The Trial Sex Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph). We used Breon Mitchell's translation.

Quote #4

K. opened the book on top, and an indecent picture was revealed […] K didn't leaf through any further, but simply opened to the frontispiece of the second book, a novel entitled The Torments Grete Suffered at the Hands of Her Husband Hans. (4.1)

K. gets a nasty surprise when he takes a flip through what he thought were the examining magistrate's law books. Instead, he discovers a lot of porn. The court's "attraction" to guilt (see Quote #1 above) is given an obscene twist here in the judge's own taste in erotic fiction.

Quote #5

You have beautiful dark eyes […] they say I have beautiful eyes as well, but yours are much more beautiful. By the way, I was struck by them right away, the first time you came here. (4.1)

Women seem to throw themselves at K. left and right, just as the law is "attracted" to his guilt.

Quote #6

I recruit women helpers, he thought, almost amazed: first Fraülein Bürstner, then the court usher's wife, and now this little nurse, who seems to have an inexplicable desire for me. (6.3)

You have to laugh at the egotism of K.'s being "almost" amazed. "Almost" amazed? That suggests that K. expects to be attractive to women.