The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka

Context Now an icon of twentieth-century literature, Franz Kafka entered the world in unexceptional circumstances. His father was an ambitious and bullying shopkeeper and his mother was a wealthy brewers daughter who married beneath her social rank. He was their first child, born in 1883 in a house in the center of Prague. Five siblings followed, two of whom died young, leaving Kafka the only boy. Kafka had a sensitive disposition and slight appearance, much to his fathers distaste. Moreover, Kafkas literary interestshe wrote plays for his sisters and read constantlydid not sit well with his fathers practical mindset. Their relationship remained strained throughout Kafkas life, and his fathers overbearing and authoritarian personality left its mark on much of Kafkas writing. At the time, Prague was the capital of Bohemia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Prague boasted a large Jewish population that included the Kafkas, though the family had little daily concern for the faith and rarely attended synagogue. (Kafka regarded his bar mitzvah as a meaningless joke.) Pragues working class majority spoke Czech, while the elites spoke German, the language of the empires rulers. Kafka knew both languages but was most comfortable with German. Being a German speaker in a predominantly Czech-speaking area and a Jew with little connection to Judaism, Kafka struggled his entire life with a sense of alienation from those around him.

Kafka underwent a rigorous and strict education that placed great emphasis on the classics. In 1901, he enrolled in Charles-Ferdinand University (now known as Charles University), intending to study chemistry but harboring literary ambitions. After two weeks, he abandoned chemistry for law, then switched to German literature, only to return to law. He never liked law, however, and said he chose it because it required the least amount of mental energy. After graduation, he worked for a year in the judicial system before leaving for a job in insurance. He hated his first employer and the long hours, so in 1908 he went to work for Bohemias Workers Accident Insurance Institute, where he stayed for the rest of his working life. Kafka claimed he only took the job, which involved evaluating workers injury claims, because its short hours and decent wages allowed him time and opportunity to write. Despite this attitude, he was evidently a conscientious employee. While at Charles-Ferdinand University, Kafka befriended Max Brod, another German-speaking Jew interested in literature. Brod encouraged Kafkas writing, and together with Felix Weltsch, a journalist, they formed the nucleus of the Prague Circle, a group of writers who met regularly to discuss literature and ideas. Brod and Weltsch were deeply invested in Jewish issues and encouraged Kafka in this regard, with mixed success. Kafka developed an interest in popular Yiddish theater, for instance, and tried to learn Hebrew near the end of his life. But he never fully embraced Zionism, and he remained ambivalent toward Judaism. He was more openly interested in anarchism and socialism, though the depth of his
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commitment to either philosophy remains controversial as he refused to completely align himself with an established worldview. As a result, he cannot be put into a simple political category. In 1911, Kafkas father pressured him into helping a relative open an asbestos factory. This venture took a severe toll on both Kafkas time and his already weak constitution, leading him to contemplate suicide. But in 1912, Kafka met Felice Bauer, a relation of Brods through marriage. Kafka fell for Bauer immediately and began writing her passionate letters in which he revealed many doubts about his abilities. These events broke a creative logjam for Kafka. In September 1912, he wrote the short story The Judgment in a single sitting, dedicating it to his new love. And over the course of three weeks that autumn, he wrote The Metamorphosis. Brod urged Kafka to publish The Metamorphosis, but it took three years of encouragement and negotiation before the story finally made its public debut. In response, Kafka won the Theodor Fontane Prize, a significant German-language literary award. He also began work on a novel, now known as Amerika, and published the first chapter in 1913. In 1913, Kafka went to a sanatorium in Italy to revive his failing health. He continued to write to Felice Bauer, and the two were engaged that year. Though not a virgin, Kafka was extremely uneasy about sex, regarding it as disgusting and a sort of punishment, and his letters to Bauer describe his anguished feelings in great detail. Their engagement ended in 1914. That year, Kafka began work on his novel The Trial, which he never managed to

complete. In 1917, he and Bauer briefly became re-engaged. Their renewed relationship ended when Kafka was diagnosed with tuberculosis shortly thereafter. In 1919, Kafka proposed to the daughter of a janitor, sending his father into a rage, but Kafka left her just before the wedding. He next developed a passionate attachment to a married journalist who translated his work into Czech, then he fell in love with Dora Diamant, a volunteer at a tuberculosis clinic. Kafka followed her to Berlin, but his condition worsened and they moved to a clinic near Vienna. On June 3, 1924, unable to eat because of the pain, Franz Kafka starved to death. Before he died, Kafka asked Max Brod to destroy all of his writings after his death, but Brod didnt comply with his wishes. Over the course of the 1920s and 30s, Kafkas works were published and translated, instantly becoming landmarks of twentieth-century literature. His emphasis on the absurdity of existence, the alienating experience of modern life, and the cruelty and incomprehensibility of authoritarian power reverberated strongly with a reading public that had just survived World War I and was on its way to a second world war. Today, people use the word Kafkaesque to signify senseless and sinister complexity, and Kafkas reputation as one of the most important writers of modern times is undiminished. Plot Overview Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up in his bed to find himself transformed into a large insect. He looks around his room, which appears normal, and decides to go back to sleep to forget about what has happened. He attempts to
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roll over, only to discover that he cannot due to his new bodyhe is stuck on his hard, convex back. He tries to scratch an itch on his stomach, but when he touches himself with one of his many new legs, he is disgusted. He reflects on how dreary life as a traveling salesman is and how he would quit if his parents and sister did not depend so much on his income. He turns to the clock and sees that he has overslept and missed his train to work. Gregors mother knocks on the door, and when he answers her, Gregor finds that his voice has changed. His family suspects that he may be ill, so they ask him to open the door, which he keeps locked out of habit. He tries to get out of bed, but he cannot maneuver his transformed body. While struggling to move, he hears his office manager come into the familys apartment to find out why Gregor has not shown up to work. He eventually rocks himself to the floor and calls out that he will open the door momentarily. Through the door, the office manager warns Gregor of the consequences of missing work and hints that Gregors recent work has not been satisfactory. Gregor protests and tells the office manager that he will be there shortly. Neither his family nor the office manager can understand what Gregor says, and they suspect that something may be seriously wrong with him. Gregor manages to unlock and open the door with his mouth, since he has no hands. He begs the office managers forgiveness for his late start. Horrified by Gregors appearance, the office manager bolts from the apartment. Gregor tries to catch up with the fleeing office manager, but his father drives him back into the bedroom with a cane and a

