not offering her body to him, despite the clear sexual innuendo
in her first comments to him in the hal way and as they enter the
Lawyer’s office. This is not to say that she is denying her body to
him (as we will see), but that she is after something more essential,
which oddly and in the manner of sil y children, she cal s liking. She wants K. to “like” her. He seems to understand this, at least after her second complaint.
The parallel to the non-sexual erotic encounter with Fraulein
Burstner culminates after a discussion where Leni asks K. if he would
allow her to replace Elsa, the prostitute that is his “sweetheart”. Kafka writes:
“If that’s all the advantage she has over me I shan’t give up hope.
Has she any physical defect?” “Any physical defect?” asked K.
“Yes,” said Leni. “For I have a slight one. Look.” She held up her
right hand and stretched out the two middle fingers, between
which the connecting web of skin reached almost to the top
joint, short as the fingers were. In the darkness K. could not
make out at once what she wanted to show him, so she took his
hand and made him feel it. “What a freak of nature!” said K.
and he added, when he had examined the whole hand: “What a
pretty little paw!” Leni looked on with a kind of pride while K. in
astonishment kept pulling the two fingers apart and then putting
them side by side again, until at last he kissed them lightly and
let them go. “Oh!” she cried at once. “You have kissed me!” She
hastily scrambled up until she was kneeling open-mouthed on
his knees. K. looked up at her almost dumbfounded; now that
she was so close to him she gave out a bitter exciting odor like
pepper; she clasped him on the neck, biting into the very hairs
of his head. “You have exchanged her for me,” she cried over
and over again. “Look, you have exchanged her for me after all!”
Then her knees slipped, with a faint cry she almost fell on the
carpet, K. put his arms around her to hold her up and was pulled
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down to her. “You belong to me now,” she said. “Here’s the key
of the door, come whenever you like,” were her last words, and
as he took his leave a final aimless kiss landed on his shoulder.142
The first thing to note about this key passage is that Leni’s question whether Elsa has any physical defect does not seem to be motivated
by a concern that she might be more ‘perfect’ than Leni. Rather, like
some strange little child, Leni seems to be bragging that she has a
freakish oddity, and hoping that Elsa does not have anything out
of the ordinary to match it. The particular curiosity that it is, and
the way that K. opens and closes the webbed middle fingers, clearly
presents us with a sexual metaphor for virginal female genitalia.
Yet what does Joseph K. do? He seems to play aimlessly with the
‘two webbed fingers’, in the same spirit in which Leni plays with
his fingers after he draws her close to him to reassure her that he
“likes” her. The liminal web acts as a metaphor for a spiritual unity in duality. Final y, K. kisses the two webbed fingers “lightly”, which is a sign of profound affection rather than lust or passion.
It is in this child-like spirit that one must read Leni’s wish for
K. to exchange Elsa for her; it is not imbued with the gravity of
possessiveness. Rather, its lightheartedness is meant to mock
the very idea of possession, as in: ‘Oh, look! you have so easily
exchanged her for me.’ Her comment “You belong to me now” rings
with a similar connotation as it would were it to have been said by a
little girl playing at marrying her father. Note how Leni “sits there on
[K.’s] knee as if it were the only rightful place for her!”143 Incidental y, this passage also attests to the fact that Elsa is no mere prostitute
to Joseph K. He admits that she is his “sweetheart” and displays a
picture of her that he has been keeping in his wallet. Clearly, at least one aspect of Joseph K. is the kind of man that can allow himself to love a woman who prostitutes her body to other men.
The language of the animal is also present here, as it is in the
encounter with Fraulein Burstner. Upon further examining her
142 Ibid., 110-111.
143 Ibid., 109.
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hand, K. cal s Leni’s “freak of nature” a “pretty little paw”. Just as with Fraulein Burstner, the climactic erotic act of the scene is of an animal nature, a vampiric kiss on the neck, which this time actual y
does turn into a bite. Like the encounter with Fraulein Burstner,
it involves the same combination of dark animal wildness and
preservation of chastity that characterizes the archetype of Artemis.
Except that in this case, it is the woman that kisses K. in this manner, rather than the other way around. Whereas at the conclusion of his encounter with Fraulein Burstner K. wants to call her by her first
name but realizes that he does not know it, at the very beginning
of his encounter with Leni she hastily tel s him her first name and
demands that he call her by it. K. also seems to receive, unbidden, from Leni, what he demands but is not granted by Fraulein Burstner
– the key to the room and free passage therein at any time. Hecate
stood at the crossroads bearing the keys to the mysteries.144 In her
temple in Caria, a “procession of the key” ( kleidos agoge) was held yearly. Hecate was called Kleidouchos on account of bearing the keys to Underworld; it is she who led the soul down into Hades and opened the Elysian Fields to those who were worthy.145 The Orphic
Hymn to Hecate goes so far as to call her “Keyholding Mistress of
the whole world.”146 That Leni offers Joseph ‘the key’ is Kafka’s way of suggesting that the side of K. that is seduced by these promiscuous
women is growing stronger, though perhaps in tandem with the
opposing aspect that seeks to possess the advantages of proper order.
