Metamorphosis

by Franz Kafka(trans David Wyllie)

Styled by LimpidSoft

Contents

I 4

II 34

III 65

2

The present document was derived fromtext provided by Project Gutenberg (docu-ment 5200) which was made available free ofcharge. This document is also free of charge.

I

ONE morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from trou-bled dreams, he found himself transformed in his

bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-likeback, and if he lifted his head a little he could see hisbrown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches intostiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover itand seemed ready to slide off any moment. His manylegs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest ofhim, waved about helplessly as he looked.

“What‘s happened to me?” he thought. It wasn‘t adream. His room, a proper human room although a littletoo small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls.

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A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table-Samsa was a travelling salesman-and above it there hunga picture that he had recently cut out of an illustratedmagazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame. It showeda lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat up-right, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole ofher lower arm towards the viewer.

Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dullweather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane,which made him feel quite sad. “How about if I sleep alittle bit longer and forget all this nonsense”, he thought,but that was something he was unable to do because hewas used to sleeping on his right, and in his present statecouldn‘t get into that position. However hard he threwhimself onto his right, he always rolled back to where hewas. He must have tried it a hundred times, shut his eyesso that he wouldn‘t have to look at the floundering legs,and only stopped when he began to feel a mild, dull painthere that he had never felt before.

“Oh, God”, he thought, ”what a strenuous career itis that I‘ve chosen! Travelling day in and day out. Do-ing business like this takes much more effort than doingyour own business at home, and on top of that there‘s thecurse of travelling, worries about making train connec-

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tions, bad and irregular food, contact with different peo-ple all the time so that you can never get to know anyoneor become friendly with them. It can all go to Hell!” Hefelt a slight itch up on his belly; pushed himself slowlyup on his back towards the headboard so that he couldlift his head better; found where the itch was, and sawthat it was covered with lots of little white spots whichhe didn‘t know what to make of; and when he tried tofeel the place with one of his legs he drew it quickly backbecause as soon as he touched it he was overcome by acold shudder.

He slid back into his former position. “Getting up earlyall the time”, he thought, ”it makes you stupid. You‘vegot to get enough sleep. Other travelling salesmen live alife of luxury. For instance, whenever I go back to theguest house during the morning to copy out the con-tract, these gentlemen are always still sitting there eatingtheir breakfasts. I ought to just try that with my boss; I‘dget kicked out on the spot. But who knows, maybe thatwould be the best thing for me. If I didn‘t have my par-ents to think about I‘d have given in my notice a long timeago, I‘d have gone up to the boss and told him just what Ithink, tell him everything I would, let him know just whatI feel. He‘d fall right off his desk! And it‘s a funny sort of

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business to be sitting up there at your desk, talking downat your subordinates from up there, especially when youhave to go right up close because the boss is hard of hear-ing. Well, there‘s still some hope; once I‘ve got the moneytogether to pay off my parents’ debt to him-another fiveor six years I suppose-that‘s definitely what I‘ll do. That‘swhen I‘ll make the big change. First of all though, I‘ve gotto get up, my train leaves at five.”

And he looked over at the alarm clock, ticking on thechest of drawers. “God in Heaven!” he thought. Itwas half past six and the hands were quietly moving for-wards, it was even later than half past, more like quarterto seven. Had the alarm clock not rung? He could seefrom the bed that it had been set for four o‘clock as itshould have been; it certainly must have rung. Yes, butwas it possible to quietly sleep through that furniture-rattling noise? True, he had not slept peacefully, but prob-ably all the more deeply because of that. What should hedo now? The next train went at seven; if he were to catchthat he would have to rush like mad and the collectionof samples was still not packed, and he did not at all feelparticularly fresh and lively. And even if he did catch thetrain he would not avoid his boss‘s anger as the office as-sistant would have been there to see the five o‘clock train

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go, he would have put in his report about Gregor‘s notbeing there a long time ago. The office assistant was theboss‘s man, spineless, and with no understanding. Whatabout if he reported sick? But that would be extremelystrained and suspicious as in fifteen years of service Gre-gor had never once yet been ill. His boss would certainlycome round with the doctor from the medical insurancecompany, accuse his parents of having a lazy son, and ac-cept the doctor‘s recommendation not to make any claimas the doctor believed that no-one was ever ill but thatmany were workshy. And what‘s more, would he havebeen entirely wrong in this case? Gregor did in fact, apartfrom excessive sleepiness after sleeping for so long, feelcompletely well and even felt much hungrier than usual.

He was still hurriedly thinking all this through, unableto decide to get out of the bed, when the clock struckquarter to seven. There was a cautious knock at thedoor near his head. “Gregor”, somebody called-it washis mother-”it‘s quarter to seven. Didn‘t you want to gosomewhere?” That gentle voice! Gregor was shockedwhen he heard his own voice answering, it could hardlybe recognised as the voice he had had before. As if fromdeep inside him, there was a painful and uncontrollablesqueaking mixed in with it, the words could be made out

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at first but then there was a sort of echo which made themunclear, leaving the hearer unsure whether he had heardproperly or not. Gregor had wanted to give a full answerand explain everything, but in the circumstances con-tented himself with saying: “Yes, mother, yes, thank-you,I‘m getting up now.” The change in Gregor‘s voice prob-ably could not be noticed outside through the woodendoor, as his mother was satisfied with this explanationand shuffled away. But this short conversation made theother members of the family aware that Gregor, againsttheir expectations was still at home, and soon his fathercame knocking at one of the side doors, gently, but withhis fist. “Gregor, Gregor”, he called, ”what‘s wrong?”And after a short while he called again with a warningdeepness in his voice: “Gregor! Gregor!” At the otherside door his sister came plaintively: “Gregor? Aren‘tyou well? Do you need anything?” Gregor answeredto both sides: “I‘m ready, now”, making an effort to re-move all the strangeness from his voice by enunciatingvery carefully and putting long pauses between each, in-dividual word. His father went back to his breakfast, buthis sister whispered: “Gregor, open the door, I beg ofyou.” Gregor, however, had no thought of opening thedoor, and instead congratulated himself for his cautious

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habit, acquired from his travelling, of locking all doors atnight even when he was at home.

The first thing he wanted to do was to get up in peacewithout being disturbed, to get dressed, and most of allto have his breakfast. Only then would he consider whatto do next, as he was well aware that he would not bringhis thoughts to any sensible conclusions by lying in bed.He remembered that he had often felt a slight pain in bed,perhaps caused by lying awkwardly, but that had alwaysturned out to be pure imagination and he wondered howhis imaginings would slowly resolve themselves today.He did not have the slightest doubt that the change inhis voice was nothing more than the first sign of a seri-ous cold, which was an occupational hazard for travellingsalesmen.

It was a simple matter to throw off the covers; he onlyhad to blow himself up a little and they fell off by them-selves. But it became difficult after that, especially as hewas so exceptionally broad. He would have used hisarms and his hands to push himself up; but instead ofthem he only had all those little legs continuously mov-ing in different directions, and which he was moreoverunable to control. If he wanted to bend one of them, thenthat was the first one that would stretch itself out; and if

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he finally managed to do what he wanted 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 partof his body out of the bed, but he had never seen thislower part, and could not imagine what it looked like; itturned out to be too hard to move; it went so slowly; andfinally, almost in a frenzy, when he carelessly shoved him-self forwards with all the force he could gather, he chosethe wrong direction, hit hard against the lower bedpost,and learned from the burning pain he felt that the lowerpart of his body might well, at present, be the most sensi-tive.

So then he tried to get the top part of his body out ofthe bed first, carefully turning his head to the side. Thishe managed quite easily, and despite its breadth and itsweight, the bulk of his body eventually followed slowlyin the direction of the head. But when he had at last gothis head out of the bed and into the fresh air it occurredto him that if he let himself fall it would be a miracle ifhis head were not injured, so he became afraid to carryon pushing himself forward the same way. And he couldnot knock himself out now at any price; better to stay in

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bed than lose consciousness.It took just as much effort to get back to where he had

been earlier, but when he lay there sighing, and was oncemore watching his legs as they struggled against eachother even harder than before, if that was possible, hecould think of no way of bringing peace and order to thischaos. He told himself once more that it was not possiblefor him to stay in bed and that the most sensible thing todo would be to get free of it in whatever way he couldat whatever sacrifice. At the same time, though, he didnot forget to remind himself that calm consideration wasmuch better than rushing to desperate conclusions. Attimes like this he would direct his eyes to the windowand look out as clearly as he could, but unfortunately,even the other side of the narrow street was enveloped inmorning fog and the view had little confidence or cheerto offer him. “Seven o‘clock, already”, he said to himselfwhen the clock struck again, ”seven o‘clock, and there‘sstill a fog like this.” And he lay there quietly a whilelonger, breathing lightly as if he perhaps expected the to-tal stillness to bring things back to their real and naturalstate.

But then he said to himself: “Before it strikes quarterpast seven I‘ll definitely have to have got properly out of

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bed. And by then somebody will have come round fromwork to ask what‘s happened to me as well, as they openup at work before seven o‘clock.” And so he set himselfto the task of swinging the entire length of his body out ofthe bed all at the same time. If he succeeded in falling outof bed in this way and kept his head raised as he did sohe could probably avoid injuring it. His back seemed tobe quite hard, and probably nothing would happen to itfalling onto the carpet. His main concern was for the loudnoise he was bound to make, and which even through allthe 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 thebed-the new method was more of a game than an effort,all he had to do was rock back and forth-it occurred tohim how simple everything would be if somebody cameto help him. Two strong people-he had his father and themaid in mind-would have been more than enough; theywould only have to push their arms under the dome ofhis back, peel him away from the bed, bend down withthe load and then be patient and careful as he swang overonto the floor, where, hopefully, the little legs would finda use. Should he really call for help though, even apartfrom the fact that all the doors were locked? Despite all

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the difficulty he was in, he could not suppress a smile atthis thought.

After a while he had already moved so far across thatit would have been hard for him to keep his balance if herocked too hard. The time was now ten past seven andhe would have to make a final decision very soon. Thenthere was a ring at the door of the flat. “That‘ll be some-one from work”, he said to himself, and froze very still,although his little legs only became all the more lively asthey danced around. For a moment everything remainedquiet. “They‘re not opening the door”, Gregor said tohimself, caught in some nonsensical hope. But then ofcourse, the maid‘s firm steps went to the door as everand opened it. Gregor only needed to hear the visitor‘sfirst words of greeting and he knew who it was-the chiefclerk himself. Why did Gregor have to be the only onecondemned to work for a company where they imme-diately became highly suspicious at the slightest short-coming? Were all employees, every one of them, louts,was there not one of them who was faithful and devotedwho would go so mad with pangs of conscience that hecouldn‘t get out of bed if he didn‘t spend at least a coupleof hours in the morning on company business? Was it re-ally not enough to let one of the trainees make enquiries-

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assuming enquiries were even necessary-did the chiefclerk have to come himself, and did they have to show thewhole, innocent family that this was so suspicious thatonly the chief clerk could be trusted to have the wisdomto investigate it? And more because these thoughts hadmade him upset than through any proper decision, heswang himself with all his force out of the bed. There wasa loud thump, but it wasn‘t really a loud noise. His fallwas softened a little by the carpet, and Gregor‘s back wasalso more elastic than he had thought, which made thesound muffled and not too noticeable. He had not heldhis head carefully enough, though, and hit it as he fell;annoyed and in pain, he turned it and rubbed it againstthe carpet.

“Something‘s fallen down in there”, said the chief clerkin the room on the left. Gregor tried to imagine whethersomething of the sort that had happened to him todaycould ever happen to the chief clerk too; you had to con-cede that it was possible. But as if in gruff reply to thisquestion, the chief clerk‘s firm footsteps in his highly pol-ished boots could now be heard in the adjoining room.From the room on his right, Gregor‘s sister whispered tohim to let him know: “Gregor, the chief clerk is here.”“Yes, I know”, said Gregor to himself; but without daring

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to raise his voice loud enough for his sister to hear him.

