Abstract
This essay seeks to clarify and substantiate the following statements: 1. Das Schloß reflects the causes leading to divisions among people. 2.
Das Schloß cultivates attitudes essential for the awareness of unity (above all, attention and empathy towards those who suffer). In the novel itself, the key role with respect to both of these statements is played by the following - linguistically and factually interconnected - motifs: The concealment of the assumed centre of the ontological, religious, or social structure of Das Schloß (in the language of Kafka's novel one may say 'die Verschlossenheit des Schlosses'); the exclusion ('Ausschließung') of a family, whose member separated herself from an officially sanctioned connection with this centre; the concealment ('Verschlossenheit') of the spheres one would need to know in order to understand the story unequivocally; especially the concealment of the inner world of Kafka's characters, not only those spatially distant (Westwest, Klamm, or Sortini), but also those spatially close (mainly Amalia).
The aim of this essay is to clarify and substantiate the above-mentioned statements by an interpretation of the novel (primarily the Amalia-Sortini episode), while taking into account the analyses by other scholars, especially Ritchie Robertson.