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the metamorphosis i. one morning, as gregor samsa was waking upfrom anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminousbug. he lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown,arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections. from this height the blanket, justabout ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place. his numerous legs, pitifullythin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes.

"what's happened to me," he thought. it wasno dream. his room, a proper room for a human being, only somewhat too small, lay quietlybetween the four well-known walls. above the table, on which an unpacked collection ofsample cloth goods was spread out—samsa was a travelling salesman—hung the picturewhich he had cut out of an illustrated magazine a little while ago and set in a pretty giltframe. it was a picture of a woman with a fur hat and a fur boa. she sat erect there,lifting up in the direction of the viewer a solid fur muff into which her entire forearmhad disappeared. gregor's glance then turned to the window.the dreary weather—the rain drops were falling audibly down on the metal window ledge—madehim quite melancholy. "why don't i keep sleeping

for a little while longer and forget all thisfoolishness," he thought. but this was entirely impractical, for he was used to sleeping onhis right side, and in his present state he couldn't get himself into this position. nomatter how hard he threw himself onto his right side, he always rolled again onto hisback. he must have tried it a hundred times, closing his eyes so that he would not haveto see the wriggling legs, and gave up only when he began to feel a light, dull pain inhis side which he had never felt before. "o god," he thought, "what a demanding jobi've chosen! day in, day out, on the road. the stresses of selling are much greater thanthe work going on at head office, and, in addition to that, i have to cope with theproblems of travelling, the worries about

train connections, irregular bad food, temporaryand constantly changing human relationships, which never come from the heart. to hell withit all!" he felt a slight itching on the top of his abdomen. he slowly pushed himself onhis back closer to the bed post so that he could lift his head more easily, found theitchy part, which was entirely covered with small white spots—he did not know what tomake of them and wanted to feel the place with a leg. but he retracted it immediately,for the contact felt like a cold shower all over him. he slid back again into his earlier position."this getting up early," he thought, "makes a man quite idiotic. a man must have his sleep.other travelling salesmen live like harem

women. for instance, when i come back to theinn during the course of the morning to write up the necessary orders, these gentlemen arejust sitting down to breakfast. if i were to try that with my boss, i'd be thrown outon the spot. still, who knows whether that mightn't be really good for me? if i didn'thold back for my parents' sake, i'd have quit ages ago. i would've gone to the boss andtold him just what i think from the bottom of my heart. he would've fallen right offhis desk! how weird it is to sit up at that desk and talk down to the employee from wayup there. the boss has trouble hearing, so the employee has to step up quite close tohim. anyway, i haven't completely given up that hope yet. once i've got together themoney to pay off my parents' debt to him—that

should take another five or six years—i'lldo it for sure. then i'll make the big break. in any case, right now i have to get up. mytrain leaves at five o'clock." he looked over at the alarm clock tickingaway by the chest of drawers. "good god!" he thought. it was half past six, and thehands were going quietly on. it was past the half hour, already nearly quarter to. couldthe alarm have failed to ring? one saw from the bed that it was properly set for fouro'clock. certainly it had rung. yes, but was it possible to sleep through that noise whichmade the furniture shake? now, it's true he'd not slept quietly, but evidently he'd sleptall the more deeply. still, what should he do now? the next train left at seven o'clock.to catch that one, he would have to go in

a mad rush. the sample collection wasn't packedup yet, and he really didn't feel particularly fresh and active. and even if he caught thetrain, there was no avoiding a blow-up with the boss, because the firm's errand boy would'vewaited for the five o'clock train and reported the news of his absence long ago. he was theboss's minion, without backbone or intelligence. well then, what if he reported in sick? butthat would be extremely embarrassing and suspicious, because during his five years' service gregorhadn't been sick even once. the boss would certainly come with the doctor from the healthinsurance company and would reproach his parents for their lazy son and cut short all objectionswith the insurance doctor's comments; for him everyone was completely healthy but reallylazy about work. and besides, would the doctor

in this case be totally wrong? apart froma really excessive drowsiness after the long sleep, gregor in fact felt quite well andeven had a really strong appetite. as he was thinking all this over in the greatesthaste, without being able to make the decision to get out of bed—the alarm clock was indicatingexactly quarter to seven—there was a cautious knock on the door by the head of the bed. "gregor," a voice called—it was his mother!—"it'squarter to seven. don't you want to be on your way?" the soft voice! gregor was startledwhen he heard his voice answering. it was clearly and unmistakably his earlier voice,but in it was intermingled, as if from below, an irrepressibly painful squeaking, whichleft the words positively distinct only in

the first moment and distorted them in thereverberation, so that one didn't know if one had heard correctly. gregor wanted toanswer in detail and explain everything, but in these circumstances he confined himselfto saying, "yes, yes, thank you mother. i'm getting up right away." because of the woodendoor the change in gregor's voice was not really noticeable outside, so his mother calmeddown with this explanation and shuffled off. however, as a result of the short conversation,the other family members became aware that gregor was unexpectedly still at home, andalready his father was knocking on one side door, weakly but with his fist. "gregor, gregor,"he called out, "what's going on?" and, after a short while, he urged him on again in adeeper voice: "gregor!" gregor!" at the other

side door, however, his sister knocked lightly."gregor? are you all right? do you need anything?" gregor directed answers in both directions,"i'll be ready right away." he made an effort with the most careful articulation and byinserting long pauses between the individual words to remove everything remarkable fromhis voice. his father turned back to his breakfast. however, the sister whispered, "gregor, openthe door—i beg you." gregor had no intention of opening the door, but congratulated himselfon his precaution, acquired from travelling, of locking all doors during the night, evenat home. first he wanted to stand up quietly and undisturbed,get dressed, above all have breakfast, and only then consider further action, for—henoticed this clearly—by thinking things

over in bed he would not reach a reasonableconclusion. he remembered that he had already often felt a light pain or other in bed, perhapsthe result of an awkward lying position, which later turned out to be purely imaginary whenhe stood up, and he was eager to see how his present fantasies would gradually dissipate.that the change in his voice was nothing other than the onset of a real chill, an occupationalillness of commercial travellers, of that he had not the slightest doubt. it was very easy to throw aside the blanket.he needed only to push himself up a little, and it fell by itself. but to continue wasdifficult, particularly because he was so unusually wide. he needed arms and hands topush himself upright. instead of these, however,

he had only many small limbs which were incessantlymoving with very different motions and which, in addition, he was unable to control. ifhe wanted to bend one of them, then it was the first to extend itself, and if he finallysucceeded doing what he wanted with this limb, in the meantime all the others, as if leftfree, moved around in an excessively painful agitation. "but i must not stay in bed uselessly,"said gregor to himself. at first he wanted to get out of bed withthe lower part of his body, but this lower part—which, by the way, he had not yet lookedat and which he also couldn't picture clearly—proved itself too difficult to move. the attemptwent so slowly. when, having become almost frantic, he finally hurled himself forwardwith all his force and without thinking, he

chose his direction incorrectly, and he hitthe lower bedpost hard. the violent pain he felt revealed to him that the lower part ofhis body was at the moment probably the most sensitive. thus, he tried to get his upper body out ofthe bed first and turned his head carefully toward the edge of the bed. he managed todo this easily, and in spite of its width and weight his body mass at last slowly followedthe turning of his head. but as he finally raised his head outside the bed in the openair, he became anxious about moving forward any further in this manner, for if he allowedhimself eventually to fall by this process, it would take a miracle to prevent his headfrom getting injured. and at all costs he

must not lose consciousness right now. hepreferred to remain in bed. however, after a similar effort, while helay there again, sighing as before, and once again saw his small limbs fighting one another,if anything worse than earlier, and didn't see any chance of imposing quiet and orderon this arbitrary movement, he told himself again that he couldn't possibly remain inbed and that it might be the most reasonable thing to sacrifice everything if there waseven the slightest hope of getting himself out of bed in the process. at the same moment,however, he didn't forget to remind himself from time to time of the fact that calm—indeedthe calmest—reflection might be better than the most confused decisions. at such moments,he directed his gaze as precisely as he could

toward the window, but unfortunately therewas little confident cheer to be had from a glance at the morning mist, which concealedeven the other side of the narrow street. "it's already seven o'clock," he told himselfat the latest striking of the alarm clock, "already seven o'clock and still such a fog."and for a little while longer he lay quietly with weak breathing, as if perhaps waitingfor normal and natural conditions to re-emerge out of the complete stillness. but then he said to himself, "before it strikesa quarter past seven, whatever happens i must be completely out of bed. besides, by thensomeone from the office will arrive to inquire about me, because the office will open beforeseven o'clock." and he made an effort then

to rock his entire body length out of thebed with a uniform motion. if he let himself fall out of the bed in this way, his head,which in the course of the fall he intended to lift up sharply, would probably remainuninjured. his back seemed to be hard; nothing would really happen to that as a result ofthe fall. his greatest reservation was a worry about the loud noise which the fall must createand which presumably would arouse, if not fright, then at least concern on the otherside of all the doors. however, it had to be tried. as gregor was in the process of lifting himselfhalf out of bed—the new method was more of a game than an effort; he needed only torock with a constant rhythm—it struck him

how easy all this would be if someone wereto come to his aid. two strong people—he thought of his father and the servant girl—wouldhave been quite sufficient. they would have only had to push their arms under his archedback to get him out of the bed, to bend down with their load, and then merely to exercisepatience and care that he completed the flip onto the floor, where his diminutive legswould then, he hoped, acquire a purpose. now, quite apart from the fact that the doors werelocked, should he really call out for help? in spite of all his distress, he was unableto suppress a smile at this idea. he had already got to the point where, byrocking more strongly, he maintained his equilibrium with difficulty, and very soon he would finallyhave to decide, for in five minutes it would

be a quarter past seven. then there was aring at the door of the apartment. "that's someone from the office," he told himself,and he almost froze while his small limbs only danced around all the faster. for onemoment everything remained still. "they aren't opening," gregor said to himself, caught upin some absurd hope. but of course then, as usual, the servant girl with her firm treadwent to the door and opened it. gregor needed to hear only the first word of the visitor'sgreeting to recognize immediately who it was, the manager himself. why was gregor the onlyone condemned to work in a firm where, at the slightest lapse, someone immediately attractedthe greatest suspicion? were all the employees then collectively, one and all, scoundrels?among them was there then no truly devoted

person who, if he failed to use just a coupleof hours in the morning for office work, would become abnormal from pangs of conscience andreally be in no state to get out of bed? was it really not enough to let an apprenticemake inquiries, if such questioning was even necessary? must the manager himself come,and in the process must it be demonstrated to the entire innocent family that the investigationof this suspicious circumstance could be entrusted only to the intelligence of the manager? andmore as a consequence of the excited state in which this idea put gregor than as a resultof an actual decision, he swung himself with all his might out of the bed. there was aloud thud, but not a real crash. the fall was absorbed somewhat by the carpet and, inaddition, his back was more elastic than gregor