“Gregor”, said his father now from the room to his left,”the chief clerk has come round and wants to know whyyou didn‘t leave on the early train. We don‘t know whatto say to him. And anyway, he wants to speak to youpersonally. So please open up this door. I‘m sure he‘llbe good enough to forgive the untidiness of your room.”Then the chief clerk called “Good morning, Mr. Samsa”.“He isn‘t well”, said his mother to the chief clerk, whilehis father continued to speak through the door. “He isn‘twell, please believe me. Why else would Gregor havemissed a train! The lad only ever thinks about the busi-ness. It nearly makes me cross the way he never goesout in the evenings; he‘s been in town for a week nowbut stayed home every evening. He sits with us in thekitchen and just reads the paper or studies train timeta-bles. His idea of relaxation is working with his fretsaw.He‘s made a little frame, for instance, it only took himtwo 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 Gre-gor opens the door. Anyway, I‘m glad you‘re here; wewouldn‘t have been able to get Gregor to open the doorby ourselves; he‘s so stubborn; and I‘m sure he isn‘t well,he said this morning that he is, but he isn‘t.” “I‘ll be there

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in a moment”, said Gregor slowly and thoughtfully, butwithout moving so that he would not miss any word ofthe conversation. “Well I can‘t think of any other way ofexplaining it, Mrs. Samsa”, said the chief clerk, “I hopeit‘s nothing serious. But on the other hand, I must saythat if we people in commerce ever become slightly un-well then, fortunately or unfortunately as you like, wesimply have to overcome it because of business consid-erations.” “Can the chief clerk come in to see you nowthen?”, asked his father impatiently, knocking at the dooragain. “No”, said Gregor. In the room on his right therefollowed a painful silence; in the room on his left his sisterbegan to cry.

So why did his sister not go and join the others? Shehad probably only just got up and had not even begun toget dressed. And why was she crying? Was it because hehad not got up, and had not let the chief clerk in, becausehe was in danger of losing his job and if that happenedhis boss would once more pursue their parents with thesame demands as before? There was no need to worryabout things like that yet. Gregor was still there and hadnot the slightest intention of abandoning his family. Forthe time being he just lay there on the carpet, and no-one who knew the condition he was in would seriously

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have expected him to let the chief clerk in. It was only aminor discourtesy, and a suitable excuse could easily befound for it later on, it was not something for which Gre-gor could be sacked on the spot. And it seemed to Gregormuch more sensible to leave him now in peace instead ofdisturbing him with talking at him and crying. But theothers didn‘t know what was happening, they were wor-ried, that would excuse their behaviour.

The chief clerk now raised his voice, “Mr. Samsa”, hecalled to him, ”what is wrong? You barricade yourself inyour room, give us no more than yes or no for an answer,you are causing serious and unnecessary concern to yourparents and you fail-and I mention this just by the way-you fail to carry out your business duties in a way thatis quite unheard of. I‘m speaking here on behalf of yourparents and of your employer, and really must request aclear and immediate explanation. I am astonished, quiteastonished. I thought I knew you as a calm and sensibleperson, and now you suddenly seem to be showing offwith peculiar whims. This morning, your employer didsuggest a possible reason for your failure to appear, it‘strue-it had to do with the money that was recently en-trusted to you-but I came near to giving him my wordof honour that that could not be the right explanation.

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But now that I see your incomprehensible stubbornness Ino longer feel any wish whatsoever to intercede on yourbehalf. And nor is your position all that secure. I hadoriginally intended to say all this to you in private, butsince you cause me to waste my time here for no goodreason I don‘t see why your parents should not also learnof it. Your turnover has been very unsatisfactory of late;I grant you that it‘s not the time of year to do especiallygood business, we recognise that; but there simply is notime of year to do no business at all, Mr. Samsa, we can-not allow there to be.”

“But Sir”, called Gregor, beside himself and forgettingall else in the excitement, “I‘ll open up immediately, justa moment. I‘m slightly unwell, an attack of dizziness, Ihaven‘t been able to get up. I‘m still in bed now. I‘m quitefresh again now, though. I‘m just getting out of bed. Just amoment. Be patient! It‘s not quite as easy as I‘d thought.I‘m quite alright now, though. It‘s shocking, what cansuddenly happen to a person! I was quite alright lastnight, my parents know about it, perhaps better than me,I had a small symptom of it last night already. They musthave noticed it. I don‘t know why I didn‘t let you knowat work! But you always think you can get over an illnesswithout staying at home. Please, don‘t make my parents

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suffer! There‘s no basis for any of the accusations you‘remaking; nobody‘s ever said a word to me about any ofthese things. Maybe you haven‘t read the latest contractsI sent in. I‘ll set off with the eight o‘clock train, as well,these few hours of rest have given me strength. You don‘tneed to wait, sir; I‘ll be in the office soon after you, andplease be so good as to tell that to the boss and recom-mend me to him!”

And while Gregor gushed out these words, hardlyknowing what he was saying, he made his way over tothe chest of drawers-this was easily done, probably be-cause of the practise he had already had in bed-where henow tried to get himself upright. He really did want toopen the door, really did want to let them see him andto speak with the chief clerk; the others were being soinsistent, and he was curious to learn what they wouldsay when they caught sight of him. If they were shockedthen it would no longer be Gregor‘s responsibility and hecould rest. If, however, they took everything calmly hewould still have no reason to be upset, and if he hurriedhe really could be at the station for eight o‘clock. Thefirst few times he tried to climb up on the smooth chest ofdrawers he just slid down again, but he finally gave him-self one last swing and stood there upright; the lower part

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of his body was in serious pain but he no longer gave anyattention to it. Now he let himself fall against the back ofa nearby chair and held tightly to the edges of it with hislittle legs. By now he had also calmed down, and keptquiet so that he could listen to what the chief clerk wassaying.

“Did you understand a word of all that?” the chiefclerk asked his parents, ”surely he‘s not trying to makefools of us”. “Oh, God!” called his mother, who was al-ready in tears, ”he could be seriously ill and we‘re mak-ing him suffer. Grete! Grete!” she then cried. “Mother?”his sister called from the other side. They communicatedacross Gregor‘s room. “You‘ll have to go for the doctorstraight away. Gregor is ill. Quick, get the doctor. Didyou hear the way Gregor spoke just now?” “That was thevoice of an animal”, said the chief clerk, with a calmnessthat was in contrast with his mother‘s screams. “Anna!Anna!” his father called into the kitchen through the en-trance hall, clapping his hands, ”get a locksmith here,now!” And the two girls, their skirts swishing, immedi-ately ran out through the hall, wrenching open the frontdoor of the flat as they went. How had his sister managedto get dressed so quickly? There was no sound of the doorbanging shut again; they must have left it open; people

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often do in homes where something awful has happened.Gregor, in contrast, had become much calmer. So they

couldn‘t understand his words any more, although theyseemed clear enough to him, clearer than before-perhapshis ears had become used to the sound. They had re-alised, though, that there was something wrong withhim, and were ready to help. The first response to hissituation had been confident and wise, and that madehim feel better. He felt that he had been drawn back inamong people, and from the doctor and the locksmithhe expected great and surprising achievements-althoughhe did not really distinguish one from the other. What-ever was said next would be crucial, so, in order to makehis voice as clear as possible, he coughed a little, but tak-ing care to do this not too loudly as even this might wellsound different from the way that a human coughs andhe was no longer sure he could judge this for himself.Meanwhile, it had become very quiet in the next room.Perhaps his parents were sat at the table whispering withthe chief clerk, or perhaps they were all pressed againstthe door and listening.

Gregor slowly pushed his way over to the door withthe chair. Once there he let go of it and threw himself ontothe door, holding himself upright against it using the ad-

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hesive on the tips of his legs. He rested there a little whileto recover from the effort involved and then set himself tothe task of turning the key in the lock with his mouth. Heseemed, unfortunately, to have no proper teeth-how washe, then, to grasp the key?-but the lack of teeth was, ofcourse, made up for with a very strong jaw; using the jaw,he really was able to start the key turning, ignoring thefact that he must have been causing some kind of damageas a brown fluid came from his mouth, flowed over thekey and dripped onto the floor. “Listen”, said the chiefclerk in the next room, ”he‘s turning the key.” Gregorwas greatly encouraged by this; but they all should havebeen calling to him, his father and his mother too: “Welldone, Gregor”, they should have cried, ”keep at it, keephold of the lock!” And with the idea that they were allexcitedly following his efforts, he bit on the key with allhis strength, paying no attention to the pain he was caus-ing himself. As the key turned round he turned aroundthe lock with it, only holding himself upright with hismouth, and hung onto the key or pushed it down againwith the whole weight of his body as needed. The clearsound of the lock as it snapped back was Gregor‘s signthat he could break his concentration, and as he regainedhis breath he said to himself: “So, I didn‘t need the lock-

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smith after all”. Then he lay his head on the handle of thedoor to open it completely.

Because he had to open the door in this way, it was al-ready wide open before he could be seen. He had firstto slowly turn himself around one of the double doors,and he had to do it very carefully if he did not want tofall flat on his back before entering the room. He was stilloccupied with this difficult movement, unable to pay at-tention to anything else, when he heard the chief clerkexclaim a loud “Oh!”, which sounded like the soughingof the wind. Now he also saw him-he was the nearestto the door-his hand pressed against his open mouth andslowly retreating as if driven by a steady and invisibleforce. Gregor‘s mother, her hair still dishevelled frombed despite the chief clerk‘s being there, looked at his fa-ther. Then she unfolded her arms, took two steps forwardtowards Gregor and sank down onto the floor into herskirts that spread themselves out around her as her headdisappeared down onto her breast. His father looked hos-tile, and clenched his fists as if wanting to knock Gregorback into his room. Then he looked uncertainly round theliving 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

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the inside of the other door which was still held boltedin place. In this way only half of his body could beseen, along with his head above it which he leant overto one side as he peered out at the others. Meanwhilethe day had become much lighter; part of the endless,grey-black building on the other side of the street-whichwas a hospital-could be seen quite clearly with the aus-tere and regular line of windows piercing its facade; therain was still falling, now throwing down large, individ-ual droplets which hit the ground one at a time. Thewashing up from breakfast lay on the table; there was somuch of it because, for Gregor‘s father, breakfast was themost important meal of the day and he would stretch itout for several hours as he sat reading a number of differ-ent newspapers. On the wall exactly opposite there wasphotograph of Gregor when he was a lieutenant in thearmy, his sword in his hand and a carefree smile on hisface as he called forth respect for his uniform and bear-ing. The door to the entrance hall was open and as thefront door of the flat was also open he could see onto thelanding and the stairs where they began their way downbelow.

