The Project Gutenberg eBook of Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka (2024)

I

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himselftransformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back,and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domedand divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to coverit and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thincompared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.

“What’s happened to me?” he thought. It wasn’t a dream.His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefullybetween its four familiar walls. A collection of textile samples lay spread outon the table—Samsa was a travelling salesman—and above it therehung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine andhoused in a nice, gilded frame. It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat andfur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of herlower arm towards the viewer.

Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of raincould be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad. “Howabout if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense”, hethought, but that was something he was unable to do because he was used tosleeping on his right, and in his present state couldn’t get into thatposition. However hard he threw himself onto his right, he always rolled backto where he was. He must have tried it a hundred times, shut his eyes so thathe wouldn’t have to look at the floundering legs, and only stopped whenhe began to feel a mild, dull pain there that he had never felt before.

“Oh, God”, he thought, “what a strenuous career it is thatI’ve chosen! Travelling day in and day out. Doing business like thistakes much more effort than doing your own business at home, and on top of thatthere’s the curse of travelling, worries about making train connections,bad and irregular food, contact with different people all the time so that youcan never get to know anyone or become friendly with them. It can all go toHell!” He felt a slight itch up on his belly; pushed himself slowly up onhis back towards the headboard so that he could lift his head better; foundwhere the itch was, and saw that it was covered with lots of little white spotswhich he didn’t know what to make of; and when he tried to feel the placewith one of his legs he drew it quickly back because as soon as he touched ithe was overcome by a cold shudder.

He slid back into his former position. “Getting up early all thetime”, he thought, “it makes you stupid. You’ve got to getenough sleep. Other travelling salesmen live a life of luxury. For instance,whenever I go back to the guest house during the morning to copy out thecontract, these gentlemen are always still sitting there eating theirbreakfasts. I ought to just try that with my boss; I’d get kicked out onthe spot. But who knows, maybe that would be the best thing for me. If Ididn’t have my parents to think about I’d have given in my notice along time ago, I’d have gone up to the boss and told him just what Ithink, tell him everything I would, let him know just what I feel. He’dfall right off his desk! And it’s a funny sort of business to be sittingup there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there,especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is hard ofhearing. Well, there’s still some hope; once I’ve got the moneytogether to pay off my parents’ debt to him—another five or sixyears I suppose—that’s definitely what I’ll do. That’swhen I’ll make the big change. First of all though, I’ve got to getup, my train leaves at five.”

And he looked over at the alarm clock, ticking on the chest of drawers.“God in Heaven!” he thought. It was half past six and the handswere quietly moving forwards, it was even later than half past, more likequarter to seven. Had the alarm clock not rung? He could see from the bed thatit had been set for four o’clock as it should have been; it certainlymust have rung. Yes, but was it possible to quietly sleep through thatfurniture-rattling noise? True, he had not slept peacefully, but probably allthe more deeply because of that. What should he do now? The next train went atseven; if he were to catch that he would have to rush like mad and thecollection of samples was still not packed, and he did not at all feelparticularly fresh and lively. And even if he did catch the train he would notavoid his boss’s anger as the office assistant would have been there tosee the five o’clock train go, he would have put in his report aboutGregor’s not being there a long time ago. The office assistant was theboss’s man, spineless, and with no understanding. What about if hereported sick? But that would be extremely strained and suspicious as infive years of service Gregor had never once yet been ill. His boss wouldcertainly come round with the doctor from the medical insurance company, accusehis parents of having a lazy son, and accept the doctor’s recommendationnot to make any claim as the doctor believed that no-one was ever ill but thatmany were workshy. And what’s more, would he have been entirely wrong inthis case? Gregor did in fact, apart from excessive sleepiness after sleepingfor so long, feel completely well and even felt much hungrier than usual.

He was still hurriedly thinking all this through, unable to decide to get outof the bed, when the clock struck quarter to seven. There was a cautious knockat the door near his head. “Gregor”, somebody called—it washis mother—“it’s quarter to seven. Didn’t you want togo somewhere?” That gentle voice! Gregor was shocked when he heard hisown voice answering, it could hardly be recognised as the voice he had hadbefore. As if from deep inside him, there was a painful and uncontrollablesqueaking mixed in with it, the words could be made out at first but then therewas a sort of echo which made them unclear, leaving the hearer unsure whetherhe had heard properly or not. Gregor had wanted to give a full answer andexplain everything, but in the circ*mstances contented himself with saying:“Yes, mother, yes, thank-you, I’m getting up now.” The changein Gregor’s voice probably could not be noticed outside through thewooden door, as his mother was satisfied with this explanation and shuffledaway. But this short conversation made the other members of the family awarethat Gregor, against their expectations was still at home, and soon his fathercame knocking at one of the side doors, gently, but with his fist.“Gregor, Gregor”, he called, “what’s wrong?” Andafter a short while he called again with a warning deepness in his voice:“Gregor! Gregor!” At the other side door his sister cameplaintively: “Gregor? Aren’t you well? Do you need anything?”Gregor answered to both sides: “I’m ready, now”, making aneffort to remove all the strangeness from his voice by enunciating verycarefully and putting long pauses between each, individual word. His fatherwent back to his breakfast, but his sister whispered: “Gregor, open thedoor, I beg of you.” Gregor, however, had no thought of opening the door,and instead congratulated himself for his cautious habit, acquired from histravelling, of locking all doors at night even when he was at home.

The first thing he wanted to do was to get up in peace without being disturbed,to get dressed, and most of all to have his breakfast. Only then would heconsider what to do next, as he was well aware that he would not bring histhoughts to any sensible conclusions by lying in bed. He remembered that he hadoften felt a slight pain in bed, perhaps caused by lying awkwardly, but thathad always turned out to be pure imagination and he wondered how his imaginingswould slowly resolve themselves today. He did not have the slightest doubt thatthe change in his voice was nothing more than the first sign of a serious cold,which was an occupational hazard for travelling salesmen.

It was a simple matter to throw off the covers; he only had to blow himself upa little and they fell off by themselves. But it became difficult after that,especially as he was so exceptionally broad. He would have used his arms andhis hands to push himself up; but instead of them he only had all those littlelegs continuously moving in different directions, and which he was moreoverunable to control. If he wanted to bend one of them, then that was the firstone that would stretch itself out; and if he finally managed to do what hewanted with that leg, all the others seemed to be set free and would move aboutpainfully. “This is something that can’t be done in bed”,Gregor said to himself, “so don’t keep trying to do it”.

The first thing he wanted to do was get the lower part of his body out of thebed, but he had never seen this lower part, and could not imagine what itlooked like; it turned out to be too hard to move; it went so slowly; andfinally, almost in a frenzy, when he carelessly shoved himself forwards withall the force he could gather, he chose the wrong direction, hit hard againstthe lower bedpost, and learned from the burning pain he felt that the lowerpart of his body might well, at present, be the most sensitive.

So then he tried to get the top part of his body out of the bed first,carefully turning his head to the side. This he managed quite easily, anddespite its breadth and its weight, the bulk of his body eventually followedslowly in the direction of the head. But when he had at last got his head outof the bed and into the fresh air it occurred to him that if he let himselffall it would be a miracle if his head were not injured, so he became afraid tocarry on pushing himself forward the same way. And he could not knock himselfout now at any price; better to stay in bed than lose consciousness.

It took just as much effort to get back to where he had been earlier, but whenhe lay there sighing, and was once more watching his legs as they struggledagainst each other even harder than before, if that was possible, he couldthink of no way of bringing peace and order to this chaos. He told himself oncemore that it was not possible for him to stay in bed and that the most sensiblething to do would be to get free of it in whatever way he could at whateversacrifice. At the same time, though, he did not forget to remind himself thatcalm consideration was much better than rushing to desperate conclusions. Attimes like this he would direct his eyes to the window and look out as clearlyas he could, but unfortunately, even the other side of the narrow street wasenveloped in morning fog and the view had little confidence or cheer to offerhim. “Seven o’clock, already”, he said to himself when theclock struck again, “seven o’clock, and there’s still a foglike this.” And he lay there quietly a while longer, breathing lightly asif he perhaps expected the total stillness to bring things back to their realand natural state.

But then he said to himself: “Before it strikes quarter past sevenI’ll definitely have to have got properly out of bed. And by thensomebody will have come round from work to ask what’s happened to me aswell, as they open up at work before seven o’clock.” And so he sethimself to the task of swinging the entire length of his body out of the bedall at the same time. If he succeeded in falling out of bed in this way andkept his head raised as he did so he could probably avoid injuring it. His backseemed to be quite hard, and probably nothing would happen to it falling ontothe carpet. His main concern was for the loud noise he was bound to make, andwhich even through all the doors would probably raise concern if not alarm. Butit was something that had to be risked.

When Gregor was already sticking half way out of the bed—the new methodwas more of a game than an effort, all he had to do was rock back andforth—it occurred to him how simple everything would be if somebody cameto help him. Two strong people—he had his father and the maid inmind—would have been more than enough; they would only have to push theirarms under the dome of his back, peel him away from the bed, bend down with theload and then be patient and careful as he swang over onto the floor, where,hopefully, the little legs would find a use. Should he really call for helpthough, even apart from the fact that all the doors were locked? Despite allthe difficulty he was in, he could not suppress a smile at this thought.

After a while he had already moved so far across that it would have been hardfor him to keep his balance if he rocked too hard. The time was now ten pastseven and he would have to make a final decision very soon. Then there was aring at the door of the flat. “That’ll be someone from work”,he said to himself, and froze very still, although his little legs only becameall the more lively as they danced around. For a moment everything remainedquiet. “They’re not opening the door”, Gregor said tohimself, caught in some nonsensical hope. But then of course, the maid’sfirm steps went to the door as ever and opened it. Gregor only needed to hearthe visitor’s first words of greeting and he knew who it was—thechief clerk himself. Why did Gregor have to be the only one condemned to workfor a company where they immediately became highly suspicious at the slightestshortcoming? Were all employees, every one of them, louts, was there not one ofthem who was faithful and devoted who would go so mad with pangs of consciencethat he couldn’t get out of bed if he didn’t spend at least acouple of hours in the morning on company business? Was it really not enough tolet one of the trainees make enquiries—assuming enquiries were evennecessary—did the chief clerk have to come himself, and did they have toshow the whole, innocent family that this was so suspicious that only the chiefclerk could be trusted to have the wisdom to investigate it? And more becausethese thoughts had made him upset than through any proper decision, he swanghimself with all his force out of the bed. There was a loud thump, but itwasn’t really a loud noise. His fall was softened a little by the carpet,and Gregor’s back was also more elastic than he had thought, which madethe sound muffled and not too noticeable. He had not held his head carefullyenough, though, and hit it as he fell; annoyed and in pain, he turned it andrubbed it against the carpet.

“Something’s fallen down in there”, said the chief clerk inthe room on the left. Gregor tried to imagine whether something of the sortthat had happened to him today could ever happen to the chief clerk too; youhad to concede that it was possible. But as if in gruff reply to this question,the chief clerk’s firm footsteps in his highly polished boots could nowbe heard in the adjoining room. From the room on his right, Gregor’ssister whispered to him to let him know: “Gregor, the chief clerk ishere.” “Yes, I know”, said Gregor to himself; but withoutdaring to raise his voice loud enough for his sister to hear him.

