While reading Kafka’s “Before the Law” we can determine that Kafka represents the law as a physical space.  However, there are many questions about what is the law and who has access to the law that arise while reading this story.  The way the man from the country interacts with the law and the gatekeeper shows us that the law cannot be contained by one person and is more powerful than we know.  When the man asks permission to enter into the law later since he is not allowed to enter now, the gatekeeper says, “it is possible” but also adds “but not now.”  By saying this to the man we are unclear why the man is not allowed in and is it also unclear if, when, and why he might be let in in the future.  The gatekeeper also mentions there are other gatekeepers who are more powerful than he, as mentioned in the story “the man from the country has not expected such difficulties” and he believes “the law should always be accessible to everyone.”  This begins the questioning.  What is the law?  Why are some allowed access to the law and not others?  What makes the law so powerful?  Since the gatekeeper seems to have authority the man decides to wait for permission to go inside.  The man wait for years to enter into the law with no success.  “He forgets the other gatekeepers, and this first one seems to him the only obstacle for entry into the law.”  This line intrigued me, because the man never does see another gatekeeper.  So, it is possible the first gatekeeper only told the man this to scare him into not entering into the law.  But, at the end of the story when the man is dying the gatekeeper tells him “this entrance was assigned only to you,” so It is still unclear why the man was not allowed access to the law if this entrance was specifically for him.