“Now, then”, said Gregor, well aware that he was theonly one to have kept calm, “I‘ll get dressed straight away

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now, pack up my samples and set off. Will you pleasejust let me leave? You can see”, he said to the chief clerk,”that I‘m not stubborn and like I like to do my job; beinga commercial traveller is arduous but without travelling Icouldn‘t earn my living. So where are you going, in to theoffice? Yes? Will you report everything accurately, then?It‘s quite possible for someone to be temporarily unableto work, but that‘s just the right time to remember what‘sbeen achieved in the past and consider that later on, oncethe difficulty has been removed, he will certainly workwith all the more diligence and concentration. You‘rewell aware that I‘m seriously in debt to our employer aswell as having to look after my parents and my sister, sothat I‘m trapped in a difficult situation, but I will work myway out of it again. Please don‘t make things any harderfor me than they are already, and don‘t take sides againstme at the office. I know that nobody likes the travellers.They think we earn an enormous wage as well as hav-ing a soft time of it. That‘s just prejudice but they haveno particular reason to think better it. But you, sir, youhave a better overview than the rest of the staff, in fact,if I can say this in confidence, a better overview than theboss himself-it‘s very easy for a businessman like him tomake mistakes about his employees and judge them more

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harshly than he should. And you‘re also well aware thatwe travellers spend almost the whole year away from theoffice, so that we can very easily fall victim to gossip andchance and groundless complaints, and it‘s almost impos-sible to defend yourself from that sort of thing, we don‘tusually even hear about them, or if at all it‘s when we ar-rive back home exhausted from a trip, and that‘s whenwe feel the harmful effects of what‘s been going on with-out even knowing what caused them. Please, don‘t goaway, at least first say something to show that you grantthat I‘m at least partly right!”

But the chief clerk had turned away as soon as Gre-gor had started to speak, and, with protruding lips, onlystared back at him over his trembling shoulders as heleft. He did not keep still for a moment while Gregorwas speaking, but moved steadily towards the door with-out taking his eyes off him. He moved very gradually, asif there had been some secret prohibition on leaving theroom. It was only when he had reached the entrance hallthat he made a sudden movement, drew his foot from theliving room, and rushed forward in a panic. In the hall, hestretched his right hand far out towards the stairway as ifout there, there were some supernatural force waiting tosave him.

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Gregor realised that it was out of the question to letthe chief clerk go away in this mood if his position inthe firm was not to be put into extreme danger. Thatwas something his parents did not understand very well;over the years, they had become convinced that this jobwould provide for Gregor for his entire life, 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 the future. The chief clerk had to be heldback, calmed down, convinced and finally won over; thefuture of Gregor and his family depended on it! If onlyhis sister were here! She was clever; she was already intears while Gregor was still lying peacefully on his back.And the chief clerk was a lover of women, surely shecould persuade him; she would close the front door in theentrance hall and talk him out of his shocked state. Buthis sister was not there, Gregor would have to do the jobhimself. And without considering that he still was not fa-miliar with how well he could move about in his presentstate, or that his speech still might not-or probably wouldnot-be understood, he let go of the door; pushed him-self through the opening; tried to reach the chief clerk onthe landing who, ridiculously, was holding on to the ban-ister with both hands; but Gregor fell immediately over

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and, with a little scream as he sought something to holdonto, landed on his numerous little legs. Hardly had thathappened than, for the first time that day, he began tofeel alright with his body; the little legs had the solidground under them; to his pleasure, they did exactly as hetold them; they were even making the effort to carry himwhere he wanted to go; and he was soon believing thatall his sorrows would soon be finally at an end. He heldback the urge to move but swayed from side to side as hecrouched there on the floor. His mother was not far awayin front of him and seemed, at first, quite engrossed inherself, but then she suddenly jumped up with her armsoutstretched and her fingers spread shouting: “Help, forpity‘s sake, Help!” The way she held her head suggestedshe wanted to see Gregor better, but the unthinking wayshe was hurrying backwards showed that she did not; shehad forgotten that the table was behind her with all thebreakfast things on it; when she reached the table she satquickly down on it without knowing what she was do-ing; without even seeming to notice that the coffee pothad been knocked over and a gush of coffee was pouringdown onto the carpet.

“Mother, mother”, said Gregor gently, looking up ather. He had completely forgotten the chief clerk for the

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moment, but could not help himself snapping in the airwith his jaws at the sight of the flow of coffee. That sethis mother screaming anew, she fled from the table andinto the arms of his father as he rushed towards her. Gre-gor, though, had no time to spare for his parents now; thechief clerk had already reached the stairs; with his chinon the banister, he looked back for the last time. Gre-gor made a run for him; he wanted to be sure of reach-ing him; the chief clerk must have expected something,as he leapt down several steps at once and disappeared;his shouts resounding all around the staircase. The flightof the chief clerk seemed, unfortunately, to put Gregor‘sfather into a panic as well. Until then he had been rel-atively self controlled, but now, instead of running afterthe chief clerk himself, or at least not impeding Gregor ashe ran after him, Gregor‘s father seized the chief clerk‘sstick in his right hand (the chief clerk had left it behindon a chair, along with his hat and overcoat), picked upa large newspaper from the table with his left, and usedthem to drive Gregor back into his room, stamping hisfoot at him as he went. Gregor‘s appeals to his father wereof no help, his appeals were simply not understood, how-ever much he humbly turned his head his father merelystamped his foot all the harder. Across the room, de-

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spite the chilly weather, Gregor‘s mother had pulled opena window, leant far out of it and pressed her hands toher face. A strong draught of air flew in from the streettowards the stairway, the curtains flew up, the newspa-pers on the table fluttered and some of them were blownonto the floor. Nothing would stop Gregor‘s father as hedrove him back, making hissing noises at him like a wildman. Gregor had never had any practice in moving back-wards and was only able to go very slowly. If Gregorhad only been allowed to turn round he would have beenback in his room straight away, but he was afraid that ifhe took the time to do that his father would become im-patient, and there was the threat of a lethal blow to hisback or head from the stick in his father‘s hand any mo-ment. Eventually, though, Gregor realised that he had nochoice as he saw, to his disgust, that he was quite inca-pable of going backwards in a straight line; so he began,as quickly as possible and with frequent anxious glancesat his father, to turn himself round. It went very slowly,but perhaps his father was able to see his good intentionsas he did nothing to hinder him, in fact now and then heused the tip of his stick to give directions from a distanceas to which way to turn. If only his father would stopthat unbearable hissing! It was making Gregor quite con-

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fused. When he had nearly finished turning round, stilllistening to that hissing, he made a mistake and turnedhimself back a little the way he had just come. He waspleased when he finally had his head in front of the door-way, but then saw that it was too narrow, and his bodywas too broad to get through it without further difficulty.In his present mood, it obviously did not occur to his fa-ther to open the other of the double doors so that Gre-gor would have enough space to get through. He wasmerely fixed on the idea that Gregor should be got backinto his room as quickly as possible. Nor would he everhave allowed Gregor the time to get himself upright aspreparation for getting through the doorway. What hedid, making more noise than ever, was to drive Gregorforwards all the harder as if there had been nothing inthe way; it sounded to Gregor as if there was now morethan one father behind him; it was not a pleasant experi-ence, and Gregor pushed himself into the doorway with-out regard for what might happen. One side of his bodylifted itself, he lay at an angle in the doorway, one flankscraped on the white door and was painfully injured,leaving vile brown flecks on it, soon he was stuck fast andwould not have been able to move at all by himself, thelittle legs along one side hung quivering in the air while

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those on the other side were pressed painfully against theground. Then his father gave him a hefty shove from be-hind which released him from where he was held andsent him flying, and heavily bleeding, deep into his room.The door was slammed shut with the stick, then, finally,all was quiet.

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IT was not until it was getting dark that evening thatGregor awoke from his deep and coma-like sleep. He

would have woken soon afterwards anyway even if hehadn‘t been disturbed, as he had had enough sleep andfelt fully rested. But he had the impression that some hur-ried steps and the sound of the door leading into the frontroom being carefully shut had woken him. The light fromthe electric street lamps shone palely here and there ontothe ceiling and tops of the furniture, but down below,where Gregor was, it was dark. He pushed himself overto the door, feeling his way clumsily with his antennae-ofwhich he was now beginning to learn the value-in orderto see what had been happening there. The whole of his

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left side seemed like one, painfully stretched scar, and helimped badly on his two rows of legs. One of the legshad been badly injured in the events of that morning-itwas nearly a miracle that only one of them had been-anddragged along lifelessly.

It was only when he had reached the door that he re-alised what it actually was that had drawn him over toit; it was the smell of something to eat. By the door therewas a dish filled with sweetened milk with little piecesof white bread floating in it. He was so pleased he al-most laughed, as he was even hungrier than he had beenthat morning, and immediately dipped his head into themilk, nearly covering his eyes with it. But he soon drewhis head back again in disappointment; not only did thepain in his tender left side make it difficult to eat the food-he was only able to eat if his whole body worked togetheras a snuffling whole-but the milk did not taste at all nice.Milk like this was normally his favourite drink, and hissister had certainly left it there for him because of that,but he turned, almost against his own will, away fromthe dish and crawled back into the centre of the room.

Through the crack in the door, Gregor could see thatthe gas had been lit in the living room. His father atthis time would normally be sat with his evening paper,

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reading it out in a loud voice to Gregor‘s mother, andsometimes to his sister, but there was now not a soundto be heard. Gregor‘s sister would often write and tellhim about this reading, but maybe his father had lost thehabit in recent times. It was so quiet all around too, eventhough there must have been somebody in the flat. “Whata quiet life it is the family lead”, said Gregor to himself,and, gazing into the darkness, felt a great pride that hewas able to provide a life like that in such a nice home forhis sister and parents. But what now, if all this peace andwealth and comfort should come to a horrible and fright-ening end? That was something that Gregor did not wantto 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 ofthe room was opened very slightly and hurriedly closedagain; later on the door on the other side did the same;it seemed that someone needed to enter the room butthought better of it. Gregor went and waited immediatelyby the door, resolved either to bring the timorous visitorinto the room in some way or at least to find out who itwas; but the door was opened no more that night andGregor waited in vain. The previous morning while thedoors were locked everyone had wanted to get in there

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to him, but now, now that he had opened up one of thedoors and the other had clearly been unlocked some timeduring the day, no-one came, and the keys were in theother sides.

It was not until late at night that the gaslight in the liv-ing room was put out, and now it was easy to see thatparents and sister had stayed awake all that time, as theyall could be distinctly heard as they went away togetheron tip-toe. It was clear that no-one would come into Gre-gor‘s room any more until morning; that gave him plentyof time to think undisturbed about how he would have tore-arrange his life. For some reason, the tall, empty roomwhere he was forced to remain made him feel uneasy ashe lay there flat on the floor, even though he had beenliving in it for five years. Hardly aware of what he wasdoing other than a slight feeling of shame, he hurried un-der the couch. It pressed down on his back a little, and hewas no longer able to lift his head, but he nonetheless feltimmediately at ease and his only regret was that his bodywas too broad to get it all underneath.

He spent the whole night there. Some of the time hepassed in a light sleep, although he frequently woke fromit in alarm because of his hunger, and some of the timewas spent in worries and vague hopes which, however,

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always led to the same conclusion: for the time being hemust remain calm, he must show patience and the great-est consideration so that his family could bear the un-pleasantness that he, in his present condition, was forcedto impose on them.