“Gregor”, said his father now from the room to his left, “thechief clerk has come round and wants to know why you didn’t leave on theearly train. We don’t know what to say to him. And anyway, he wants tospeak to you personally. So please open up this door. I’m surehe’ll be good enough to forgive the untidiness of your room.” Thenthe chief clerk called “Good morning, Mr. Samsa”. “Heisn’t well”, said his mother to the chief clerk, while his fathercontinued to speak through the door. “He isn’t well, please believeme. Why else would Gregor have missed a train! The lad only ever thinks aboutthe business. It nearly makes me cross the way he never goes out in theevenings; he’s been in town for a week now but stayed home every evening.He sits with us in the kitchen and just reads the paper or studies traintimetables. His idea of relaxation is working with his fretsaw. He’s madea little frame, for instance, it only took him two or three evenings,you’ll be amazed how nice it is; it’s hanging up in his room;you’ll see it as soon as Gregor opens the door. Anyway, I’m gladyou’re here; we wouldn’t have been able to get Gregor to open thedoor by ourselves; he’s so stubborn; and I’m sure he isn’twell, he said this morning that he is, but he isn’t.”“I’ll be there in a moment”, said Gregor slowly andthoughtfully, but without moving so that he would not miss any word of theconversation. “Well I can’t think of any other way of explainingit, Mrs. Samsa”, said the chief clerk, “I hope it’s nothingserious. But on the other hand, I must say that if we people in commerce everbecome slightly unwell then, fortunately or unfortunately as you like, wesimply have to overcome it because of business considerations.”“Can the chief clerk come in to see you now then?”, asked hisfather impatiently, knocking at the door again. “No”, said Gregor.In the room on his right there followed a painful silence; in the room on hisleft his sister began to cry.

So why did his sister not go and join the others? She had probably only justgot up and had not even begun to get dressed. And why was she crying? Was itbecause he had not got up, and had not let the chief clerk in, because he wasin danger of losing his job and if that happened his boss would once morepursue their parents with the same demands as before? There was no need toworry about things like that yet. Gregor was still there and had not theslightest intention of abandoning his family. For the time being he just laythere on the carpet, and no-one who knew the condition he was in wouldseriously have expected him to let the chief clerk in. It was only a minordiscourtesy, and a suitable excuse could easily be found for it later on, itwas not something for which Gregor could be sacked on the spot. And it seemedto Gregor much more sensible to leave him now in peace instead of disturbinghim with talking at him and crying. But the others didn’t know what washappening, they were worried, that would excuse their behaviour.

The chief clerk now raised his voice, “Mr. Samsa”, he called tohim, “what is wrong? You barricade yourself in your room, give us no morethan yes or no for an answer, you are causing serious and unnecessary concernto your parents and you fail—and I mention this just by the way—youfail to carry out your business duties in a way that is quite unheard of.I’m speaking here on behalf of your parents and of your employer, andreally must request a clear and immediate explanation. I am astonished, quiteastonished. I thought I knew you as a calm and sensible person, and now yousuddenly seem to be showing off with peculiar whims. This morning, youremployer did suggest a possible reason for your failure to appear, it’strue—it had to do with the money that was recently entrusted toyou—but I came near to giving him my word of honour that that could notbe the right explanation. But now that I see your incomprehensible stubbornnessI no longer feel any wish whatsoever to intercede on your behalf. And nor isyour position all that secure. I had originally intended to say all this to youin private, but since you cause me to waste my time here for no good reason Idon’t see why your parents should not also learn of it. Your turnover hasbeen very unsatisfactory of late; I grant you that it’s not the time ofyear to do especially good business, we recognise that; but there simply is notime of year to do no business at all, Mr. Samsa, we cannot allow there tobe.”

“But Sir”, called Gregor, beside himself and forgetting all else inthe excitement, “I’ll open up immediately, just a moment. I’mslightly unwell, an attack of dizziness, I haven’t been able to get up.I’m still in bed now. I’m quite fresh again now, though. I’mjust getting out of bed. Just a moment. Be patient! It’s not quite aseasy as I’d thought. I’m quite alright now, though. It’sshocking, what can suddenly happen to a person! I was quite alright last night,my parents know about it, perhaps better than me, I had a small symptom of itlast night already. They must have noticed it. I don’t know why Ididn’t let you know at work! But you always think you can get over anillness without staying at home. Please, don’t make my parents suffer!There’s no basis for any of the accusations you’re making;nobody’s ever said a word to me about any of these things. Maybe youhaven’t read the latest contracts I sent in. I’ll set off with theeight o’clock train, as well, these few hours of rest have given mestrength. You don’t need to wait, sir; I’ll be in the office soonafter you, and please be so good as to tell that to the boss and recommend meto him!”

And while Gregor gushed out these words, hardly knowing what he was saying, hemade his way over to the chest of drawers—this was easily done, probablybecause of the practise he had already had in bed—where he now tried toget himself upright. He really did want to open the door, really did want tolet them see him and to speak with the chief clerk; the others were being soinsistent, and he was curious to learn what they would say when they caughtsight of him. If they were shocked then it would no longer be Gregor’sresponsibility and he could rest. If, however, they took everything calmly hewould still have no reason to be upset, and if he hurried he really could be atthe station for eight o’clock. The first few times he tried to climb upon the smooth chest of drawers he just slid down again, but he finally gavehimself one last swing and stood there upright; the lower part of his body wasin serious pain but he no longer gave any attention to it. Now he let himselffall against the back of a nearby chair and held tightly to the edges of itwith his little legs. By now he had also calmed down, and kept quiet so that hecould listen to what the chief clerk was saying.

“Did you understand a word of all that?” the chief clerk asked hisparents, “surely he’s not trying to make fools of us”.“Oh, God!” called his mother, who was already in tears, “hecould be seriously ill and we’re making him suffer. Grete! Grete!”she then cried. “Mother?” his sister called from the other side.They communicated across Gregor’s room. “You’ll have to gofor the doctor straight away. Gregor is ill. Quick, get the doctor. Did youhear the way Gregor spoke just now?” “That was the voice of ananimal”, said the chief clerk, with a calmness that was in contrast withhis mother’s screams. “Anna! Anna!” his father called intothe kitchen through the entrance hall, clapping his hands, “get alocksmith here, now!” And the two girls, their skirts swishing,immediately ran out through the hall, wrenching open the front door of the flatas they went. How had his sister managed to get dressed so quickly? There wasno sound of the door banging shut again; they must have left it open; peopleoften do in homes where something awful has happened.

Gregor, in contrast, had become much calmer. So they couldn’t understandhis words any more, although they seemed clear enough to him, clearer thanbefore—perhaps his ears had become used to the sound. They had realised,though, that there was something wrong with him, and were ready to help. Thefirst response to his situation had been confident and wise, and that made himfeel better. He felt that he had been drawn back in among people, and from thedoctor and the locksmith he expected great and surprisingachievements—although he did not really distinguish one from the other.Whatever was said next would be crucial, so, in order to make his voice asclear as possible, he coughed a little, but taking care to do this not tooloudly as even this might well sound different from the way that a human coughsand he was no longer sure he could judge this for himself. Meanwhile, it hadbecome very quiet in the next room. Perhaps his parents were sat at the tablewhispering with the chief clerk, or perhaps they were all pressed against thedoor and listening.

Gregor slowly pushed his way over to the door with the chair. Once there he letgo of it and threw himself onto the door, holding himself upright against itusing the adhesive on the tips of his legs. He rested there a little while torecover from the effort involved and then set himself to the task of turningthe key in the lock with his mouth. He seemed, unfortunately, to have no properteeth—how was he, then, to grasp the key?—but the lack of teethwas, of course, made up for with a very strong jaw; using the jaw, he reallywas able to start the key turning, ignoring the fact that he must have beencausing some kind of damage as a brown fluid came from his mouth, flowed overthe key and dripped onto the floor. “Listen”, said the chief clerkin the next room, “he’s turning the key.” Gregor was greatlyencouraged by this; but they all should have been calling to him, his fatherand his mother too: “Well done, Gregor”, they should have cried,“keep at it, keep hold of the lock!” And with the idea that theywere all excitedly following his efforts, he bit on the key with all hisstrength, paying no attention to the pain he was causing himself. As the keyturned round he turned around the lock with it, only holding himself uprightwith his mouth, and hung onto the key or pushed it down again with the wholeweight of his body as needed. The clear sound of the lock as it snapped backwas Gregor’s sign that he could break his concentration, and as heregained his breath he said to himself: “So, I didn’t need thelocksmith after all”. Then he lay his head on the handle of the door toopen it completely.

Because he had to open the door in this way, it was already wide open before hecould be seen. He had first to slowly turn himself around one of the doubledoors, and he had to do it very carefully if he did not want to fall flat onhis back before entering the room. He was still occupied with this difficultmovement, unable to pay attention to anything else, when he heard the chiefclerk exclaim a loud “Oh!”, which sounded like the soughing of thewind. Now he also saw him—he was the nearest to the door—his handpressed against his open mouth and slowly retreating as if driven by a steadyand invisible force. Gregor’s mother, her hair still dishevelled from beddespite the chief clerk’s being there, looked at his father. Then sheunfolded her arms, took two steps forward towards Gregor and sank down onto thefloor into her skirts that spread themselves out around her as her headdisappeared down onto her breast. His father looked hostile, and clenched hisfists as if wanting to knock Gregor back into his room. Then he lookeduncertainly round the living room, covered his eyes with his hands and wept sothat his powerful chest shook.

So Gregor did not go into the room, but leant against the inside of the otherdoor which was still held bolted in place. In this way only half of his bodycould be seen, along with his head above it which he leant over to one side ashe peered out at the others. Meanwhile the day had become much lighter; part ofthe endless, grey-black building on the other side of the street—whichwas a hospital—could be seen quite clearly with the austere and regularline of windows piercing its façade; the rain was still falling, now throwingdown large, individual droplets which hit the ground one at a time. The washingup from breakfast lay on the table; there was so much of it because, forGregor’s father, breakfast was the most important meal of the day and hewould stretch it out for several hours as he sat reading a number of differentnewspapers. On the wall exactly opposite there was photograph of Gregor when hewas a lieutenant in the army, his sword in his hand and a carefree smile on hisface as he called forth respect for his uniform and bearing. The door to theentrance hall was open and as the front door of the flat was also open he couldsee onto the landing and the stairs where they began their way down below.

“Now, then”, said Gregor, well aware that he was the only one tohave kept calm, “I’ll get dressed straight away now, pack up mysamples and set off. Will you please just let me leave? You can see”, hesaid to the chief clerk, “that I’m not stubborn and I like to do myjob; being a commercial traveller is arduous but without travelling Icouldn’t earn my living. So where are you going, in to the office? Yes?Will you report everything accurately, then? It’s quite possible forsomeone to be temporarily unable to work, but that’s just the right timeto remember what’s been achieved in the past and consider that later on,once the difficulty has been removed, he will certainly work with all the morediligence and concentration. You’re well aware that I’m seriouslyin debt to our employer as well as having to look after my parents and mysister, so that I’m trapped in a difficult situation, but I will work myway out of it again. Please don’t make things any harder for me than theyare already, and don’t take sides against me at the office. I know thatnobody likes the travellers. They think we earn an enormous wage as well ashaving a soft time of it. That’s just prejudice but they have noparticular reason to think better of it. But you, sir, you have a betteroverview than the rest of the staff, in fact, if I can say this in confidence,a better overview than the boss himself—it’s very easy for abusinessman like him to make mistakes about his employees and judge them moreharshly than he should. And you’re also well aware that we travellersspend almost the whole year away from the office, so that we can very easilyfall victim to gossip and chance and groundless complaints, and it’salmost impossible to defend yourself from that sort of thing, we don’tusually even hear about them, or if at all it’s when we arrive back homeexhausted from a trip, and that’s when we feel the harmful effects ofwhat’s been going on without even knowing what caused them. Please,don’t go away, at least first say something to show that you grant thatI’m at least partly right!”

