The kiss under the bar

The kiss under the bar is the pivotal, scandalous moment in Franz Kafka's The Castle when K. and Frieda, the barmaid and former lover of the castle official Klamm, consummate their relationship in the Castle Inn's bar, hidden beneath the counter. This act, which begins with Frieda's playful concealment of K. from the landlord and culminates in a night of intimacy in the beer puddles, transforms K.'s standing in the village, severs Frieda's connection to Klamm, and sets in motion the central conflicts of the novel—K.'s struggle for recognition, his fraught engagement, and his eventual loss of Frieda.

The Setting and the Concealment

The kiss occurs in the bar of the Castle Inn, a place strictly reserved for the gentlemen from the castle, where K. has been allowed only as a favor. Earlier that evening, K. had been shown Klamm through a peephole by Frieda, who revealed herself as Klamm's lover. When Klamm's servants, a rowdy group, begin dancing with Olga, Frieda drives them out with a whip, crying "In the name of Klamm, out into the stables, all of you, out into the stables." In the sudden silence, K. hears footsteps in the corridor and, fearing discovery, hides under the bar counter. The landlord enters, searching for K., but Frieda, who has returned, plants her small foot on K.'s chest and claims he has left. She then bends down, smiles, and says, "Maybe he's hidden down here," and quickly kisses him before popping up again, saying regretfully, "No, he isn't here." This kiss, given in a moment of playful deception, is the first physical contact between them and marks the beginning of their affair.

The Night Under the Bar

After the landlord leaves, Frieda turns off the electric light and joins K. under the bar. She whispers, "My darling! My sweet darling!" but does not touch him at first, lying on her back as if swooning with desire, spreading her arms wide. They embrace, and her little body burns in K.'s hands. They roll, in a semi-conscious state, bumping into Klamm's door with a hollow thud, and lie in the puddles of beer and rubbish covering the floor. Hours pass as they breathe together, their hearts beating in unison. K. feels he has lost himself, "further away in a strange land than anyone had ever been before," where the air is unlike the air at home, and he is likely to stifle in the strangeness, yet the senseless lures compel him to go on. This description emphasizes the transformative, almost disorienting nature of the encounter, which is both a physical union and a symbolic crossing into a new, uncertain territory.

The Summons and Frieda's Defiance

At dawn, a voice from Klamm's room calls for Frieda in a deep, commanding, but indifferent tone. K. alerts her, and in what seems like instinctive obedience, Frieda is about to jump up, but then she remembers where she is, stretches, laughs quietly, and says, "I won't go, I'm never going back to him." K. is about to argue and urge her to go, but he cannot get the words out, too happy to have Frieda in his hands, yet fearful that if she left him he would lose all he possessed. Frieda clenches her fist, knocks on Klamm's door, and calls, "I'm with the land surveyor! I'm with the land surveyor!" At this, Klamm falls silent. This act of defiance is a direct break with Klamm, and it seals Frieda's fate, as she chooses K. over the powerful official. K., however, is filled with regret, asking, "What have you done? We're both lost." Frieda replies, "No, I'm the one who's lost, but I've gained you."

Consequences and Aftermath

The kiss under the bar has immediate and far-reaching consequences. Frieda leaves her position at the Castle Inn and moves with K. to the Bridge Inn, where she becomes his fiancée. The landlady of the Bridge Inn, who had once been Klamm's mistress herself, is horrified, comparing Frieda's desertion of Klamm to an eagle allying with a slow-worm. The relationship is marked by a sense of loss and instability; Frieda's beauty, which had been lent by her proximity to Klamm, fades as she withers in K.'s arms. The assistants, Artur and Jeremias, who are later revealed to be sent by Galater to cheer K. up, become a source of tension, and Frieda's eventual departure with Jeremias is a direct result of the fragile bond formed that night. The kiss thus becomes the catalyst for K.'s brief happiness and his subsequent downfall, as he loses Frieda and is left alone, exhausted, and without a place in the village.

Thematic Significance

The kiss under the bar encapsulates the novel's central themes of desire, power, and the inaccessibility of the castle. It is a moment of intimacy that transgresses the rigid social boundaries between the village and the castle, yet it is also a futile act, as K. cannot truly possess Frieda or gain access to Klamm through her. The encounter is described in terms of loss and strangeness, suggesting that K.'s quest for recognition is doomed from the start. The kiss is also a symbol of the arbitrary and fleeting nature of human connection in a world governed by incomprehensible bureaucratic forces. Frieda's choice to leave Klamm for K. is an act of rebellion, but it leads only to her decline and K.'s isolation, underscoring the novel's bleak vision of the individual's struggle against an indifferent authority.