had thought. for that reason the dull noisewas not quite so conspicuous. but he had not held his head up with sufficient care andhad hit it. he turned his head, irritated and in pain, and rubbed it on the carpet. "something has fallen in there," said themanager in the next room on the left. gregor tried to imagine to himself whether anythingsimilar to what was happening to him today could have also happened at some point tothe manager. at least one had to concede the possibility of such a thing. however, as ifto give a rough answer to this question, the manager now, with a squeak of his polishedboots, took a few determined steps in the next room. from the neighbouring room on theright the sister was whispering to inform

gregor: "gregor, the manager is here." "iknow," said gregor to himself. but he did not dare make his voice loud enough so thathis sister could hear. "gregor," his father now said from the neighbouringroom on the left, "mr. manager has come and is asking why you have not left on the earlytrain. we don't know what we should tell him. besides, he also wants to speak to you personally.so please open the door. he will be good enough to forgive the mess in your room." in the middle of all this, the manager calledout in a friendly way, "good morning, mr. samsa." "he is not well," said his motherto the manager, while his father was still talking at the door, "he is not well, believeme, mr. manager. otherwise how would gregor

miss a train? the young man has nothing inhis head except business. i'm almost angry that he never goes out at night. right nowhe's been in the city eight days, but he's been at home every evening. he sits here withus at the table and reads the newspaper quietly or studies his travel schedules. it's a quitea diversion for him to busy himself with fretwork. for instance, he cut out a small frame overthe course of two or three evenings. you'd be amazed how pretty it is. it's hanging rightinside the room. you'll see it immediately, as soon as gregor opens the door. anyway,i'm happy that you're here, mr. manager. by ourselves, we would never have made gregoropen the door. he's so stubborn, and he's certainly not well, although he denied thatthis morning."

"i'm coming right away," said gregor slowlyand deliberately and didn't move, so as not to lose one word of the conversation. "mydear lady, i cannot explain it to myself in any other way," said the manager; "i hopeit is nothing serious. on the other hand, i must also say that we business people, luckilyor unluckily, however one looks at it, very often simply have to overcome a slight indispositionfor business reasons." "so can mr. manager come in to see you now?" asked his fatherimpatiently and knocked once again on the door. "no," said gregor. in the neighbouringroom on the left a painful stillness descended. in the neighbouring room on the right thesister began to sob. why didn't his sister go to the others? she'dprobably just gotten up out of bed now and

hadn't even started to get dressed yet. thenwhy was she crying? because he wasn't getting up and wasn't letting the manager in, becausehe was in danger of losing his position, and because then his boss would badger his parentsonce again with the old demands? those were probably unnecessary worries right now. gregorwas still here and wasn't thinking at all about abandoning his family. at the momenthe was lying right there on the carpet, and no one who knew about his condition would'veseriously demanded that he let the manager in. but gregor wouldn't be casually dismissedright way because of this small discourtesy, for which he would find an easy and suitableexcuse later on. it seemed to gregor that it might be far more reasonable to leave himin peace at the moment, instead of disturbing

him with crying and conversation. but it wasthe very uncertainty which distressed the others and excused their behaviour. "mr. samsa," the manager was now shouting,his voice raised, "what's the matter? you are barricading yourself in your room, answerwith only a yes and a no, are making serious and unnecessary troubles for your parents,and neglecting (i mention this only incidentally) your commercial duties in a truly unheardof manner. i am speaking here in the name of your parents and your employer, and i amrequesting you in all seriousness for an immediate and clear explanation. i am amazed. i am amazed.i thought i knew you as a calm, reasonable person, and now you appear suddenly to wantto start parading around in weird moods. the

chief indicated to me earlier this very daya possible explanation for your neglect--it concerned the collection of cash entrustedto you a short while ago--but in truth i almost gave him my word of honour that this explanationcould not be correct. however, now i see here your unimaginable pig headedness, and i amtotally losing any desire to speak up for you in the slightest. and your position isnot at all the most secure. originally i intended to mention all this to you privately, butsince you are letting me waste my time here uselessly, i don't know why the matter shouldn'tcome to the attention of your parents. your productivity has also been very unsatisfactoryrecently. of course, it's not the time of year to conduct exceptional business, we recognizethat, but a time of year for conducting no

business, there is no such thing at all, mr.samsa, and such a thing must never be." "but mr. manager," called gregor, beside himselfand, in his agitation, forgetting everything else, "i'm opening the door immediately, thisvery moment. a slight indisposition, a dizzy spell, has prevented me from getting up. i'mstill lying in bed right now. but i'm quite refreshed once again. i'm in the midst ofgetting out of bed. just have patience for a short moment! things are not going as wellas i thought. but things are all right. how suddenly this can overcome someone! only yesterdayevening everything was fine with me. my parents certainly know that. actually just yesterdayevening i had a small premonition. people must have seen that in me. why have i notreported that to the office? but people always

think that they'll get over sickness withouthaving to stay at home. mr. manager! take it easy on my parents! there is really nobasis for the criticisms which you're now making against me, and really nobody has saida word to me about that. perhaps you have not read the latest orders which i shipped.besides, now i'm setting out on my trip on the eight o'clock train; the few hours' resthave made me stronger. mr. manager, do not stay. i will be at the office in person rightaway. please have the goodness to say that and to convey my respects to the chief." while gregor was quickly blurting all thisout, hardly aware of what he was saying, he had moved close to the chest of drawers withouteffort, probably as a result of the practice

he had already had in bed, and now he wastrying to raise himself up on it. actually, he wanted to open the door. he really wantedto let himself be seen by and to speak with the manager. he was keen to witness what theothers now asking about him would say when they saw him. if they were startled, thengregor had no more responsibility and could be calm. but if they accepted everything quietly,then he would have no reason to get excited and, if he got a move on, could really beat the station around eight o'clock. at first he slid down a few times on the smoothchest of drawers. but at last he gave himself a final swing and stood upright there. hewas no longer at all aware of the pains in his lower body, no matter how they might stillsting. now he let himself fall against the

back of a nearby chair, on the edge of whichhe braced himself with his thin limbs. by doing this he gained control over himselfand kept quiet, for he could now hear the manager. "did you understood a single word?" the managerasked the parents, "is he playing the fool with us?" "for god's sake," cried the motheralready in tears, "perhaps he's very ill and we're upsetting him. grete! grete!" she yelledat that point. "mother?" called the sister from the other side. they were making themselvesunderstood through gregor's room. "you must go to the doctor right away. gregor is sick.hurry to the doctor. have you heard gregor speak yet?" "that was an animal's voice,"said the manager, remarkably quietly in comparison

to the mother's cries. "anna! anna!' yelled the father through thehall into the kitchen, clapping his hands, "fetch a locksmith right away!" the two youngwomen were already running through the hall with swishing skirts—how had his sisterdressed herself so quickly?—and yanked open the doors of the apartment. one couldn't hearthe doors closing at all. they probably had left them open, as is customary in an apartmentwhere a huge misfortune has taken place. however, gregor had become much calmer. allright, people did not understand his words any more, although they seemed clear enoughto him, clearer than previously, perhaps because his ears had gotten used to them. but at leastpeople now thought that things were not all

right with him and were prepared to help him.the confidence and assurance with which the first arrangements had been carried out madehim feel good. he felt himself included once again in the circle of humanity and was expectingfrom both the doctor and the locksmith, without differentiating between them with any realprecision, splendid and surprising results. in order to get as clear a voice as possiblefor the critical conversation which was imminent, he coughed a little, and certainly took thetrouble to do this in a really subdued way, since it was possible that even this noisesounded like something different from a human cough. he no longer trusted himself to decideany more. meanwhile in the next room it had become really quiet. perhaps his parents weresitting with the manager at the table whispering;

perhaps they were all leaning against thedoor listening. gregor pushed himself slowly towards the door,with the help of the easy chair, let go of it there, threw himself against the door,held himself upright against it—the balls of his tiny limbs had a little sticky stuffon them—and rested there momentarily from his exertion. then he made an effort to turnthe key in the lock with his mouth. unfortunately it seemed that he had no real teeth. how thenwas he to grab hold of the key? but to make up for that his jaws were naturally very strong;with their help he managed to get the key really moving. he didn't notice that he wasobviously inflicting some damage on himself, for a brown fluid came out of his mouth, flowedover the key, and dripped onto the floor.

"just listen for a moment," said the managerin the next room; "he's turning the key." for gregor that was a great encouragement.but they all should've called out to him, including his father and mother, "come on,gregor," they should've shouted; "keep going, keep working on the lock." imagining thatall his efforts were being followed with suspense, he bit down frantically on the key with allthe force he could muster. as the key turned more, he danced around the lock. now he washolding himself upright only with his mouth, and he had to hang onto the key or then pressit down again with the whole weight of his body, as necessary. the quite distinct clickof the lock as it finally snapped really woke gregor up. breathing heavily he said to himself,"so i didn't need the locksmith," and he set

his head against the door handle to open thedoor completely. because he had to open the door in this way,it was already open very wide without him yet being really visible. he first had toturn himself slowly around the edge of the door, very carefully, of course, if he didn'twant to fall awkwardly on his back right at the entrance into the room. he was still preoccupiedwith this difficult movement and had no time to pay attention to anything else, when heheard the manager exclaim a loud "oh!"—it sounded like the wind whistling—and nowhe saw him, nearest to the door, pressing his hand against his open mouth and movingslowly back, as if an invisible constant force was pushing him away. his mother—in spiteof the presence of the manager she was standing

here with her hair sticking up on end, stilla mess from the night—was looking at his father with her hands clasped. she then wenttwo steps towards gregor and collapsed right in the middle of her skirts, which were spreadout all around her, her face sunk on her breast, completely concealed. his father clenchedhis fist with a hostile expression, as if he wished to push gregor back into his room,then looked uncertainly around the living room, covered his eyes with his hands, andcried so that his mighty breast shook. at this point gregor did not take one stepinto the room, but leaned his body from the inside against the firmly bolted wing of thedoor, so that only half his body was visible, as well as his head, tilted sideways, withwhich he peeped over at the others. meanwhile

it had become much brighter. standing outclearly from the other side of the street was a part of the endless grey-black housesituated opposite—it was a hospital—with its severe regular windows breaking up thefacade. the rain was still coming down, but only in large individual drops visibly andfirmly thrown down one by one onto the ground. the breakfast dishes were standing piled aroundon the table, because for his father breakfast was the most important meal time in the day,which he prolonged for hours by reading various newspapers. directly across on the oppositewall hung a photograph of gregor from the time of his military service; it was a pictureof him as a lieutenant, as he, smiling and worry free, with his hand on his sword, demandedrespect for his bearing and uniform. the door

to the hall was ajar, and since the door tothe apartment was also open, one could see out into the landing of the apartment andthe start of the staircase going down. "now," said gregor, well aware that he wasthe only one who had kept his composure. "i'll get dressed right away, pack up the collectionof samples, and set off. you'll allow me to set out on my way, will you not? you see,mr. manager, i am not pig-headed, and i am happy to work. travelling is exhausting, buti couldn't live without it. where are you going, mr. manager? to the office? really?will you report everything truthfully? a person can be incapable of work momentarily, butthat's precisely the best time to remember the earlier achievements and to consider thatlater, after the obstacles have been shoved