Gregor soon had the opportunity to test the strengthof his decisions, as early the next morning, almost be-fore the night had ended, his sister, nearly fully dressed,opened the door from the front room and looked anx-iously in. She did not see him straight away, but when shedid notice him under the couch-he had to be somewhere,for God‘s sake, he couldn‘t have flown away-she wasso shocked that she lost control of herself and slammedthe door shut again from outside. But she seemed to re-gret her behaviour, as she opened the door again straightaway and came in on tip-toe as if entering the room ofsomeone seriously ill or even of a stranger. Gregor hadpushed his head forward, right to the edge of the couch,and watched her. Would she notice that he had left themilk as it was, realise that it was not from any lack ofhunger and bring him in some other food that was moresuitable? If she didn‘t do it herself he would rather gohungry than draw her attention to it, although he didfeel a terrible urge to rush forward from under the couch,

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throw himself at his sister‘s feet and beg her for some-thing good to eat. However, his sister noticed the full dishimmediately and looked at it and the few drops of milksplashed around it with some surprise. She immediatelypicked it up-using a rag, not her bare hands-and carried itout. Gregor was extremely curious as to what she wouldbring in its place, imagining the wildest possibilities, buthe never could have guessed what his sister, in her good-ness, actually did bring. In order to test his taste, shebrought him a whole selection of things, all spread outon an old newspaper. There were old, half-rotten veg-etables; bones from the evening meal, covered in whitesauce that had gone hard; a few raisins and almonds;some cheese that Gregor had declared inedible two daysbefore; a dry roll and some bread spread with butter andsalt. As well as all that she had poured some water intothe dish, which had probably been permanently set asidefor Gregor‘s use, and placed it beside them. Then, outof consideration for Gregor‘s feelings, as she knew thathe would not eat in front of her, she hurried out againand even turned the key in the lock so that Gregor wouldknow he could make things as comfortable for himself ashe liked. Gregor‘s little legs whirred, at last he could eat.What‘s more, his injuries must already have completely

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healed as he found no difficulty in moving. This amazedhim, as more than a month earlier he had cut his fingerslightly with a knife, he thought of how his finger hadstill hurt the day before yesterday. “Am I less sensitivethan I used to be, then?”, he thought, and was alreadysucking greedily at the cheese which had immediately,almost compellingly, attracted him much more than theother foods on the newspaper. Quickly one after another,his eyes watering with pleasure, he consumed the cheese,the vegetables and the sauce; the fresh foods, on the otherhand, he didn‘t like at all, and even dragged the things hedid want to eat a little way away from them because hecouldn‘t stand the smell. Long after he had finished eat-ing and lay lethargic in the same place, his sister slowlyturned the key in the lock as a sign to him that he shouldwithdraw. He was immediately startled, although he hadbeen half asleep, and he hurried back under the couch.But he needed great self-control to stay there even for theshort time that his sister was in the room, as eating somuch food had rounded out his body a little and he couldhardly breathe in that narrow space. Half suffocating, hewatched with bulging eyes as his sister unselfconsciouslytook a broom and swept up the left-overs, mixing them inwith the food he had not even touched at all as if it could

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not be used any more. She quickly dropped it all into abin, closed it with its wooden lid, and carried everythingout. She had hardly turned her back before Gregor cameout again from under the couch and stretched himself.

This was how Gregor received his food each day now,once in the morning while his parents and the maid werestill asleep, and the second time after everyone had eatentheir meal at midday as his parents would sleep for a littlewhile then as well, and Gregor‘s sister would send themaid away on some errand. Gregor‘s father and mothercertainly did not want him to starve either, but perhaps itwould have been more than they could stand to have anymore experience of his feeding than being told about it,and perhaps his sister wanted to spare them what distressshe could as they were indeed suffering enough.

It was impossible for Gregor to find out what they hadtold the doctor and the locksmith that first morning toget them out of the flat. As nobody could understandhim, nobody, not even his sister, thought that he couldunderstand them, so he had to be content to hear his sis-ter‘s sighs and appeals to the saints as she moved abouthis room. It was only later, when she had become a littlemore used to everything-there was, of course, no ques-tion of her ever becoming fully used to the situation-that

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Gregor would sometimes catch a friendly comment, orat least a comment that could be construed as friendly.“He‘s enjoyed his dinner today”, she might say when hehad diligently cleared away all the food left for him, orif he left most of it, which slowly became more and morefrequent, she would often say, sadly, ”now everything‘sjust been left there again”.

Although Gregor wasn‘t able to hear any news di-rectly he did listen to much of what was said in thenext rooms, and whenever he heard anyone speaking hewould scurry straight to the appropriate door and presshis whole body against it. There was seldom any con-versation, especially at first, that was not about him insome way, even if only in secret. For two whole days, allthe talk at every mealtime was about what they shoulddo now; but even between meals they spoke about thesame subject as there were always at least two membersof the family at home-nobody wanted to be at home bythemselves and it was out of the question to leave the flatentirely empty. And on the very first day the maid hadfallen to her knees and begged Gregor‘s mother to let hergo without delay. It was not very clear how much sheknew of what had happened but she left within a quar-ter of an hour, tearfully thanking Gregor‘s mother for her

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dismissal as if she had done her an enormous service.She even swore emphatically not to tell anyone the slight-est about what had happened, even though no-one hadasked that of her.

Now Gregor‘s sister also had to help his mother withthe cooking; although that was not so much bother as no-one ate very much. Gregor often heard how one of themwould unsuccessfully urge another to eat, and receive nomore answer than ”no thanks, I‘ve had enough” or some-thing similar. No-one drank very much either. His sisterwould sometimes ask his father whether he would likea beer, hoping for the chance to go and fetch it herself.When his father then said nothing she would add, so thathe would not feel selfish, that she could send the house-keeper for it, but then his father would close the matterwith a big, loud “No”, and no more would be said.

Even before the first day had come to an end, his fatherhad explained to Gregor‘s mother and sister what theirfinances and prospects were. Now and then he stood upfrom the table and took some receipt or document fromthe little cash box he had saved from his business whenit had collapsed five years earlier. Gregor heard how heopened the complicated lock and then closed it again af-ter he had taken the item he wanted. What he heard his

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father say was some of the first good news that Gregorheard since he had first been incarcerated in his room.He had thought that nothing at all remained from his fa-ther‘s business, at least he had never told him anythingdifferent, and Gregor had never asked him about it any-way. Their business misfortune had reduced the familyto a state of total despair, and Gregor‘s only concern atthat time had been to arrange things so that they could allforget about it as quickly as possible. So then he startedworking especially hard, with a fiery vigour that raisedhim from a junior salesman to a travelling representa-tive almost overnight, bringing with it the chance to earnmoney in quite different ways. Gregor converted his suc-cess at work straight into cash that he could lay on thetable at home for the benefit of his astonished and de-lighted family. They had been good times and they hadnever come again, at least not with the same splendour,even though Gregor had later earned so much that hewas in a position to bear the costs of the whole family,and did bear them. They had even got used to it, bothGregor and the family, they took the money with grati-tude and he was glad to provide it, although there was nolonger much warm affection given in return. Gregor onlyremained close to his sister now. Unlike him, she was

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very fond of music and a gifted and expressive violin-ist, it was his secret plan to send her to the conservatorynext year even though it would cause great expense thatwould have to be made up for in some other way. DuringGregor‘s short periods in town, conversation with his sis-ter would often turn to the conservatory but it was onlyever mentioned as a lovely dream that could never be re-alised. Their parents did not like to hear this innocenttalk, but Gregor thought about it quite hard and decidedhe would let them know what he planned with a grandannouncement of it on Christmas day.

That was the sort of totally pointless thing that wentthrough his mind in his present state, pressed uprightagainst the door and listening. There were times when hesimply became too tired to continue listening, when hishead would fall wearily against the door and he wouldpull it up again with a start, as even the slightest noisehe caused would be heard next door and they would allgo silent. “What‘s that he‘s doing now”, his father wouldsay after a while, clearly having gone over to the door,and only then would the interrupted conversation slowlybe taken up again.

When explaining things, his father repeated himselfseveral times, partly because it was a long time since

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he had been occupied with these matters himself andpartly because Gregor‘s mother did not understand ev-erything first time. From these repeated explanationsGregor learned, to his pleasure, that despite all their mis-fortunes there was still some money available from theold days. It was not a lot, but it had not been touchedin the meantime and some interest had accumulated. Be-sides that, they had not been using up all the money thatGregor had been bringing home every month, keepingonly a little for himself, so that that, too, had been accu-mulating. Behind the door, Gregor nodded with enthusi-asm in his pleasure at this unexpected thrift and caution.He could actually have used this surplus money to reducehis father‘s debt to his boss, and the day when he couldhave freed himself from that job would have come muchcloser, but now it was certainly better the way his fatherhad done things.

This money, however, was certainly not enough to en-able the family to live off the interest; it was enough tomaintain them for, perhaps, one or two years, no more.That‘s to say, it was money that should not really betouched but set aside for emergencies; money to live onhad to be earned. His father was healthy but old, andlacking in self confidence. During the five years that he

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had not been working-the first holiday in a life that hadbeen full of strain and no success-he had put on a lot ofweight and become very slow and clumsy. Would Gre-gor‘s elderly mother now have to go and earn money?She suffered from asthma and it was a strain for her justto move about the home, every other day would be spentstruggling for breath on the sofa by the open window.Would his sister have to go and earn money? She was stilla child of seventeen, her life up till then had been very en-viable, consisting of wearing nice clothes, sleeping late,helping out in the business, joining in with a few mod-est pleasures and most of all playing the violin. When-ever they began to talk of the need to earn money, Gregorwould always first let go of the door and then throw him-self onto the cool, leather sofa next to it, as he becamequite hot with shame and regret.

He would often lie there the whole night through, notsleeping a wink but scratching at the leather for hours onend. Or he might go to all the effort of pushing a chairto the window, climbing up onto the sill and, proppedup in the chair, leaning on the window to stare out of it.He had used to feel a great sense of freedom from do-ing this, but doing it now was obviously something moreremembered than experienced, as what he actually saw

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in this way was becoming less distinct every day, eventhings that were quite near; he had used to curse the ever-present view of the hospital across the street, but nowhe could not see it at all, and if he had not known thathe lived in Charlottenstrasse, which was a quiet streetdespite being in the middle of the city, he could havethought that he was looking out the window at a barrenwaste where the grey sky and the grey earth mingled in-separably. His observant sister only needed to notice thechair twice before she would always push it back to itsexact position by the window after she had tidied up theroom, and even left the inner pane of the window openfrom then on.

If Gregor had only been able to speak to his sister andthank her for all that she had to do for him it would havebeen easier for him to bear it; but as it was it causedhim pain. His sister, naturally, tried as far as possible topretend there was nothing burdensome about it, and thelonger it went on, of course, the better she was able todo so, but as time went by Gregor was also able to seethrough it all so much better. It had even become veryunpleasant for him, now, whenever she entered the room.No sooner had she come in than she would quickly closethe door as a precaution so that no-one would have to

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suffer the view into Gregor‘s room, then she would gostraight to the window and pull it hurriedly open almostas if she were suffocating. Even if it was cold, she wouldstay at the window breathing deeply for a little while. Shewould alarm Gregor twice a day with this running aboutand noise making; he would stay under the couch shiv-ering the whole while, knowing full well that she wouldcertainly have liked to spare him this ordeal, but it wasimpossible for her to be in the same room with him withthe windows closed.

One day, about a month after Gregor‘s transformationwhen his sister no longer had any particular reason to beshocked at his appearance, she came into the room a lit-tle earlier than usual and found him still staring out thewindow, motionless, and just where he would be mosthorrible. In itself, his sister‘s not coming into the roomwould have been no surprise for Gregor as it would havebeen difficult for her to immediately open the windowwhile he was still there, but not only did she not come in,she went straight back and closed the door behind her, astranger would have thought he had threatened her andtried to bite her. Gregor went straight to hide himself un-der the couch, of course, but he had to wait until middaybefore his sister came back and she seemed much more

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uneasy than usual. It made him realise that she still foundhis appearance unbearable and would continue to do so,she probably even had to overcome the urge to flee whenshe saw the little bit of him that protruded from under thecouch. One day, in order to spare her even this sight, hespent four hours carrying the bedsheet over to the couchon his back and arranged it so that he was completelycovered and his sister would not be able to see him evenif she bent down. If she did not think this sheet was nec-essary then all she had to do was take it off again, as itwas clear enough that it was no pleasure for Gregor tocut himself off so completely. She left the sheet where itwas. Gregor even thought he glimpsed a look of grati-tude one time when he carefully looked out from underthe sheet to see how his sister liked the new arrangement.

