The question is on mehr as highlighted in this passage from Kafka's Der Verschollene.
The passage follows a description of the difficulties Therese and her mother had finding lodgings for the night.
Gewiß hätten sie spät in der Nacht, wo man nicht mehr so achtgab und niemand mehr unbedingt auf seinem Recht bestand, wenigstens in einen der allgemeinen, von Unternehmern vermieteten Schlafsäle sich drängen können, an deren einigen sie vorüberkamen, aber Therese verstand es nicht, und die Mutter wollte keine Ruhe mehr.
QUESTION
- Which reading is right?
(a) The wo-clause can be re-written as
wo man nicht mehr so achtgab und wo man nicht mehr unbedingt auf seinem Recht bestand
in which the two instances of nicht mehr perform the same function. Thus we are told that, when night came, people no longer took so much care or absolutely insisted on what was right.
(b) The second nichtmehr modifies unbedingt. Thus we are told that there was no one who insisted on what was right even more absolutely at night time than at day time.
- I am guessing (a) is the right reading. Assuming that is the case, is (a) the right one as a matter of context, i.e. because it makes better sense? Or is (a) the only one that is grammatically permissible?