rolled newspaper. Gregor injures himself squeezing back through the doorway, and his father slams the door shut. Gregor, exhausted, falls asleep. Gregor wakes and sees that someone has put milk and bread in his room. Initially excited, he quickly discovers that he has no taste for milk, once one of his favorite foods. He settles himself under a couch and listens to the quiet apartment. The next morning, his sister Grete comes in, sees that he has not touched the milk, and replaces it with rotting food scraps, which Gregor happily eats. This begins a routine in which his sister feeds him and cleans up while he hides under the couch, afraid that his appearance will frighten her. Gregor spends his time listening through the wall to his family members talking. They often discuss the difficult financial situation they find themselves in now that Gregor cant provide for them. Gregor also learns that his mother wants to visit him, but his sister and father will not let her. Gregor grows more comfortable with his changed body. He begins climbing the walls and ceiling for amusement. Discovering Gregors new pastime, Grete decides to remove some of the furniture to give Gregor more space. She and her mother begin taking furniture away, but Gregor finds their actions deeply distressing. He tries to save a picture on the wall of a woman wearing a fur hat, fur scarf, and a fur muff. Gregors mother sees him hanging on the wall and passes out. Grete calls out to Gregorthe first time anyone has spoken directly to him since his transformation. Gregor runs out of the room and into the kitchen. His father returns from his new job, and misunderstanding the situation, believes
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Gregor has tried to attack the mother. The father throws apples at Gregor, and one sinks into his back and remains lodged there. Gregor manages to get back into his bedroom but is severely injured. Gregors family begins leaving the bedroom door open for a few hours each evening so he can watch them. He sees his family wearing down as a result of his transformation and their new poverty. Even Grete seems to resent Gregor now, feeding him and cleaning up with a minimum of effort. The family replaces their maid with a cheap cleaning lady who tolerates Gregors appearance and speaks to him occasionally. They also take on three boarders, requiring them to move excess furniture into Gregors room, which distresses Gregor. Gregor has also lost his taste for the food Grete brings and he almost entirely ceases eating. One evening, the cleaning lady leaves Gregors door open while the boarders lounge about the living room. Grete has been asked to play the violin for them, and Gregor creeps out of his bedroom to listen. The boarders, who initially seemed interested in Grete, grow bored with her performance, but Gregor is transfixed by it. One of the boarders spots Gregor and they become alarmed. Gregors father tries to shove the boarders back into their rooms, but the three men protest and announce that they will move out immediately without paying rent because of the disgusting conditions in the apartment. Grete tells her parents that they must get rid of Gregor or they will all be ruined. Her father agrees, wishing Gregor could understand them and would leave of his own accord. Gregor does in fact

understand and slowly moves back to the bedroom. There, determined to rid his family of his presence, Gregor dies. Upon discovering that Gregor is dead, the family feels a great sense of relief. The father kicks out the boarders and decides to fire the cleaning lady, who has disposed of Gregors body. The family takes a trolley ride out to the countryside, during which they consider their finances. Months of spare living as a result of Gregors condition have left them with substantial savings. They decide to move to a better apartment. Grete appears to have her strength and beauty back, which leads her parents to think about finding her a husband. Character List Gregor Samsa - A traveling salesman and the protagonist of the story. Gregor hates his job but keeps it because of the obligations he feels to pay off his fathers debt and care for his family. He has transformed into a large bug and spends the rest of his life in that state. Although hideous and unrecognizable to others, Gregor retains his some of his inner life and struggles to reconcile his lingering humanity with his physical condition. Grete Samsa - Gregors sister. Grete is a young woman on the cusp of adulthood. She initially shows great concern for Gregor, but her compassion gives way to possessiveness and resentment as the effects of Gregors transformation on her life slowly take their toll. The father - Gregors father. The failure of his business has left him exhausted and emotionally broken, and he is forced to return to work again after Gregors
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metamorphosis. Despite the beneficial effects his new employment has on him, he expresses considerable hostility toward Gregor. The mother - Gregors mother. Frail and distressed, the mother is torn between her love for Gregor and her horror at Gregors new state. Grete and Gregors father seek to protect her from the full reality of her sons transformation. The charwoman - An elderly widow and the Samsa familys cleaning lady. Taken on by the Samsas after their regular maid quits because of Gregor, she is a blunt, honest woman who faces the reality of Gregors state without fear or disgust. The office manager - Gregors boss. Distrustful and overbearing, the office manager insinuates that Gregor has been doing a poor job at work. He flees in terror upon seeing Gregor. The boarders - Three temporary boarders in the Samsas house. The boarders greatly value order and cleanliness, and thus become horrified when they discover Gregor. The maid - The Samsas original maid. She is terrified by Gregor and begs the family to fire her. Analysis of Major Characters Gregor Samsa Despite his complete physical transformation into an insect at the beginning of the story, Gregor changes very little as a character over the course of The Metamorphosis. Most notably, both as a man and as an insect Gregor patiently accepts the hardships he faces without complaint. When his fathers business

failed, he readily accepted his new role as the money-earner in the family without question, even though it meant taking a job he disliked as a traveling salesman. Similarly, when he first realizes he has transformed into an insect, he does not bemoan his condition, wonder about its cause, or attempt to rectify it in any way. On the contrary, he quickly accepts that he has become a bug and tries to go about his life as best he can in his new condition. The narration in the story mirrors Gregors calm forbearance by never questioning or explaining how or why this odd transformation occurred or remarking on its strangeness. Instead, the story, much like Gregor, moves on quickly from the metamorphosis itself and focuses on the consequences of Gregors change. For Gregor, that primarily means becoming accustomed to his new body. In fact reconciling his human thoughts and feelings with his new, insect body is the chief conflict Gregor faces in the story. Despite having changed into an insect, Gregor initially still wants to go to work so that he can provide for his family. It takes him time to realize that he can no longer play that role in his family and that he cant even go outside in his current state. As the story continues, Gregors insect body has an increasing influence on his psychology. He finds that he is at ease hiding in the dark under the sofa in his room, like a bug would, even though his body wont fit comfortably. He also discovers that he enjoys crawling on the walls and ceiling. But Gregors humanity never disappears entirely. He still feels human emotions and has strong memories of his human life. As a result, even though he knows he would feel more physically comfortable if his room were emptied of
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furniture, allowing him to crawl anywhere he pleased, Gregor panics when Grete and his mother are taking out the furniture, such as the writing desk he remembers doing all his assignments at as a boy. In a desperate attempt to hold onto the few reminders he has of his humanity, he clings to the picture of the woman muffled in fur so that no one will take it away. Ultimately hes unable to fully adapt to his new body or to find a new role within his family, which is disgusted by him and ashamed of his presence in the house. Toward the end of the story, he even feels haunted by the thought that he might be able to take control of the familys affairs again and resume his role as the familys money-earner. Despite these hopes, he decides it would be best for the family if he were to disappear entirely, and so he dies much as he lived: accepting his fate without complaint and thinking of his familys best interests. Grete Samsa Apart from her brother Gregor, Grete is the only other character addressed by name in the story, a distinction that reflects her relative importance. Grete is also the only character to show pity for Gregor through most of the novella (his mother also exhibits pity for him later in the story), apparently owing to the great affection Grete and Gregor had for each other before Gregors transformation. Consequently, she becomes Gregors primary caretaker. She brings him food, cleans his room, places his chair by the window so he can see out to the street, and comes up with the idea of removing his furniture so he has more room to scurry and climb. In this role as caretaker she serves as Gregors only real human contact for most of the story,