For the first fourteen days, Gregor‘s parents could notbring themselves to come into the room to see him. Hewould often hear them say how they appreciated all thenew work his sister was doing even though, before, theyhad seen her as a girl who was somewhat useless and fre-quently been annoyed with her. But now the two of them,father and mother, would often both wait outside thedoor of Gregor‘s room while his sister tidied up in there,and as soon as she went out again she would have to tell

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them exactly how everything looked, what Gregor hadeaten, how he had behaved this time and whether, per-haps, any slight improvement could be seen. His motheralso wanted to go in and visit Gregor relatively soon buthis father and sister at first persuaded her against it. Gre-gor listened very closely to all this, and approved fully.Later, though, she had to be held back by force, whichmade her call out: “Let me go and see Gregor, he is myunfortunate son! Can‘t you understand I have to seehim?”, and Gregor would think to himself that maybeit would be better if his mother came in, not every dayof course, but one day a week, perhaps; she could un-derstand everything much better than his sister who, forall her courage, was still just a child after all, and reallymight not have had an adult‘s appreciation of the burden-some job she had taken on.

Gregor‘s wish to see his mother was soon realised. Outof consideration for his parents, Gregor wanted to avoidbeing seen at the window during the day, the few squaremeters of the floor did not give him much room to crawlabout, it was hard to just lie quietly through the night,his food soon stopped giving him any pleasure at all, andso, to entertain himself, he got into the habit of crawlingup and down the walls and ceiling. He was especially

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fond of hanging from the ceiling; it was quite differentfrom lying on the floor; he could breathe more freely;his body had a light swing to it; and up there, relaxedand almost happy, it might happen that he would sur-prise even himself by letting go of the ceiling and land-ing on the floor with a crash. But now, of course, he hadfar better control of his body than before and, even witha fall as great as that, caused himself no damage. Verysoon his sister noticed Gregor‘s new way of entertaininghimself-he had, after all, left traces of the adhesive fromhis feet as he crawled about-and got it into her head tomake it as easy as possible for him by removing the fur-niture that got in his way, especially the chest of draw-ers and the desk. Now, this was not something that shewould be able to do by herself; she did not dare to ask forhelp from her father; the sixteen year old maid had car-ried on bravely since the cook had left but she certainlywould not have helped in this, she had even asked to beallowed to keep the kitchen locked at all times and neverto have to open the door unless it was especially impor-tant; so his sister had no choice but to choose some timewhen Gregor‘s father was not there and fetch his motherto help her. As she approached the room, Gregor couldhear his mother express her joy, but once at the door she

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went silent. First, of course, his sister came in and lookedround to see that everything in the room was alright; andonly then did she let her mother enter. Gregor had hur-riedly pulled the sheet down lower over the couch andput more folds into it so that everything really looked asif it had just been thrown down by chance. Gregor also re-frained, this time, from spying out from under the sheet;he gave up the chance to see his mother until later andwas simply glad that she had come. “You can come in,he can‘t be seen”, said his sister, obviously leading her inby the hand. The old chest of drawers was too heavy fora pair of feeble women to be heaving about, but Gregorlistened as they pushed it from its place, his sister alwaystaking on the heaviest part of the work for herself and ig-noring her mother‘s warnings that she would strain her-self. This lasted a very long time. After labouring at itfor fifteen minutes or more his mother said it would bebetter to leave the chest where it was, for one thing itwas too heavy for them to get the job finished before Gre-gor‘s father got home and leaving it in the middle of theroom it would be in his way even more, and for anotherthing it wasn‘t even sure that taking the furniture awaywould really be any help to him. She thought just the op-posite; the sight of the bare walls saddened her right to

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her heart; and why wouldn‘t Gregor feel the same wayabout it, he‘d been used to this furniture in his room fora long time and it would make him feel abandoned to bein an empty room like that. Then, quietly, almost whis-pering as if wanting Gregor (whose whereabouts she didnot know) to hear not even the tone of her voice, as shewas convinced that he did not understand her words, sheadded ”and by taking the furniture away, won‘t it seemlike we‘re showing that we‘ve given up all hope of im-provement and we‘re abandoning him to cope for him-self? I think it‘d be best to leave the room exactly the wayit was before so that when Gregor comes back to us againhe‘ll find everything unchanged and he‘ll be able to for-get the time in between all the easier”.

Hearing these words from his mother made Gregor re-alise that the lack of any direct human communication,along with the monotonous life led by the family dur-ing these two months, must have made him confused-hecould think of no other way of explaining to himself whyhe had seriously wanted his room emptied out. Had hereally wanted to transform his room into a cave, a warmroom fitted out with the nice furniture he had inherited?That would have let him crawl around unimpeded in anydirection, but it would also have let him quickly forget his

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past when he had still been human. He had come veryclose to forgetting, and it had only been the voice of hismother, unheard for so long, that had shaken him out ofit. Nothing should be removed; everything had to stay;he could not do without the good influence the furniturehad on his condition; and if the furniture made it difficultfor him to crawl about mindlessly that was not a loss buta great advantage.

His sister, unfortunately, did not agree; she had becomeused to the idea, not without reason, that she was Gre-gor‘s spokesman to his parents about the things that con-cerned him. This meant that his mother‘s advice now wassufficient reason for her to insist on removing not only thechest of drawers and the desk, as she had thought at first,but all the furniture apart from the all-important couch. Itwas more than childish perversity, of course, or the unex-pected confidence she had recently acquired, that madeher insist; she had indeed noticed that Gregor needed alot of room to crawl about in, whereas the furniture, asfar as anyone could see, was of no use to him at all. Girlsof that age, though, do become enthusiastic about thingsand feel they must get their way whenever they can. Per-haps this was what tempted Grete to make Gregor‘s sit-uation seem even more shocking than it was so that she

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could do even more for him. Grete would probably bethe only one who would dare enter a room dominated byGregor crawling about the bare walls by himself.

So she refused to let her mother dissuade her. Gre-gor‘s mother already looked uneasy in his room, she soonstopped speaking and helped Gregor‘s sister to get thechest of drawers out with what strength she had. Thechest of drawers was something that Gregor could dowithout if he had to, but the writing desk had to stay.Hardly had the two women pushed the chest of drawers,groaning, out of the room than Gregor poked his headout from under the couch to see what he could do aboutit. He meant to be as careful and considerate as he could,but, unfortunately, it was his mother who came back firstwhile Grete in the next room had her arms round thechest, pushing and pulling at it from side to side by her-self without, of course, moving it an inch. His motherwas not used to the sight of Gregor, he might have madeher ill, so Gregor hurried backwards to the far end of thecouch. In his startlement, though, he was not able to pre-vent the sheet at its front from moving a little. It wasenough to attract his mother‘s attention. She stood verystill, remained there a moment, and then went back outto Grete.

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Gregor kept trying to assure himself that nothing un-usual was happening, it was just a few pieces of furniturebeing moved after all, but he soon had to admit that thewomen going to and fro, their little calls to each other,the scraping of the furniture on the floor, all these thingsmade him feel as if he were being assailed from all sides.With his head and legs pulled in against him and his bodypressed to the floor, he was forced to admit to himself thathe could not stand all of this much longer. They wereemptying his room out; taking away everything that wasdear to him; they had already taken out the chest con-taining his fretsaw and other tools; now they threatenedto remove the writing desk with its place clearly worninto the floor, the desk where he had done his homeworkas a business trainee, at high school, even while he hadbeen at infant school-he really could not wait any longerto see whether the two women‘s intentions were good.He had nearly forgotten they were there anyway, as theywere now too tired to say anything while they workedand he could only hear their feet as they stepped heavilyon the floor.

So, while the women were leant against the desk in theother room catching their breath, he sallied out, changeddirection four times not knowing what he should save

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first before his attention was suddenly caught by the pic-ture on the wall-which was already denuded of every-thing else that had been on it-of the lady dressed in co-pious fur. He hurried up onto the picture and pressedhimself against its glass, it held him firmly and felt goodon his hot belly. This picture at least, now totally coveredby Gregor, would certainly be taken away by no-one. Heturned his head to face the door into the living room sothat he could watch the women when they came back.

They had not allowed themselves a long rest and cameback quite soon; Grete had put her arm around hermother and was nearly carrying her. “What shall we takenow, then?”, said Grete and looked around. Her eyes metthose of Gregor on the wall. Perhaps only because hermother was there, she remained calm, bent her face toher so that she would not look round and said, albeit hur-riedly and with a tremor in her voice: “Come on, let‘s goback in the living room for a while?” Gregor could seewhat Grete had in mind, she wanted to take her mothersomewhere safe and then chase him down from the wall.Well, she could certainly try it! He sat unyielding on hispicture. He would rather jump at Grete‘s face.

But Grete‘s words had made her mother quite worried,she stepped to one side, saw the enormous brown patch

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against the flowers of the wallpaper, and before she evenrealised it was Gregor that she saw screamed: “Oh God,oh God!” Arms outstretched, she fell onto the couch asif she had given up everything and stayed there immo-bile. “Gregor!” shouted his sister, glowering at him andshaking her fist. That was the first word she had spokento him directly since his transformation. She ran into theother room to fetch some kind of smelling salts to bringher mother out of her faint; Gregor wanted to 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 next room as if he could advise his sis-ter like in the old days; but he had to just stand behindher doing nothing; she was looking into various bottles,he startled her when she turned round; a bottle fell to theground and broke; a splinter cut Gregor‘s face, some kindof caustic medicine splashed all over him; now, withoutdelaying any longer, Grete took hold of all the bottles shecould and ran with them in to her mother; she slammedthe door shut with her foot. So now Gregor was shut outfrom his mother, who, because of him, might be near todeath; he could not open the door if he did not want tochase his sister away, and she had to stay with his mother;there was nothing for him to do but wait; and, oppressed

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with anxiety and self-reproach, he began to crawl about,he crawled over everything, walls, furniture, ceiling, andfinally in his confusion as the whole room began to spinaround him he fell down into the middle of the dinnertable.

He lay there for a while, numb and immobile, allaround him it was quiet, maybe that was a good sign.Then there was someone at the door. The maid, of course,had locked herself in her kitchen so that Grete wouldhave to go and answer it. His father had arrived home.“What‘s happened?” were his first words; Grete‘s ap-pearance must have made everything clear to him. Sheanswered him with subdued voice, and openly pressedher face into his chest: “Mother‘s fainted, but she‘s bet-ter now. Gregor got out.” “Just as I expected”, said hisfather, ”just as I always said, but you women wouldn‘tlisten, would you.” It was clear to Gregor that Grete hadnot said enough and that his father took it to mean thatsomething bad had happened, that he was responsible forsome act of violence. That meant Gregor would now haveto try to calm his father, as he did not have the time to ex-plain things to him even if that had been possible. So hefled to the door of his room and pressed himself againstit so that his father, when he came in from the hall, could

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see straight away that Gregor had the best intentions andwould go back into his room without delay, that it wouldnot be necessary to drive him back but that they had onlyto open the door and he would disappear.

