Fraulein Burstner worked as a typist. On the night that Herr Josef K decided to talk to her regarding the three men interrogators, she had returned home later, after watching a show at the theater. It was after 11:30 pm. She told Josef K she was “dead tired”. Maybe she was too tired to resist his advances.

Josef K kissed her mouth, face, neck and throat. Fraulein Burstner did not resist.

“Because of the captain he was gravely concerned about Fraulein Burstner.”

(Kafka, p. 24)

It was ironic that Herr K would accost the single woman, while claiming to be concerned over her safety. After all, the captain who was sleeping in the room next to Fraulein Burstner’s bedroom, was the landlady Frau Grubach’s nephew.

The court usher’s wife told Herr K that although she was married, her husband could not protect or defend her honor. The men who molested her were more powerful and he could lose his job if he stirred up trouble.

She told Herr K:

“I’ll be glad to get away from here for as long as possible, preferably for ever.”

(Kafka, p. 44)

Then Bertold, the male law student, came to fetch the woman. He carried her in one arm.

Herr K asked toe woman if she wanted to be rescued, but she replied no. She said it was because she could be ruined by disobeying the magistrate’s order. She said Bertold was taking her away, to see the magistrate because the latter ordered him to do this.

The court usher’s wife accepted the men because they were in power posts and could get her husband sacked from his job. Then she and her husband would lose their rent-free home, his job and have no money to live on. The woman told Herr K,

“That would be the ruination of me.”

(Kafka, p. 46)