When K. emerges from his first encounter with Leni in the
Lawyer’s office, he is harangued by his Uncle for having gravely
compromised the “advantage” that a good rapport with the Lawyer
and the Clerk of the Court could have conferred upon him. He
asks how K. could have run off with the mistress of a Lawyer whose
help he seeks, and how he could have left the Clerk of the Court,
who is actual y managing his case, when the official was already
running late and had so kindly agreed to stay and offer assistance
144 D’Este,
Hekate, 15.
145 Ibid., 20, 151.
146 Ibid., 20.
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to K. However, what is most interesting of all here is the following.
Joseph’s uncle is angry at K. for having stayed “away for hours.”
Just so that we know this is not a mere exaggeration, Kafka repeats
it more explicitly: “And you leave me, your uncle, to wait here in
the rain for hours and worry myself sick, just feel, I’m wet through and through!”147 As described in the prose of the novel, the whole
encounter with Leni, from the time K. leaves the room where the
old men are discussing his case to the time he leaves her on the floor of the Lawyer’s office, cannot have taken more than
half an hour at
most – from the perspective of K. and Leni. There is a great deal
of missing time here. Kafka is telling us that whatever happened
between K. and Leni involves an ex-static state of being outside of the continuum of ordinary space-time. It seems that K. had begun
to lose him self in the labyrinth of knowledge to which she had given him the key.
Alas, Joseph’s potential relationship with Leni meets the same
fate as that with Fraulein Burstner and the Usher’s wife – it is
murdered by his possessiveness and jealousy. This time the culprit
is the tradesman, Block. On his final visit to the Lawyer’s home,
as Block opens the door “in his shirt sleeves” after a curious delay,
K. sees Leni scurrying away and out of sight down the hal . He at
once suspects her of being unfaithful and asks Block if he is her
lover. He refuses to accept Block’s denial, testing him before the
Judge’s portrait in the Lawyer’s office to find out that she has told
Block the same thing about it that she has told him. Taking this
as a confirmation of intimacy between them, K. asks Block to tell
him where Leni is hiding. Final y, when K. encounters Leni in the
kitchen, he interrogates her regarding the matter:
“Good evening, Joseph,” she said, glancing over her shoulder.
“Good evening,” said K., waving the tradesman to a chair some
distance away, on which the man obediently sat down. Then K.
went quite close up behind Leni, leaned over her shoulder, and
asked: “Who’s this man?” Leni put her disengaged arm round K.,
147 Kafka,
The Trial, 112.
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stirring the soup with the other, and pulled him forward. “He’s
a miserable creature,” she said, “a poor tradesman called Block.
Just look at him.” … “You were in your shift,” said K., turning
Leni’s head forcibly to the stove. She made no answer. “Is he your
lover?” asked K. She reached for the soup pan, but K. imprisoned
both her hands and said: “Give me an answer!” She said: “Come
into the study and I’ll explain everything.” “No,” said K., “I want
you to tell me here.” She slipped her arm into his and tried to
give him a kiss, but K. fended her off, saying: “I don’t want you
to kiss me now.” “Joseph,” said Leni, gazing at him imploringly
and yet frankly, “surely you’re not jealous of Herr Block?” Then
she turned to the tradesman and said: “Rudi, come to the rescue,
you can see that I’m under suspicion, put that candle down.”
One might have thought he had been paying no attention, but
he knew at once what she meant. “I can’t think what you have to
be jealous about either,” he said, with no great acumen. “Nor can
I, real y,” replied K., regarding him with a smile. Leni laughed
outright and profited by K.’s momentary distraction to hook
herself on to his arm whispering: “Leave him alone now, you can
see the kind of creature he is. I’ve shown him a little kindness
because he’s one of the lawyer’s best clients, but that was the
only reason…But you’re certainly going to spend the night with
me.”148
There are several significant points here. First and foremost, the
explanation that Leni ultimately gives K. in the kitchen, in front
of Block himself, is most assuredly more superficial and deceptive
than the “everything” that she would have sincerely explained to
him in the privacy of the study where they had their first mystical
encounter. Joseph K. denies himself that explanation because of
the same impatience and jealousy that he exhibits in the case of
the Usher’s wife. Gestures are all important in Kafka’s writing, and
it is most noteworthy that Joseph K. begins to manhandle Leni in
an almost violent manner. This is a stark contrast to the kind of
gestures that they usual y exchange – Joseph’s soft kisses on Leni’s
148 Ibid., 170.
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hands, Leni’s gentle rubbing of Joseph’s temples and running her
fingers through his hair, and so forth.
