The relation with his parents is also somewhat strained, and has been so since before the metamorphosis.

Gregor was happy to provide for them, however the relationship between family members is implied to be similar to a business transaction: once all affairs were completed, there was no unnecessary displays of affection. He got used, essentially, to his function as a cash dispenser, and once his use wore out the family wished for nothing more than to rid themselves of him. He retained a human familial relation only with his sister, which also eventually fades, as she later suggests the family to get rid of him. Gregor clearly feels slighted by the fact that his parents began to see him as a provider and took this for granted. The failure of the fathers business five years earlier essentially created the family dynamic that we see at the beginning of the story. It explains Gregors vital role in the family. Now and then he stood up from the table and took some receipt or document from the little cash box he had saved from his business when it had collapsed five years earlier. Because the business failed, the father no longer works, and he appears depressed and lethargic, hence leading to Gregors role as the new male who must provide for family. Gregor, meanwhile, feels responsible for the familys wellbeing as its only source of income. This fact explains why his greatest concern after his transformation is whether he will be punished or fired for not going to work on time, despite the fact that he greatly dislikes his job. Their business misfortune had reduced the family to a state of total despair, and Gregor's only concern at that time had been to arrange things so that they could all forget about it as quickly as possible These circumstances play a significant role in Gregors feelings of alienation. Because of his job, which requires that he travel constantly, Gregor cannot develop relationships, and so he has no close friends. As the mother tells the office manager when he comes to check on Gregor, Gregor spends most evenings in the house reading the newspaper or checking the train timetables. Moreover, Gregor feelings of alienation from his parents also stem from the familys financial circumstances. When he first started earning money to support the family, his parents showed a great deal of gratitude, which Gregor enjoyed. Gregor had later earned so much that he was in a position to bear the costs of the whole family, and did bear them. They had even got used to it, both Gregor and the family, they took the money with gratitude and he was glad to provide it, although there was no longer much warm affection given in return. But as Gregor and the parents became accustomed to the new family dynamic in which Gregor was now the breadwinner, the parents gratitude gradually diminished and Gregor no longer felt the same feeling of joy in providing for them. The text says he only remained intimate with Grete, suggesting that he and his parents grew apart as a result. This slights resentment, already present, is increased by the discoveries Gregor makes by listening to his family's conversations. He finds out that his father had some money left after the collapse of his business, something he had previously not been told. He had believed his family was desolate, and so had given up his life to work in order to make money for them. He had been placed into servitude for the family automatically, without being informed of the actual financial situation. Gregor had given his parents all the money he earned instead of paying off his father's debts to his boss so he could quit his job, something Gregor was extremely eager to do. He discovers that not all of the money was needed at the time, and that his parents had managed to save a fair amount by putting aside some of the money he gave them. Though Gregor thinks that "doubtless it was better the way his father had arranged it," but there is clear resentment in this. If the idea of paying off the debts had not appealed to him, he would not have mentioned it. Once again, this is a case where Gregor represses his feelings of resentment out of a sense of duty to his family. The denial of this resentment of his family is part of the psychological prison Gregor now inhabits. Gregor finds that he likes to look out the window, "obviously in some recollection of the sense of freedom that looking out of a window always used to give him." But this desire for freedom is

something that Gregor experienced in the past; it seems to have left him. Freedom is a human need and Gregor has been brought to the state of being inhuman, where he cannot even recognize his loss of freedom. Crawling around the walls and ceiling symbolizes Gregor's freedom from the responsibility of work. He says that on the wall, "one could breathe more freely. . . [in] blissful absorption." At these times, spending his days crawling around the room instead of working as before, Gregor recaptures some of that freedom he had hoped for. But this freedom is an inhuman freedom of his body, and his human mind remains imprisoned. Gregor's loss of sight is a metaphor for this loss of freedom, even more acute than the loss he had suffered before when he spent his life working. He can no longer see what is around him and thus can no longer dream of being free as he used to when staring out the window. This loss of sight also has another meaning. In the Greek play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus puts out his own eyes after he discovers that he inadvertently killed his own father. Gregor also feels that, by not working, he is committing a crime against his father. And he feels that his resentment, although he does his best to repress it, is also an offense against his father. His loss of sight is a punishment for this crime. Gregor notices that his sister has gained a lot of confidence as a result of having to take care of him. Like Gregor, who once worked for his family out of duty in order to feel pride and avoid guilt, Grete now attempts to do the same in fulfilling her duty to Gregor. The narrator notes that she is tempted to "exaggerate the horror of her brother's circumstances in order that she might do all the more for him." Grete is now a prisoner to duty just like Gregor used to be, and she deals with this situation by attempting to make herself feel pride in her fulfillment of that duty. When Grete invents the idea of clearing Gregor's room of furniture to give him more space to move around in, she is clearly very proud of herself.