1

The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka

Part I: 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 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.

2

Part I: 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 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.

3

Part II: 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 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

4 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.

Part II: 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 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

5 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.

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.

6 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.

Part III: 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

7 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

earnand 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 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.