delayed. Would you be so kind as to come back tomorrow or some time?
Or perhaps we could settle your affairs by telephone? Or perhaps you
would like to tell me now, briefly, what it's about and I can then give
you a full answer in writing. Whatever, the best thing will be for you
to come here again. " The gentlemen now saw that their wait had been
totally pointless, and these suggestions of K. 's left them so astounded
that they looked at each other without a word. "That's agreed then, is
it? " asked K. , who had turned toward the servitor bringing him his hat.
Through the open door of K. 's office they could see that the snowfall
outside had become much heavier. So K. turned the collar of his coat up
and buttoned it up high under his chin. Just then the deputy director
came out of the adjoining room, smiled as he saw K. negotiating with the
gentlemen in his winter coat, and asked, "Are you about to go out? "
"Yes," said K. , standing more upright, "I have to go out on some
business. " But the deputy director had already turned towards the
gentlemen. "And what about these gentlemen? " he asked. "I think
they've already been waiting quite a long time. " "We've already come to
an understanding," said K. But now the gentlemen could be held back no
longer, they surrounded K. and explained that they would not have been
waiting for hours if it had not been about something important that had
to be discussed now, at length and in private. The deputy director
listened to them for a short while, he also looked at K. as he held his
hat in his hand cleaning the dust off it here and there, and then he
said, "Gentlemen, there is a very simple way to solve this. If you
would prefer it, I'll be very glad to take over these negotiations
instead of the chief clerk. Your business does, of course, need to be
discussed without delay. We are businessmen like yourselves and know
the value of a businessman's time. Would you like to come this way? "
And he opened the door leading to the ante-room of his own office.
The deputy director seemed very good at appropriating everything
that K. was now forced to give up! But was K. not giving up more than
he absolutely had to? By running off to some unknown painter, with, as
he had to admit, very little hope of any vague benefit, his renown was
suffering damage that could not me repaired.
