Page 261 - the-trial

and down. They see his ideas of what’s inside the law as
rather childish, and suppose he’s afraid himself of what he
wants to make the man frightened of. Yes, he’s more afraid
of it than the man, as the man wants nothing but to go in-
side the law, even after he’s heard about the terrible doormen
there, in contrast to the doorkeeper who doesn’t want to go
in, or at least we don’t hear anything about it. On the other
hand, there are those who say he must have already been in-
side the law as he has been taken on into its service and that
could only have been done inside. That can be countered by
supposing he could have been given the job of doorkeeper
by somebody calling out from inside, and that he can’t have
gone very far inside as he couldn’t bear the sight of the third
doorkeeper. Nor, through all those years, does the story say
the doorkeeper told the man anything about the inside,
other than his comment about the other doorkeepers. He
could have been forbidden to do so, but he hasn’t said any-
thing about that either. All this seems to show he doesn’t
know anything about what the inside looks like or what it
means, and that that’s why he’s being deceived. But he’s also
being deceived by the man from the country as he’s this
man’s subordinate and doesn’t know it. There’s a lot to indi-
cate that he treats the man as his subordinate, I expect you
remember, but those who hold this view would say it’s very
clear that he really is his subordinate. Above all, the free
man is superior to the man who has to serve another. Now,
the man really is free, he can go wherever he wants, the only
thing forbidden to him is entry into the law and, what’s
more, there’s only one man forbidding him to do so the

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