aside, the person will work all the more eagerlyand intensely. i am really so indebted to mr. chief--you know that perfectly well. onthe other hand, i am concerned about my parents and my sister. i'm in a fix, but i'll workmyself out of it again. don't make things more difficult for me than they already are.speak up on my behalf in the office! people don't like travelling salesmen. i know that.people think they earn pots of money and thus lead a fine life. people don't even have anyspecial reason to think through this judgment more clearly. but you, mr. manager, you havea better perspective on what's involved than other people, even, i tell you in total confidence,a better perspective than mr. chairman himself, who in his capacity as the employer may lethis judgment make casual mistakes at the expense

of an employee. you also know well enoughthat the travelling salesman who is outside the office almost the entire year can becomeso easily a victim of gossip, coincidences, and groundless complaints, against which it'simpossible for him to defend himself, since for the most part he doesn't hear about themat all and only then when he's exhausted after finishing a trip and at home gets to feelin his own body the nasty consequences, which can't be thoroughly explored back to theirorigins. mr. manager, don't leave without speaking a word telling me that you'll atleast concede that i'm a little in the right!" but at gregor's first words the manager hadalready turned away, and now he looked back at gregor over his twitching shoulders withpursed lips. during gregor's speech he was

not still for a moment but kept moving awaytowards the door, without taking his eyes off gregor, but really gradually, as if therewas a secret ban on leaving the room. he was already in the hall, and given the suddenmovement with which he finally pulled his foot out of the living room, one could havebelieved that he had just burned the sole of his foot. in the hall, however, he stretchedhis right hand out away from his body towards the staircase, as if some truly supernaturalrelief was waiting for him there. gregor realized that he must not under anycircumstances allow the manager to go away in this frame of mind, especially if his positionin the firm was not to be placed in the greatest danger. his parents did not understand allthis very well. over the long years, they

had developed the conviction that gregor wasset up for life in his firm and, in addition, they had so much to do nowadays with theirpresent troubles that all foresight was foreign to them. but gregor had this foresight. themanager must be held back, calmed down, convinced, and finally won over. the future of gregorand his family really depended on it! if only the sister had been there! she was clever.she had already cried while gregor was still lying quietly on his back. and the manager,this friend of the ladies, would certainly let himself be guided by her. she would haveclosed the door to the apartment and talked him out of his fright in the hall. but thesister was not even there. gregor must deal with it himself.

without thinking that as yet he didn't knowanything about his present ability to move and that his speech possibly—indeed probably—hadonce again not been understood, he left the wing of the door, pushed himself through theopening, and wanted to go over to the manager, who was already holding tight onto the handrailwith both hands on the landing in a ridiculous way. but as he looked for something to holdonto, with a small scream gregor immediately fell down onto his numerous little legs. scarcelyhad this happened, when he felt for the first time that morning a general physical wellbeing. the small limbs had firm floor under them; they obeyed perfectly, as he noticedto his joy, and strove to carry him forward in the direction he wanted. right away hebelieved that the final amelioration of all

his suffering was immediately at hand. butat the very moment when he lay on the floor rocking in a restrained manner quite closeand directly across from his mother, who had apparently totally sunk into herself, shesuddenly sprang right up with her arms spread far apart and her fingers extended and criedout, "help, for god's sake, help!" she held her head bowed down, as if she wanted to viewgregor better, but ran senselessly back, contradicting that gesture, forgetting that behind her stoodthe table with all the dishes on it. when she reached the table, she sat down heavilyon it, as if absent-mindedly, and did not appear to notice at all that next to her coffeewas pouring out onto the carpet in a full stream from the large overturned container.

"mother, mother," said gregor quietly, andlooked over towards her. the manager momentarily had disappeared completely from his mind.at the sight of the flowing coffee gregor couldn't stop himself snapping his jaws inthe air a few times . at that his mother screamed all over again, hurried from the table, andcollapsed into the arms of his father, who was rushing towards her. but gregor had notime right now for his parents—the manager was already on the staircase. his chin levelwith the banister, the manager looked back for the last time. gregor took an initialmovement to catch up to him if possible. but the manager must have suspected something,because he made a leap down over a few stairs and disappeared, still shouting "huh!" thesound echoed throughout the entire stairwell.

now, unfortunately this flight of the manageralso seemed to bewilder his father completely. earlier he had been relatively calm, for insteadof running after the manager himself or at least not hindering gregor from his pursuit,with his right hand he grabbed hold of the manager's cane, which he had left behind withhis hat and overcoat on a chair. with his left hand, his father picked up a large newspaperfrom the table and, stamping his feet on the floor, he set out to drive gregor back intohis room by waving the cane and the newspaper. no request of gregor's was of any use; norequest would even be understood. no matter how willing he was to turn his head respectfully,his father just stomped all the harder with his feet.

across the room from him his mother had pulledopen a window, in spite of the cool weather, and leaning out with her hands on her cheeks,she pushed her face far outside the window. between the alley and the stairwell a strongdraught came up, the curtains on the window flew around, the newspapers on the table swished,and individual sheets fluttered down over the floor. the father relentlessly pressedforward, pushing out sibilants, like a wild man. now, gregor had no practice at all ingoing backwards—it was really very slow going. if gregor only had been allowed toturn himself around, he would have been in his room right away, but he was afraid tomake his father impatient by the time-consuming process of turning around, and each momenthe faced the threat of a mortal blow on his

back or his head from the cane in his father'shand. finally gregor had no other option, for he noticed with horror that he did notunderstand yet how to maintain his direction going backwards. and so he began, amid constantlyanxious sideways glances in his father's direction, to turn himself around as quickly as possible,although in truth this was only done very slowly. perhaps his father noticed his goodintentions, for he did not disrupt gregor in this motion, but with the tip of the canefrom a distance he even directed gregor's rotating movement here and there. if only his father had not hissed so unbearably!because of that gregor totally lost his head. he was already almost totally turned around,when, always with this hissing in his ear,

he just made a mistake and turned himselfback a little. but when he finally was successful in getting his head in front of the door opening,it became clear that his body was too wide to go through any further. naturally his father,in his present mental state, had no idea of opening the other wing of the door a bit tocreate a suitable passage for gregor to get through. his single fixed thought was thatgregor must get into his room as quickly as possible. he would never have allowed theelaborate preparations that gregor required to orient himself and thus perhaps get throughthe door. on the contrary, as if there were no obstacle and with a peculiar noise, henow drove gregor forwards. behind gregor the sound at this point was no longer like thevoice of only a single father. now it was

really no longer a joke, and gregor forcedhimself, come what might, into the door. one side of his body was lifted up. he lay atan angle in the door opening. his one flank was sore with the scraping. on the white doorugly blotches were left. soon he was stuck fast and would have not been able to moveany more on his own. the tiny legs on one side hung twitching in the air above, andthe ones on the other side were pushed painfully into the floor. then his father gave him onereally strong liberating push from behind, and he scurried, bleeding severely, far intothe interior of his room. the door was slammed shut with the cane, and finally it was quiet.ii. gregor first woke up from his heavy swoon-likesleep in the evening twilight. he would certainly

have woken up soon afterwards without anydisturbance, for he felt himself sufficiently rested and wide awake, although it appearedto him as if a hurried step and a cautious closing of the door to the hall had arousedhim. light from the electric streetlamps lay pale here and there on the ceiling and onthe higher parts of the furniture, but underneath around gregor it was dark. he pushed himselfslowly toward the door, still groping awkwardly with his feelers, which he now learned tovalue for the first time, to check what was happening there. his left side seemed onesingle long unpleasantly stretched scar, and he really had to hobble on his two rows oflegs. in addition, one small leg had been seriously wounded in the course of the morningincident—it was almost a miracle that only

one had been hurt—and dragged lifelesslybehind. by the door he first noticed what had reallylured him there: it was the smell of something to eat. a bowl stood there, filled with sweetenedmilk, in which swam tiny pieces of white bread. he almost laughed with joy, for he now hada much greater hunger than in the morning, and he immediately dipped his head almostup to and over his eyes down into the milk. but he soon drew it back again in disappointment,not just because it was difficult for him to eat on account of his delicate left side—hecould eat only if his entire panting body worked in a coordinated way—but also becausethe milk, which otherwise was his favourite drink and which his sister had certainly placedthere for that reason, did not appeal to him

at all. he turned away from the bowl almostwith aversion and crept back into the middle of the room. in the living room, as gregor saw throughthe crack in the door, the gas was lit, but where, on other occasions at this time ofday, his father was accustomed to read the afternoon newspaper in a loud voice to hismother and sometimes also to his sister, at the moment no sound was audible. now, perhapsthis reading aloud, about which his sister had always spoken and written to him, hadrecently fallen out of their general routine. but it was so still all around, in spite ofthe fact that the apartment was certainly not empty. "what a quiet life the family leads,"said gregor to himself and, as he stared fixedly

out in front of him into the darkness, hefelt a great pride that he had been able to provide such a life in a beautiful apartmentlike this for his parents and his sister. but how would things go if now all tranquillity,all prosperity, all contentment should come to a horrible end? in order not to lose himselfin such thoughts, gregor preferred to set himself moving, so he moved up and down inhis room. once during the long evening one side doorand then the other door was opened just a tiny crack and quickly closed again. someonepresumably needed to come in but had then thought better of it. gregor immediately tookup a position by the living room door, determined to bring in the hesitant visitor somehow orother or at least to find out who it might

be. but now the door was not opened any more,and gregor waited in vain. earlier, when the door had been barred, they had all wantedto come in to him; now, when he had opened one door and when the others had obviouslybeen opened during the day, no one came any more, and the keys were stuck in the lockson the outside. the light in the living room was turned offonly late at night, and now it was easy to establish that his parents and his sisterhad stayed awake all this time, for one could hear clearly as all three moved away on tiptoe.now it was certain that no one would come into gregor any more until the morning. thus,he had a long time to think undisturbed about how he should reorganize his life from scratch.but the high, open room, in which he was compelled

to lie flat on the floor, made him anxious,without his being able to figure out the reason, for he had lived in the room for five years.with a half unconscious turn and not without a slight shame he scurried under the couch,where, in spite of the fact that his back was a little cramped and he could no longerlift up his head, he felt very comfortable and was sorry only that his body was too wideto fit completely under it. there he remained the entire night, whichhe spent partly in a state of semi-sleep, out of which his hunger constantly woke himwith a start, but partly in a state of worry and murky hopes, which all led to the conclusionthat for the time being he would have to keep calm and with patience and the greatest considerationfor his family tolerate the troubles which