and she acts as Gregors only strong emotional tie to his familyand indeed to the rest of humanity. Grete, however, changes more than any other character in the storyin essence undergoing her own metamorphosis from a girl into a womanand that change occurs while her pity for Gregor slowly diminishes. While at first Grete takes care of her brother out of kindness, eventually she comes to regard the job as a duty. She doesnt always enjoy it, but it serves to define her position in the family, and she becomes territorial about caring for Gregor, not wanting her mother to be involved. As she matures and takes on more adult responsibilities, most notably getting a job to help provide for her family financially, her commitment to Gregor diminishes. Eventually she comes to resent the role, and it is Grete who decides they must get rid of Gregor. The story ends with the parents recognizing that Grete has become a pretty young woman and thinking that it may be time to find her a husband, suggesting Grete has completed her own transformation into an adult. The father The reader predominantly sees Gregors father from Gregors point of view in the story, and for the most part, he appears as a hopeless and unkind man, concerned primarily with money, who isnt particularly close to his son. We learn, for example, that he had a business that failed, and since its failure he has lost his motivation and essentially given up working, forcing Gregor to provide for the family and work to pay off the fathers debts. Yet despite Gregors help, the father has no sympathy for Gregor after Gregor undergoes his metamorphosis. On the day
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of Gregors change, the father only seems concerned about the familys finances, and in the two instances when he interacts directly with Gregor in the story, he attacks Gregor in some way, first when he beats Gregor back into his room at the beginning and later when he throws the fruit at him. These details suggest an estrangement between Gregor and his father (Kafkas strained relationship with his own father, whom he viewed as alien and overbearing, certainly gives weight to such an interpretation). Gregor never explicitly says he resents his father, but its clear that he only works as a traveling salesman to make up for his fathers failure in business, suggesting he feels trapped by his fathers failings. Moreover, Gregor never displays the same affection for his father that he displays, albeit rarely, toward his mother and sister, as when he longs to see his mother before she and Grete begin moving the furniture out of his room. Adding to this sense of estrangement is the way the father is referred to in the story. The narrator does not name him beyond calling him Mr. Samsa, and in Gregors thoughts he almost always appears as the father. Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes The Absurdity of Life Beginning with its first sentence, The Metamorphosis deals with an absurd, or wildly irrational, event, which in itself suggests that the story operates in a random, chaotic universe. The absurd event is Gregors waking up to discover he has turned into a giant insect, and since its

so far beyond the boundaries of a natural occurrenceits not just unlikely to happen, its physically impossible Gregors metamorphosis takes on a supernatural significance. Also notable is the fact that the story never explains Gregors transformation. It never implies, for instance, that Gregors change is the result of any particular cause, such as punishment for some misbehavior. On the contrary, by all evidence Gregor has been a good son and brother, taking a job he dislikes so that he can provide for them and planning to pay for his sister to study music at the conservatory. There is no indication that Gregor deserves his fate. Rather, the story and all the members of the Samsa family treat the event as a random occurrence, like catching an illness. All these elements together give the story a distinct overtone of absurdity and suggest a universe that functions without any governing system of order and justice. The responses of the various characters add to this sense of absurdity, specifically because they seem almost as absurd as Gregors transformation itself. The characters are unusually calm and unquestioning, and most dont act particularly surprised by the event. (The notable exception is the Samsas first maid, who begs to be fired.) Even Gregor panics only at the thought of getting in trouble at work, not at the realization that he is physically altered, and he makes no efforts to determine what caused the change or how to fix it. He worries instead about commonplace problems, like what makes him feel physically comfortable. In fact, the other characters in the story generally treat the metamorphosis as something unusual and disgusting, but not
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exceptionally horrifying or impossible, and they mostly focusing on adapting to it rather than fleeing from Gregor or trying to cure him. Gregors family, for example, doesnt seek out any help or advice, and they appear to feel more ashamed and disgusted than shocked. Their second maid also shows no surprise when she discovers Gregor, and when the boarders staying with the family see Gregor they are mostly upset that Gregor is unclean and disturbs the sense of order they desire in the house. These unusual reactions contribute to the absurdity of the story, but they also imply that the characters to some degree expect, or at least are not surprised by, absurdity in their world. The Disconnect Between Mind and Body Gregors transformation completely alters his outward appearance, but it leaves his mind unchanged, creating a discord, or lack of harmony, between his mind and body. When he first gets out of his bed after waking, for instance, he tries to stand upright, even though his body is not suited to being upright. He also thinks of going to work, despite the fact that he cant by any means do so, and when Grete leaves him the milk at the beginning of Part 2, he is surprised to find he doesnt like it, even though milk was a favorite drink when he was human. In essence, he continues to think with a human mind, but because his body is no longer human, he is unable at first to reconcile these two parts of himself. As Gregor becomes accustomed to his new body, his mind begins to change in accordance with his physical needs and desires. Yet hes never able to fully bring his mind and body into harmony. Gregor gradually behaves more and more like an

