A complete statement of the theme, seen, it is true, entirely through an enemy’s eyes, can be found in a fragment (afterwards deleted) from the protocol of the Village Secretary Momus. It is set down here as a good, though very one-sided, survey of the plan of the whole:
“The Land Surveyor had first to try to establish himself in the village. That was not easy, seeing that nobody needed his services, nobody, apart from the Bridge Inn landlord, whom he had taken unawares, wanted to take him in; nobody, apart from the officials who had played a few pranks on him, troubled about him. So he ran about apparently without any aim, and did nothing but disturb the peace of the place. But in reality he was very much occupied; he was lying in wait for his opportunity, and it was soon found. Frieda, the young barmaid in the Herrenhof, believed in his promises and let herself be carried away by him.
“To prove the Land Surveyor K. ’s guilt is not an easy matter. One can only get on his track, indeed, when one gives oneself up to his train of thought, painful as this may be. In doing so one must not allow oneself to be turned aside if one comes across a piece of wickedness incredible when seen with our eyes; on the contrary when one reaches that point it is certain that one has not gone astray, then only does one know one is on the right track. Let us take Frieda’s case, for example. It is clear that the Land Surveyor did not love Frieda, and that it was not for love of her that he wanted to marry her; he knew quite well that she was an insignificant hectoring girl, a girl, besides, with a past; he actually treated her accordingly, and went about his affairs without troubling about her. That is the gist of the matter. Now it could be interpreted in several ways, so that K. might appear a weak, or a stupid, or a magnanimous, or a despicable fellow. But all these interpretations would miss the mark. One only attains the truth when one continues full on his tracks, which we have exposed here, from his arrival until his connection with Frieda. If one comes then on the hair-raising truth, one must just accustom oneself to believe it, there is no other course open.