in his present condition he was now forcedto cause them. already early in the morning—it was stillalmost night—gregor had an opportunity to test the power of the decisions he had justmade, for his sister, almost fully dressed, opened the door from the hall into his roomand looked eagerly inside. she did not find him immediately, but when she noticed himunder the couch—god, he had to be somewhere or other, for he could hardly fly away—shegot such a shock that, without being able to control herself, she slammed the door shutonce again from the outside. however, as if she was sorry for her behaviour, she immediatelyopened the door again and walked in on her tiptoes, as if she was in the presence ofa serious invalid or a total stranger. gregor

had pushed his head forward just to the edgeof the couch and was observing her. would she really notice that he had left the milkstanding, not indeed from any lack of hunger, and would she bring in something else to eatmore suitable for him? if she did not do it on her own, he would sooner starve to deaththan call her attention to the fact, although he had a really powerful urge to move beyondthe couch, throw himself at his sister's feet, and beg her for something or other good toeat. but his sister noticed right away with astonishment that the bowl was still full,with only a little milk spilled around it. she picked it up immediately, although notwith her bare hands but with a rag, and took it out of the room. gregor was extremely curiouswhat she would bring as a substitute, and

he pictured to himself different ideas aboutit. but he never could have guessed what his sister out of the goodness of her heart infact did. she brought him, to test his taste, an entire selection, all spread out on anold newspaper. there were old half-rotten vegetables, bones from the evening meal, coveredwith a white sauce which had almost solidified, some raisins and almonds, cheese which gregorhad declared inedible two days earlier, a slice of dry bread, and a slice of saltedbread smeared with butter. in addition to all this, she put down a bowl—probably designatedonce and for all as gregor's—into which she had poured some water. and out of herdelicacy of feeling, since she knew that gregor would not eat in front of her, she went awayvery quickly and even turned the key in the

lock, so that gregor would now observe thathe could make himself as comfortable as he wished. gregor's small limbs buzzed now thatthe time for eating had come. his wounds must, in any case, have already healed completely.he felt no handicap on that score. he was astonished at that and thought about how morethan a month ago he had cut his finger slightly with a knife and how this wound had hurt enougheven the day before yesterday. "am i now going to be less sensitive," hethought, already sucking greedily on the cheese, which had strongly attracted him right away,more than all the other foods. quickly and with his eyes watering with satisfaction,he ate one after the other the cheese, the vegetables, and the sauce. the fresh food,by contrast, didn't taste good to him. he

couldn't bear the smell and even carried thethings he wanted to eat a little distance away. by the time his sister slowly turnedthe key as a sign that he should withdraw, he was long finished and now lay lazily inthe same spot. the noise immediately startled him, in spite of the fact that he was alreadyalmost asleep, and he scurried back again under the couch. but it cost him great self-controlto remain under the couch, even for the short time his sister was in the room, because hisbody had filled out somewhat on account of the rich meal and in the narrow space therehe could scarcely breathe. in the midst of minor attacks of asphyxiation, he looked ather with somewhat protruding eyes, as his unsuspecting sister swept up with a broom,not just the remnants, but even the foods

which gregor had not touched at all, as ifthese were also now useless, and as she dumped everything quickly into a bucket, which sheclosed with a wooden lid, and then carried all of it out of the room. she had hardlyturned around before gregor had already dragged himself out from the couch, stretched out,and let his body expand. in this way gregor got his food every day,once in the morning, when his parents and the servant girl were still asleep, and asecond time after the common noon meal, for his parents were, as before, asleep then fora little while, and the servant girl was sent off by his sister on some errand or other.they certainly would not have wanted gregor to starve to death, but perhaps they couldnot have endured finding out what he ate other

than by hearsay. perhaps his sister wantedto spare them what was possibly only a small grief, for they were really suffering quiteenough already. what sorts of excuses people had used on thatfirst morning to get the doctor and the locksmith out of the house gregor was completely unableto ascertain. since they could not understand him, no one, not even his sister, thoughtthat he might be able to understand others, and thus, when his sister was in her room,he had to be content with listening now and then to her sighs and invocations to the saints.only later, when she had grown somewhat accustomed to everything—naturally there could neverbe any talk of her growing completely accustomed to it—gregor sometimes caught a commentwhich was intended to be friendly or could

be interpreted as such. "well, today it tastedgood to him," she said, if gregor had really cleaned up what he had to eat; whereas, inthe reverse situation, which gradually repeated itself more and more frequently, she usedto say sadly, "now everything has stopped again." but while gregor could get no new informationdirectly, he did hear a good deal from the room next door, and as soon as he heard voices,he scurried right away to the appropriate door and pressed his entire body against it.in the early days especially, there was no conversation which was not concerned withhim in some way or other, even if only in secret. for two days at all meal times discussionson that subject could be heard on how people

should now behave; but they also talked aboutthe same subject in the times between meals, for there were always at least two familymembers at home, since no one really wanted to remain in the house alone and people couldnot under any circumstances leave the apartment completely empty. in addition, on the veryfirst day the servant girl—it was not completely clear what and how much she knew about whathad happened—on her knees had begged his mother to let her go immediately, and whenshe said good bye about fifteen minutes later, she thanked them for the dismissal with tearsin her eyes, as if she was receiving the greatest favour which people had shown her there, and,without anyone demanding it from her, she swore a fearful oath not to betray anyone,not even the slightest bit.

now his sister had to team up with his motherto do the cooking, although that didn't create much trouble because people were eating almostnothing. again and again gregor listened as one of them vainly invited another one toeat and received no answer other than "thank you. i've had enough" or something like that.and perhaps they had stopped having anything to drink, too. his sister often asked hisfather whether he wanted to have a beer and gladly offered to fetch it herself, and whenhis father was silent, she said, in order to remove any reservations he might have,that she could send the caretaker's wife to get it. but then his father finally said aresounding "no," and nothing more would be spoken about it.

already during the first day his father laidout all the financial circumstances and prospects to his mother and to his sister as well. fromtime to time he stood up from the table and pulled out of the small lockbox salvaged fromhis business, which had collapsed five years previously, some document or other or somenotebook. the sound was audible as he opened up the complicated lock and, after removingwhat he was looking for, locked it up again. these explanations by his father were, inpart, the first enjoyable thing that gregor had the chance to listen to since his imprisonment.he had thought that nothing at all was left over for his father from that business; atleast his father had told him nothing to contradict that view, and gregor in any case hadn't askedhim about it. at the time gregor's only concern

had been to use everything he had in orderto allow his family to forget as quickly as possible the business misfortune which hadbrought them all into a state of complete hopelessness. and so at that point he'd startedto work with a special intensity and from an assistant had become, almost overnight,a travelling salesman, who naturally had entirely different possibilities for earning moneyand whose successes at work were converted immediately into the form of cash commissions,which could be set out on the table at home in front of his astonished and delighted family. those had been beautiful days, and they hadnever come back afterwards, at least not with the same splendour, in spite of the fact thatgregor later earned so much money that he

was in a position to bear the expenses ofthe entire family, costs which he, in fact, did bear. they had become quite accustomedto it, both the family and gregor as well. they took the money with thanks, and he happilysurrendered it, but the special warmth was no longer present. only the sister had remainedstill close to gregor, and it was his secret plan to send her next year to the conservatory,regardless of the great expense which that necessarily involved and which would be madeup in other ways. in contrast to gregor she loved music very much and knew how to playthe violin charmingly. now and then during gregor's short stays in the city the conservatorywas mentioned in conversations with his sister, but always only as a beautiful dream, whoserealization was unimaginable, and their parents

never listened to these innocent expectationswith pleasure. but gregor thought about them with scrupulous consideration and intendedto explain the matter ceremoniously on christmas eve. in his present situation, such futile ideaswent through his head, while he pushed himself right up against the door and listened. sometimesin his general exhaustion he couldn't listen any more and let his head bang listlesslyagainst the door, but he immediately pulled himself together, for even the small soundwhich he made by this motion was heard near by and silenced everyone. "there he goes onagain," said his father after a while, clearly turning towards the door, and only then wouldthe interrupted conversation gradually be

resumed again. gregor found out clearly enough—for hisfather tended to repeat himself often in his explanations, partly because he had not personallyconcerned himself with these matters for a long time now, and partly also because hismother did not understand everything right away the first time—that, in spite all badluck, a fortune, although a very small one, was available from the old times, which theinterest, which had not been touched, had in the intervening time gradually allowedto increase a little. furthermore, in addition to this, the money which gregor had broughthome every month—he had kept only a few florins for himself—had not been completelyspent and had grown into a small capital amount.

gregor, behind his door, nodded eagerly, rejoicingover this unanticipated foresight and frugality. true, with this excess money, he could havepaid off more of his father's debt to his employer and the day on which he could berid of this position would have been a lot closer, but now things were doubtless betterthe way his father had arranged them. at the moment, however, this money was notnearly sufficient to permit the family to live on the interest payments. perhaps itwould be enough to maintain the family for one or at most two years, that's all. thus,it only added up to an amount which one should not really draw upon and which must be setaside for an emergency. but the money to live on had to be earned. now, although his fatherwas old, he was a healthy man who had not

worked at all for five years and thus couldnot be counted on for very much. he had in these five years, the first holidays of histrouble-filled but unsuccessful life, put on a good deal of fat and thus had becomereally heavy. and should his old mother now perhaps work for money, a woman who sufferedfrom asthma, for whom wandering through the apartment even now was a great strain andwho spent every second day on the sofa by the open window labouring for breath? shouldhis sister earn money, a girl who was still a seventeen-year-old child whose earlier lifestyle had been so very delightful that it had consisted of dressing herself nicely,sleeping in late, helping around the house, taking part in a few modest enjoyments and,above all, playing the violin? when it came

to talking about this need to earn money,at first gregor went away from the door and threw himself on the cool leather sofa besidethe door, for he was quite hot from shame and sorrow. often he lay there all night long. he didn'tsleep a moment and just scratched on the leather for hours at a time. he undertook the verydifficult task of shoving a chair over to the window. then he crept up on the windowsill and, braced in the chair, leaned against the window to look out, obviously with somememory or other of the satisfaction which that used to bring him in earlier times. actually,from day to day he perceived things with less and less clarity, even those a short distanceaway: the hospital across the street, the

all-too-frequent sight of which he had previouslycursed, was not visible at all any more, and if he had not been precisely aware that helived in the quiet but completely urban charlotte street, he could have believed that from hiswindow he was peering out at a featureless wasteland, in which the grey heaven and thegrey earth had merged and were indistinguishable. his attentive sister must have observed acouple of times that the chair stood by the window; then, after cleaning up the room,each time she pushed the chair back right against the window and from now on she evenleft the inner casement open. if gregor had only been able to speak to hissister and thank her for everything that she had to do for him, he would have toleratedher service more easily. as it was, he suffered

under it. the sister admittedly sought tocover up the awkwardness of everything as much as possible, and, as time went by, shenaturally got more successful at it. but with the passing of time gregor also came to understandeverything more precisely. even her entrance was terrible for him. as soon as she entered,she ran straight to the window, without taking the time to shut the door, in spite of thefact that she was otherwise very considerate in sparing anyone the sight of gregor's room,and yanked the window open with eager hands, as if she was almost suffocating, and remainedfor a while by the window breathing deeply, even when it was still so cold. with thisrunning and noise she frightened gregor twice every day. the entire time he trembled underthe couch, and yet he knew very well that