insect, not only craving different foods than he did when he was human, but also beginning to prefer tight, dark spaces, like the area under his sofa, and enjoying crawling on the walls and ceiling. (Through these details, the story suggests that our physical lives shape and direct our mental lives, not the other way around.) But Gregors humanity never disappears entirely, and he feels conflicted as a result. This conflict reaches its climax when Grete and the mother move the furniture out of Gregors room. Gregor initially approves of the idea because it will make his room more comfortable for him physically. Without furniture, hell be able to crawl anywhere he pleases. But realizing that his possessions, which represent to him his former life as a human, provide him emotional comfort, he suddenly faces a choice: he can be physically comfortable or emotionally comfortable, but not both. In other words, his mind and body remain opposed to one another. Gregor, unable to relinquish his humanity, chooses emotional comfort, leading him to desperately cling to the picture of the woman in furs. The Limits of Sympathy After Gregors metamorphosis, his family members struggle with feelings of both sympathy and revulsion toward him. Grete and the mother in particular feel a great deal of sympathy for Gregor after his change, apparently because they suspect some aspect of his humanity remains despite his appearance. This sympathy leads Grete initially to take on the role of Gregors caretakershe even goes so far as to try to discover what food he likes after his changeand it leads the mother to fight with Grete over moving the
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furniture out of Gregors room since she holds out hope that he will return to his human form. Even the father, who shows the least sympathy of the family members toward Gregor and even attacks him twice, never suggests that they kill him or force him out of the house. Instead, he implicitly shows compassion for Gregor by allowing the family to care for him. Eventually, however, the stresses caused by Gregors presence wear down the family members sympathy, and even the most caring of them find that their sympathy has a limit. One of those sources of stress is Gregors appearance. Grete is so upset and revolted by the way he looks that she can hardly stand to be in the room with him, and his mother is so horrified when she sees him as she and Grete are moving his furniture that she faints. In addition, Gregors presence is never forgotten in the house, causing the family members to feel constantly uncomfortable and leading them to speak to each other mostly in whispers. Moreover, the fact that Gregor cannot communicate his thoughts and feelings to them leaves them without any connection to his human side, and consequently, they come to see him more and more as an actual insect. All these factors combined steadily work against their sympathy, and the family reaches a point where Gregors presence is too much to bear. Significantly, it is Grete, the character to show the most sympathy toward Gregor, who decides they must get rid of him. Alienation Perhaps the greatest consequence of Gregors metamorphosis is the psychological distance it creates between Gregor and those around him. Gregors

change makes him literally and emotionally separate from his family membersindeed, from humanity in generaland he even refers to it as his imprisonment. After his transformation he stays almost exclusively in his room with his door closed and has almost no contact with other people. At most, Grete spends a few minutes in the room with him, and during this time Gregor always hides under the couch and has no interaction with her. Furthermore, he is unable to speak, and consequently he has no way of communicating with other people. Lastly, Gregors metamorphosis literally separates him from the human race as it makes him no longer human. Essentially he has become totally isolated from everyone around him, including those people he cares for like Grete and his mother. But as we learn over the course of the story, this feeling of estrangement actually preceded his transformation. Shortly after waking and discovering that he has become a bug, for example, Gregor reflects on his life as a traveling salesman, noting how superficial and transitory his relationships have become as a result of his constant traveling. Later, Gregor recalls how his initial pride at being able to support his family faded once his parents began to expect that support, and how he felt emotionally distant from them as a result. There is also no mention in the story of any close friends or intimate relationships outside his family. In fact, the alienation caused by Gregors metamorphosis can be viewed as an extension of the alienation he already felt as a person.

Motifs Metamorphosis The Metamorphosis depicts multiple transformations, with the most significant and obvious example being Gregors metamorphosis into an insect. Though Gregors physical change is complete when the story begins, he also undergoes a related change, a psychological transformation as he adapts to his new body. Grete experiences her own transformation in the story as she develops from a child into an adult. (In fact, in zoology the word metamorphosis refers to a stage in insect and amphibian development during which an immature form of the animal undergoes a physical transformation to become an adult.) At the beginning of the work, she is essentially still a girl, but as she begins to take on adult duties, such as caring for Gregor and then getting a job to help support her family, she steadily matures. In the storys closing scene, her parents realize she has grown into a pretty young woman and think of finding her a husband. The scene signals that she is now an adult emotionally and also physically, as it describes the change her body has undergone and echoes Gregors own physical change. The family as a whole also undergoes a metamorphosis as well. Initially, the members of the Samsa family appear hopeless and static, owing to the difficulties resulting from Gregors transformation as well as their financial predicament. But over time they are able to overcome their money problems, and when Gregor finally dies and the family no longer has to deal with his presence, all the family members are reinvigorated. As the

story closes, they have completed an emotional transformation and their hope is revitalized. Sleep and Rest References to sleep and rest, as well as the lack of sleep and rest, recur throughout The Metamorphosis. The story opens, for instance, with Gregor waking from sleep to discover his transformation, and Part 2 of the story begins with Gregor waking a second time, in this instance late in the day after the incident in which his father drove him back into his room. He quickly crawls under the sofa in his room to rest, and he spends a great deal of the story beneath the sofa either resting quietly or anxious and unable to rest. Moreover, Gregor describes how his father used to while away the day in bed or dozing in his armchair, and after the father resumes working, he often refuses to go to bed in the evenings and instead falls asleep in uniform in his chair. Toward the end of the work, as Gregors health declines he stops sleeping almost entirely until finally he dies. Money Because of the failure of the fathers business and the debts that resulted, money is a chief concern for the Samsa family, and consequently it appears as a frequent topic in Gregors thoughts and in the conversations of the family members. Gregors chief concern after discovering hes become an insect is that hell lose his job, which we quickly learn he took solely as a means of earning money for his family. The office manager also implies while checking on Gregor that Gregors boss suspects him of stealing money from the firm. Then, shortly after Gregor awakes at the beginning of Part 2, he
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overhears the father explaining the familys financial situation in detail to the mother and Grete. Later, the father and Grete both take jobs to make up for the loss of Gregors income, and the family even takes in a few borders as a means of bringing in extra money, which results in an argument about money after the borders discover Gregor. Symbols The Picture of the Woman in Furs Mentioned right at the outset of the story, the picture of the woman in furs serves as a symbol of Gregors former humanity. Exactly why the picture, which shows a woman wearing a fur hat, a fur boa, and a thick fur muff that covers her arms, originally attracted Gregor is never made clear (though it could be that it embodied Gregors desiresthe presumably attractive woman may be sexually alluring while the furs she wears could signal wealth to Gregor). But Gregors strong attachment to it does not derive from the content of the picture so much as from the fact that he put it on his wall when he was still human. He clings to it in panic when Grete and the mother are clearing out his room because, as he looks around the room in desperation, he sees it as one object from his former life that he can save. The content of the picture is irrelevant at that moment. It acts foremost as a reminder that a human lived there and chose that object to frame and display. The Fathers Uniform The uniform the father wears for his job symbolizes the fathers dignity, as well as Gregors shifting feelings of pity and respect for him. Throughout the story, we