But the chief clerk had turned away as soon as Gregor had started to speak,and, with protruding lips, only stared back at him over his trembling shouldersas he left. He did not keep still for a moment while Gregor was speaking, butmoved steadily towards the door without taking his eyes off him. He moved verygradually, as if there had been some secret prohibition on leaving the room. Itwas only when he had reached the entrance hall that he made a sudden movement,drew his foot from the living room, and rushed forward in a panic. In the hall,he stretched his right hand far out towards the stairway as if out there, therewere some supernatural force waiting to save him.

Gregor realised that it was out of the question to let the chief clerk go awayin this mood if his position in the firm was not to be put into extreme danger.That was something his parents did not understand very well; over the years,they had become convinced that this job would provide for Gregor for his entirelife, and besides, they had so much to worry about at present that they hadlost sight of any thought for the future. Gregor, though, did think about thefuture. The chief clerk had to be held back, calmed down, convinced and finallywon over; the future of Gregor and his family depended on it! If only hissister were here! She was clever; she was already in tears while Gregor wasstill lying peacefully on his back. And the chief clerk was a lover of women,surely she could persuade him; she would close the front door in the entrancehall and talk him out of his shocked state. But his sister was not there,Gregor would have to do the job himself. And without considering that he stillwas not familiar with how well he could move about in his present state, orthat his speech still might not—or probably would not—beunderstood, he let go of the door; pushed himself through the opening; tried toreach the chief clerk on the landing who, ridiculously, was holding on to thebanister with both hands; but Gregor fell immediately over and, with a littlescream as he sought something to hold onto, landed on his numerous little legs.Hardly had that happened than, for the first time that day, he began to feelalright with his body; the little legs had the solid ground under them; to hispleasure, they did exactly as he told them; they were even making the effort tocarry him where he wanted to go; and he was soon believing that all his sorrowswould soon be finally at an end. He held back the urge to move but swayed fromside to side as he crouched there on the floor. His mother was not far away infront of him and seemed, at first, quite engrossed in herself, but then shesuddenly jumped up with her arms outstretched and her fingers spread shouting:“Help, for pity’s sake, Help!” The way she held her headsuggested she wanted to see Gregor better, but the unthinking way she washurrying backwards showed that she did not; she had forgotten that the tablewas behind her with all the breakfast things on it; when she reached the tableshe sat quickly down on it without knowing what she was doing; without evenseeming to notice that the coffee pot had been knocked over and a gush ofcoffee was pouring down onto the carpet.

“Mother, mother”, said Gregor gently, looking up at her. He hadcompletely forgotten the chief clerk for the moment, but could not help himselfsnapping in the air with his jaws at the sight of the flow of coffee. That sethis mother screaming anew, she fled from the table and into the arms of hisfather as he rushed towards her. Gregor, though, had no time to spare for hisparents now; the chief clerk had already reached the stairs; with his chin onthe banister, he looked back for the last time. Gregor made a run for him; hewanted to be sure of reaching him; the chief clerk must have expectedsomething, as he leapt down several steps at once and disappeared; his shoutsresounding all around the staircase. The flight of the chief clerk seemed,unfortunately, to put Gregor’s father into a panic as well. Until then hehad been relatively self controlled, but now, instead of running after thechief clerk himself, or at least not impeding Gregor as he ran after him,Gregor’s father seized the chief clerk’s stick in his right hand(the chief clerk had left it behind on a chair, along with his hat andovercoat), picked up a large newspaper from the table with his left, and usedthem to drive Gregor back into his room, stamping his foot at him as he went.Gregor’s appeals to his father were of no help, his appeals were simplynot understood, however much he humbly turned his head his father merelystamped his foot all the harder. Across the room, despite the chilly weather,Gregor’s mother had pulled open a window, leant far out of it and pressedher hands to her face. A strong draught of air flew in from the street towardsthe stairway, the curtains flew up, the newspapers on the table fluttered andsome of them were blown onto the floor. Nothing would stop Gregor’sfather as he drove him back, making hissing noises at him like a wild man.Gregor had never had any practice in moving backwards and was only able to govery slowly. If Gregor had only been allowed to turn round he would have beenback in his room straight away, but he was afraid that if he took the time todo that his father would become impatient, and there was the threat of a lethalblow to his back or head from the stick in his father’s hand any moment.Eventually, though, Gregor realised that he had no choice as he saw, to hisdisgust, that he was quite incapable of going backwards in a straight line; sohe began, as quickly as possible and with frequent anxious glances at hisfather, to turn himself round. It went very slowly, but perhaps his father wasable to see his good intentions as he did nothing to hinder him, in fact nowand then he used the tip of his stick to give directions from a distance as towhich way to turn. If only his father would stop that unbearable hissing! Itwas making Gregor quite confused. When he had nearly finished turning round,still listening to that hissing, he made a mistake and turned himself back alittle the way he had just come. He was pleased when he finally had his head infront of the doorway, but then saw that it was too narrow, and his body was toobroad to get through it without further difficulty. In his present mood, itobviously did not occur to his father to open the other of the double doors sothat Gregor would have enough space to get through. He was merely fixed on theidea that Gregor should be got back into his room as quickly as possible. Norwould he ever have allowed Gregor the time to get himself upright aspreparation for getting through the doorway. What he did, making more noisethan ever, was to drive Gregor forwards all the harder as if there had beennothing in the way; it sounded to Gregor as if there was now more than onefather behind him; it was not a pleasant experience, and Gregor pushed himselfinto the doorway without regard for what might happen. One side of his bodylifted itself, he lay at an angle in the doorway, one flank scraped on thewhite door and was painfully injured, leaving vile brown flecks on it, soon hewas stuck fast and would not have been able to move at all by himself, thelittle legs along one side hung quivering in the air while those on the otherside were pressed painfully against the ground. Then his father gave him ahefty shove from behind which released him from where he was held and sent himflying, and heavily bleeding, deep into his room. The door was slammed shutwith the stick, then, finally, all was quiet.

II

It was not until it was getting dark that evening that Gregor awoke from hisdeep and coma-like sleep. He would have woken soon afterwards anyway even if hehadn’t been disturbed, as he had had enough sleep and felt fully rested.But he had the impression that some hurried steps and the sound of the doorleading into the front room being carefully shut had woken him. The light fromthe electric street lamps shone palely here and there onto the ceiling and topsof the furniture, but down below, where Gregor was, it was dark. He pushedhimself over to the door, feeling his way clumsily with his antennae—ofwhich he was now beginning to learn the value—in order to see what hadbeen happening there. The whole of his left side seemed like one, painfullystretched scar, and he limped badly on his two rows of legs. One of the legshad been badly injured in the events of that morning—it was nearly amiracle that only one of them had been—and dragged along lifelessly.

It was only when he had reached the door that he realised what it actually wasthat had drawn him over to it; it was the smell of something to eat. By thedoor there was a dish filled with sweetened milk with little pieces of whitebread floating in it. He was so pleased he almost laughed, as he was evenhungrier than he had been that morning, and immediately dipped his head intothe milk, nearly covering his eyes with it. But he soon drew his head backagain in disappointment; not only did the pain in his tender left side make itdifficult to eat the food—he was only able to eat if his whole bodyworked together as a snuffling whole—but the milk did not taste at allnice. Milk like this was normally his favourite drink, and his sister hadcertainly left it there for him because of that, but he turned, almost againsthis own will, away from the dish and crawled back into the centre of the room.

Through the crack in the door, Gregor could see that the gas had been lit inthe living room. His father at this time would normally be sat with his eveningpaper, reading it out in a loud voice to Gregor’s mother, and sometimesto his sister, but there was now not a sound to be heard. Gregor’s sisterwould often write and tell him about this reading, but maybe his father hadlost the habit in recent times. It was so quiet all around too, even thoughthere must have been somebody in the flat. “What a quiet life it is thefamily lead”, said Gregor to himself, and, gazing into the darkness, felta great pride that he was able to provide a life like that in such a nice homefor his sister and parents. But what now, if all this peace and wealth andcomfort should come to a horrible and frightening end? That was something thatGregor did not want to think about too much, so he started to move about,crawling up and down the room.

Once during that long evening, the door on one side of the room was opened veryslightly and hurriedly closed again; later on the door on the other side didthe same; it seemed that someone needed to enter the room but thought better ofit. Gregor went and waited immediately by the door, resolved either to bringthe timorous visitor into the room in some way or at least to find out who itwas; but the door was opened no more that night and Gregor waited in vain. Theprevious morning while the doors were locked everyone had wanted to get inthere to him, but now, now that he had opened up one of the doors and the otherhad clearly been unlocked some time during the day, no-one came, and the keyswere in the other sides.

It was not until late at night that the gaslight in the living room was putout, and now it was easy to see that his parents and sister had stayed awakeall that time, as they all could be distinctly heard as they went away togetheron tip-toe. It was clear that no-one would come into Gregor’s room anymore until morning; that gave him plenty of time to think undisturbed about howhe would have to re-arrange his life. For some reason, the tall, empty roomwhere he was forced to remain made him feel uneasy as he lay there flat on thefloor, even though he had been living in it for five years. Hardly aware ofwhat he was doing other than a slight feeling of shame, he hurried under thecouch. It pressed down on his back a little, and he was no longer able to lifthis head, but he nonetheless felt immediately at ease and his only regret wasthat his body was too broad to get it all underneath.

He spent the whole night there. Some of the time he passed in a light sleep,although he frequently woke from it in alarm because of his hunger, and some ofthe time was spent in worries and vague hopes which, however, always led to thesame conclusion: for the time being he must remain calm, he must show patienceand the greatest consideration so that his family could bear the unpleasantnessthat he, in his present condition, was forced to impose on them.