His father, though, was not in the mood to notice sub-tleties like that; “Ah!”, he shouted as he came in, sound-ing as if he were both angry and glad at the same time.Gregor drew his head back from the door and lifted it to-wards his father. He really had not imagined his fatherthe way he stood there now; of late, with his new habitof crawling about, he had neglected to pay attention towhat was going on the rest of the flat the way he haddone before. He really ought to have expected things tohave changed, but still, still, was that really his father?The same tired man as used to be laying there entombedin his bed when Gregor came back from his businesstrips, who would receive him sitting in the armchair inhis nightgown when he came back in the evenings; whowas hardly even able to stand up but, as a sign of his plea-sure, would just raise his arms and who, on the couple oftimes a year when they went for a walk together on a Sun-day or public holiday wrapped up tightly in his overcoatbetween Gregor and his mother, would always labour hisway forward a little more slowly than them, who were al-

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ready walking slowly for his sake; who would place hisstick down carefully and, if he wanted to say somethingwould invariably stop and gather his companions aroundhim. He was standing up straight enough now; dressedin a smart blue uniform with gold buttons, the sort wornby the employees at the banking institute; above the high,stiff collar of the coat his strong double-chin emerged; un-der the bushy eyebrows, his piercing, dark eyes lookedout fresh and alert; his normally unkempt white hair wascombed down painfully close to his scalp. He took hiscap, with its gold monogram from, probably, some bank,and threw it in an arc right across the room onto the sofa,put his hands in his trouser pockets, pushing back thebottom of his long uniform coat, and, with look of deter-mination, walked towards Gregor. He probably did noteven know himself what he had in mind, but nonethe-less lifted his feet unusually high. Gregor was amazedat the enormous size of the soles of his boots, but wastedno time with that-he knew full well, right from the firstday of his new life, that his father thought it necessaryto always be extremely strict with him. And so he ranup to his father, stopped when his father stopped, scur-ried forwards again when he moved, even slightly. Inthis way they went round the room several times with-

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out anything decisive happening, without even givingthe impression of a chase as everything went so slowly.Gregor remained all this time on the floor, largely becausehe feared his father might see it as especially provokingif he fled onto the wall or ceiling. Whatever he did, Gre-gor had to admit that he certainly would not be able tokeep up this running about for long, as for each step hisfather took he had to carry out countless movements. Hebecame noticeably short of breath, even in his earlier lifehis lungs had not been very reliable. Now, as he lurchedabout in his efforts to muster all the strength he could forrunning he could hardly keep his eyes open; his thoughtsbecame too slow for him to think of any other way of sav-ing himself than running; he almost forgot that the wallswere there for him to use although, here, they were con-cealed behind carefully carved furniture full of notchesand protrusions-then, right beside him, lightly tossed,something flew down and rolled in front of him. It wasan apple; then another one immediately flew at him; Gre-gor froze in shock; there was no longer any point in run-ning as his father had decided to bombard him. He hadfilled his pockets with fruit from the bowl on the side-board and now, without even taking the time for carefulaim, threw one apple after another. These little, red ap-

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ples rolled about on the floor, knocking into each otheras if they had electric motors. An apple thrown with-out much force glanced against Gregor‘s back and slid offwithout doing any harm. Another one however, imme-diately following it, hit squarely and lodged in his back;Gregor wanted to drag himself away, as if he could re-move the surprising, the incredible pain by changing hisposition; but he felt as if nailed to the spot and spreadhimself out, all his senses in confusion. The last thing hesaw was the door of his room being pulled open, his sis-ter was screaming, his mother ran out in front of her inher blouse (as his sister had taken off some of her clothesafter she had fainted to make it easier for her to breathe),she ran to his father, her skirts unfastened and sliding oneafter another to the ground, stumbling over the skirts shepushed herself to his father, her arms around him, unit-ing herself with him totally-now Gregor lost his ability tosee anything-her hands behind his father‘s head begginghim to spare Gregor‘s life.

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NO-ONE dared to remove the apple lodged in Gregor‘sflesh, so it remained there as a visible reminder of

his injury. He had suffered it there for more than a month,and his condition seemed serious enough to remind evenhis father that Gregor, despite his current sad and revolt-ing form, was a family member who could not be treatedas an enemy. On the contrary, as a family there was a dutyto swallow any revulsion for him and to be patient, justto be patient.

Because of his injuries, Gregor had lost much of hismobility-probably permanently. He had been reduced tothe condition of an ancient invalid and it took him long,

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long minutes to crawl across his room-crawling over theceiling was out of the question-but this deterioration inhis condition was fully (in his opinion) made up for bythe door to the living room being left open every evening.He got into the habit of closely watching it for one ortwo hours before it was opened and then, lying in thedarkness of his room where he could not be seen fromthe living room, he could watch the family in the light ofthe dinner table and listen to their conversation-with ev-eryone‘s permission, in a way, and thus quite differentlyfrom before.

They no longer held the lively conversations of ear-lier times, of course, the ones that Gregor always thoughtabout with longing when he was tired and getting intothe damp bed in some small hotel room. All of themwere usually very quiet nowadays. Soon after dinner, hisfather would go to sleep in his chair; his mother and sis-ter would urge each other to be quiet; his mother, bentdeeply under the lamp, would sew fancy underwear for afashion shop; his sister, who had taken a sales job, learnedshorthand and French in the evenings so that she mightbe able to get a better position later on. Sometimes his fa-ther would wake up and say to Gregor‘s mother ”you‘redoing so much sewing again today!”, as if he did not

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know that he had been dozing-and then he would goback to sleep again while mother and sister would ex-change a tired grin.

With a kind of stubbornness, Gregor‘s father refused totake his uniform off even at home; while his nightgownhung unused on its peg Gregor‘s father would slumberwhere he was, fully dressed, as if always ready to serveand expecting to hear the voice of his superior even here.The uniform had not been new to start with, but as a re-sult of this it slowly became even shabbier despite the ef-forts of Gregor‘s mother and sister to look after it. Gre-gor would often spend the whole evening looking at allthe stains on this coat, with its gold buttons always keptpolished and shiny, while the old man in it would sleep,highly uncomfortable but peaceful.

As soon as it struck ten, Gregor‘s mother would speakgently to his father to wake him and try to persuade himto go to bed, as he couldn‘t sleep properly where he wasand he really had to get his sleep if he was to be up at sixto get to work. But since he had been in work he had be-come more obstinate and would always insist on stayinglonger at the table, even though he regularly fell asleepand it was then harder than ever to persuade him to ex-change the chair for his bed. Then, however much mother

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and sister would importune him with little reproachesand warnings he would keep slowly shaking his head fora quarter of an hour with his eyes closed and refusing toget up. Gregor‘s mother would tug at his sleeve, whisperendearments into his ear, Gregor‘s sister would leave herwork to help her mother, but nothing would have anyeffect on him. He would just sink deeper into his chair.Only when the two women took him under the arms hewould abruptly open his eyes, look at them one after theother and say: “What a life! This is what peace I get in myold age!” And supported by the two women he wouldlift himself up carefully as if he were carrying the greatestload himself, let the women take him to the door, sendthem off and carry on by himself while Gregor‘s motherwould throw down her needle and his sister her pen sothat they could run after his father and continue being ofhelp to him.

Who, in this tired and overworked family, would havehad time to give more attention to Gregor than was ab-solutely necessary? The household budget became evensmaller; so now the maid was dismissed; an enormous,thick-boned charwoman with white hair that flappedaround her head came every morning and evening to dothe heaviest work; everything else was looked after by

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Gregor‘s mother on top of the large amount of sewingwork she did. Gregor even learned, listening to theevening conversation about what price they had hopedfor, that several items of jewellery belonging to the fam-ily had been sold, even though both mother and sisterhad been very fond of wearing them at functions and cel-ebrations. But the loudest complaint was that althoughthe flat was much too big for their present circumstances,they could not move out of it, there was no imaginableway of transferring Gregor to the new address. He couldsee quite well, though, that there were more reasons thanconsideration for him that made it difficult for them tomove, it would have been quite easy to transport him inany suitable crate with a few air holes in it; the main thingholding the family back from their decision to move wasmuch more to do with their total despair, and the thoughtthat they had been struck with a misfortune unlike any-thing experienced by anyone else they knew or were re-lated to. They carried out absolutely everything that theworld expects from poor people, Gregor‘s father broughtbank employees their breakfast, his mother sacrificed her-self by washing clothes for strangers, his sister ran backand forth behind her desk at the behest of the customers,but they just did not have the strength to do any more.

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And the injury in Gregor‘s back began to hurt as muchas when it was new. After they had come back from tak-ing his father to bed Gregor‘s mother and sister wouldnow leave their work where it was and sit close together,cheek to cheek; his mother would point to Gregor‘s roomand say “Close that door, Grete”, and then, when he wasin the dark again, they would sit in the next room andtheir tears would mingle, or they would simply sit therestaring dry-eyed at the table.

Gregor hardly slept at all, either night or day. Some-times he would think of taking over the family‘s affairs,just like before, the next time the door was opened; he hadlong forgotten about his boss and the chief clerk, but theywould appear again in his thoughts, the salesmen andthe apprentices, that stupid teaboy, two or three friendsfrom other businesses, one of the chambermaids from aprovincial hotel, a tender memory that appeared and dis-appeared again, a cashier from a hat shop for whom hisattention had been serious but too slow,-all of them ap-peared to him, mixed together with strangers and othershe had forgotten, but instead of helping him and his fam-ily they were all of them inaccessible, and he was gladwhen they disappeared. Other times he was not at allin the mood to look after his family, he was filled with

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simple rage about the lack of attention he was shown,and although he could think of nothing he would havewanted, he made plans of how he could get into thepantry where he could take all the things he was entitledto, even if he was not hungry. Gregor‘s sister no longerthought about how she could please him but would hur-riedly push some food or other into his room with herfoot before she rushed out to work in the morning andat midday, and in the evening she would sweep it awayagain with the broom, indifferent as to whether it hadbeen eaten or-more often than not-had been left totallyuntouched. She still cleared up the room in the evening,but now she could not have been any quicker about it.Smears of dirt were left on the walls, here and there werelittle balls of dust and filth. At first, Gregor went into oneof the worst of these places when his sister arrived as areproach to her, but he could have stayed there for weekswithout his sister doing anything about it; she could seethe dirt as well as he could but she had simply decidedto leave him to it. At the same time she became touchyin a way that was quite new for her and which everyonein the family understood-cleaning up Gregor‘s room wasfor her and her alone. Gregor‘s mother did once thor-oughly clean his room, and needed to use several bucket-

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fuls of water to do it-although that much dampness alsomade Gregor ill and he lay flat on the couch, bitter andimmobile. But his mother was to be punished still morefor what she had done, as hardly had his sister arrivedhome in the evening than she noticed the change in Gre-gor‘s room and, highly aggrieved, ran back into the liv-ing room where, despite her mothers raised and implor-ing hands, she broke into convulsive tears. Her father,of course, was startled out of his chair and the two par-ents looked on astonished and helpless; then they, too,became agitated; Gregor‘s father, standing to the rightof his mother, accused her of not leaving the cleaning ofGregor‘s room to his sister; from her left, Gregor‘s sis-ter screamed at her that she was never to clean Gregor‘sroom again; while his mother tried to draw his father,who was beside himself with anger, into the bedroom; hissister, quaking with tears, thumped on the table with hersmall fists; and Gregor hissed in anger that no-one hadeven thought of closing the door to save him the sight ofthis and all its noise.

Gregor‘s sister was exhausted from going out to work,and looking after Gregor as she had done before was evenmore work for her, but even so his mother ought certainlynot to have taken her place. Gregor, on the other hand,

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ought not to be neglected. Now, though, the charwomanwas here. This elderly widow, with a robust bone struc-ture that made her able to withstand the hardest of thingsin her long life, wasn‘t really repelled by Gregor. Just bychance one day, rather than any real curiosity, she openedthe door to Gregor‘s room and found herself face to facewith him. He was taken totally by surprise, no-one waschasing him but he began to rush to and fro while shejust stood there in amazement with her hands crossed infront of her. From then on she never failed to open thedoor slightly every evening and morning and look brieflyin on him. At first she would call to him as she did sowith words that she probably considered friendly, suchas ”come on then, you old dung-beetle!”, or ”look at theold dung-beetle there!” Gregor never responded to be-ing spoken to in that way, but just remained where hewas without moving as if the door had never even beenopened. If only they had told this charwoman to cleanup his room every day instead of letting her disturb himfor no reason whenever she felt like it! One day, early inthe morning while a heavy rain struck the windowpanes,perhaps indicating that spring was coming, she began tospeak to him in that way once again. Gregor was so re-sentful of it that he started to move toward her, he was

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slow and infirm, but it was like a kind of attack. Insteadof being afraid, the charwoman just lifted up one of thechairs from near the door and stood there with her mouthopen, clearly intending not to close her mouth until thechair in her hand had been slammed down into Gregor‘sback. “Aren‘t you coming any closer, then?”, she askedwhen Gregor turned round again, and she calmly put thechair back in the corner.