see the father primarily from Gregors point of view. We learn about the failure of the fathers business, for example, from Gregors thoughts as he overhears the father explaining the familys financial situation, and through Gregor we gain a picture of the father as a shiftless and depressed man whom Gregor appears to feel sorry for but not necessarily respect. But when Gregor runs out of his room in Part 2 and sees the father for the first time in weeks, Gregors opinion of the father changes. This shift is most evident through Gregors description of the fathers uniform, which gives the father an air of dignity: Gregor notices the smart blue uniform with gold buttons, and thinks the father looks to be in fine shape, suggesting the fathers self-respect has been restored, and with it Gregors respect for him. As the story continues, however, the father again declinesapparently from the pressure of living with Gregorand in the evenings Gregor watches him sleep in his uniform, now dirty and covered with grease spots. As a result, the dignity the uniform conveyed to the father deteriorates, and Gregor again looks at him with pity. (Notably, there is also a picture in the house of Gregor in uniform. It is an army uniform, and in the picture Gregor smiles, inviting one to respect his uniform and military bearing.) Food Food represents the way the members of the Samsa family feel toward Gregor. Notably, it is Grete, the family member Gregor feels closest to, who feeds Gregor for most of the story. At the beginning of Part 2, she leaves milk and bread for him, showing sympathy and consideration for
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him after his transformation, particularly as milk was one of his favorite foods when he was human. When she sees he hasnt drank the milk, she goes so far as to leave a tray of various foods out in order to discover what he now likes. Eventually, however, the work suggests that the family loses interest in feeding Gregor. One night, after the borders have moved in, the charwoman leaves his door open, and able to see everyone gathered, he watches as his mother feeds the borders. The scene causes Gregor to feel a great deal of resentment, and he thinks that he is starving while the borders stuff themselves, suggesting that as the members of the Samsa family have lost their sympathy for Gregor, they have stopped taking the same interest in feeding him. Significantly, the father inflicts the injury in Gregors back with an apple, and this wound appears to weaken Gregor and contribute to his death. Part 1 Summary Gregor Samsa wakes in his bed and discovers he has transformed into a giant bug. Wondering what has happened, he looks around his small room, where everything appears normal. He sees the fabric samples that he uses in his job as a traveling salesman, a picture of a woman in furs that he tore out of a magazine and framed, and the rain dripping down outside his window. He tries to roll over and go back to sleep in order to forget about what has happened, but because of the shape of his back, he can only rock from side to side. Feeling sore from his effort, Gregor thinks about what a difficult job he has and the fact that his constant traveling prevents

him from making any lasting friendships. He thinks that he would leave his overbearing employer but he has to work off a debt that his parents incurred. He suddenly realizes that he has overslept and does not have a good excuse to give his boss. Gregors mother reminds him that he has to catch his train to work. When Gregor responds, he finds his voice has changed. His father and Grete, his sister, join his mother at the door, urging him to get up and unlock it. Gregor twists and rocks, managing to turn sideways and dangle off the bed. Then the doorbell rings. It is the office manager, come to check on Gregor. Gregor rocks his body violently and finally tumbles to the floor. His family and the office manager come to the door to inquire if he is all right. Gregors mother pleads with the office manager, telling him what a devoted worker Gregor is, while Grete cries in the next room. The office manager calls through the door and demands an explanation. He hints that Gregors recent work has not been satisfactory and that Gregors current behavior looks very bad, especially in light of rumors that Gregor may have stolen money from the company. Gregor claims that he had a dizzy spell and asks the office manager to spare his parents any undue concern. While Gregor tries to lift himself off the floor, the office manager and his family discuss the strange change in his voice, and his sister leaves to fetch a doctor and a locksmith. Gregor reaches the door, turns the lock with his mouth, and slowly pulls open the door. Seeing that Gregor is now a giant insect, the terrified office manager backs away, the mother passes out, and the father
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cries. Gregor delivers a long speech asking the office manager to put in a good word for him at work, since traveling salesmen often become the subjects of negative gossip, but the office manager continues to back out of the apartment. Gregor unsuccessfully tries to catch him as he flees and discovers how easily he can crawl on his new legs. The father then picks up a newspaper and the office managers cane and drives Gregor back into his bedroom. Gregor injures himself when he becomes stuck in the doorway, but the father shoves him through and slams the door. Analysis The opening line of The Metamorphosis, which reports Gregors discovery that he has become a giant insect, sets the tone for the rest of the story. The line recounts the bizarre event of Gregors transformation in a sober, straightforward manner, and this contrast between an extraordinary situation and the ordinary terms used to describe it creates the sense that the narrator expects the world in the story to be absurd and chaotic, rather than rational and orderly. Gregor embodies this absurdist tone from the very beginning. When he first recognizes his transformation, he doesnt appear significantly bothered by it, and treats it almost like any ordinary disturbance to his sleep, as if it were not entirely out of the ordinary. As the story progresses, he remains focused on largely ordinary concerns, such as losing his job, his physical comfort, and his familys financial situation, thus maintaining the storys absurdist overtone throughout. In this section, we also begin to learn the details of Gregors human life, and we get the first glimpses into his feeling of

alienation from those around him. As Gregor lies in bed, unable to get himself up, he begins thinking of his job as a traveling salesman, and we learn that he only continues at it because of his parents debt. In fact, he greatly dislikes the office manager, who has come to the house to check on him. Furthermore, the friendships he makes because of his work are only casual and never intimate, since he must always be traveling. The mother hints at Gregors lack of friends when she tries to explain to the office manager what a good employee Gregor is. She says Gregor never goes out in the evenings, but sits home reading a newspaper or checking the train timetables, suggesting that Gregor already lives predominantly in isolation. Now, Gregor is no longer even physically human. In his new form, he is unable to go to work, and his voice is so altered that he cant even communicate with those around him. In addition, when he opens the door and the office manager and his family members see him, they are horrified, and together these details foreshadow that Gregors isolation from other people will only continue to grow. The section also establishes the motif of money in the story, and hints at the major role money plays in the Samsa family. Gregors greatest concern after discovering his metamorphosis is that he will lose his job, which we quickly learn he only continues at so he can pay off his parents debt. (We also know that debt is substantial since he says it will take him five or six years to pay it off.) As the section continues, we receive indications that, of the members of the Samsa family, only Gregor works, and that the father stays at home. Though it remains unclear at this point why the family is in so much
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debt, it is evident that they are not wealthy and that their debts hamper them. Because he is responsible for paying these debts, Gregor feels trapped in his job. Finally, the office manager also brings up money when he tells Gregor that the chief suspects him of stealing from the company. Part 2 Summary Gregor wakes in the evening. He sees that someone has put a bowl of milk and bread in the room. Though milk had been his favorite drink, he finds he cannot stand the taste now. Then he listens for his family, but the apartment is completely quiet. He recalls the pride he felt at taking care of his family and wonders what will happen to them now. Someone cracks the door open but shuts it immediately, and Gregor eventually sees the light go off in the other room. He crawls under a small sofa and drops into a fitful sleep, vowing that he will do everything he can to make his new condition as small a burden on his family as possible. In the morning, Grete opens the door but shuts it when she sees Gregor under the sofa. She reopens it and steps into the room. Noticing that Gregor has not eaten, she brings in various kitchen scraps and leaves Gregor to eat alone. He enjoys the moldiest food but has no interest in the fresh vegetables. Grete returns a little while later and sweeps up the scraps while Gregor watches her from beneath the sofa. A pattern thus begins, with Grete feeding and cleaning up after Gregor and reporting to the mother and father how much Gregor has eaten.