Gregor soon had the opportunity to test the strength of his decisions, as earlythe next morning, almost before the night had ended, his sister, nearly fullydressed, opened the door from the front room and looked anxiously in. She didnot see him straight away, but when she did notice him under the couch—hehad to be somewhere, for God’s sake, he couldn’t have flownaway—she was so shocked that she lost control of herself and slammed thedoor shut again from outside. But she seemed to regret her behaviour, as sheopened the door again straight away and came in on tip-toe as if entering theroom of someone seriously ill or even of a stranger. Gregor had pushed his headforward, right to the edge of the couch, and watched her. Would she notice thathe had left the milk as it was, realise that it was not from any lack of hungerand bring him in some other food that was more suitable? If she didn’t doit herself he would rather go hungry than draw her attention to it, although hedid feel a terrible urge to rush forward from under the couch, throw himself athis sister’s feet and beg her for something good to eat. However, hissister noticed the full dish immediately and looked at it and the few drops ofmilk splashed around it with some surprise. She immediately picked itup—using a rag, not her bare hands—and carried it out. Gregor wasextremely curious as to what she would bring in its place, imagining thewildest possibilities, but he never could have guessed what his sister, in hergoodness, actually did bring. In order to test his taste, she brought him awhole selection of things, all spread out on an old newspaper. There were old,half-rotten vegetables; bones from the evening meal, covered in white saucethat had gone hard; a few raisins and almonds; some cheese that Gregor haddeclared inedible two days before; a dry roll and some bread spread with butterand salt. As well as all that she had poured some water into the dish, whichhad probably been permanently set aside for Gregor’s use, and placed itbeside them. Then, out of consideration for Gregor’s feelings, as sheknew that he would not eat in front of her, she hurried out again and eventurned the key in the lock so that Gregor would know he could make things ascomfortable for himself as he liked. Gregor’s little legs whirred, atlast he could eat. What’s more, his injuries must already have completelyhealed as he found no difficulty in moving. This amazed him, as more than amonth earlier he had cut his finger slightly with a knife, he thought of howhis finger had still hurt the day before yesterday. “Am I less sensitivethan I used to be, then?”, he thought, and was already sucking greedilyat the cheese which had immediately, almost compellingly, attracted him muchmore than the other foods on the newspaper. Quickly one after another, his eyeswatering with pleasure, he consumed the cheese, the vegetables and the sauce;the fresh foods, on the other hand, he didn’t like at all, and evendragged the things he did want to eat a little way away from them because hecouldn’t stand the smell. Long after he had finished eating and laylethargic in the same place, his sister slowly turned the key in the lock as asign to him that he should withdraw. He was immediately startled, although hehad been half asleep, and he hurried back under the couch. But he needed greatself-control to stay there even for the short time that his sister was in theroom, as eating so much food had rounded out his body a little and he couldhardly breathe in that narrow space. Half suffocating, he watched with bulgingeyes as his sister unselfconsciously took a broom and swept up the left-overs,mixing them in with the food he had not even touched at all as if it could notbe used any more. She quickly dropped it all into a bin, closed it with itswooden lid, and carried everything out. She had hardly turned her back beforeGregor came out again from under the couch and stretched himself.

This was how Gregor received his food each day now, once in the morning whilehis parents and the maid were still asleep, and the second time after everyonehad eaten their meal at midday as his parents would sleep for a little whilethen as well, and Gregor’s sister would send the maid away on someerrand. Gregor’s father and mother certainly did not want him to starveeither, but perhaps it would have been more than they could stand to have anymore experience of his feeding than being told about it, and perhaps his sisterwanted to spare them what distress she could as they were indeed sufferingenough.

It was impossible for Gregor to find out what they had told the doctor and thelocksmith that first morning to get them out of the flat. As nobody couldunderstand him, nobody, not even his sister, thought that he could understandthem, so he had to be content to hear his sister’s sighs and appeals tothe saints as she moved about his room. It was only later, when she had becomea little more used to everything—there was, of course, no question of herever becoming fully used to the situation—that Gregor would sometimescatch a friendly comment, or at least a comment that could be construed asfriendly. “He’s enjoyed his dinner today”, she might say whenhe had diligently cleared away all the food left for him, or if he left most ofit, which slowly became more and more frequent, she would often say, sadly,“now everything’s just been left there again”.

Although Gregor wasn’t able to hear any news directly he did listen tomuch of what was said in the next rooms, and whenever he heard anyone speakinghe would scurry straight to the appropriate door and press his whole bodyagainst it. There was seldom any conversation, especially at first, that wasnot about him in some way, even if only in secret. For two whole days, all thetalk at every mealtime was about what they should do now; but even betweenmeals they spoke about the same subject as there were always at least twomembers of the family at home—nobody wanted to be at home by themselvesand it was out of the question to leave the flat entirely empty. And on thevery first day the maid had fallen to her knees and begged Gregor’smother to let her go without delay. It was not very clear how much she knew ofwhat had happened but she left within a quarter of an hour, tearfully thankingGregor’s mother for her dismissal as if she had done her an enormousservice. She even swore emphatically not to tell anyone the slightest aboutwhat had happened, even though no-one had asked that of her.

Now Gregor’s sister also had to help his mother with the cooking;although that was not so much bother as no-one ate very much. Gregor oftenheard how one of them would unsuccessfully urge another to eat, and receive nomore answer than “no thanks, I’ve had enough” or somethingsimilar. No-one drank very much either. His sister would sometimes ask hisfather whether he would like a beer, hoping for the chance to go and fetch itherself. When his father then said nothing she would add, so that he would notfeel selfish, that she could send the housekeeper for it, but then his fatherwould close the matter with a big, loud “No”, and no more would besaid.

Even before the first day had come to an end, his father had explained toGregor’s mother and sister what their finances and prospects were. Nowand then he stood up from the table and took some receipt or document from thelittle cash box he had saved from his business when it had collapsed five yearsearlier. Gregor heard how he opened the complicated lock and then closed itagain after he had taken the item he wanted. What he heard his father say wassome of the first good news that Gregor heard since he had first beenincarcerated in his room. He had thought that nothing at all remained from hisfather’s business, at least he had never told him anything different, andGregor had never asked him about it anyway. Their business misfortune hadreduced the family to a state of total despair, and Gregor’s only concernat that time had been to arrange things so that they could all forget about itas quickly as possible. So then he started working especially hard, with afiery vigour that raised him from a junior salesman to a travellingrepresentative almost overnight, bringing with it the chance to earn money inquite different ways. Gregor converted his success at work straight into cashthat he could lay on the table at home for the benefit of his astonished anddelighted family. They had been good times and they had never come again, atleast not with the same splendour, even though Gregor had later earned so muchthat he was in a position to bear the costs of the whole family, and did bearthem. They had even got used to it, both Gregor and the family, they took themoney with gratitude and he was glad to provide it, although there was nolonger much warm affection given in return. Gregor only remained close to hissister now. Unlike him, she was very fond of music and a gifted and expressiveviolinist, it was his secret plan to send her to the conservatory next yeareven though it would cause great expense that would have to be made up for insome other way. During Gregor’s short periods in town, conversation withhis sister would often turn to the conservatory but it was only ever mentionedas a lovely dream that could never be realised. Their parents did not like tohear this innocent talk, but Gregor thought about it quite hard and decided hewould let them know what he planned with a grand announcement of it onChristmas day.

That was the sort of totally pointless thing that went through his mind in hispresent state, pressed upright against the door and listening. There were timeswhen he simply became too tired to continue listening, when his head would fallwearily against the door and he would pull it up again with a start, as eventhe slightest noise he caused would be heard next door and they would all gosilent. “What’s that he’s doing now”, his father wouldsay after a while, clearly having gone over to the door, and only then wouldthe interrupted conversation slowly be taken up again.

When explaining things, his father repeated himself several times, partlybecause it was a long time since he had been occupied with these mattershimself and partly because Gregor’s mother did not understand everythingthe first time. From these repeated explanations Gregor learned, to hispleasure, that despite all their misfortunes there was still some moneyavailable from the old days. It was not a lot, but it had not been touched inthe meantime and some interest had accumulated. Besides that, they had not beenusing up all the money that Gregor had been bringing home every month, keepingonly a little for himself, so that that, too, had been accumulating. Behind thedoor, Gregor nodded with enthusiasm in his pleasure at this unexpected thriftand caution. He could actually have used this surplus money to reduce hisfather’s debt to his boss, and the day when he could have freed himselffrom that job would have come much closer, but now it was certainly better theway his father had done things.

This money, however, was certainly not enough to enable the family to live offthe interest; it was enough to maintain them for, perhaps, one or two years, nomore. That’s to say, it was money that should not really be touched butset aside for emergencies; money to live on had to be earned. His father washealthy but old, and lacking in self confidence. During the five years that hehad not been working—the first holiday in a life that had been full ofstrain and no success—he had put on a lot of weight and become very slowand clumsy. Would Gregor’s elderly mother now have to go and earn money?She suffered from asthma and it was a strain for her just to move about thehome, every other day would be spent struggling for breath on the sofa by theopen window. Would his sister have to go and earn money? She was still a childof seventeen, her life up till then had been very enviable, consisting ofwearing nice clothes, sleeping late, helping out in the business, joining inwith a few modest pleasures and most of all playing the violin. Whenever theybegan to talk of the need to earn money, Gregor would always first let go ofthe door and then throw himself onto the cool, leather sofa next to it, as hebecame quite hot with shame and regret.

He would often lie there the whole night through, not sleeping a wink butscratching at the leather for hours on end. Or he might go to all the effort ofpushing a chair to the window, climbing up onto the sill and, propped up in thechair, leaning on the window to stare out of it. He had used to feel a greatsense of freedom from doing this, but doing it now was obviously something moreremembered than experienced, as what he actually saw in this way was becomingless distinct every day, even things that were quite near; he had used to cursethe ever-present view of the hospital across the street, but now he could notsee it at all, and if he had not known that he lived in Charlottenstrasse,which was a quiet street despite being in the middle of the city, he could havethought that he was looking out the window at a barren waste where the grey skyand the grey earth mingled inseparably. His observant sister only needed tonotice the chair twice before she would always push it back to its exactposition by the window after she had tidied up the room, and even left theinner pane of the window open from then on.

If Gregor had only been able to speak to his sister and thank her for all thatshe had to do for him it would have been easier for him to bear it; but as itwas it caused him pain. His sister, naturally, tried as far as possible topretend there was nothing burdensome about it, and the longer it went on, ofcourse, the better she was able to do so, but as time went by Gregor was alsoable to see through it all so much better. It had even become very unpleasantfor him, now, whenever she entered the room. No sooner had she come in than shewould quickly close the door as a precaution so that no-one would have tosuffer the view into Gregor’s room, then she would go straight to thewindow and pull it hurriedly open almost as if she were suffocating. Even if itwas cold, she would stay at the window breathing deeply for a little while. Shewould alarm Gregor twice a day with this running about and noise making; hewould stay under the couch shivering the whole while, knowing full well thatshe would certainly have liked to spare him this ordeal, but it was impossiblefor her to be in the same room with him with the windows closed.

One day, about a month after Gregor’s transformation when his sister nolonger had any particular reason to be shocked at his appearance, she came intothe room a little earlier than usual and found him still staring out thewindow, motionless, and just where he would be most horrible. In itself, hissister’s not coming into the room would have been no surprise for Gregoras it would have been difficult for her to immediately open the window while hewas still there, but not only did she not come in, she went straight back andclosed the door behind her, a stranger would have thought he had threatened herand tried to bite her. Gregor went straight to hide himself under the couch, ofcourse, but he had to wait until midday before his sister came back and sheseemed much more uneasy than usual. It made him realise that she still foundhis appearance unbearable and would continue to do so, she probably even had toovercome the urge to flee when she saw the little bit of him that protrudedfrom under the couch. One day, in order to spare her even this sight, he spentfour hours carrying the bedsheet over to the couch on his back and arranged itso that he was completely covered and his sister would not be able to see himeven if she bent down. If she did not think this sheet was necessary then allshe had to do was take it off again, as it was clear enough that it was nopleasure for Gregor to cut himself off so completely. She left the sheet whereit was. Gregor even thought he glimpsed a look of gratitude one time when hecarefully looked out from under the sheet to see how his sister liked the newarrangement.