It is significant that Leni’s first response to Joseph’s refusal to
accompany her to the study is to convey the import of what she
would have told him there by intimately holding his hand and
kissing him. It is only when K. also stubbornly refuses this, that she limits herself to saying something that is aimed at divesting K. of
his jealousy by enhancing his feeling of superiority over Block. She
does not deny that there has been some kind of sexual relationship
between her and “the miserable creature”, but attributes this solely to his position as a diligent client of the Lawyer, whereas she hints at a personal affection for Joseph. Block himself reinforces this and, for
the moment, it seems to work.
However, it is not long before K. finds out that Block sleeps in
the house and Leni has given her room to him, permanently. Where
does Leni herself sleep? With Block, or in the other bed, with the
Lawyer? K. begins to grow disgusted at Leni:
“So you sleep in the maid’s room?” asked K., turning to the
tradesman. “Leni lets me have it,” said he, “it’s very convenient.”
K. gave him a long look; the first impression he had had of the
man was perhaps, after al , the right one…Suddenly K. could no
longer bear the sight of him. “Put him to bed,” he cried to Leni,
who seemed not to comprehend what he meant. Yet what he
wanted was to get away to the lawyer and dismiss from his life
not only Huld but Leni and the tradesman too.149
When, moments later, he does go in to see the Lawyer, locking the
door and barring Leni’s way into the room, what he hears from
the Lawyer concerning Leni could only reinforce his jealousy and
feelings of betrayal:
“Has she been pestering you again?” “Pestering me?” asked
K. “Yes,” said the lawyer, chuckling until stopped by a fit of
coughing, after which he began to chuckle once more. “I suppose
149 Ibid., 182.
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you can’t have helped noticing that she pesters you?” he asked,
patting K.’s hand, which in his nervous distraction he had put
on the bedside table and now hastily withdrew. “You don’t attach
much importance to it,” went on the lawyer as K. remained
silent. “So much the better. Or else I might have had to apologize
for her. It’s a peculiarity of hers, which I have long forgiven her
and which I wouldn’t mention now had it not been for your
locking the door. This peculiarity of hers, wel , you’re looking so
bewildered that I feel I must, this peculiarity of hers consists in
her finding nearly all accused men attractive. She makes up to all
of them, loves them al , and is evidently also loved in return; she
often tel s me about these affairs to amuse me, when I allow her.
It doesn’t surprise me so much as it seems to surprise you. If you
have the right eye for these things, you can see that accused men
are often attractive…Of course some are mu
ch more attractive
than others. But they are all attractive, even that wretched
creature Block.”150
Shortly after hearing this speech, K. announces his intention to
dismiss the Lawyer, and the latter puts on a display involving
Block, which is intended to impress upon K. the fact that he is an
extraordinarily well-respected client. This horrifying display of
sadistic manipulation by the Lawyer, in concert with Leni, and the
masochistic submission of Block, actual y acts to finalize Joseph’s
decision to part company with the whole lot of them. Evidently, as
K. watches Block turning into a “dog”, begging and pleading on his
knees, he grasps Leni even more violently than in the kitchen, to
which she responds by saying: “You’re hurting me. Let go. I want to
be with Block.”151 K. probably interprets this as further evidence of
her betrayal and intimate feelings for Block. Yet he is wrong to do
so, as his own intuition tel s him. As he watches Leni mediating the
sadomasochistic interaction between the Lawyer and Block, Kafka
gives us an important hint:
150 Ibid., 184.
151 Ibid., 192.
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Then Leni, displaying the fine lines of her taut figure, bent over
close to the old man’s face and stroked his long white hair. That
final y evoked an answer. “I hesitate to tell him,” said the lawyer,
and one could see him shaking his head, perhaps only the better
to enjoy the pressure of Leni’s hand. Block listened with downcast
eyes, as if he were breaking a law by listening. “Why do you
hesitate?” asked Leni. K. had the feeling that he was listening to a well-rehearsed dialogue which had been often repeated and would
be often repeated and only for Block would never lose its novelty.
“How has he been behaving today?” inquired the lawyer instead
of answering. Before providing this information Leni looked
down at Block and watched him for a moment as he raised his
hands toward her and clasped them appealingly together. At
length she nodded gravely, turned to the lawyer, and said: “He
has been quiet and industrious.”
... So the lawyer’s methods, to which K. fortunately had not been
long enough exposed, amounted to this: that the client final y
forgot the whole world and lived only in hope of toiling along
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