Gregor spends much of his time listening to the family through the door. He learns that the money he regularly gave his parents has not all been spent, and he feels proud of his contribution to their wellbeing. To avoid spending this savings, however, the family members will need to find employment. Gregor feels embarrassed when he hears them discuss this topic, as the father has become out of shape and clumsy and the mother has asthma, so neither seems very capable of working. Gregor also reflects on his relationship with his family, recalling how he and his parents had grown apart but that he and Grete had remained close, so much so that he had planned to send her to music school to study the violin. Gregor slowly adapts to his new life. He begins to enjoy scurrying around his room and climbing on a chair to look out the window. Though Grete continues to look after Gregor, he notices that she cannot stand the sight of him, and he hides behind a sheet draped over the sofa when she enters the room. The parents avoid coming in, though they seem curious about his state. The mother in particular is eager to see him, but Grete and the father urge her not to. Grete sees that Gregor enjoys climbing up the walls and across the ceiling, so she decides to remove the furniture from the room to give him more space. While the father is out, Grete and the mother start taking out furniture. Gregor hides as usual, but he grows anxious as he hears his mother worry that she and Grete might be doing him a disservice by stripping the room of his possessions. Grete, however, considers herself the expert on Gregor and overrules the mothers objections. While
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Grete and the mother talk in the living room, Gregor, panicked at the thought of losing all the remnants of his human life, climbs the wall and covers the picture of the woman in furs to prevent it from being taken away. The mother spots Gregor on the wall, goes into a panic, and passes out. Grete yells at Gregor as he lets go of the picture and scurries into the living room. Grete rushes out, grabs medicine, and returns to Gregors room, shutting the door behind her. The father returns and Grete tells him that Gregor broke out. He misunderstands Grete and thinks Gregor attacked the mother, so he starts chasing Gregor around the room. Gregor notices that his father has become a new man since getting a job as a bank attendanthe stands straighter and looks cleaner and healthier. The father throws fruit at Gregor, and eventually hits him with an apple that becomes lodged in Gregors back. The mother bursts from the bedroom and Gregor rushes for the door, hearing his mother beg his father to stop. Analysis The question of how much of Gregors humanity remains dominates the second section of the story. As the members of the Samsa family adapt to the new situation with Gregor, each one appears to develop a different perception of how much humanity remains in him. At the beginning of the section, for instance, Grete leaves milk for Gregor, apparently assuming that his preference for milk while he was human continues now that hes a bug. The assumption suggests that Grete believes, at least initially, that some part of Gregor remains the same. But as she recognizes that Gregors tastes in food have changed and that he now likes to crawl about the

walls of his room, Grete gradually begins to conceive of Gregor as an insect. In response, she suggests taking all Gregors possessions out of his room to eliminate obstacles to his crawling and to make the space more suitable to an insect. The mother, on the other hand, protests that Gregor will want his things when he returns to his former self, and earlier in the section she even refers to Gregor as her unfortunate son, implying she still believes Gregor to be fundamentally the same despite his appearance. The father gives no indication that he regards Gregor as the same, and attacks him as though he were a wild animal when he escapes his room. This confusion regarding Gregors humanity extends to Gregor himself, and much of the section involves Gregor trying to reconcile his human emotions and history with the physical urges of his new body. Gregors lingering humanity is most evident through his thoughts and emotions. He continues to feel proud that he was able to help his family financially in the past, he feels shame at being unable to help them now, and he is determined to spare them any unnecessary suffering on his account. These details show that he still feels connected to his human past and still considers himself a part of the family. Physically, however, he feels more and more like an insect: his food preferences have completely changed, he feels terrified of his room and safe only under the sofa, and he takes great pleasure in scurrying up the walls and across the ceiling. This tension between Gregors mind and body culminates when Grete and the mother take the furniture out of his room. Initially, he feels he would prefer the room to be empty because that would make it more
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physically comfortable for him. But his ties to his possessions, which represent to him his past as a human, lead him to cling desperately to the photograph of the woman in furs. Of all the characters, Grete has by far the most interaction with Gregor in Part 2, and over the course of the section their relationship changes dramatically. Though Grete initially wants to care for Gregor and takes on all the burdens of doing so, she cannot bear the sight of him. Notably, after noticing Gregors habit of moving the chair to look out the window Grete kindly starts placing the chair by the window for him, but when she inadvertently sees him standing on it later, she is overcome with horror. Gradually, Gretes disgust appears to wear down her sympathy for Gregor, and while she continues to care for him, she does so evidently more from a sense of duty than love. In fact, she appears to regard caring for Gregor as her roleand thus part of her identityin the family. She guards that role jealously against the mother, which suggests that Grete performs these duties more for her own sake than for Gregors. Gregor, meanwhile, begins to regard Gretes presence in his room as an intrusion, and he prefers to be entirely alone. By the end of the section, Gretes and Gregors affection for one another has faded completely. Grete appears to consider Gregor a chore and inconvenience, while Gregor feels as alienated from Grete as he does everyone else, making him even more isolated from others. The reader learns a great deal more in this section about the familys financial situation, providing a greater understanding of how money shapes the

relationships in the Samsa family. Through Gregors reporting of the familys conversations and his own recollections, we learn that the fathers business failed five years earlier and that subsequently the whole family fell into a state of despair. When Gregor first began supporting the family with his income, his parents were extremely grateful, but as they came to expect Gregors help, their gratitude diminished and Gregor began to feel alienated from them. These details clarify why the father in particular is so lethargic and unmotivated up to this point. It also explains why Gregor feels so distant from the mother and especially from the father, who is the only member of the Samsa family that Gregor never wishes to see. Moreover, because Gregor cannot work, he acts as an additional burden to the family, possibly contributing to their diminishing sympathy for him. Part 3 Summary In the wake of Gregors injury, which limits his mobility, the family takes pity on him and leaves the bedroom door open at night so Gregor can watch them. The father dozes in his chair while the mother sews lingerie for a boutique and Grete studies French and shorthand in hopes of moving up from her job as a sales clerk. The father stops taking off his bank attendant uniform when he comes home, and the uniform becomes increasingly filthy. Grete and the mother encourage the father to go to bed early, but he stays up late every night, muttering about how sad his life has become.

