The Metamorphosis

This summary was created by AI (Konspekto) from the text of this edition. Quotes are checked against the book text automatically.

About this edition

• Author: Franz Kafka
• Title: Die Verwandlung
• Edition: Verlag der Weißen Bücher, Leipzig, 1915
• Edition language: German
• Original language: German
• Content pages: p. 1177–1230
• Rights: Public domain

About the author (AI note, not from the book's text)

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was a German-language writer born in Prague. His other works include The Trial and The Castle.

In brief

Gregor Samsa wakes to find himself transformed into a giant insect, yet his immediate worry is that he will miss work. He dislikes his job but depends on it to repay his parents’ debt to his employer. When a company representative arrives at the family apartment, Gregor opens his door. His appearance terrifies his family and sends the visitor fleeing, and his father forces him back into his room. His efforts to communicate fail because his altered voice is unintelligible. Grete, his sister, initially brings him food. As Gregor becomes accustomed to climbing, she tries to adapt his room to his changed needs, but he resists removing furniture that preserves his connection to his human life. Meanwhile, the family draws on its savings before the parents and Grete take paid work. Gregor’s father seriously injures him with an apple, leaving him impaired as his care becomes increasingly neglected. After lodgers discover Gregor, Grete declares that the family must be rid of him and refuses to recognize him as her brother. Gregor withdraws to his room, accepts that he must disappear, and dies before dawn. Relieved, the family begins planning a new future. The story links financial dependence and family obligation with failed communication, violence, and the erosion of recognition, while Gregor retains attachments to his former life.

Key ideas

1. Even after his transformation, Gregor initially remains preoccupied with work because he wants to repay his parents’ debts. When he can no longer support them, his father, mother, and sister Grete must earn their own living; after his death, they look toward the future with renewed confidence. — p. 1177–1230
2. Gregor wants to remain connected to his family, but they cannot understand his altered voice and are frightened by his appearance. He withdraws increasingly until Grete no longer recognizes him as her brother and he himself accepts that he must disappear. — p. 1177–1230
3. Gregor’s father responds violently to his attempts to approach the family, first forcing him back into his room and later seriously injuring him with an apple. The wound leaves Gregor permanently impaired while his family increasingly neglects him. — p. 1177–1230
4. Grete initially cares for Gregor and tries to adapt his room to his new needs, but he remains attached to memories of his former life and to his plans for her musical education. Caring for him gradually becomes a burden to her, and after his death their parents turn their attention to Grete’s future. — p. 1194–1230

Summary by chapter

I (p. 1177–1193)

• Gregor Samsa wakes as a giant insect and can barely control his body. He dislikes his job as a traveling salesman but intends to keep it until his parents’ debt to his employer is paid.
• Having missed an early train, Gregor fears his employer will suspect him of shirking. Calling in sick seems implausible to him because he has not missed work in five years.
• As his mother, father and sister knock on his locked doors, Gregor tries to conceal his altered voice. Painful attempts to get out of bed fail at first.
• A company representative arrives to question Gregor’s reliability. Gregor falls out of bed and promises to come to work soon, but no one outside understands him. His mother sends Grete for a doctor, and his father calls for a locksmith.
• Encouraged by their efforts, Gregor opens the door himself. The representative recoils and flees despite Gregor’s plea that he speak for him to their employer. Gregor’s legs carry him steadily for the first time when he tries to follow, but his approach panics his mother.
• His father drives him toward his room with a stick and a newspaper. Gregor turns too slowly to fit through the narrow doorway and becomes stuck while his father continues to push him forward.

II (p. 1194–1211)

• Gregor wakes injured in his room after his father’s shove. Milk no longer appeals to him, so he hides beneath the sofa and resolves to burden his family as little as possible. Grete discovers his changed taste and begins leaving food for him without watching him eat.
• Listening through the doors as the family considers its finances, Gregor learns that his father has savings, though they will not last long. He is ashamed at the prospect of his parents or seventeen-year-old sister working; he had hoped to pay for Grete’s violin studies.
• Grete notices that Gregor wants to look out the window but can barely stand seeing him. To spare her, he covers his hiding place beneath the sofa with a sheet.
• As Gregor begins crawling on the walls and ceiling, Grete wants to remove his furniture with their mother’s help. His mother fears that an empty room would deprive him of familiar surroundings and suggest that recovery is impossible.
• Gregor realizes the furniture still connects him to his former life and clings to a picture on the wall. His mother sees him and faints; when he tries to help, he frightens Grete.
• Grete tells their returning father about their mother’s collapse and Gregor’s appearance. Now employed, his father takes Gregor’s emergence for an attack and throws apples at him despite his attempt to retreat.

III (p. 1212–1230)

• An apple thrown by his father seriously wounds Gregor, and his mother pleads for his life. The family continues to tolerate him, but the wound permanently limits his movement. As all three work to support themselves, Grete feeds him carelessly, his room grows dirty, and she quarrels with their mother over cleaning it.
• Three lodgers move in, and Gregor’s room becomes a storage space. Hearing Grete play the violin, he crawls toward her, wanting her near him and hoping to tell her about his plans for her conservatory studies.
• The lodgers discover Gregor and give notice, refusing to pay. Exhausted, Grete says the creature cannot be her brother and demands that it be removed; her father agrees.
• Not wanting to frighten anyone, Gregor drags himself back into his room, and Grete locks the door. Unable to move and still fond of his family, he comes to believe he must disappear and dies before dawn.
• The cleaning woman finds Gregor’s body. His family is relieved, though Grete notices how thin he has become. Mr. Samsa dismisses the lodgers and stops the cleaning woman from describing how she disposed of the body.
• The three family members take a day off and travel into the countryside. Their jobs and the possibility of moving give them hope, while Grete’s parents notice that she has grown up and begin thinking of a future husband for her.

Quotes

“Wie aber, wenn jetzt alle Ruhe, aller Wohlstand, alle Zufriedenheit ein Ende mit Schrecken nehmen sollte?” — p. 1195

Translation: “But what if all their peace, all their prosperity, all their contentment were now to come to a terrible end?”

“Nichts sollte entfernt werden; alles mußte bleiben; die guten Einwirkungen der Möbel auf seinen Zustand konnte er nicht entbehren; und wenn die Möbel ihn hinderten, das sinnlose Herumkriechen zu betreiben, so war es kein Schaden, sondern ein großer Vorteil.” — p. 1206

Translation: “Nothing was to be removed; everything had to stay; he could not do without the beneficial effects the furniture had on his condition; and if the furniture prevented him from crawling about aimlessly, that was no harm but a great advantage.”

“War er ein Tier, da ihn Musik so ergriff? Ihm war, als zeige sich ihm der Weg zu der ersehnten unbekannten Nahrung.” — p. 1221

Translation: “Was he an animal, that music moved him so deeply? It seemed to him as though the way were opening before him to the unknown nourishment he longed for.”

“An seine Familie dachte er mit Rührung und Liebe zurück. Seine Meinung darüber, daß er verschwinden müsse, war womöglich noch entschiedener, als die seiner Schwester.” — p. 1226

Translation: “He thought back on his family with tenderness and love. His conviction that he must disappear was, if anything, even firmer than his sister’s.”