For the first fourteen days, Gregor’s parents could not bring themselvesto come into the room to see him. He would often hear them say how theyappreciated all the new work his sister was doing even though, before, they hadseen her as a girl who was somewhat useless and frequently been annoyed withher. But now the two of them, father and mother, would often both wait outsidethe door of Gregor’s room while his sister tidied up in there, and assoon as she went out again she would have to tell them exactly how everythinglooked, what Gregor had eaten, how he had behaved this time and whether,perhaps, any slight improvement could be seen. His mother also wanted to go inand visit Gregor relatively soon but his father and sister at first persuadedher against it. Gregor listened very closely to all this, and approved fully.Later, though, she had to be held back by force, which made her call out:“Let me go and see Gregor, he is my unfortunate son! Can’t youunderstand I have to see him?”, and Gregor would think to himself thatmaybe it would be better if his mother came in, not every day of course, butone day a week, perhaps; she could understand everything much better than hissister who, for all her courage, was still just a child after all, and reallymight not have had an adult’s appreciation of the burdensome job she hadtaken on.

Gregor’s wish to see his mother was soon realised. Out of considerationfor his parents, Gregor wanted to avoid being seen at the window during theday, the few square meters of the floor did not give him much room to crawlabout, it was hard to just lie quietly through the night, his food soon stoppedgiving him any pleasure at all, and so, to entertain himself, he got into thehabit of crawling up and down the walls and ceiling. He was especially fond ofhanging from the ceiling; it was quite different from lying on the floor; hecould breathe more freely; his body had a light swing to it; and up there,relaxed and almost happy, it might happen that he would surprise even himselfby letting go of the ceiling and landing on the floor with a crash. But now, ofcourse, he had far better control of his body than before and, even with a fallas great as that, caused himself no damage. Very soon his sister noticedGregor’s new way of entertaining himself—he had, after all, lefttraces of the adhesive from his feet as he crawled about—and got it intoher head to make it as easy as possible for him by removing the furniture thatgot in his way, especially the chest of drawers and the desk. Now, this was notsomething that she would be able to do by herself; she did not dare to ask forhelp from her father; the sixteen year old maid had carried on bravely sincethe cook had left but she certainly would not have helped in this, she had evenasked to be allowed to keep the kitchen locked at all times and never to haveto open the door unless it was especially important; so his sister had nochoice but to choose some time when Gregor’s father was not there andfetch his mother to help her. As she approached the room, Gregor could hear hismother express her joy, but once at the door she went silent. First, of course,his sister came in and looked round to see that everything in the room wasalright; and only then did she let her mother enter. Gregor had hurriedlypulled the sheet down lower over the couch and put more folds into it so thateverything really looked as if it had just been thrown down by chance. Gregoralso refrained, this time, from spying out from under the sheet; he gave up thechance to see his mother until later and was simply glad that she had come.“You can come in, he can’t be seen”, said his sister,obviously leading her in by the hand. The old chest of drawers was too heavyfor a pair of feeble women to be heaving about, but Gregor listened as theypushed it from its place, his sister always taking on the heaviest part of thework for herself and ignoring her mother’s warnings that she would strainherself. This lasted a very long time. After labouring at it for fifteenminutes or more his mother said it would be better to leave the chest where itwas, for one thing it was too heavy for them to get the job finished beforeGregor’s father got home and leaving it in the middle of the room itwould be in his way even more, and for another thing it wasn’t even surethat taking the furniture away would really be any help to him. She thoughtjust the opposite; the sight of the bare walls saddened her right to her heart;and why wouldn’t Gregor feel the same way about it, he’d been usedto this furniture in his room for a long time and it would make him feelabandoned to be in an empty room like that. Then, quietly, almost whispering asif wanting Gregor (whose whereabouts she did not know) to hear not even thetone of her voice, as she was convinced that he did not understand her words,she added “and by taking the furniture away, won’t it seem likewe’re showing that we’ve given up all hope of improvement andwe’re abandoning him to cope for himself? I think it’d be best toleave the room exactly the way it was before so that when Gregor comes back tous again he’ll find everything unchanged and he’ll be able toforget the time in between all the easier”.

Hearing these words from his mother made Gregor realise that the lack of anydirect human communication, along with the monotonous life led by the familyduring these two months, must have made him confused—he could think of noother way of explaining to himself why he had seriously wanted his room emptiedout. Had he really wanted to transform his room into a cave, a warm room fittedout with the nice furniture he had inherited? That would have let him crawlaround unimpeded in any direction, but it would also have let him quicklyforget his past when he had still been human. He had come very close toforgetting, and it had only been the voice of his mother, unheard for so long,that had shaken him out of it. Nothing should be removed; everything had tostay; he could not do without the good influence the furniture had on hiscondition; and if the furniture made it difficult for him to crawl aboutmindlessly that was not a loss but a great advantage.

His sister, unfortunately, did not agree; she had become used to the idea, notwithout reason, that she was Gregor’s spokesman to his parents about thethings that concerned him. This meant that his mother’s advice now wassufficient reason for her to insist on removing not only the chest of drawersand the desk, as she had thought at first, but all the furniture apart from theall-important couch. It was more than childish perversity, of course, or theunexpected confidence she had recently acquired, that made her insist; she hadindeed noticed that Gregor needed a lot of room to crawl about in, whereas thefurniture, as far as anyone could see, was of no use to him at all. Girls ofthat age, though, do become enthusiastic about things and feel they must gettheir way whenever they can. Perhaps this was what tempted Grete to makeGregor’s situation seem even more shocking than it was so that she coulddo even more for him. Grete would probably be the only one who would dare entera room dominated by Gregor crawling about the bare walls by himself.

So she refused to let her mother dissuade her. Gregor’s mother alreadylooked uneasy in his room, she soon stopped speaking and helped Gregor’ssister to get the chest of drawers out with what strength she had. The chest ofdrawers was something that Gregor could do without if he had to, but thewriting desk had to stay. Hardly had the two women pushed the chest of drawers,groaning, out of the room than Gregor poked his head out from under the couchto see what he could do about it. He meant to be as careful and considerate ashe could, but, unfortunately, it was his mother who came back first while Gretein the next room had her arms round the chest, pushing and pulling at it fromside to side by herself without, of course, moving it an inch. His mother wasnot used to the sight of Gregor, he might have made her ill, so Gregor hurriedbackwards to the far end of the couch. In his startlement, though, he was notable to prevent the sheet at its front from moving a little. It was enough toattract his mother’s attention. She stood very still, remained there amoment, and then went back out to Grete.

Gregor kept trying to assure himself that nothing unusual was happening, it wasjust a few pieces of furniture being moved after all, but he soon had to admitthat the women going to and fro, their little calls to each other, the scrapingof the furniture on the floor, all these things made him feel as if he werebeing assailed from all sides. With his head and legs pulled in against him andhis body pressed to the floor, he was forced to admit to himself that he couldnot stand all of this much longer. They were emptying his room out; taking awayeverything that was dear to him; they had already taken out the chestcontaining his fretsaw and other tools; now they threatened to remove thewriting desk with its place clearly worn into the floor, the desk where he haddone his homework as a business trainee, at high school, even while he had beenat infant school—he really could not wait any longer to see whether thetwo women’s intentions were good. He had nearly forgotten they were thereanyway, as they were now too tired to say anything while they worked and hecould only hear their feet as they stepped heavily on the floor.

So, while the women were leant against the desk in the other room catchingtheir breath, he sallied out, changed direction four times not knowing what heshould save first before his attention was suddenly caught by the picture onthe wall—which was already denuded of everything else that had been onit—of the lady dressed in copious fur. He hurried up onto the picture andpressed himself against its glass, it held him firmly and felt good on his hotbelly. This picture at least, now totally covered by Gregor, would certainly betaken away by no-one. He turned his head to face the door into the living roomso that he could watch the women when they came back.

They had not allowed themselves a long rest and came back quite soon; Grete hadput her arm around her mother and was nearly carrying her. “What shall wetake now, then?”, said Grete and looked around. Her eyes met those ofGregor on the wall. Perhaps only because her mother was there, she remainedcalm, bent her face to her so that she would not look round and said, albeithurriedly and with a tremor in her voice: “Come on, let’s go backin the living room for a while?” Gregor could see what Grete had in mind,she wanted to take her mother somewhere safe and then chase him down from thewall. Well, she could certainly try it! He sat unyielding on his picture. Hewould rather jump at Grete’s face.

But Grete’s words had made her mother quite worried, she stepped to oneside, saw the enormous brown patch against the flowers of the wallpaper, andbefore she even realised it was Gregor that she saw screamed: “Oh God, ohGod!” Arms outstretched, she fell onto the couch as if she had given upeverything and stayed there immobile. “Gregor!” shouted his sister,glowering at him and shaking her fist. That was the first word she had spokento him directly since his transformation. She ran into the other room to fetchsome kind of smelling salts to bring her mother out of her faint; Gregor wantedto help too—he could save his picture later, although he stuck fast tothe glass and had to pull himself off by force; then he, too, ran into the nextroom as if he could advise his sister like in the old days; but he had to juststand behind her doing nothing; she was looking into various bottles, hestartled her when she turned round; a bottle fell to the ground and broke; asplinter cut Gregor’s face, some kind of caustic medicine splashed allover him; now, without delaying any longer, Grete took hold of all the bottlesshe could and ran with them in to her mother; she slammed the door shut withher foot. So now Gregor was shut out from his mother, who, because of him,might be near to death; he could not open the door if he did not want to chasehis sister away, and she had to stay with his mother; there was nothing for himto do but wait; and, oppressed with anxiety and self-reproach, he began tocrawl about, he crawled over everything, walls, furniture, ceiling, and finallyin his confusion as the whole room began to spin around him he fell down intothe middle of the dinner table.

He lay there for a while, numb and immobile, all around him it was quiet, maybethat was a good sign. Then there was someone at the door. The maid, of course,had locked herself in her kitchen so that Grete would have to go and answer it.His father had arrived home. “What’s happened?” were hisfirst words; Grete’s appearance must have made everything clear to him.She answered him with subdued voice, and openly pressed her face into hischest: “Mother’s fainted, but she’s better now. Gregor gotout.” “Just as I expected”, said his father, “just as Ialways said, but you women wouldn’t listen, would you.” It wasclear to Gregor that Grete had not said enough and that his father took it tomean that something bad had happened, that he was responsible for some act ofviolence. That meant Gregor would now have to try to calm his father, as he didnot have the time to explain things to him even if that had been possible. Sohe fled to the door of his room and pressed himself against it so that hisfather, when he came in from the hall, could see straight away that Gregor hadthe best intentions and would go back into his room without delay, that itwould not be necessary to drive him back but that they had only to open thedoor and he would disappear.