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Gregor learns that the family has been selling off jewelry to bring in money, and they replace their regular maid with an elderly cleaning lady. He also realizes that they feel trapped by his presence. Gregor stops sleeping and eating as he frets about the family and the past, alternating between guilt over not helping them and outrage that they have neglected him. Grete hardly takes care of him at all anymore. Despite this apparent indifference to Gregor, she becomes extremely upset when the mother cleans Gregors room and insists that Gregor is hers to look after. The new cleaning lady, meanwhile, regularly talks to Gregor. She openly stares at him, and even tries to sneak into the room to catch him off-guard. One day, Gregor, tired of being peered at, attacks her, but the cleaning lady threatens him with a chair, so he desists. The family takes three boarders into the apartment. These men cannot stand mess and disorder, so the family moves much of the furniture and the cleaning ladys supplies into Gregors room. Gregor enjoys crawling through the clutter, though doing so leaves him exhausted. One night, the cleaning lady accidentally leaves the door open while the boarders are home. The boarders eat in the dining room while the family eats in the kitchen, and Gregor notices the boarders being very picky about the food that his mother and sister have cooked. Hearing Grete playing the violin, the boarders invite the family into the parlor. The boarders initially stand very close to Grete as she plays, but they soon lose interest. Gregor is entranced by the violin and slowly creeps out into the parlor. He longs to take his sister back to

his room and tell her about his plan to send her to music school. One of the boarders spots Gregor and cries out. The father rushes the boarders out of the parlor as they declare they will move out and not pay rent. Grete tells her parents that they have to stop believing that the bug is Gregor and says they must find a way to get rid of it. The father wishes they could explain to Gregor why they need him to leave, but Grete says that if he could understand them, he would have left long ago to spare them any more pain. Gregor, feeling terrible, scuttles back to his room. He remains motionless through the night, thinking to himself all the while that he must go away to relieve them of their suffering. As dawn breaks, he dies. The cleaning lady discovers Gregors body the next morning. The family gathers around the corpse and Grete notices how skinny Gregor had become. The father kicks the boarders out of the apartment. The family decides to take a walk, but first they write letters to their bosses explaining why they arent coming into work. The cleaning lady tells them that she got rid of the body, but the family seems uninterested in her, and the father decides to fire her that night. Grete and her parents leave the apartment and take a trolley ride to the countryside. They discuss their finances and discover that they have much more money than they thought. They decide to move to a smaller apartment in a better location. The parents notice what an attractive young woman Grete has become and think they should find a husband for her soon. As they reach their stop, Grete stands and stretches.

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Analysis The members of the Samsa family continue to struggle with their uncertainty regarding Gregors humanity, all the way up to his death. In a show of kindness, they begin leaving the door to Gregors room open in the evenings, providing Gregor with at least a little contact with them. This action suggests that they continue to regard Gregor, if only slightly, as a part of their family, and that they believe some of his former humanity persists. After Gregor frightens away the boarders, however, Grete comes to the conclusion that nothing of Gregor remains. The father appears to wrestle with Gretes assessment. He suggests if the bug could understand them maybe they could work out a mutually agreeable situation, indicating that he holds out hope that Gregors mind remains intact. But that hope is apparently minimal, as it takes Grete very little effort to convince the father and mother that no remnant of Gregor, or any humanity at all, exists in the insect. Gregors confused feelings about his family and his own humanity appear again as he listens to Grete play the violin to the boarders. Gregor has a strong reaction to the music, so strong in fact it appears to make him feel distinctly like a bug, as he wonders if his great attraction to the music derives from the fact that he is now an animal. But his feelings for Grete point to lingering feelings from his human life, as he still loves Grete and wants her to know it, leading him to imagine a tearful scene in which he locks Grete in his room and tells her he had intended to send her to the Conservatorium. The scene also suggests that Gregor still has the desire to take care of his family financially. Notably,

however, in his fantasy Gregor is still a bug while he speaks to his sister, despite the fact that he has not been able to speak properly since his transformation. This detail signals a conflict in Gregors sense of his own identity, as he is not fully insect or human in his fantasy. Gregor becomes even more isolated as the family loses interest in caring for him. Grete, once the family member to spend the most time in contact with Gregor, stops caring for him entirely, leaving the task instead to the new cleaning lady. By this point, the family has also lost any concern for Gregors comfort, which is apparent in the fact that they begin using Gregors room as a storage closet once the boarders move in. Gregor simultaneously appears to lose all interest in his family. He prefers to be by himself, and he even becomes angry when they leave his door open during an argument and disturb him with the noise they make. With the arrival of the boarders, Gregors presence becomes a liability rather than just a nuisancehe could scare the boarders away and cost the family the rent money they would earn and the family essentially begins pretending he doesnt exist. By this point, his only connection to his family is that they live in the same apartment, and he lives in almost total isolation but for the occasional intrusion by the cleaning lady. The familys sympathy for Gregor has steadily diminished over the course of the story, and Gregors encounter with the boarders finally exhausts what little compassion they have left. Although demanding, the boarders provide the family with an additional source of income. Gregor, on the other hand, is a burden. He has to be fed, he takes up a
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room that could be used for other purposes, and perhaps most importantly, his presence in the house causes the family a great deal of stress. By driving away the boarders, Gregor does, in fact, become a liability, and the family, specifically Grete, can no longer tolerate his presence. By this time, Grete also doesnt think of the bug as her brother anymore, and since Gregor cannot speak, hes not able to convince her otherwise. Grete consequently demands they get rid of Gregor, indicating that she has no sympathy remaining, and it takes her little effort to convince the father and mother, which suggests their own sympathy for Gregor was minimal. In contrast with the feeling of anxiety that dominates the story, the storys final scene has a hopeful tone, and it culminates in an image that suggests Gretes own metamorphosis into a woman is complete. As the family travels out to the countryside, the narrator describes warm sunshine filling their train car, and this image creates a marked contrast from confining image of the familys small apartment. The family also appears to have experienced a dramatic shift away from the frequent worrying over money that has preoccupied them through much of the story, as each family member realizes his or her current employment will likely lead to better opportunities. Finally, they think they can now get a smaller, cheaper, and better-located apartment, implying that it was Gregor who kept them in their current home and that, with Gregor gone, they will now be able to move onto better things. Together these details create a feeling of relief that the familys ordeal with Gregor is now over as well as a sense of hope for the future. This hope reaches its climax in the final lines of the story. Looking at

Grete, the mother and father realize shes grown into a pretty young woman and think of finding her a husband, signaling both that Grete has undergone her own metamorphosis over the course of the story and that a new chapter in her life is beginning. The story concludes with Grete stretching, an act that suggests emerging after a long period of confinement, as if from a cocoon. Important Quotations Explained 1. One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin. This quotation, one of the most famous opening lines in modern literature, introduces the subject matter of The Metamorphosis and indicates how that subject matter will be treated throughout the story. The line has a notably flat, matter-of-fact tone that doesnt remark on the oddness of the incident. On the contrary, the line treats Gregors change as though it were an ordinary event, and it never raises the issue of how or why Gregor undergoes his metamorphosis, implying that the change has occurred without any particular cause or for any particular reason. In doing so, it creates a sense that the world we see in the story is inherently purposeless and random, rather than rational and ordered, and that such events are to some degree to be expected. Thus the opening line exemplifies the idea of absurdism, which asserts that humans exist in an irrational, chaotic universe beyond our full understanding.