she would certainly have spared him gladlyif it had only been possible to remain with the window closed in a room where gregor lived. on one occasion—about one month had alreadygone by since gregor's transformation, and there was now no particular reason any morefor his sister to be startled at gregor's appearance—she arrived a little earlierthan usual and came upon gregor as he was still looking out the window, immobile andwell positioned to frighten someone. it would not have come as a surprise to gregor if shehad not come in, since his position was preventing her from opening the window immediately. butshe not only did not step inside; she even retreated and shut the door. a stranger reallymight have concluded from this that gregor

had been lying in wait for her and wantedto bite her. of course, gregor immediately concealed himself under the couch, but hehad to wait until the noon meal before his sister returned, and she seemed much lesscalm than usual. from this he realized that his appearance was still constantly intolerableto her and must remain intolerable in future, and that she really had to exert a lot ofself-control not to run away from a glimpse of only the small part of his body which stuckout from under the couch. in order to spare her even this sight, one day he dragged thesheet on his back and onto the couch—this task took him four hours—and arranged itin such a way that he was now completely concealed and his sister, even if she bent down, couldnot see him. if this sheet was not necessary

as far as she was concerned, then she couldremove it, for it was clear enough that gregor could not derive any pleasure from isolatinghimself away so completely. but she left the sheet just as it was, and gregor believedhe even caught a look of gratitude when, on one occasion, he carefully lifted up the sheeta little with his head to check, as his sister took stock of the new arrangement. in the first two weeks his parents could notbring themselves to visit him, and he often heard how they fully acknowledged his sister'spresent work; whereas, earlier they had often got annoyed at his sister because she hadseemed to them a somewhat useless young woman. however, now both his father and his motheroften waited in front of gregor's door while

his sister cleaned up inside, and as soonas she came out, she had to explain in detail how things looked in the room, what gregorhad eaten, how he had behaved this time, and whether perhaps a slight improvement was perceptible.in any event, his mother comparatively soon wanted to visit gregor, but his father andhis sister restrained her, at first with reasons which gregor listened to very attentivelyand which he completely endorsed. later, however, they had to hold her back forcefully, andwhen she then cried "let me go to gregor. he's my unlucky son! don't you understandthat i have to go to him?" gregor then thought that perhaps it would be a good thing if hismother came in, not every day, of course, but maybe once a week. she understood everythingmuch better than his sister, who, in spite

of all her courage, was still a child and,in the last analysis, had perhaps undertaken such a difficult task only out of childishrecklessness. gregor's wish to see his mother was soon realized.while during the day gregor, out of consideration for his parents, did not want to show himselfby the window, he couldn't crawl around very much on the few square metres of the floor.he found it difficult to bear lying quietly during the night, and soon eating no longergave him the slightest pleasure. so for diversion he acquired the habit of crawling back andforth across the walls and ceiling. he was especially fond of hanging from the ceiling.the experience was quite different from lying on the floor. it was easier to breathe, aslight vibration went through his body, and

in the midst of the almost happy amusementwhich gregor found up there, it could happen that, to his own surprise, he let go and hitthe floor. however, now he naturally controlled his body quite differently, and he did notinjure himself in such a great fall. his sister noticed immediately the new amusement whichgregor had found for himself—for as he crept around he left behind here and there tracesof his sticky stuff—and so she got the idea of making gregor's creeping around as easyas possible and thus of removing the furniture which got in the way, especially the chestof drawers and the writing desk. but she was in no position to do this by herself.she did not dare to ask her father to help, and the servant girl would certainly not haveassisted her, for although this girl, about

sixteen years old, had courageously remainedsince the dismissal of the previous cook, she had begged for the privilege of beingallowed to stay permanently confined to the kitchen and of having to open the door onlyin answer to a special summons. thus, his sister had no other choice but to involvehis mother while his father was absent. his mother approached gregor's room with criesof excited joy, but she fell silent at the door. of course, his sister first checkedwhether everything in the room was in order. only then did she let his mother walk in.in great haste gregor had drawn the sheet down even further and wrinkled it more. thewhole thing really looked just like a coverlet thrown carelessly over the couch. on thisoccasion, gregor held back from spying out

from under the sheet. thus, he refrained fromlooking at his mother this time and was just happy that she had come. "come on; he's notvisible," said his sister, and evidently led his mother by the hand. now gregor listenedas these two weak women shifted the still heavy old chest of drawers from its position,and as his sister constantly took on herself the greater part of the work, without listeningto the warnings of his mother, who was afraid that she would strain herself. the work lasteda long time. after about a quarter of an hour had already gone by, his mother said it wouldbe better if they left the chest of drawers where it was, because, in the first place,it was too heavy: they would not be finished before his father's arrival, and leaving thechest of drawers in the middle of the room

would block all gregor's pathways, but, inthe second place, they could not be certain that gregor would be pleased with the removalof the furniture. to her the reverse seemed to be true; the sight of the empty walls piercedher right to the heart, and why should gregor not feel the same, since he had been accustomedto the room furnishings for a long time and in an empty room would feel himself abandoned? "and is it not the case," his mother concludedvery quietly, almost whispering as if she wished to prevent gregor, whose exact locationshe really didn't know, from hearing even the sound of her voice—for she was convincedthat he did not understand her words—"and isn't it a fact that by removing the furniturewe're showing that we're giving up all hope

of an improvement and are leaving him to hisown resources without any consideration? i think it would be best if we tried to keepthe room exactly in the condition it was in before, so that, when gregor returns to us,he finds everything unchanged and can forget the intervening time all the more easily." as he heard his mother's words gregor realizedthat the lack of all immediate human contact, together with the monotonous life surroundedby the family over the course of these two months, must have confused his understanding,because otherwise he couldn't explain to himself how he, in all seriousness, could have beenso keen to have his room emptied. was he really eager to let the warm room, comfortably furnishedwith pieces he had inherited, be turned into

a cavern in which he would, of course, thenbe able to crawl about in all directions without disturbance, but at the same time with a quickand complete forgetting of his human past as well? was he then at this point alreadyon the verge of forgetting and was it only the voice of his mother, which he had notheard for a long time, that had aroused him? nothing was to be removed—everything mustremain. in his condition he could not function without the beneficial influences of his furniture.and if the furniture prevented him from carrying out his senseless crawling about all overthe place, then there was no harm in that, but rather a great benefit. but his sister unfortunately thought otherwise.she had grown accustomed, certainly not without

justification, so far as the discussion ofmatters concerning gregor was concerned, to act as an special expert with respect to theirparents, and so now the mother's advice was for his sister sufficient reason to insiston the removal, not only of the chest of drawers and the writing desk, which were the onlyitems she had thought about at first, but also of all the furniture, with the exceptionof the indispensable couch. of course, it was not only childish defiance and her recentvery unexpected and hard won self-confidence which led her to this demand. she had alsoactually observed that gregor needed a great deal of room to creep about; the furniture,on the other hand, as far as one could see, was not of the slightest use.

but perhaps the enthusiastic sensibility ofyoung women of her age also played a role. this feeling sought release at every opportunity,and with it grete now felt tempted to want to make gregor's situation even more terrifying,so that then she would be able to do even more for him than now. for surely no one exceptgrete would ever trust themselves to enter a room in which gregor ruled the empty wallsall by himself. and so she did not let herself be dissuaded from her decision by her mother,who in this room seemed uncertain of herself in her sheer agitation and soon kept quiet,helping his sister with all her energy to get the chest of drawers out of the room.now, gregor could still do without the chest of drawers if need be, but the writing deskreally had to stay. and scarcely had the women

left the room with the chest of drawers, groaningas they pushed it, when gregor stuck his head out from under the sofa to take a look howhe could intervene cautiously and with as much consideration as possible. but unfortunatelyit was his mother who came back into the room first, while grete had her arms wrapped aroundthe chest of drawers in the next room and was rocking it back and forth by herself,without moving it from its position. his mother was not used to the sight of gregor; he couldhave made her ill, and so, frightened, gregor scurried backwards right to the other endof the sofa, but he could no longer prevent the sheet from moving forward a little. thatwas enough to catch his mother's attention. she came to a halt, stood still for a moment,and then went back to grete.

although gregor kept repeating to himselfover and over that really nothing unusual was going on, that only a few pieces of furniturewere being rearranged, he soon had to admit to himself that the movements of the womento and fro, their quiet conversations, and the scratching of the furniture on the flooraffected him like a great swollen commotion on all sides, and, so firmly was he pullingin his head and legs and pressing his body into the floor, he had to tell himself unequivocallythat he wouldn't be able to endure all this much longer. they were cleaning out his room,taking away from him everything he cherished; they had already dragged out the chest ofdrawers in which the fret saw and other tools were kept, and they were now loosening thewriting desk which was fixed tight to the

floor, the desk on which he, as a businessstudent, a school student, indeed even as an elementary school student, had writtenout his assignments. at that moment he really didn't have any more time to check the goodintentions of the two women, whose existence he had in any case almost forgotten, becausein their exhaustion they were working really silently, and the heavy stumbling of theirfeet was the only sound to be heard. and so he scuttled out—the women were justpropping themselves up on the writing desk in the next room in order to take a breather—changingthe direction of his path four times. he really didn't know what he should rescue first. thenhe saw hanging conspicuously on the wall, which was otherwise already empty, the pictureof the woman dressed in nothing but fur. he

quickly scurried up over it and pressed himselfagainst the glass which held it in place and which made his hot abdomen feel good. at leastthis picture, which gregor at the moment completely concealed, surely no one would now take away.he twisted his head towards the door of the living room to observe the women as they cameback in. they had not allowed themselves very muchrest and were coming back right away. grete had placed her arm around her mother and heldher tightly. "so what shall we take now?" said grete and looked around her. then herglance met gregor's from the wall. she kept her composure only because her mother wasthere. she bent her face towards her mother in order to prevent her from looking around,and said, although in a trembling voice and

too quickly, "come, wouldn't it be betterto go back to the living room for just another moment?" grete's purpose was clear to gregor:she wanted to bring his mother to a safe place and then chase him down from the wall. well,let her just try! he squatted on his picture and did not hand it over. he would soonerspring into grete's face. but grete's words had immediately made themother very uneasy. she walked to the side, caught sight of the enormous brown splotchon the flowered wallpaper, and, before she became truly aware that what she was lookingat was gregor, screamed out in a high pitched raw voice "oh god, oh god" and fell with outstretchedarms, as if she was surrendering everything, down onto the couch and lay there motionless."gregor, you. . ." cried out his sister with

