Page 221 - the-trial

al way of life and, if they have a good lawyer looking after
them, the trial doesn’t get in their way. But there are none-
theless those who have experience in these matters who can
look at a crowd, however big, and tell you which among
them is facing a charge. How can they do that, you will ask.
My answer will not please you. It is simply that those who
are facing a charge are the most attractive. It cannot be their
guilt that makes them attractive as not all of them are guilty
at least that’s what I, as a lawyer, have to say and nor can it
be the proper punishment that has made them attractive as
not all of them are punished, so it can only be that the pro-
ceedings levelled against them take some kind of hold on
them. Whatever the reason, some of these attractive people
are indeed very attractive. But all of them are attractive,
even Block, pitiful worm that he is.” As the lawyer finished
what he was saying, K. was fully in control of himself, he
had even nodded conspicuously at his last few words in or-
der to confirm to himself the view he had already formed;
that the lawyer was trying to confuse him, as he always did,
by making general and irrelevant observations, and thus
distract him from the main question of what he was actu-
ally doing for K.’s trial. The lawyer must have noticed that
K. was offering him more resistance than before, as he be-
came silent, giving K. the chance to speak himself, and then,
as K. also remained silent, he asked, “Did you have a par-
ticular reason for coming to see me today?” “Yes,” said K.,
putting his hand up to slightly shade his eyes from the light
of the candle so that he could see the lawyer better, “I want-
ed to tell you that I’m withdrawing my representation from

0 The Trial