The Castle

Even sleeping in the village requires permission. When a young official challenges K. at the inn, a telephone inquiry first rejects his claim and then appears to confirm it. The change gives K. a reason to stay, but it does not establish terms that everyone accepts.

The village superintendent says there is no surveying work to do. He describes years of conflicting instructions and misplaced correspondence, then disputes the authority of K.’s letter. His long explanation turns a question about a job into a dispute over whether K. has been offered work at all.

Frieda, a barmaid who has been Klamm’s mistress, leaves her position to live with K. He talks of marriage but continues seeking an interview with Klamm. Her hope of a life together increasingly conflicts with his determination to gain a recognized place in the village.

K. tries to walk toward the castle, but the village road never brings him to its entrance. He is exhausted before his campaign has properly begun. Later, in the Herrenhof inn, Frieda lets him look through a peephole at Klamm, whom she says is asleep.

After Frieda leaves the Herrenhof with him, K. insists that he must speak to Klamm before their marriage. The Bridge Inn’s landlady warns him that he cannot expect such access. Her concern for Frieda comes with hostility toward a stranger whose assumptions she distrusts.

K. and Frieda end up living at the school, where he serves as janitor. He dismisses his intrusive assistants, Arthur and Jeremiah. Frieda asks him to leave the village with her, but he refuses. The prospect of staying matters more to him than escaping the struggle.