a raised fist and an urgent glare. since histransformation these were the first words which she had directed right at him. she raninto the room next door to bring some spirits or other with which she could revive her motherfrom her fainting spell. gregor wanted to help as well—there was time enough to savethe picture—but he was stuck fast on the glass and had to tear himself loose forcefully.then he also scurried into the next room, as if he could give his sister some advice,as in earlier times, but then he had to stand there idly behind her, while she rummagedabout among various small bottles. still, she was frightened when she turned around.a bottle fell onto the floor and shattered. a splinter of glass wounded gregor in theface, some corrosive medicine or other dripped

over him. now, without lingering any longer,grete took as many small bottles as she could hold and ran with them into her mother. sheslammed the door shut with her foot. gregor was now shut off from his mother, who wasperhaps near death, thanks to him. he could not open the door, and he did not want tochase away his sister who had to remain with her mother. at this point he had nothing todo but wait, and overwhelmed with self-reproach and worry, he began to creep and crawl overeverything: walls, furniture, and ceiling. finally, in his despair, as the entire roomstarted to spin around him, he fell onto the middle of the large table. a short time elapsed. gregor lay there limply.all around was still. perhaps that was a good

sign. then there was ring at the door. theservant girl was naturally shut up in her kitchen, and therefore grete had to go toopen the door. the father had arrived. "what's happened?" were his first words. grete's appearancehad told him everything. grete replied with a dull voice; evidently she was pressing herface into her father's chest: "mother fainted, but she's getting better now. gregor has brokenloose." "yes, i have expected that," said his father, "i always told you that, but youwomen don't want to listen." it was clear to gregor that his father hadbadly misunderstood grete's short message and was assuming that gregor had committedsome violent crime or other. thus, gregor now had to find his father to calm him down,for he had neither the time nor the ability

to explain things to him. and so he rushedaway to the door of his room and pushed himself against it, so that his father could see rightaway as he entered from the hall that gregor fully intended to return at once to his room,that it was not necessary to drive him back, but that one only needed to open the door,and he would disappear immediately. but his father was not in the mood to observesuch niceties. "ah," he yelled as soon as he entered, with a tone as if he were allat once angry and pleased. gregor pulled his head back from the door and raised it in thedirection of his father. he had not really pictured his father as he now stood there.of course, what with his new style of creeping all around, he had in the past while neglectedto pay attention to what was going on in the

rest of the apartment, as he had done before,and really should have grasped the fact that he would encounter different conditions. nevertheless,nevertheless, was that still his father? was that the same man who had lain exhausted andburied in bed in earlier days when gregor was setting out on a business trip, who hadreceived him on the evenings of his return in a sleeping gown and arm chair, totallyincapable of standing up, who had only lifted his arm as a sign of happiness, and who intheir rare strolls together a few sundays a year and on the important holidays madehis way slowly forwards between gregor and his mother—who themselves moved slowly—alwaysa bit more slowly than them, bundled up in his old coat, all the time setting down hiswalking stick carefully, and who, when he

had wanted to say something, almost alwaysstood still and gathered his entourage around him? but now he was standing up really straight,dressed in a tight-fitting blue uniform with gold buttons, like the ones servants wearin a banking company. above the high stiff collar of his jacket his firm double chinstuck out prominently, beneath his bushy eyebrows the glance of his black eyes was freshly penetratingand alert, his otherwise dishevelled white hair was combed down into a carefully exactshining part. he threw his cap, on which a gold monogram, apparently the symbol of thebank, was affixed, in an arc across the entire room onto the sofa and moved, throwing backthe edge of the long coat of his uniform,

with his hands in his trouser pockets anda grim face, right up to gregor. he really didn't know what he had in mind,but he raised his foot uncommonly high anyway, and gregor was astonished at the giganticsize of the sole of his boot. however, he did not linger on that point. for he knewfrom the first day of his new life that, as far as he was concerned, his father consideredthe greatest force the only appropriate response. and so he scurried away from his father, stoppedwhen his father remained standing, and scampered forward again when his father merely stirred.in this way they made their way around the room repeatedly, without anything decisivetaking place. in fact, because of the slow pace, it didn't look like a chase. gregorremained on the floor for the time being,

especially since he was afraid that his fathercould take a flight up onto the wall or the ceiling as an act of real malice. at any event,gregor had to tell himself that he couldn't keep up this running around for a long time,because whenever his father took a single step, he had to go through an enormous numberof movements. already he was starting to suffer from a shortage of breath, just as in hisearlier days when his lungs had been quite unreliable. as he now staggered around inthis way in order to gather all his energies for running, hardly keeping his eyes openand feeling so listless that he had no notion at all of any escape other than by runningand had almost already forgotten that the walls were available to him, although theywere obstructed by carefully carved furniture

full of sharp points and spikes, at that momentsomething or other thrown casually flew down close by and rolled in front of him. it wasan apple. immediately a second one flew after it. gregor stood still in fright. furtherrunning away was useless, for his father had decided to bombard him. from the fruit bowl on the sideboard his fatherhad filled his pockets. and now, without for the moment taking accurate aim, he was throwingapple after apple. these small red apples rolled around on the floor, as if electrified,and collided with each other. a weakly thrown apple grazed gregor's back but skidded offharmlessly. however, another thrown immediately after that one drove into gregor's back reallyhard. gregor wanted to drag himself off, as

if the unexpected and incredible pain wouldgo away if he changed his position. but he felt as if he was nailed in place and laystretched out completely confused in all his senses. only with his final glance did henotice how the door of his room was pulled open and how, right in front of his sister—whowas yelling—his mother ran out in her undergarments, for his sister had undressed her in orderto give her some freedom to breathe in her fainting spell, and how his mother then ranup to his father, on the way her tied up skirts slipped toward the floor one after the other,and how, tripping over her skirts, she hurled herself onto his father and, throwing herarms around him, in complete union with him--but at this moment gregor's powers of sight gaveway--as her hands reached to the back of his

father's head and she begged him to sparegregor's life. iii. gregor's serious wound, from which he sufferedfor over a month—since no one ventured to remove the apple, it remained in his fleshas a visible reminder—seemed by itself to have reminded the father that, in spite ofhis present unhappy and hateful appearance, gregor was a member of the family, somethingone should not treat as an enemy, and that it was, on the contrary, a requirement offamily duty to suppress one's aversion and to endure--nothing else, just endure. andif through his wound gregor had now apparently lost for good his ability to move and forthe time being needed many, many minutes to

crawl across his room, like an aged invalid—sofar as creeping up high was concerned, that was unimaginable—nevertheless for this worseningof his condition, in his opinion, he did get completely satisfactory compensation, becauseevery day towards evening the door to the living room, which he was in the habit ofkeeping a sharp eye on even one or two hours beforehand, was opened, so that he, lyingdown in the darkness of his room, invisible from the living room, could see the entirefamily at the illuminated table and listen to their conversation, to a certain extentwith their common permission, a situation quite different from what had happened before. of course, it was no longer the animated socialinteraction of former times, which gregor

in small hotel rooms had always thought aboutwith a certain longing, when, tired out, he had had to throw himself into the damp bedclothes.for the most part what went on now was very quiet. after the evening meal, the fatherfell asleep quickly in his arm chair. the mother and sister talked guardedly to eachother in the stillness. bent far over, the mother sewed fine undergarments for a fashionshop. the sister, who had taken on a job as a salesgirl, in the evening studied stenographyand french, so as perhaps later to obtain a better position. sometimes the father wokeup and, as if he was quite ignorant that he had been asleep, said to the mother "how longyou have been sewing today?" and went right back to sleep, while the mother and the sistersmiled tiredly to each other.

with a sort of stubbornness the father refusedto take off his servant's uniform even at home, and while his sleeping gown hung unusedon the coat hook, the father dozed completely dressed in his place, as if he was alwaysready for his responsibility and even here was waiting for the voice of his superior.as a result, in spite of all the care of the mother and sister, his uniform, which evenat the start was not new, grew dirty, and gregor looked, often for the entire evening,at this clothing, with stains all over it and with its gold buttons always polished,in which the old man, although very uncomfortable, slept peacefully nonetheless. as soon as the clock struck ten, the mothertried gently encouraging the father to wake

up and then persuading him to go to bed, onthe ground that he couldn't get a proper sleep here and that the father, who had to reportfor service at six o'clock, really needed a good sleep. but in his stubbornness, whichhad gripped him since he had become a servant, he insisted always on staying even longerby the table, although he regularly fell asleep and then could only be prevailed upon withthe greatest difficulty to trade his chair for the bed. no matter how much the motherand sister might at that point work on him with small admonitions, for a quarter of anhour he would remain shaking his head slowly, his eyes closed, without standing up. themother would pull him by the sleeve and speak flattering words into his ear; the sisterwould leave her work to help her mother, but

that would not have the desired effect onthe father. he would settle himself even more deeply in his arm chair. only when the twowomen grabbed him under the armpits would he throw his eyes open, look back and forthat the mother and sister, and habitually say "this is a life. this is the peace and quietof my old age." and propped up by both women, he would heave himself up elaborately, asif for him it was the greatest trouble, allow himself to be led to the door by the women,wave them away there, and proceed on his own from there, while the mother quickly threwdown her sewing implements and the sister her pen in order to run after the father andhelp him some more. in this overworked and exhausted family whohad time to worry any longer about gregor

more than was absolutely necessary? the householdwas constantly getting smaller. the servant girl was now let go. a huge bony cleaningwoman with white hair flying all over her head came in the morning and evening to dothe heaviest work. the mother took care of everything else in addition to her considerablesewing work. it even happened that various pieces of family jewellery, which previouslythe mother and sister had been overjoyed to wear on social and festive occasions, weresold, as gregor found out in the evening from the general discussion of the prices theyhad fetched. but the greatest complaint was always that they could not leave this apartment,which was too big for their present means, since it was impossible to imagine how gregormight be moved. but gregor fully recognized

that it was not just consideration for himwhich was preventing a move, for he could have been transported easily in a suitablebox with a few air holes. the main thing holding the family back from a change in living quarterswas far more their complete hopelessness and the idea that they had been struck by a misfortunelike no one else in their entire circle of relatives and acquaintances. what the world demands of poor people theynow carried out to an extreme degree. the father bought breakfast to the petty officialsat the bank, the mother sacrificed herself for the undergarments of strangers, the sisterbehind her desk was at the beck and call of customers, but the family's energies did notextend any further. and the wound in his back

began to pain gregor all over again, whennow mother and sister, after they had escorted the father to bed, came back, let their worklie, moved close together, and sat cheek to cheek and when his mother would now say, pointingto gregor's room, "close the door, grete," and when gregor was again in the darkness,while close by the women mingled their tears or, quite dry eyed, stared at the table. gregor spent his nights and days with hardlyany sleep. sometimes he thought that the next time the door opened he would take over thefamily arrangements just as he had earlier. in his imagination appeared again, after along time, his employer and supervisor and the apprentices, the excessively spinelesscustodian, two or three friends from other