His father, though, was not in the mood to notice subtleties like that;“Ah!”, he shouted as he came in, sounding as if he were both angryand glad at the same time. Gregor drew his head back from the door and liftedit towards his father. He really had not imagined his father the way he stoodthere now; of late, with his new habit of crawling about, he had neglected topay attention to what was going on the rest of the flat the way he had donebefore. He really ought to have expected things to have changed, but still,still, was that really his father? The same tired man as used to be layingthere entombed in his bed when Gregor came back from his business trips, whowould receive him sitting in the armchair in his nightgown when he came back inthe evenings; who was hardly even able to stand up but, as a sign of hispleasure, would just raise his arms and who, on the couple of times a year whenthey went for a walk together on a Sunday or public holiday wrapped up tightlyin his overcoat between Gregor and his mother, would always labour his wayforward a little more slowly than them, who were already walking slowly for hissake; who would place his stick down carefully and, if he wanted to saysomething would invariably stop and gather his companions around him. He wasstanding up straight enough now; dressed in a smart blue uniform with goldbuttons, the sort worn by the employees at the banking institute; above thehigh, stiff collar of the coat his strong double-chin emerged; under the bushyeyebrows, his piercing, dark eyes looked out fresh and alert; his normallyunkempt white hair was combed down painfully close to his scalp. He took hiscap, with its gold monogram from, probably, some bank, and threw it in an arcright across the room onto the sofa, put his hands in his trouser pockets,pushing back the bottom of his long uniform coat, and, with look ofdetermination, walked towards Gregor. He probably did not even know himselfwhat he had in mind, but nonetheless lifted his feet unusually high. Gregor wasamazed at the enormous size of the soles of his boots, but wasted no time withthat—he knew full well, right from the first day of his new life, thathis father thought it necessary to always be extremely strict with him. And sohe ran up to his father, stopped when his father stopped, scurried forwardsagain when he moved, even slightly. In this way they went round the roomseveral times without anything decisive happening, without even giving theimpression of a chase as everything went so slowly. Gregor remained all thistime on the floor, largely because he feared his father might see it asespecially provoking if he fled onto the wall or ceiling. Whatever he did,Gregor had to admit that he certainly would not be able to keep up this runningabout for long, as for each step his father took he had to carry out countlessmovements. He became noticeably short of breath, even in his earlier life hislungs had not been very reliable. Now, as he lurched about in his efforts tomuster all the strength he could for running he could hardly keep his eyesopen; his thoughts became too slow for him to think of any other way of savinghimself than running; he almost forgot that the walls were there for him to usealthough, here, they were concealed behind carefully carved furniture full ofnotches and protrusions—then, right beside him, lightly tossed, somethingflew down and rolled in front of him. It was an apple; then another oneimmediately flew at him; Gregor froze in shock; there was no longer any pointin running as his father had decided to bombard him. He had filled his pocketswith fruit from the bowl on the sideboard and now, without even taking the timefor careful aim, threw one apple after another. These little, red apples rolledabout on the floor, knocking into each other as if they had electric motors. Anapple thrown without much force glanced against Gregor’s back and slidoff without doing any harm. Another one however, immediately following it, hitsquarely and lodged in his back; Gregor wanted to drag himself away, as if hecould remove the surprising, the incredible pain by changing his position; buthe felt as if nailed to the spot and spread himself out, all his senses inconfusion. The last thing he saw was the door of his room being pulled open,his sister was screaming, his mother ran out in front of her in her blouse (ashis sister had taken off some of her clothes after she had fainted to make iteasier for her to breathe), she ran to his father, her skirts unfastened andsliding one after another to the ground, stumbling over the skirts she pushedherself to his father, her arms around him, uniting herself with himtotally—now Gregor lost his ability to see anything—her handsbehind his father’s head begging him to spare Gregor’s life.

III

No-one dared to remove the apple lodged in Gregor’s flesh, so it remainedthere as a visible reminder of his injury. He had suffered it there for morethan a month, and his condition seemed serious enough to remind even his fatherthat Gregor, despite his current sad and revolting form, was a family memberwho could not be treated as an enemy. On the contrary, as a family there was aduty to swallow any revulsion for him and to be patient, just to be patient.

Because of his injuries, Gregor had lost much of his mobility—probablypermanently. He had been reduced to the condition of an ancient invalid and ittook him long, long minutes to crawl across his room—crawling over theceiling was out of the question—but this deterioration in his conditionwas fully (in his opinion) made up for by the door to the living room beingleft open every evening. He got into the habit of closely watching it for oneor two hours before it was opened and then, lying in the darkness of his roomwhere he could not be seen from the living room, he could watch the family inthe light of the dinner table and listen to their conversation—witheveryone’s permission, in a way, and thus quite differently from before.

They no longer held the lively conversations of earlier times, of course, theones that Gregor always thought about with longing when he was tired andgetting into the damp bed in some small hotel room. All of them were usuallyvery quiet nowadays. Soon after dinner, his father would go to sleep in hischair; his mother and sister would urge each other to be quiet; his mother,bent deeply under the lamp, would sew fancy underwear for a fashion shop; hissister, who had taken a sales job, learned shorthand and French in the eveningsso that she might be able to get a better position later on. Sometimes hisfather would wake up and say to Gregor’s mother “you’re doingso much sewing again today!”, as if he did not know that he had beendozing—and then he would go back to sleep again while mother and sisterwould exchange a tired grin.

With a kind of stubbornness, Gregor’s father refused to take his uniformoff even at home; while his nightgown hung unused on its peg Gregor’sfather would slumber where he was, fully dressed, as if always ready to serveand expecting to hear the voice of his superior even here. The uniform had notbeen new to start with, but as a result of this it slowly became even shabbierdespite the efforts of Gregor’s mother and sister to look after it.Gregor would often spend the whole evening looking at all the stains on thiscoat, with its gold buttons always kept polished and shiny, while the old manin it would sleep, highly uncomfortable but peaceful.

As soon as it struck ten, Gregor’s mother would speak gently to hisfather to wake him and try to persuade him to go to bed, as he couldn’tsleep properly where he was and he really had to get his sleep if he was to beup at six to get to work. But since he had been in work he had become moreobstinate and would always insist on staying longer at the table, even thoughhe regularly fell asleep and it was then harder than ever to persuade him toexchange the chair for his bed. Then, however much mother and sister wouldimportune him with little reproaches and warnings he would keep slowly shakinghis head for a quarter of an hour with his eyes closed and refusing to get up.Gregor’s mother would tug at his sleeve, whisper endearments into hisear, Gregor’s sister would leave her work to help her mother, but nothingwould have any effect on him. He would just sink deeper into his chair. Onlywhen the two women took him under the arms he would abruptly open his eyes,look at them one after the other and say: “What a life! This is whatpeace I get in my old age!” And supported by the two women he would lifthimself up carefully as if he were carrying the greatest load himself, let thewomen take him to the door, send them off and carry on by himself whileGregor’s mother would throw down her needle and his sister her pen sothat they could run after his father and continue being of help to him.

Who, in this tired and overworked family, would have had time to give moreattention to Gregor than was absolutely necessary? The household budget becameeven smaller; so now the maid was dismissed; an enormous, thick-boned charwomanwith white hair that flapped around her head came every morning and evening todo the heaviest work; everything else was looked after by Gregor’s motheron top of the large amount of sewing work she did. Gregor even learned,listening to the evening conversation about what price they had hoped for, thatseveral items of jewellery belonging to the family had been sold, even thoughboth mother and sister had been very fond of wearing them at functions andcelebrations. But the loudest complaint was that although the flat was much toobig for their present circ*mstances, they could not move out of it, there wasno imaginable way of transferring Gregor to the new address. He could see quitewell, though, that there were more reasons than consideration for him that madeit difficult for them to move, it would have been quite easy to transport himin any suitable crate with a few air holes in it; the main thing holding thefamily back from their decision to move was much more to do with their totaldespair, and the thought that they had been struck with a misfortune unlikeanything experienced by anyone else they knew or were related to. They carriedout absolutely everything that the world expects from poor people,Gregor’s father brought bank employees their breakfast, his mothersacrificed herself by washing clothes for strangers, his sister ran back andforth behind her desk at the behest of the customers, but they just did nothave the strength to do any more. And the injury in Gregor’s back beganto hurt as much as when it was new. After they had come back from taking hisfather to bed Gregor’s mother and sister would now leave their work whereit was and sit close together, cheek to cheek; his mother would point toGregor’s room and say “Close that door, Grete”, and then,when he was in the dark again, they would sit in the next room and their tearswould mingle, or they would simply sit there staring dry-eyed at the table.

Gregor hardly slept at all, either night or day. Sometimes he would think oftaking over the family’s affairs, just like before, the next time thedoor was opened; he had long forgotten about his boss and the chief clerk, butthey would appear again in his thoughts, the salesmen and the apprentices, thatstupid teaboy, two or three friends from other businesses, one of thechambermaids from a provincial hotel, a tender memory that appeared anddisappeared again, a cashier from a hat shop for whom his attention had beenserious but too slow,—all of them appeared to him, mixed together withstrangers and others he had forgotten, but instead of helping him and hisfamily they were all of them inaccessible, and he was glad when theydisappeared. Other times he was not at all in the mood to look after hisfamily, he was filled with simple rage about the lack of attention he wasshown, and although he could think of nothing he would have wanted, he madeplans of how he could get into the pantry where he could take all the things hewas entitled to, even if he was not hungry. Gregor’s sister no longerthought about how she could please him but would hurriedly push some food orother into his room with her foot before she rushed out to work in the morningand at midday, and in the evening she would sweep it away again with the broom,indifferent as to whether it had been eaten or—more often thannot—had been left totally untouched. She still cleared up the room in theevening, but now she could not have been any quicker about it. Smears of dirtwere left on the walls, here and there were little balls of dust and filth. Atfirst, Gregor went into one of the worst of these places when his sisterarrived as a reproach to her, but he could have stayed there for weeks withouthis sister doing anything about it; she could see the dirt as well as he couldbut she had simply decided to leave him to it. At the same time she becametouchy in a way that was quite new for her and which everyone in the familyunderstood—cleaning up Gregor’s room was for her and her alone.Gregor’s mother did once thoroughly clean his room, and needed to useseveral bucketfuls of water to do it—although that much dampness alsomade Gregor ill and he lay flat on the couch, bitter and immobile. But hismother was to be punished still more for what she had done, as hardly had hissister arrived home in the evening than she noticed the change inGregor’s room and, highly aggrieved, ran back into the living room where,despite her mothers raised and imploring hands, she broke into convulsivetears. Her father, of course, was startled out of his chair and the two parentslooked on astonished and helpless; then they, too, became agitated;Gregor’s father, standing to the right of his mother, accused her of notleaving the cleaning of Gregor’s room to his sister; from her left,Gregor’s sister screamed at her that she was never to cleanGregor’s room again; while his mother tried to draw his father, who wasbeside himself with anger, into the bedroom; his sister, quaking with tears,thumped on the table with her small fists; and Gregor hissed in anger thatno-one had even thought of closing the door to save him the sight of this andall its noise.

Gregor’s sister was exhausted from going out to work, and looking afterGregor as she had done before was even more work for her, but even so hismother ought certainly not to have taken her place. Gregor, on the other hand,ought not to be neglected. Now, though, the charwoman was here. This elderlywidow, with a robust bone structure that made her able to withstand the hardestof things in her long life, wasn’t really repelled by Gregor. Just bychance one day, rather than any real curiosity, she opened the door toGregor’s room and found herself face to face with him. He was takentotally by surprise, no-one was chasing him but he began to rush to and frowhile she just stood there in amazement with her hands crossed in front of her.From then on she never failed to open the door slightly every evening andmorning and look briefly in on him. At first she would call to him as she didso with words that she probably considered friendly, such as “come onthen, you old dung-beetle!”, or “look at the old dung-beetlethere!” Gregor never responded to being spoken to in that way, but justremained where he was without moving as if the door had never even been opened.If only they had told this charwoman to clean up his room every day instead ofletting her disturb him for no reason whenever she felt like it! One day, earlyin the morning while a heavy rain struck the windowpanes, perhaps indicatingthat spring was coming, she began to speak to him in that way once again.Gregor was so resentful of it that he started to move toward her, he was slowand infirm, but it was like a kind of attack. Instead of being afraid, thecharwoman just lifted up one of the chairs from near the door and stood therewith her mouth open, clearly intending not to close her mouth until the chairin her hand had been slammed down into Gregor’s back. “Aren’tyou coming any closer, then?”, she asked when Gregor turned round again,and she calmly put the chair back in the corner.