Gregor had almost entirely stopped eating. Only if hehappened to find himself next to the food that had beenprepared for him he might take some of it into his mouthto play with it, leave it there a few hours and then, moreoften than not, spit it out again. At first he thought itwas distress at the state of his room that stopped him eat-ing, but he had soon got used to the changes made there.They had got into the habit of putting things into thisroom that they had no room for anywhere else, and therewere now many such things as one of the rooms in the flathad been rented out to three gentlemen. These earnestgentlemen-all three of them had full beards, as Gregorlearned peering through the crack in the door one day-were painfully insistent on things’ being tidy. This meantnot only in their own room but, since they had taken aroom in this establishment, in the entire flat and espe-

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cially in the kitchen. Unnecessary clutter was somethingthey could not tolerate, especially if it was dirty. Theyhad moreover brought most of their own furnishings andequipment with them. For this reason, many things hadbecome superfluous which, although they could not besold, the family did not wish to discard. All these thingsfound their way into Gregor‘s room. The dustbins fromthe kitchen found their way in there too. The charwomanwas always in a hurry, and anything she couldn‘t use forthe time being she would just chuck in there. He, for-tunately, would usually see no more than the object andthe hand that held it. The woman most likely meant tofetch the things back out again when she had time andthe opportunity, or to throw everything out in one go, butwhat actually happened was that they were left wherethey landed when they had first been thrown unless Gre-gor made his way through the junk and moved it some-where else. At first he moved it because, with no otherroom free where he could crawl about, he was forced to,but later on he came to enjoy it although moving aboutin the way left him sad and tired to death and he wouldremain immobile for hours afterwards.

The gentlemen who rented the room would sometimestake their evening meal at home in the living room that

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was used by everyone, and so the door to this room wasoften kept closed in the evening. But Gregor found it easyto give up having the door open, he had, after all, oftenfailed to make use of it when it was open and, without thefamily having noticed it, lain in his room in its darkestcorner. One time, though, the charwoman left the doorto the living room slightly open, and it remained openwhen the gentlemen who rented the room came in in theevening and the light was put on. They sat up at the tablewhere, formerly, Gregor had taken his meals with his fa-ther and mother, they unfolded the serviettes and pickedup their knives and forks. Gregor‘s mother immediatelyappeared in the doorway with a dish of meat and soon be-hind her came his sister with a dish piled high with pota-toes. The food was steaming, and filled the room withits smell. The gentlemen bent over the dishes set in frontof them as if they wanted to test the food before eating it,and the gentleman in the middle, who seemed to count asan authority for the other two, did indeed cut off a pieceof meat while it was still in its dish, clearly wishing toestablish whether it was sufficiently cooked or whetherit should be sent back to the kitchen. It was to his sat-isfaction, and Gregor‘s mother and sister, who had beenlooking on anxiously, began to breathe again and smiled.

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The family themselves ate in the kitchen. Nonetheless,Gregor‘s father came into the living room before he wentinto the kitchen, bowed once with his cap in his handand did his round of the table. The gentlemen stood asone, and mumbled something into their beards. Then,once they were alone, they ate in near perfect silence.It seemed remarkable to Gregor that above all the var-ious noises of eating their chewing teeth could still beheard, as if they had wanted to Show Gregor that youneed teeth in order to eat and it was not possible to per-form anything with jaws that are toothless however nicethey might be. “I‘d like to eat something”, said Gregoranxiously, ”but not anything like they‘re eating. They dofeed themselves. And here I am, dying!”

Throughout all this time, Gregor could not rememberhaving heard the violin being played, but this evening itbegan to be heard from the kitchen. The three gentlemenhad already finished their meal, the one in the middle hadproduced a newspaper, given a page to each of the others,and now they leant back in their chairs reading them andsmoking. When the violin began playing they became at-tentive, stood up and went on tip-toe over to the door ofthe hallway where they stood pressed against each other.Someone must have heard them in the kitchen, as Gre-

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gor‘s father called out: “Is the playing perhaps unpleas-ant for the gentlemen? We can stop it straight away.”“On the contrary”, said the middle gentleman, ”wouldthe young lady not like to come in and play for us here inthe room, where it is, after all, much more cosy and com-fortable?” “Oh yes, we‘d love to”, called back Gregor‘sfather as if he had been the violin player himself. The gen-tlemen stepped back into the room and waited. Gregor‘sfather soon appeared with the music stand, his motherwith the music and his sister with the violin. She calmlyprepared everything for her to begin playing; his parents,who had never rented a room out before and thereforeshowed an exaggerated courtesy towards the three gen-tlemen, did not even dare to sit on their own chairs; hisfather leant against the door with his right hand pushedin between two buttons on his uniform coat; his mother,though, was offered a seat by one of the gentlemen andsat-leaving the chair where the gentleman happened tohave placed it-out of the way in a corner.

His sister began to play; father and mother paid closeattention, one on each side, to the movements of herhands. Drawn in by the playing, Gregor had dared tocome forward a little and already had his head in the liv-ing room. Before, he had taken great pride in how con-

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siderate he was but now it hardly occurred to him thathe had become so thoughtless about the others. What‘smore, there was now all the more reason to keep himselfhidden as he was covered in the dust that lay everywherein his room and flew up at the slightest movement; he car-ried threads, hairs, and remains of food about on his backand sides; he was much too indifferent to everything nowto lay on his back and wipe himself on the carpet like hehad used to do several times a day. And despite this con-dition, he was not too shy to move forward a little ontothe immaculate floor of the living room.

No-one noticed him, though. The family was totallypreoccupied with the violin playing; at first, the threegentlemen had put their hands in their pockets and comeup far too close behind the music stand to look at all thenotes being played, and they must have disturbed Gre-gor‘s sister, but soon, in contrast with the family, theywithdrew back to the window with their heads sunk andtalking to each other at half volume, and they stayed bythe window while Gregor‘s father observed them anx-iously. It really now seemed very obvious that they hadexpected to hear some beautiful or entertaining violinplaying but had been disappointed, that they had hadenough of the whole performance and it was only now

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out of politeness that they allowed their peace to be dis-turbed. It was especially unnerving, the way they allblew the smoke from their cigarettes upwards from theirmouth and noses. Yet Gregor‘s sister was playing sobeautifully. Her face was leant to one side, following thelines of music with a careful and melancholy expression.Gregor crawled a little further forward, keeping his headclose to the ground so that he could meet her eyes if thechance came. Was he an animal if music could captivatehim so? It seemed to him that he was being shown theway to the unknown nourishment he had been yearningfor. He was determined to make his way forward to hissister and tug at her skirt to show her she might comeinto his room with her violin, as no-one appreciated herplaying here as much as he would. He never wanted tolet her out of his room, not while he lived, anyway; hisshocking appearance should, for once, be of some use tohim; he wanted to be at every door of his room at onceto hiss and spit at the attackers; his sister should not beforced to stay with him, though, but stay of her own freewill; she would sit beside him on the couch with her earbent down to him while he told her how he had alwaysintended to send her to the conservatory, how he wouldhave told everyone about it last Christmas-had Christmas

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really come and gone already?-if this misfortune hadn‘tgot in the way, and refuse to let anyone dissuade himfrom it. On hearing all this, his sister would break outin tears of emotion, and Gregor would climb up to hershoulder and kiss her neck, which, since she had been go-ing out to work, she had kept free without any necklaceor collar.

“Mr. Samsa!”, shouted the middle gentleman to Gre-gor‘s father, pointing, without wasting any more words,with his forefinger at Gregor as he slowly moved for-ward. The violin went silent, the middle of the three gen-tlemen first smiled at his two friends, shaking his head,and then looked back at Gregor. His father seemed tothink it more important to calm the three gentlemen be-fore driving Gregor out, even though they were not at allupset and seemed to think Gregor was more entertainingthan the violin playing had been. He rushed up to themwith his arms spread out and attempted to drive themback into their room at the same time as trying to blocktheir view of Gregor with his body. Now they did be-come a little annoyed, and it was not clear whether it washis father‘s behaviour that annoyed them or the dawn-ing realisation that they had had a neighbour like Gre-gor in the next room without knowing it. They asked

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Gregor‘s father for explanations, raised their arms likehe had, tugged excitedly at their beards and moved backtowards their room only very slowly. Meanwhile Gre-gor‘s sister had overcome the despair she had fallen intowhen her playing was suddenly interrupted. She had lether hands drop and let violin and bow hang limply fora while but continued to look at the music as if still play-ing, but then she suddenly pulled herself together, lay theinstrument on her mother‘s lap who still sat laboriouslystruggling for breath where she was, and ran into the nextroom which, under pressure from her father, the threegentlemen were more quickly moving toward. Under hissister‘s experienced hand, the pillows and covers on thebeds flew up and were put into order and she had alreadyfinished making the beds and slipped out again before thethree gentlemen had reached the room. Gregor‘s fatherseemed so obsessed with what he was doing that he for-got all the respect he owed to his tenants. He urged themand pressed them until, when he was already at the doorof the room, the middle of the three gentlemen shoutedlike thunder and stamped his foot and thereby broughtGregor‘s father to a halt. “I declare here and now”, hesaid, raising his hand and glancing at Gregor‘s motherand sister to gain their attention too, ”that with regard to

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the repugnant conditions that prevail in this flat and withthis family”-here he looked briefly but decisively at thefloor-“I give immediate notice on my room. For the daysthat I have been living here I will, of course, pay nothingat all, on the contrary I will consider whether to proceedwith some kind of action for damages from you, and be-lieve me it would be very easy to set out the grounds forsuch an action.” He was silent and looked straight aheadas if waiting for something. And indeed, his two friendsjoined in with the words: “And we also give immediatenotice.” With that, he took hold of the door handle andslammed the door.

Gregor‘s father staggered back to his seat, feeling hisway with his hands, and fell into it; it looked as if hewas stretching himself out for his usual evening nap butfrom the uncontrolled way his head kept nodding it couldbe seen that he was not sleeping at all. Throughout allthis, Gregor had lain still where the three gentlemen hadfirst seen him. His disappointment at the failure of hisplan, and perhaps also because he was weak from hunger,made it impossible for him to move. He was sure that ev-eryone would turn on him any moment, and he waited.He was not even startled out of this state when the vio-lin on his mother‘s lap fell from her trembling fingers and

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landed loudly on the floor.“Father, Mother”, said his sister, hitting the table with

her hand as introduction, ”we can‘t carry on like this.Maybe you can‘t see it, but I can. I don‘t want to callthis monster my brother, all I can say is: we have to tryand get rid of it. We‘ve done all that‘s humanly possibleto look after it and be patient, I don‘t think anyone couldaccuse us of doing anything wrong.”

“She‘s absolutely right”, said Gregor‘s father to him-self. His mother, who still had not had time to catch herbreath, began to cough dully, her hand held out in frontof her and a deranged expression in her eyes.

Gregor‘s sister rushed to his mother and put her handon her forehead. Her words seemed to give Gregor‘s fa-ther some more definite ideas. He sat upright, playedwith his uniform cap between the plates left by thethree gentlemen after their meal, and occasionally lookeddown at Gregor as he lay there immobile.