businesses, a chambermaid from a hotel inthe provinces, a loving fleeting memory, a female cashier from a hat shop, whom he hadseriously but too slowly courted--they all appeared mixed in with strangers or peoplehe had already forgotten, but instead of helping him and his family, they were all unapproachable,and he was happy to see them disappear. but then he was in no mood to worry abouthis family. he was filled with sheer anger over the wretched care he was getting, eventhough he couldn't imagine anything which he might have an appetite for. still, he madeplans about how he could take from the larder what he at all account deserved, even if hewasn't hungry. without thinking any more about how they might be able to give gregor specialpleasure, the sister now kicked some food

or other very quickly into his room in themorning and at noon, before she ran off to her shop, and in the evening, quite indifferentto whether the food had perhaps only been tasted or, what happened most frequently,remained entirely undisturbed, she whisked it out with one sweep of her broom. the taskof cleaning his room, which she now always carried out in the evening, could not be doneany more quickly. streaks of dirt ran along the walls; here and there lay tangles of dustand garbage. at first, when his sister arrived, gregor positioned himself in a particularlyfilthy corner in order with this posture to make something of a protest. but he couldhave well stayed there for weeks without his sister's changing her ways. in fact, she perceivedthe dirt as much as he did, but she had decided

just to let it stay. in this business, with a touchiness whichwas quite new to her and which had generally taken over the entire family, she kept watchto see that the cleaning of gregor's room remained reserved for her. once his motherhad undertaken a major cleaning of gregor's room, which she had only completed successfullyafter using a few buckets of water. but the extensive dampness made gregor sick and helay supine, embittered and immobile on the couch. however, the mother's punishment wasnot delayed for long. for in the evening the sister had hardly observed the change in gregor'sroom before she ran into the living room mightily offended and, in spite of her mother's handlifted high in entreaty, broke out in a fit

of crying. her parents—the father had, ofcourse, woken up with a start in his arm chair—at first looked at her astonished and helpless,until they started to get agitated. turning to his right, the father heaped reproacheson the mother that she was not to take over the cleaning of gregor's room from the sisterand, turning to his left, he shouted at the sister that she would no longer be allowedto clean gregor's room ever again, while the mother tried to pull the father, beside himselfin his excitement, into the bed room. the sister, shaken by her crying fit, poundedon the table with her tiny fists, and gregor hissed at all this, angry that no one thoughtabout shutting the door and sparing him the sight of this commotion.

but even when the sister, exhausted from herdaily work, had grown tired of caring for gregor as she had before, even then the motherdid not have to come at all on her behalf. and gregor did not have to be neglected. fornow the cleaning woman was there. this old widow, who in her long life must have managedto survive the worst with the help of her bony frame, had no real horror of gregor.without being in the least curious, she had once by chance opened gregor's door. at thesight of gregor, who, totally surprised, began to scamper here and there, although no onewas chasing him, she remained standing with her hands folded across her stomach staringat him. since then she did not fail to open the door furtively a little every morningand evening to look in on gregor. at first,

she also called him to her with words whichshe presumably thought were friendly, like "come here for a bit, old dung beetle!" or"hey, look at the old dung beetle!" addressed in such a manner, gregor answered nothing,but remained motionless in his place, as if the door had not been opened at all. if only,instead of allowing this cleaning woman to disturb him uselessly whenever she felt likeit, they had given her orders to clean up his room every day! one day in the early morning—ahard downpour, perhaps already a sign of the coming spring, struck the window panes—whenthe cleaning woman started up once again with her usual conversation, gregor was so bitterthat he turned towards her, as if for an attack, although slowly and weakly. but instead ofbeing afraid of him, the cleaning woman merely

lifted up a chair standing close by the doorand, as she stood there with her mouth wide open, her intention was clear: she would closeher mouth only when the chair in her hand had been thrown down on gregor's back. "thisgoes no further, all right?" she asked, as gregor turned himself around again, and sheplaced the chair calmly back in the corner. gregor ate hardly anything any more. onlywhen he chanced to move past the food which had been prepared did he, as a game, takea bit into his mouth, hold it there for hours, and generally spit it out again. at firsthe thought it might be his sadness over the condition of his room which kept him fromeating, but he very soon became reconciled to the alterations in his room. people hadgrown accustomed to put into storage in his

room things which they couldn't put anywhereelse, and at this point there were many such things, now that they had rented one roomof the apartment to three lodgers. these solemn gentlemen—all three had full beards, asgregor once found out through a crack in the door—were meticulously intent on tidiness,not only in their own room but, since they had now rented a room here, in the entirehousehold, and particularly in the kitchen. they simply did not tolerate any useless orshoddy stuff. moreover, for the most part they had brought with them their own piecesof furniture. thus, many items had become superfluous, and these were not really thingsone could sell or things people wanted to throw out. all these items ended up in gregor'sroom, even the box of ashes and the garbage

pail from the kitchen. the cleaning woman,always in a hurry, simply flung anything that was momentarily useless into gregor's room.fortunately gregor generally saw only the relevant object and the hand which held it.the cleaning woman perhaps was intending, when time and opportunity allowed, to takethe stuff out again or to throw everything out all at once, but in fact the things remainedlying there, wherever they had ended up at the first throw, unless gregor squirmed hisway through the accumulation of junk and moved it. at first he was forced to do this becauseotherwise there was no room for him to creep around, but later he did it with a growingpleasure, although after such movements, tired to death and feeling wretched, he didn't budgefor hours.

because the lodgers sometimes also took theirevening meal at home in the common living room, the door to the living room stayed shuton many evenings. but gregor had no trouble at all going without the open door. alreadyon many evenings when it was open he had not availed himself of it, but, without the familynoticing, was stretched out in the darkest corner of his room. however, once the cleaningwoman had left the door to the living room slightly ajar, and it remained open even whenthe lodgers came in in the evening and the lights were put on. they sat down at the headof the table, where in earlier days the mother, the father, and gregor had eaten, unfoldedtheir serviettes, and picked up their knives and forks. the mother immediately appearedin the door with a dish of meat and right

behind her the sister with a dish piled highwith potatoes. the food gave off a lot of steam. the gentlemen lodgers bent over theplate set before them, as if they wanted to check it before eating, and in fact the onewho sat in the middle—for the other two he seemed to serve as the authority—cutoff a piece of meat still on the plate obviously to establish whether it was sufficiently tenderand whether or not something should be shipped back to the kitchen. he was satisfied, andmother and sister, who had looked on in suspense, began to breathe easily and to smile. the family itself ate in the kitchen. in spiteof that, before the father went into the kitchen, he came into the room and with a single bow,cap in hand, made a tour of the table. the

lodgers rose up collectively and murmuredsomething in their beards. then, when they were alone, they ate almost in complete silence.it seemed odd to gregor that, out of all the many different sorts of sounds of eating,what was always audible was their chewing teeth, as if by that gregor should be shownthat people needed their teeth to eat and that nothing could be done even with the mosthandsome toothless jawbone. "i really do have an appetite," gregor said to himself sorrowfully,"but not for these things. how these lodgers stuff themselves, and i am dying." on this very evening the violin sounded fromthe kitchen. gregor didn't remember hearing it all through this period. the lodgers hadalready ended their night meal, the middle

one had pulled out a newspaper and had giveneach of the other two a page, and they were now leaning back, reading and smoking. whenthe violin started playing, they became attentive, got up, and went on tiptoe to the hall door,at which they remained standing pressed up against one another. they must have been audiblefrom the kitchen, because the father called out "perhaps the gentlemen don't like theplaying? it can be stopped at once." "on the contrary," stated the lodger in the middle,"might the young woman not come into us and play in the room here, where it is reallymuch more comfortable and cheerful?" "oh, thank you," cried out the father, as if hewere the one playing the violin. the men stepped back into the room and waited. soon the fathercame with the music stand, the mother with

the sheet music, and the sister with the violin.the sister calmly prepared everything for the recital. the parents, who had never previouslyrented a room and therefore exaggerated their politeness to the lodgers, dared not sit ontheir own chairs. the father leaned against the door, his right hand stuck between twobuttons of his buttoned-up uniform. the mother, however, accepted a chair offered by one lodger.since she left the chair sit where the gentleman had chanced to put it, she sat to one sidein a corner. the sister began to play. the father and mother,one on each side, followed attentively the movements of her hands. attracted by the playing,gregor had ventured to advance a little further forward and his head was already in the livingroom. he scarcely wondered about the fact

that recently he had had so little considerationfor the others. earlier this consideration had been something he was proud of. and forthat very reason he would have had at this moment more reason to hide away, because asa result of the dust which lay all over his room and flew around with the slightest movement,he was totally covered in dirt. on his back and his sides he carted around with him dust,threads, hair, and remnants of food. his indifference to everything was much too great for him tolie on his back and scour himself on the carpet, as he often had done earlier during the day.in spite of his condition he had no timidity about inching forward a bit on the spotlessfloor of the living room. in any case, no one paid him any attention.the family was all caught up in the violin

playing. the lodgers, by contrast, who forthe moment had placed themselves, hands in their trouser pockets, behind the music standmuch too close to the sister, so that they could all see the sheet music, something thatmust certainly bother the sister, soon drew back to the window conversing in low voiceswith bowed heads, where they then remained, worriedly observed by the father. it now seemedreally clear that, having assumed they were to hear a beautiful or entertaining violinrecital, they were disappointed and were allowing their peace and quiet to be disturbed onlyout of politeness. the way in which they all blew the smoke from their cigars out of theirnoses and mouths in particular led one to conclude that they were very irritated. andyet his sister was playing so beautifully.

her face was turned to the side, her gazefollowed the score intently and sadly. gregor crept forward still a little further, keepinghis head close against the floor in order to be able to catch her gaze if possible.was he an animal that music so captivated him? for him it was as if the way to the unknownnourishment he craved was revealing itself. he was determined to press forward right tohis sister, to tug at her dress, and to indicate to her in this way that she might still comewith her violin into his room, because here no one valued the recital as he wanted tovalue it. he did not wish to let her go from his room any more, at least not as long ashe lived. his frightening appearance would for the first time become useful for him.he wanted to be at all the doors of his room

simultaneously and snarl back at the attackers.however, his sister should not be compelled but would remain with him voluntarily. shewould sit next to him on the sofa, bend down her ear to him, and he would then confidein her that he firmly intended to send her to the conservatory and that, if his misfortunehad not arrived in the interim, he would have declared all this last christmas—had christmasreally already come and gone?—and would have brooked no argument. after this explanationhis sister would break out in tears of emotion, and gregor would lift himself up to her armpitand kiss her throat, which she, from the time she started going to work, had left exposedwithout a band or a collar. "mr. samsa," called out the middle lodgerto the father and, without uttering a further

word, pointed his index finger at gregor ashe was moving slowly forward. the violin fell silent. the middle lodger smiled, first shakinghis head once at his friends, and then looked down at gregor once more. rather than drivinggregor back again, the father seemed to consider it of prime importance to calm down the lodgers,although they were not at all upset and gregor seemed to entertain them more than the violinrecital. the father hurried over to them and with outstretched arms tried to push theminto their own room and simultaneously to block their view of gregor with his own body.at this point they became really somewhat irritated, although one no longer knew whetherthat was because of the father's behaviour or because of knowledge they had just acquiredthat they had, without knowing it, a neighbour