Gregor had almost entirely stopped eating. Only if he happened to find himselfnext to the food that had been prepared for him he might take some of it intohis mouth to play with it, leave it there a few hours and then, more often thannot, spit it out again. At first he thought it was distress at the state of hisroom that stopped him eating, but he had soon got used to the changes madethere. They had got into the habit of putting things into this room that theyhad no room for anywhere else, and there were now many such things as one ofthe rooms in the flat had been rented out to three gentlemen. These earnestgentlemen—all three of them had full beards, as Gregor learned peeringthrough the crack in the door one day—were painfully insistent onthings’ being tidy. This meant not only in their own room but, since theyhad taken a room in this establishment, in the entire flat and especially inthe kitchen. Unnecessary clutter was something they could not tolerate,especially if it was dirty. They had moreover brought most of their ownfurnishings and equipment with them. For this reason, many things had becomesuperfluous which, although they could not be sold, the family did not wish todiscard. All these things found their way into Gregor’s room. Thedustbins from the kitchen found their way in there too. The charwoman wasalways in a hurry, and anything she couldn’t use for the time being shewould just chuck in there. He, fortunately, would usually see no more than theobject and the hand that held it. The woman most likely meant to fetch thethings back out again when she had time and the opportunity, or to throweverything out in one go, but what actually happened was that they were leftwhere they landed when they had first been thrown unless Gregor made his waythrough the junk and moved it somewhere else. At first he moved it because,with no other room free where he could crawl about, he was forced to, but lateron he came to enjoy it although moving about in that way left him sad and tiredto death, and he would remain immobile for hours afterwards.

The gentlemen who rented the room would sometimes take their evening meal athome in the living room that was used by everyone, and so the door to this roomwas often kept closed in the evening. But Gregor found it easy to give uphaving the door open, he had, after all, often failed to make use of it when itwas open and, without the family having noticed it, lain in his room in itsdarkest corner. One time, though, the charwoman left the door to the livingroom slightly open, and it remained open when the gentlemen who rented the roomcame in in the evening and the light was put on. They sat up at the tablewhere, formerly, Gregor had taken his meals with his father and mother, theyunfolded the serviettes and picked up their knives and forks. Gregor’smother immediately appeared in the doorway with a dish of meat and soon behindher came his sister with a dish piled high with potatoes. The food wassteaming, and filled the room with its smell. The gentlemen bent over thedishes set in front of them as if they wanted to test the food before eatingit, and the gentleman in the middle, who seemed to count as an authority forthe other two, did indeed cut off a piece of meat while it was still in itsdish, clearly wishing to establish whether it was sufficiently cooked orwhether it should be sent back to the kitchen. It was to his satisfaction, andGregor’s mother and sister, who had been looking on anxiously, began tobreathe again and smiled.

The family themselves ate in the kitchen. Nonetheless, Gregor’s fathercame into the living room before he went into the kitchen, bowed once with hiscap in his hand and did his round of the table. The gentlemen stood as one, andmumbled something into their beards. Then, once they were alone, they ate innear perfect silence. It seemed remarkable to Gregor that above all the variousnoises of eating their chewing teeth could still be heard, as if they hadwanted to show Gregor that you need teeth in order to eat and it was notpossible to perform anything with jaws that are toothless however nice theymight be. “I’d like to eat something”, said Gregor anxiously,“but not anything like they’re eating. They do feed themselves. Andhere I am, dying!”

Throughout all this time, Gregor could not remember having heard the violinbeing played, but this evening it began to be heard from the kitchen. The threegentlemen had already finished their meal, the one in the middle had produced anewspaper, given a page to each of the others, and now they leant back in theirchairs reading them and smoking. When the violin began playing they becameattentive, stood up and went on tip-toe over to the door of the hallway wherethey stood pressed against each other. Someone must have heard them in thekitchen, as Gregor’s father called out: “Is the playing perhapsunpleasant for the gentlemen? We can stop it straight away.” “Onthe contrary”, said the middle gentleman, “would the young lady notlike to come in and play for us here in the room, where it is, after all, muchmore cosy and comfortable?” “Oh yes, we’d love to”,called back Gregor’s father as if he had been the violin player himself.The gentlemen stepped back into the room and waited. Gregor’s father soonappeared with the music stand, his mother with the music and his sister withthe violin. She calmly prepared everything for her to begin playing; hisparents, who had never rented a room out before and therefore showed anexaggerated courtesy towards the three gentlemen, did not even dare to sit ontheir own chairs; his father leant against the door with his right hand pushedin between two buttons on his uniform coat; his mother, though, was offered aseat by one of the gentlemen and sat—leaving the chair where thegentleman happened to have placed it—out of the way in a corner.

His sister began to play; father and mother paid close attention, one on eachside, to the movements of her hands. Drawn in by the playing, Gregor had daredto come forward a little and already had his head in the living room. Before,he had taken great pride in how considerate he was but now it hardly occurredto him that he had become so thoughtless about the others. What’s more,there was now all the more reason to keep himself hidden as he was covered inthe dust that lay everywhere in his room and flew up at the slightest movement;he carried threads, hairs, and remains of food about on his back and sides; hewas much too indifferent to everything now to lay on his back and wipe himselfon the carpet like he had used to do several times a day. And despite thiscondition, he was not too shy to move forward a little onto the immaculatefloor of the living room.

No-one noticed him, though. The family was totally preoccupied with the violinplaying; at first, the three gentlemen had put their hands in their pockets andcome up far too close behind the music stand to look at all the notes beingplayed, and they must have disturbed Gregor’s sister, but soon, incontrast with the family, they withdrew back to the window with their headssunk and talking to each other at half volume, and they stayed by the windowwhile Gregor’s father observed them anxiously. It really now seemed veryobvious that they had expected to hear some beautiful or entertaining violinplaying but had been disappointed, that they had had enough of the wholeperformance and it was only now out of politeness that they allowed their peaceto be disturbed. It was especially unnerving, the way they all blew the smokefrom their cigarettes upwards from their mouth and noses. Yet Gregor’ssister was playing so beautifully. Her face was leant to one side, followingthe lines of music with a careful and melancholy expression. Gregor crawled alittle further forward, keeping his head close to the ground so that he couldmeet her eyes if the chance came. Was he an animal if music could captivate himso? It seemed to him that he was being shown the way to the unknown nourishmenthe had been yearning for. He was determined to make his way forward to hissister and tug at her skirt to show her she might come into his room with herviolin, as no-one appreciated her playing here as much as he would. He neverwanted to let her out of his room, not while he lived, anyway; his shockingappearance should, for once, be of some use to him; he wanted to be at everydoor of his room at once to hiss and spit at the attackers; his sister shouldnot be forced to stay with him, though, but stay of her own free will; shewould sit beside him on the couch with her ear bent down to him while he toldher how he had always intended to send her to the conservatory, how he wouldhave told everyone about it last Christmas—had Christmas really come andgone already?—if this misfortune hadn’t got in the way, and refuseto let anyone dissuade him from it. On hearing all this, his sister would breakout in tears of emotion, and Gregor would climb up to her shoulder and kiss herneck, which, since she had been going out to work, she had kept free withoutany necklace or collar.

“Mr. Samsa!”, shouted the middle gentleman to Gregor’sfather, pointing, without wasting any more words, with his forefinger at Gregoras he slowly moved forward. The violin went silent, the middle of the threegentlemen first smiled at his two friends, shaking his head, and then lookedback at Gregor. His father seemed to think it more important to calm the threegentlemen before driving Gregor out, even though they were not at all upset andseemed to think Gregor was more entertaining than the violin playing had been.He rushed up to them with his arms spread out and attempted to drive them backinto their room at the same time as trying to block their view of Gregor withhis body. Now they did become a little annoyed, and it was not clear whether itwas his father’s behaviour that annoyed them or the dawning realisationthat they had had a neighbour like Gregor in the next room without knowing it.They asked Gregor’s father for explanations, raised their arms like hehad, tugged excitedly at their beards and moved back towards their room onlyvery slowly. Meanwhile Gregor’s sister had overcome the despair she hadfallen into when her playing was suddenly interrupted. She had let her handsdrop and let violin and bow hang limply for a while but continued to look atthe music as if still playing, but then she suddenly pulled herself together,lay the instrument on her mother’s lap who still sat laboriouslystruggling for breath where she was, and ran into the next room which, underpressure from her father, the three gentlemen were more quickly moving toward.Under his sister’s experienced hand, the pillows and covers on the bedsflew up and were put into order and she had already finished making the bedsand slipped out again before the three gentlemen had reached the room.Gregor’s father seemed so obsessed with what he was doing that he forgotall the respect he owed to his tenants. He urged them and pressed them until,when he was already at the door of the room, the middle of the three gentlemenshouted like thunder and stamped his foot and thereby brought Gregor’sfather to a halt. “I declare here and now”, he said, raising hishand and glancing at Gregor’s mother and sister to gain their attentiontoo, “that with regard to the repugnant conditions that prevail in thisflat and with this family”—here he looked briefly but decisively atthe floor—“I give immediate notice on my room. For the days that Ihave been living here I will, of course, pay nothing at all, on the contrary Iwill consider whether to proceed with some kind of action for damages from you,and believe me it would be very easy to set out the grounds for such anaction.” He was silent and looked straight ahead as if waiting forsomething. And indeed, his two friends joined in with the words: “And wealso give immediate notice.” With that, he took hold of the door handleand slammed the door.

Gregor’s father staggered back to his seat, feeling his way with hishands, and fell into it; it looked as if he was stretching himself out for hisusual evening nap but from the uncontrolled way his head kept nodding it couldbe seen that he was not sleeping at all. Throughout all this, Gregor had lainstill where the three gentlemen had first seen him. His disappointment at thefailure of his plan, and perhaps also because he was weak from hunger, made itimpossible for him to move. He was sure that everyone would turn on him anymoment, and he waited. He was not even startled out of this state when theviolin on his mother’s lap fell from her trembling fingers and landedloudly on the floor.

“Father, Mother”, said his sister, hitting the table with her handas introduction, “we can’t carry on like this. Maybe youcan’t see it, but I can. I don’t want to call this monster mybrother, all I can say is: we have to try and get rid of it. We’ve doneall that’s humanly possible to look after it and be patient, Idon’t think anyone could accuse us of doing anything wrong.”

“She’s absolutely right”, said Gregor’s father tohimself. His mother, who still had not had time to catch her breath, began tocough dully, her hand held out in front of her and a deranged expression in hereyes.

Gregor’s sister rushed to his mother and put her hand on her forehead.Her words seemed to give Gregor’s father some more definite ideas. He satupright, played with his uniform cap between the plates left by the threegentlemen after their meal, and occasionally looked down at Gregor as he laythere immobile.

“We have to try and get rid of it”, said Gregor’s sister, nowspeaking only to her father, as her mother was too occupied with coughing tolisten, “it’ll be the death of both of you, I can see it coming. Wecan’t all work as hard as we have to and then come home to be torturedlike this, we can’t endure it. I can’t endure it any more.”And she broke out so heavily in tears that they flowed down the face of hermother, and she wiped them away with mechanical hand movements.

“My child”, said her father with sympathy and obviousunderstanding, “what are we to do?”

His sister just shrugged her shoulders as a sign of the helplessness and tearsthat had taken hold of her, displacing her earlier certainty.