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Although the opening line is narrated in the third person, it also reflects Gregors own attitude toward his change. Gregor never attempts to determine why or how he transformed into a bug. Instead, he appears to accept the change as an unfortunate incident, like an accident or illness, and doesnt get particularly upset about it. In fact, after his transformation he continues to think about relatively normal subjects, like his familys financial situation and his own physical comfort. Consequently, Gregor himself embodies this absurdist point of view exemplified in the opening line. He is the victim of an evidently purposeless and random metamorphosis, which he treats as though it were not completely unusual, suggesting he at least somewhat expects the world he lives in to be an irrational and chaotic place. 2. At that time Gregors sole desire was to do his utmost to help the family to forget as soon as possible the catastrophe that had overwhelmed the business and thrown them all into a state of complete despair. The narrator recounts these details about Gregor and the family in Part 2, as Gregor overhears the father explaining the familys financial situation to Grete and the mother. The failure of the fathers business five years earlier essentially created the family dynamic that we see at the beginning of the story and explains Gregors vital role in the family. Because the business failed, the father no longer works, and he appears depressed and lethargic. One early image we have of the father comes from Gregor, who thinks of him lingering for hours over his breakfast

and dozing off during the day. 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. 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. 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. 3. Did he really want the warm room, so cozily appointed with heirlooms, transformed into a lair, where he might, of course, be able to creep, unimpeded, in any direction, though forgetting his human past swiftly and totally?

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This quotation, which occurs in Part 2 as Grete and the mother empty Gregors room of furniture, marks the climax of Gregors struggle to reconcile his human past with his new life and physical form. Gregors transformation alters his body, but it leaves his thoughts and feelings intact. But shortly after the metamorphosis, Gregors thoughts and feelings start to change according to the physical demands and urges of his new body. Gregor finds that he feels comfortable in the cramped, dark space beneath his sofa, for instance, and he enjoys crawling on the ceiling. These changes imply that his mind is adapting to his new body, and that he is becoming an insect psychologically as well. But Gregor still retains his human memories and emotions, such as his desire to take care of his family. As a result, he feels pulled in opposing directions by the insect and human sides of himself, and this inner conflict reaches its height when he is forced to choose whether he wants his room emptied of furniture. On the one hand, not having furniture would allow Gregor much more freedom to crawl over the floors and walls, which would make him physically more comfortable. On the other hand, his possessions serve as physical reminders of his human life, and keeping them would allow him to preserve what humanity he has left, making him feel more comfortable psychologically. In other words, Gregor must choose between appeasing his insect side or his human side. Gregor decides to appease his human side, and he clings to the picture of the woman in furs as a reminder of his human life.

4. He must go, cried Gregors sister, thats the only solution, Father. You must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that weve believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble. Grete says these words to the father toward the end of Part 3 after Gregor inadvertently reveals himself to the boarders, and the quotation marks a turning point in the familys view of Gregors humanity as well as in the level of sympathy they feel for him. To this point in the story, the Samsa family has struggled to determine how much of Gregors humanity remains. Physically Gregor has changed completely, and since he is unable to speak, the family has no way of knowing whether his mind remains intact. The mother, most notably, has held onto the belief that Gregor will eventually return to his old self, and she uses this reasoning to argue against moving all the furniture out of Gregors room. The father appears to be uncertain one way or another. He feels pity for the bug after attacking it, but when Grete says they must get rid of it, he mostly questions whether the bug might be able to understand them, suggesting he is unsure of his own feelings on the matter. Grete, however, has gradually lost faith that any humanity remains in the bug at all, and she indicates that she no longer thinks of it as Gregor. Moreover, the family has lost sympathy for the bug as they have become less certain that anything of Gregor remains and as the bug has become a greater burden to them. While Grete initially took care of Gregor just after his transformation, even taking his feelings into account in trying to determine what
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food he likes and moving the chair to the window for him, she has stopped caring for Gregor entirely by this point. In fact, the family begins using his room as a storage closet without any concern for Gregors comfort, suggesting they have hardly any sympathy remaining for Gregor at all. When Gregor reveals himself to the boarders, causing the boarders to say theyre leaving without paying rent, Grete finally decides they must get rid of Gregor. Without any faith that the bug is still Gregor, and with Gregor now costing the family more money, her sympathy runs out. The parents weakly object, but with only a little effort Grete appears to convince them of her point of view, indicating that they also feel little sympathy for Gregor by this point. 5. Lapsing into silence and communicating almost unconsciously with their eyes, they reflected that it was high time they found a decent husband for her. And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions that at the end of their ride the daughter was the first to get up, stretching her young body. These final lines of the work suggest that the two other notable metamorphoses we see besides Gregorsthat is, the familys change from despairing to hopeful and Gretes change from a girl into a woman are complete. The family as a whole undergoes a drastic psychological change in the story, indicated in the new dreams mentioned in the final line. Because of the failure of the fathers business, the family appears hopeless and hampered by debt at the beginning of the work. But as the family members must find employment

after Gregors transformation, they begin to save money and create opportunities for themselves. They appear not to realize that their lives are improving until the end of the story, when they talk on the train as they head out to the countryside. At that point, each recognizes that he or she has a job that will likely lead to better opportunities in the future, and they realize that with Gregor dead, they can move into a smaller apartment, which will save them money. In the final lines of the story, they become a genuinely hopeful and happy family. The other notable transformation referred to in the quotation is Gretes change from a girl into a woman. Grete begins the work basically still a child with no responsibilities. But as she begins caring for Gregor and working to help earn money for the family, she matures psychologically. She becomes more outspoken within her family, for instance, and she has the responsibilities of an adult. The last lines of the story, in which her parents realize that shes grown into a pretty young woman and think of finding her a husband, signal that she is now physically mature as well. In other words, she has become an adult, and she embodies the hopes of her parents as she begins this new stage of her life. The last image of the story is Grete stretching, suggesting that she is emerging after a period of confinement, much like an insect emerging from a cocoon after its metamorphosis into a mature adult.

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