Capítulo 19 de 19 · 4'18"
Klara's confession comes with a catch: she says she fell for Kralik, while insisting she's happily engaged to another man. "I just couldn't take my eyes off of you," she admits, then Kralik reveals her fiancé already came to see him.
❝ Monólogo · 31 frases Klara's Roundabout Confession
Klara's Comedie Francaise Story
Kralik Reveals He Met Popkin
On Christmas Eve, Klara visits Kralik, who shows her a bracelet and has her try it on, so she assumes he has a girlfriend. She then nervously confesses she fell for him when she first came to work there. Kralik reveals that her fiancé Popkin came to see him, and tells her she'll soon be Mrs. Popkin — congratulating her as if nothing had changed.
She finally says the words she has avoided for months, but she protects herself while doing it: "I just couldn't take my eyes off of you," she admits, then immediately adds that she's "very happily engaged" — a status she undercuts herself with "At least it looks that way." Meanwhile, the man across from her knows more than she does: the person she has been corresponding with is him, and he has already met Popkin. His calm answers — "He came to see me," "Your fiance" — and his cheerful "I congratulate you" turn her confession into a test she doesn't know she's taking. The comedy is that they keep circling the same truth without either naming it.
A1–C2 es la escala MCER. Las tarjetas por encima del nivel elegido se atenúan y la reproducción no se pausa en ellas.
“I just couldn't take my eyes off of you.”
He admits the feeling by admitting he could not look away, which is harder to fake than a compliment.
Informal
“It's Christmas, and I'd like to be friends with you.”
She uses the holiday as an excuse to end the fighting and simply ask for friendship.
Informal
“After all, I'm very happily engaged.”
Announced as a happy fact, it only takes the next breath to make the happiness sound doubtful.
Neutral
“Yes, but instead of licking my hand, you barked.”
She treated him like a dog, and he answered with the wrong move, barking instead of licking her hand.
Informal
“Oh, well, that's all forgotten now.”
A gentle way to close an old argument without reopening it.
Informal
Well, when I first came to work here something very strange happened to me. I got psychologically mixed up. - You don't say? - Yes. I found myself looking at you again and again. I just couldn't take my eyes off of you. -Oh. -Mm- hm. And all the time I kept saying, to myself "Kiara Novak, what on earth is the matter with you? "This Kralik is not a particularly attractive type of man." - I hope you don't mind. - No, not at all. Now, here comes the paradox. I found myself falling for you. - I can't believe it. - Yes, Mr. Kralik. And very much so. - You certainly didn't show it. - Listen.. In those first few weeks.. I-I know you won't misconstrue what I'm going to say to you. After all, I'm very happily engaged. At least it looks that way. Yes. Well, go on. Oh, I-in those first few weeks, there were moments in the stockroom when you could have swept me off of my feet. Now I'm getting psychologically mixed up. Well, you see, I was a different girl, then. I was really rather naive. All my knowledge came from books and I'd just finished a novel about a glamorous French actress from the Comedie Francaise. That's a theater in France. And when she wanted to arouse a man's interest she treated him like a dog. Yes, well, you treated me like a dog. Yes, but instead of licking my hand, you barked. You see, my mistake was I didn't realize that the difference between this glamorous lady and me was that she was with the Comedie Francaise and I was with Matuschek and Company.
She is torn: she wants Kralik to know how she feels, but admitting it plainly feels dangerous, so she uses her engagement as a shield and a way out.
Because she has been treating her engagement as a formality. Hearing it stated as a fact — and from Kralik, who met Popkin — forces her to face that the wedding is real.
Yes. He reveals that Popkin came to see him about her letters, and he mentions what she wrote. He is testing her without saying it outright.
Partly. She genuinely confesses her feelings, but the "happily engaged" line is armor — she even undercuts it by adding that it only "looks that way."
To treat a person coldly or badly, as if they don't matter. In Klara's story, the French actress did it on purpose to make a man interested.