“We have to try and get rid of it”, said Gregor‘s sis-ter, now speaking only to her father, as her mother wastoo occupied with coughing to listen, ”it‘ll be the deathof both of you, I can see it coming. We can‘t all work ashard as we have to and then come home to be tortured

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like this, we can‘t endure it. I can‘t endure it any more.”And she broke out so heavily in tears that they floweddown the face of her mother, and she wiped them awaywith 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 thehelplessness and tears that had taken hold of her, displac-ing her earlier certainty.

“If he could just understand us”, said his father al-most as a question; his sister shook her hand vigorouslythrough her tears as a sign that of that there was no ques-tion.

“If he could just understand us”, repeated Gregor‘s fa-ther, closing his eyes in acceptance of his sister‘s certaintythat that was quite impossible, ”then perhaps we couldcome to some kind of arrangement with him. But as it is...”

“It‘s got to go”, shouted his sister, ”that‘s the only way,Father. You‘ve got to get rid of the idea that that‘s Gre-gor. We‘ve only harmed ourselves by believing it for solong. How can that be Gregor? If it were Gregor he would

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have seen long ago that it‘s not possible for human be-ings to live with an animal like that and he would havegone of his own free will. We wouldn‘t have a brotherany more, then, but we could carry on with our lives andremember him with respect. As it is this animal is perse-cuting us, it‘s driven out our tenants, it obviously wantsto 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 be-yond Gregor‘s comprehension, his sister even abandonedhis mother as she pushed herself vigorously out of herchair as if more willing to sacrifice her own mother thanstay anywhere near Gregor. She rushed over to behindher father, who had become excited merely because shewas and stood up half raising his hands in front of Gre-gor‘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 turnround so that he could go back into his room, althoughthat was in itself quite startling as his pain-wracked con-dition meant that turning round required a great deal ofeffort and he was using his head to help himself do it,repeatedly raising it and striking it against the floor. Hestopped and looked round. They seemed to have realised

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his good intention and had only been alarmed briefly.Now they all looked at him in unhappy silence. Hismother lay in her chair with her legs stretched out andpressed against each other, her eyes nearly closed withexhaustion; his sister sat next to his father with her armsaround his neck.

“Maybe now they‘ll let me turn round”, thought Gre-gor and went back to work. He could not help pantingloudly with the effort and had sometimes to stop andtake a rest. No-one was making him rush any more, ev-erything was left up to him. As soon as he had finallyfinished turning round he began to move straight ahead.He was amazed at the great distance that separated himfrom his room, and could not understand how he hadcovered that distance in his weak state a little while be-fore and almost without noticing it. He concentrated oncrawling as fast as he could and hardly noticed that therewas not a word, not any cry, from his family to distracthim. He did not turn his head until he had reached thedoorway. He did not turn it all the way round as he felthis neck becoming stiff, but it was nonetheless enough tosee that nothing behind him had changed, only his sisterhad stood up. With his last glance he saw that his motherhad now fallen completely asleep.

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He was hardly inside his room before the door washurriedly shut, bolted and locked. The sudden noise be-hind Gregor so startled him that his little legs collapsedunder him. It was his sister who had been in so much ofa rush. She had been standing there waiting and sprungforward lightly, Gregor had not heard her coming at all,and as she turned the key in the lock she said loudly toher parents “At last!”.

“What now, then?”, Gregor asked himself as he lookedround in the darkness. He soon made the discovery thathe could no longer move at all. This was no surprise tohim, it seemed rather that being able to actually movearound on those spindly little legs until then was unnat-ural. He also felt relatively comfortable. It is true thathis entire body was aching, but the pain seemed to beslowly getting weaker and weaker and would finally dis-appear altogether. He could already hardly feel the de-cayed apple in his back or the inflamed area around it,which was entirely covered in white dust. He thoughtback of his family with emotion and love. If it was possi-ble, he felt that he must go away even more strongly thanhis sister. He remained in this state of empty and peacefulrumination until he heard the clock tower strike three inthe morning. He watched as it slowly began to get light

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everywhere outside the window too. Then, without hiswilling it, his head sank down completely, and his lastbreath flowed weakly from his nostrils.

When the cleaner came in early in the morning-they‘doften asked her not to keep slamming the doors but withher strength and in her hurry she still did, so that every-one in the flat knew when she‘d arrived and from thenon it was impossible to sleep in peace-she made her usualbrief look in on Gregor and at first found nothing special.She thought he was laying there so still on purpose, play-ing the martyr; she attributed all possible understandingto him. She happened to be holding the long broom inher hand, so she tried to tickle Gregor with it from thedoorway. When she had no success with that she tried tomake a nuisance of herself and poked at him a little, andonly when she found she could shove him across the floorwith no resistance at all did she start to pay attention. Shesoon realised what had really happened, opened her eyeswide, whistled to herself, but did not waste time to yankopen the bedroom doors and shout loudly into the dark-ness of the bedrooms: “Come and ‘ave a look at this, it‘sdead, just lying there, stone dead!”

Mr. and Mrs. Samsa sat upright there in their mar-riage bed and had to make an effort to get over the shock

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caused by the cleaner before they could grasp what shewas saying. But then, each from his own side, theyhurried out of bed. Mr. Samsa threw the blanket overhis shoulders, Mrs. Samsa just came out in her night-dress; and that is how they went into Gregor‘s room. Onthe way they opened the door to the living room whereGrete had been sleeping since the three gentlemen hadmoved in; she was fully dressed as if she had never beenasleep, and the paleness of her face seemed to confirmthis. “Dead?”, asked Mrs. Samsa, looking at the char-woman enquiringly, even though she could have checkedfor herself and could have known it even without check-ing. “That‘s what I said”, replied the cleaner, and to proveit she gave Gregor‘s body another shove with the broom,sending it sideways across the floor. Mrs. Samsa made amovement as if she wanted to hold back the broom, butdid not complete it. “Now then”, said Mr. Samsa, ”let‘sgive thanks to God for that”. He crossed himself, andthe three women followed his example. Grete, who hadnot taken her eyes from the corpse, said: “Just look howthin he was. He didn‘t eat anything for so long. The foodcame out again just the same as when it went in”. Gre-gor‘s body was indeed completely dried up and flat, theyhad not seen it until then, but now he was not lifted up on

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his little legs, nor did he do anything to make them lookaway.

“Grete, come with us in here for a little while”, saidMrs. Samsa with a pained smile, and Grete followed herparents into the bedroom but not without looking backat the body. The cleaner shut the door and opened thewindow wide. Although it was still early in the morningthe fresh air had something of warmth mixed in with it.It was already the end of March, after all.

The three gentlemen stepped out of their room andlooked round in amazement for their breakfasts; they hadbeen forgotten about. “Where is our breakfast?”, the mid-dle gentleman asked the cleaner irritably. She just puther finger on her lips and made a quick and silent sign tothe men that they might like to come into Gregor‘s room.They did so, and stood around Gregor‘s corpse with theirhands in the pockets of their well-worn coats. It was nowquite light in the room.

Then the door of the bedroom opened and Mr. Samsaappeared in his uniform with his wife on one arm andhis daughter on the other. All of them had been cryinga little; Grete now and then pressed her face against herfather‘s arm.

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“Leave my home. Now!”, said Mr. Samsa, indicat-ing the door and without letting the women from him.“What do you mean?”, asked the middle of the three gen-tlemen somewhat disconcerted, and he smiled sweetly.The other two held their hands behind their backs andcontinually rubbed them together in gleeful anticipationof a loud quarrel which could only end in their favour. “Imean just what I said”, answered Mr. Samsa, and, withhis two companions, went in a straight line towards theman. At first, he stood there still, looking at the groundas if the contents of his head were rearranging themselvesinto new positions. “Alright, we‘ll go then”, he said, andlooked up at Mr. Samsa as if he had been suddenly over-come with humility and wanted permission again fromMr. Samsa for his decision. Mr. Samsa merely openedhis eyes wide and briefly nodded to him several times.At that, and without delay, the man actually did takelong strides into the front hallway; his two friends hadstopped rubbing their hands some time before and hadbeen listening to what was being said. Now they jumpedoff after their friend as if taken with a sudden fear thatMr. Samsa might go into the hallway in front of them andbreak the connection with their leader. Once there, allthree took their hats from the stand, took their sticks from

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the holder, bowed without a word and left the premises.Mr. Samsa and the two women followed them out ontothe landing; but they had had no reason to mistrust themen‘s intentions and as they leaned over the landingthey saw how the three gentlemen made slow but steadyprogress down the many steps. As they turned the corneron each floor they disappeared and would reappear a fewmoments later; the further down they went, the more thatthe Samsa family lost interest in them; when a butcher‘sboy, proud of posture with his tray on his head, passedthem on his way up and came nearer than they were, Mr.Samsa and the women came away from the landing andwent, as if relieved, back into the flat.

They decided the best way to make use of that day wasfor relaxation and to go for a walk; not only had theyearned a break from work but they were in serious needof it. So they sat at the table and wrote three letters ofexcusal, Mr. Samsa to his employers, Mrs. Samsa to hercontractor and Grete to her principal. The cleaner came inwhile they were writing to tell them she was going, she‘dfinished her work for that morning. The three of themat first just nodded without looking up from what theywere writing, and it was only when the cleaner still didnot seem to want to leave that they looked up in irrita-

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tion. “Well?”, asked Mr. Samsa. The charwoman stoodin the doorway with a smile on her face as if she hadsome tremendous good news to report, but would onlydo it if she was clearly asked to. The almost vertical lit-tle ostrich feather on her hat, which had been source ofirritation to Mr. Samsa all the time she had been work-ing for them, swayed gently in all directions. “Whatis it you want then?”, asked Mrs. Samsa, whom thecleaner had the most respect for. “Yes”, she answered,and broke into a friendly laugh that made her unable tospeak straight away, ”well then, that thing in there, youneedn‘t worry about how you‘re going to get rid of it.That‘s all been sorted out.” Mrs. Samsa and Grete bentdown over their letters as if intent on continuing withwhat they were writing; Mr. Samsa saw that the cleanerwanted to start describing everything in detail but, withoutstretched hand, he made it quite clear that she wasnot to. So, as she was prevented from telling them allabout it, she suddenly remembered what a hurry she wasin and, clearly peeved, called out “Cheerio then, every-one”, turned round sharply and left, slamming the doorterribly as she went.

“Tonight she gets sacked”, said Mr. Samsa, but he re-ceived no reply from either his wife or his daughter as the

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charwoman seemed to have destroyed the peace they hadonly just gained. They got up and went over to the win-dow where they remained with their arms around eachother. Mr. Samsa twisted round in his chair to look atthem and sat there watching for a while. Then he calledout: “Come here, then. Let‘s forget about all that old stuff,shall we. Come and give me a bit of attention”. The twowomen immediately did as he said, hurrying over to himwhere they kissed him and hugged him and then theyquickly finished their letters.

After that, the three of them left the flat together, whichwas something they had not done for months, and tookthe tram out to the open country outside the town. Theyhad the tram, filled with warm sunshine, all to them-selves. Leant back comfortably on their seats, they dis-cussed their prospects and found that on closer examina-tion they were not at all bad-until then they had neverasked each other about their work but all three hadjobs which were very good and held particularly goodpromise for the future. The greatest improvement for thetime being, of course, would be achieved quite easily bymoving house; what they needed now was a flat that wassmaller and cheaper than the current one which had beenchosen by Gregor, one that was in a better location and,

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most of all, more practical. All the time, Grete was be-coming livelier. With all the worry they had been havingof late her cheeks had become pale, but, while they weretalking, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa were struck, almost simul-taneously, with the thought of how their daughter wasblossoming into a well built and beautiful young lady.They became quieter. Just from each other‘s glance andalmost without knowing it they agreed that it would soonbe time to find a good man for her. And, as if in confir-mation of their new dreams and good intentions, as soonas they reached their destination Grete was the first to getup and stretch out her young body.

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