Page 264 - the-trial

believe the doorkeeper is the man’s subordinate. Even if he
has to stay at the entrance into the law his service makes
him incomparably more than if he lived freely in the world.
The man has come to the law for the first time and the door-
keeper is already there. He’s been given his position by the
law, to doubt his worth would be to doubt the law.” “I can’t
say I’m in complete agreement with this view,” said K. shak-
ing his head, “as if you accept it you’ll have to accept that
everything said by the doorkeeper is true. But you’ve al-
ready explained very fully that that’s not possible.” “No,”
said the priest, “you don’t need to accept everything as true,
you only have to accept it as necessary.” “Depressing view,”
said K. “The lie made into the rule of the world.”
K. said that as if it were his final word but it was not his
conclusion. He was too tired to think about all the ramifica-
tions of the story, and the sort of thoughts they led him into
were not familiar to him, unrealistic things, things better
suited for officials of the court to discuss than for him. The
simple story had lost its shape, he wanted to shake it off, and
the priest who now felt quite compassionate allowed this
and accepted K.’s remarks without comment, even though
his view was certainly very different from K.’s.
In silence, they carried on walking for some time, K.
stayed close beside the priest without knowing where he was.
The lamp in his hand had long since gone out. Once, just in
front of him, he thought he could see the statue of a saint by
the glitter of the silver on it, although it quickly disappeared
back into the darkness. So that he would not remain entire-
ly dependent on the priest, K. asked him, “We’re now near