“If he could just understand us”, said his father almost as aquestion; his sister shook her hand vigorously through her tears as a sign thatof that there was no question.

“If he could just understand us”, repeated Gregor’s father,closing his eyes in acceptance of his sister’s certainty that that wasquite impossible, “then perhaps we could come to some kind of arrangementwith him. But as it is ...”

“It’s got to go”, shouted his sister, “that’s theonly way, Father. You’ve got to get rid of the idea that that’sGregor. We’ve only harmed ourselves by believing it for so long. How canthat be Gregor? If it were Gregor he would have seen long ago that it’snot possible for human beings to live with an animal like that and he wouldhave gone of his own free will. We wouldn’t have a brother any more,then, but we could carry on with our lives and remember him with respect. As itis this animal is persecuting us, it’s driven out our tenants, itobviously wants to take over the whole flat and force us to sleep on thestreets. Father, look, just look”, she suddenly screamed,“he’s starting again!” In her alarm, which was totally beyondGregor’s comprehension, his sister even abandoned his mother as shepushed herself vigorously out of her chair as if more willing to sacrifice herown mother than stay anywhere near Gregor. She rushed over to behind herfather, who had become excited merely because she was and stood up half raisinghis hands in front of Gregor’s sister as if to protect her.

But Gregor had had no intention of frightening anyone, least of all his sister.All he had done was begin to turn round so that he could go back into his room,although that was in itself quite startling as his pain-wracked condition meantthat turning round required a great deal of effort and he was using his head tohelp himself do it, repeatedly raising it and striking it against the floor. Hestopped and looked round. They seemed to have realised his good intention andhad only been alarmed briefly. Now they all looked at him in unhappy silence.His mother lay in her chair with her legs stretched out and pressed againsteach other, her eyes nearly closed with exhaustion; his sister sat next to hisfather with her arms around his neck.

“Maybe now they’ll let me turn round”, thought Gregor andwent back to work. He could not help panting loudly with the effort and hadsometimes to stop and take a rest. No-one was making him rush any more,everything was left up to him. As soon as he had finally finished turning roundhe began to move straight ahead. He was amazed at the great distance thatseparated him from his room, and could not understand how he had covered thatdistance in his weak state a little while before and almost without noticingit. He concentrated on crawling as fast as he could and hardly noticed thatthere was not a word, not any cry, from his family to distract him. He did notturn his head until he had reached the doorway. He did not turn it all the wayround as he felt his neck becoming stiff, but it was nonetheless enough to seethat nothing behind him had changed, only his sister had stood up. With hislast glance he saw that his mother had now fallen completely asleep.

He was hardly inside his room before the door was hurriedly shut, bolted andlocked. The sudden noise behind Gregor so startled him that his little legscollapsed under him. It was his sister who had been in so much of a rush. Shehad been standing there waiting and sprung forward lightly, Gregor had notheard her coming at all, and as she turned the key in the lock she said loudlyto her parents “At last!”.

“What now, then?”, Gregor asked himself as he looked round in thedarkness. He soon made the discovery that he could no longer move at all. Thiswas no surprise to him, it seemed rather that being able to actually movearound on those spindly little legs until then was unnatural. He also feltrelatively comfortable. It is true that his entire body was aching, but thepain seemed to be slowly getting weaker and weaker and would finally disappearaltogether. He could already hardly feel the decayed apple in his back or theinflamed area around it, which was entirely covered in white dust. He thoughtback of his family with emotion and love. If it was possible, he felt that hemust go away even more strongly than his sister. He remained in this state ofempty and peaceful rumination until he heard the clock tower strike three inthe morning. He watched as it slowly began to get light everywhere outside thewindow too. Then, without his willing it, his head sank down completely, andhis last breath flowed weakly from his nostrils.

When the cleaner came in early in the morning—they’d often askedher not to keep slamming the doors but with her strength and in her hurry shestill did, so that everyone in the flat knew when she’d arrived and fromthen on it was impossible to sleep in peace—she made her usual brief lookin on Gregor and at first found nothing special. She thought he was layingthere so still on purpose, playing the martyr; she attributed all possibleunderstanding to him. She happened to be holding the long broom in her hand, soshe tried to tickle Gregor with it from the doorway. When she had no successwith that she tried to make a nuisance of herself and poked at him a little,and only when she found she could shove him across the floor with no resistanceat all did she start to pay attention. She soon realised what had reallyhappened, opened her eyes wide, whistled to herself, but did not waste time toyank open the bedroom doors and shout loudly into the darkness of the bedrooms:“Come and ’ave a look at this, it’s dead, just lying there,stone dead!”

Mr. and Mrs. Samsa sat upright there in their marriage bed and had to make aneffort to get over the shock caused by the cleaner before they could grasp whatshe was saying. But then, each from his own side, they hurried out of bed. Mr.Samsa threw the blanket over his shoulders, Mrs. Samsa just came out in hernightdress; and that is how they went into Gregor’s room. On the way theyopened the door to the living room where Grete had been sleeping since thethree gentlemen had moved in; she was fully dressed as if she had never beenasleep, and the paleness of her face seemed to confirm this.“Dead?”, asked Mrs. Samsa, looking at the charwoman enquiringly,even though she could have checked for herself and could have known it evenwithout checking. “That’s what I said”, replied the cleaner,and to prove it she gave Gregor’s body another shove with the broom,sending it sideways across the floor. Mrs. Samsa made a movement as if shewanted to hold back the broom, but did not complete it. “Now then”,said Mr. Samsa, “let’s give thanks to God for that”. Hecrossed himself, and the three women followed his example. Grete, who had nottaken her eyes from the corpse, said: “Just look how thin he was. Hedidn’t eat anything for so long. The food came out again just the same aswhen it went in”. Gregor’s body was indeed completely dried up andflat, they had not seen it until then, but now he was not lifted up on hislittle legs, nor did he do anything to make them look away.

“Grete, come with us in here for a little while”, said Mrs. Samsawith a pained smile, and Grete followed her parents into the bedroom but notwithout looking back at the body. The cleaner shut the door and opened thewindow wide. Although it was still early in the morning the fresh air hadsomething of warmth mixed in with it. It was already the end of March, afterall.

The three gentlemen stepped out of their room and looked round in amazement fortheir breakfasts; they had been forgotten about. “Where is ourbreakfast?”, the middle gentleman asked the cleaner irritably. She justput her finger on her lips and made a quick and silent sign to the men thatthey might like to come into Gregor’s room. They did so, and stood aroundGregor’s corpse with their hands in the pockets of their well-worn coats.It was now quite light in the room.

Then the door of the bedroom opened and Mr. Samsa appeared in his uniform withhis wife on one arm and his daughter on the other. All of them had been cryinga little; Grete now and then pressed her face against her father’s arm.

“Leave my home. Now!”, said Mr. Samsa, indicating the door andwithout letting the women from him. “What do you mean?”, asked themiddle of the three gentlemen somewhat disconcerted, and he smiled sweetly. Theother two held their hands behind their backs and continually rubbed themtogether in gleeful anticipation of a loud quarrel which could only end intheir favour. “I mean just what I said”, answered Mr. Samsa, and,with his two companions, went in a straight line towards the man. At first, hestood there still, looking at the ground as if the contents of his head wererearranging themselves into new positions. “Alright, we’ll gothen”, he said, and looked up at Mr. Samsa as if he had been suddenlyovercome with humility and wanted permission again from Mr. Samsa for hisdecision. Mr. Samsa merely opened his eyes wide and briefly nodded to himseveral times. At that, and without delay, the man actually did take longstrides into the front hallway; his two friends had stopped rubbing their handssome time before and had been listening to what was being said. Now they jumpedoff after their friend as if taken with a sudden fear that Mr. Samsa might gointo the hallway in front of them and break the connection with their leader.Once there, all three took their hats from the stand, took their sticks fromthe holder, bowed without a word and left the premises. Mr. Samsa and the twowomen followed them out onto the landing; but they had had no reason tomistrust the men’s intentions and as they leaned over the landing theysaw how the three gentlemen made slow but steady progress down the many steps.As they turned the corner on each floor they disappeared and would reappear afew moments later; the further down they went, the more that the Samsa familylost interest in them; when a butcher’s boy, proud of posture with histray on his head, passed them on his way up and came nearer than they were, Mr.Samsa and the women came away from the landing and went, as if relieved, backinto the flat.

They decided the best way to make use of that day was for relaxation and to gofor a walk; not only had they earned a break from work but they were in seriousneed of it. So they sat at the table and wrote three letters of excusal, Mr.Samsa to his employers, Mrs. Samsa to her contractor and Grete to herprincipal. The cleaner came in while they were writing to tell them she wasgoing, she’d finished her work for that morning. The three of them atfirst just nodded without looking up from what they were writing, and it wasonly when the cleaner still did not seem to want to leave that they looked upin irritation. “Well?”, asked Mr. Samsa. The charwoman stood in thedoorway with a smile on her face as if she had some tremendous good news toreport, but would only do it if she was clearly asked to. The almost verticallittle ostrich feather on her hat, which had been a source of irritation to Mr.Samsa all the time she had been working for them, swayed gently in alldirections. “What is it you want then?”, asked Mrs. Samsa, whom thecleaner had the most respect for. “Yes”, she answered, and brokeinto a friendly laugh that made her unable to speak straight away, “wellthen, that thing in there, you needn’t worry about how you’re goingto get rid of it. That’s all been sorted out.” Mrs. Samsa and Gretebent down over their letters as if intent on continuing with what they werewriting; Mr. Samsa saw that the cleaner wanted to start describing everythingin detail but, with outstretched hand, he made it quite clear that she was notto. So, as she was prevented from telling them all about it, she suddenlyremembered what a hurry she was in and, clearly peeved, called out“Cheerio then, everyone”, turned round sharply and left, slammingthe door terribly as she went.

“Tonight she gets sacked”, said Mr. Samsa, but he received no replyfrom either his wife or his daughter as the charwoman seemed to have destroyedthe peace they had only just gained. They got up and went over to the windowwhere they remained with their arms around each other. Mr. Samsa twisted roundin his chair to look at them and sat there watching for a while. Then he calledout: “Come here, then. Let’s forget about all that old stuff, shallwe. Come and give me a bit of attention”. The two women immediately didas he said, hurrying over to him where they kissed him and hugged him and thenthey quickly finished their letters.

After that, the three of them left the flat together, which was something theyhad not done for months, and took the tram out to the open country outside thetown. They had the tram, filled with warm sunshine, all to themselves. Leantback comfortably on their seats, they discussed their prospects and found thaton closer examination they were not at all bad—until then they had neverasked each other about their work but all three had jobs which were very goodand held particularly good promise for the future. The greatest improvement forthe time being, of course, would be achieved quite easily by moving house; whatthey needed now was a flat that was smaller and cheaper than the current onewhich had been chosen by Gregor, one that was in a better location and, most ofall, more practical. All the time, Grete was becoming livelier. With all theworry they had been having of late her cheeks had become pale, but, while theywere talking, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa were struck, almost simultaneously, with thethought of how their daughter was blossoming into a well built and beautifulyoung lady. They became quieter. Just from each other’s glance and almostwithout knowing it they agreed that it would soon be time to find a good manfor her. And, as if in confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions, assoon as they reached their destination Grete was the first to get up andstretch out her young body.

• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.”

• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ works.

• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of receipt of the work.

• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.