In Kafka's Before the Law the abyss between characters that is shown clearly in Silence of the Sirens is very much present in the relationship between the doorkeeper and the man from the country. There is nothing but the doorkeeper's words keeping the man from walking through the gates and entering the law. The man waits for words that never come, he allows his life to be spent, in its entirety, waiting for words that doorkeeper will not give up. At the end of the story it seems that the doorkeeper never intended to give the man the permission he seeked and that perhaps his job as doorkeeper wasn't to control the traffic of the door but to test the man. In the closing line of the story the doorkeeper is quoted to say "...this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it." The doorkeeper is very clear in his purpose. He takes all the mans bribes but only to keep the man from thinking he had "omitted anything." He also entertains the man's questions but with indifference, and grows weary of the man's repeated requests for admittance into the law. It is almost as if the doorkeeper is bored by the man and is just waiting for him to die so that he could reveal that the gate was only for him. Almost as if the words passed between the two of them meant nothing, what was spoken and heard had no affect on what was to be done.
             It also seems possible that the doorkeeper wanted the man to ask him the right questions. The manner in which he offers the information about the gate shows that he was eager to tell the man. He roars it in the man's ear to be sure that he can hear him with his failing old ears. The doorkeeper needed the right combination of words from the man to be justified in releasing the information he releases at the end of the story, and they never came.
             The doorkeeper even says to the man that he could try to enter if he so desired, but the man will not e...