like gregor. they demanded explanations fromhis father, raised their arms to make their points, tugged agitatedly at their beards,and moved back towards their room quite slowly. in the meantime, the isolation which had suddenlyfallen upon his sister after the sudden breaking off of the recital had overwhelmed her. shehad held onto the violin and bow in her limp hands for a little while and had continuedto look at the sheet music as if she was still playing. all at once she pulled herself together,placed the instrument in her mother's lap—the mother was still sitting in her chair havingtrouble breathing for her lungs were labouring—and had run into the next room, which the lodgers,pressured by the father, were already approaching more rapidly. one could observe how underthe sister's practiced hands the sheets and

pillows on the beds were thrown on high andarranged. even before the lodgers had reached the room, she was finished fixing the bedsand was slipping out. the father seemed so gripped once again with his stubbornness thathe forgot about the respect which he always owed to his renters. he pressed on and on,until at the door of the room the middle gentleman stamped loudly with his foot and thus broughtthe father to a standstill. "i hereby declare," the middle lodger said, raising his hand andcasting his glance both on the mother and the sister, "that considering the disgracefulconditions prevailing in this apartment and family"—with this he spat decisively onthe floor—"i immediately cancel my room. i will, of course, pay nothing at all forthe days which i have lived here; on the contrary

i shall think about whether or not i willinitiate some sort of action against you, something which—believe me—will be veryeasy to establish." he fell silent and looked directly in front of him, as if he was waitingfor something. in fact, his two friends immediately joined in with their opinions, "we also giveimmediate notice." at that he seized the door handle, banged the door shut, and locked it. the father groped his way tottering to hischair and let himself fall in it. it looked as if he was stretching out for his usualevening snooze, but the heavy nodding of his head, which looked as if it was without support,showed that he was not sleeping at all. gregor had lain motionless the entire time in thespot where the lodgers had caught him. disappointment

with the collapse of his plan and perhapsalso weakness brought on by his severe hunger made it impossible for him to move. he wascertainly afraid that a general disaster would break over him at any moment, and he waited.he was not even startled when the violin fell from the mother's lap, out from under hertrembling fingers, and gave off a reverberating tone. "my dear parents," said the sister bangingher hand on the table by way of an introduction, "things cannot go on any longer in this way.maybe if you don't understand that, well, i do. i will not utter my brother's name infront of this monster, and thus i say only that we must try to get rid of it. we havetried what is humanly possible to take care

of it and to be patient. i believe that noone can criticize us in the slightest." "she is right in a thousand ways," said the fatherto himself. the mother, who was still incapable of breathing properly, began to cough numblywith her hand held up over her mouth and a manic expression in her eyes. the sister hurried over to her mother andheld her forehead. the sister's words seemed to have led the father to certain reflections.he sat upright, played with his uniform hat among the plates, which still lay on the tablefrom the lodgers' evening meal, and looked now and then at the motionless gregor. "we must try to get rid of it," the sisternow said decisively to the father, for the

mother, in her coughing fit, was not listeningto anything. "it is killing you both. i see it coming. when people have to work as hardas we all do, they cannot also tolerate this endless torment at home. i just can't go onany more." and she broke out into such a crying fit that her tears flowed out down onto hermother's face. she wiped them off her mother with mechanical motions of her hands. "child," said the father sympathetically andwith obvious appreciation, "then what should we do?" the sister only shrugged her shoulders asa sign of the perplexity which, in contrast to her previous confidence, had come overher while she was crying.

"if only he understood us," said the fatherin a semi-questioning tone. the sister, in the midst of her sobbing, shook her hand energeticallyas a sign that there was no point thinking of that. "if he only understood us," repeated the fatherand by shutting his eyes he absorbed the sister's conviction of the impossibility of this point,"then perhaps some compromise would be possible with him. but as it is. . ." "it must be gotten rid of," cried the sister."that is the only way, father. you must try to get rid of the idea that this is gregor.the fact that we have believed for so long, that is truly our real misfortune. but howcan it be gregor? if it were gregor, he would

have long ago realized that a communal lifeamong human beings is not possible with such an animal and would have gone away voluntarily.then we would not have a brother, but we could go on living and honour his memory. but thisanimal plagues us. it drives away the lodgers, will obviously take over the entire apartment,and leave us to spend the night in the alley. just look, father," she suddenly cried out,"he's already starting up again." with a fright which was totally incomprehensible to gregor,the sister even left the mother, pushed herself away from her chair, as if she would soonersacrifice her mother than remain in gregor's vicinity, and rushed behind her father who,excited merely by her behaviour, also stood up and half raised his arms in front of thesister as though to protect her.

but gregor did not have any notion of wishingto create problems for anyone and certainly not for his sister. he had just started toturn himself around in order to creep back into his room, quite a startling sight, since,as a result of his suffering condition, he had to guide himself through the difficultyof turning around with his head, in this process lifting and banging it against the floor severaltimes. he paused and looked around. his good intentions seem to have been recognized. thefright had lasted only for a moment. now they looked at him in silence and sorrow. his motherlay in her chair, with her legs stretched out and pressed together; her eyes were almostshut from weariness. the father and sister sat next to one another. the sister had sether hands around the father's neck.

"now perhaps i can actually turn myself around,"thought gregor and began the task again. he couldn't stop puffing at the effort and hadto rest now and then. besides, no one was urging him on. it wasall left to him on his own. when he had completed turning around, he immediately began to wanderstraight back. he was astonished at the great distance which separated him from his roomand did not understand in the least how in his weakness he had covered the same distancea short time before, almost without noticing it. constantly intent only on creeping alongquickly, he hardly paid any attention to the fact that no word or cry from his family interruptedhim. only when he was already in the door did heturn his head, not completely, because he

felt his neck growing stiff. at any rate hestill saw that behind him nothing had changed. only the sister was standing up. his lastglimpse brushed over the mother who was now completely asleep. hardly was he inside hisroom when the door was pushed shut very quickly, bolted fast, and barred. gregor was startledby the sudden commotion behind him, so much so that his little limbs bent double underhim. it was his sister who had been in such a hurry. she had stood up right away, hadwaited, and had then sprung forward nimbly. gregor had not heard anything of her approach.she cried out "finally!" to her parents, as she turned the key in the lock. "what now?" gregor asked himself and lookedaround him in the darkness. he soon made the

discovery that he could no longer move atall. he was not surprised at that. on the contrary, it struck him as unnatural thatup to this point he had really been able up to move around with these thin little legs.besides he felt relatively content. true, he had pains throughout his entire body, butit seemed to him that they were gradually becoming weaker and weaker and would finallygo away completely. the rotten apple in his back and the inflamed surrounding area, entirelycovered with white dust, he hardly noticed. he remembered his family with deep feelingsof love. in this business, his own thought that he had to disappear was, if possible,even more decisive than his sister's. he remained in this state of empty and peaceful reflectionuntil the tower clock struck three o'clock

in the morning. from the window he witnessedthe beginning of the general dawning outside. then without willing it, his head sank allthe way down, and from his nostrils flowed out weakly his last breath. early in the morning the cleaning woman came.in her sheer energy and haste she banged all the doors—in precisely the way people hadalready asked her to avoid—so much so that once she arrived a quiet sleep was no longerpossible anywhere in the entire apartment. in her customarily brief visit to gregor sheat first found nothing special. she thought he lay so immobile there because he wantedto play the offended party. she gave him credit for as complete an understanding as possible.since she happened to be holding the long

broom in her hand, she tried to tickle gregorwith it from the door. when that was quite unsuccessful, she became irritated and pokedgregor a little, and only when she had shoved him from his place without any resistancedid she become attentive. when she quickly realized the true state of affairs, her eyesgrew large, she whistled to herself. however, she didn't restrain herself for long. shepulled open the door of the bedroom and yelled in a loud voice into the darkness, "come andlook. it's kicked the bucket. it's lying there, totally snuffed!" the samsa married couple sat upright in theirmarriage bed and had to get over their fright at the cleaning woman before they managedto grasp her message. but then mr. and mrs.

samsa climbed very quickly out of bed, oneon either side. mr. samsa threw the bedspread over his shoulders, mrs. samsa came out onlyin her night-shirt, and like this they stepped into gregor's room. meanwhile, the door ofthe living room, in which grete had slept since the lodgers had arrived on the scene,had also opened. she was fully clothed, as if she had not slept at all; her white facealso seem to indicate that. "dead?" said mrs. samsa and looked questioningly at the cleaningwoman, although she could check everything on her own and even understand without a check."i should say so," said the cleaning woman and, by way of proof, poked gregor's bodywith the broom a considerable distance more to the side. mrs. samsa made a movement asif she wished to restrain the broom, but didn't

do it. "well," said mr. samsa, "now we cangive thanks to god." he crossed himself, and the three women followed his example. grete, who did not take her eyes off the corpse,said, "look how thin he was. he had eaten nothing for such a long time. the meals whichcame in here came out again exactly the same." in fact, gregor's body was completely flatand dry. that was apparent really for the first time, now that he was no longer raisedon his small limbs and nothing else distracted one's gaze. "grete, come into us for a moment," said mrs.samsa with a melancholy smile, and grete went, not without looking back at the corpse, behindher parents into the bed room. the cleaning

woman shut the door and opened the windowwide. in spite of the early morning, the fresh air was partly tinged with warmth. it wasalready the end of march. the three lodgers stepped out of their roomand looked around for their breakfast, astonished that they had been forgotten. "where is thebreakfast?" asked the middle one of the gentlemen grumpily to the cleaning woman. however, shelaid her finger to her lips and then quickly and silently indicated to the lodgers thatthey could come into gregor's room. so they came and stood in the room, which was alreadyquite bright, around gregor's corpse, their hands in the pockets of their somewhat wornjackets. then the door of the bed room opened, andmr. samsa appeared in his uniform, with his

wife on one arm and his daughter on the other.all were a little tear stained. now and then grete pressed her face onto her father's arm. "get out of my apartment immediately," saidmr. samsa and pulled open the door, without letting go of the women. "what do you mean?"said the middle lodger, somewhat dismayed and with a sugary smile. the two others kepttheir hands behind them and constantly rubbed them against each other, as if in joyful anticipationof a great squabble which must end up in their favour. "i mean exactly what i say," repliedmr. samsa and went directly with his two female companions up to the lodger. the latter atfirst stood there motionless and looked at the floor, as if matters were arranging themselvesin a new way in his head. "all right, then

we'll go," he said and looked up at mr. samsaas if, suddenly overcome by humility, he was asking fresh permission for this decision.mr. samsa merely nodded to him repeatedly with his eyes open wide. following that, the lodger actually went withlong strides immediately out into the hall. his two friends had already been listeningfor a while with their hands quite still, and now they hopped smartly after him, asif afraid that mr. samsa could step into the hall ahead of them and disturb their reunionwith their leader. in the hall all three of them took their hats from the coat rack, pulledtheir canes from the cane holder, bowed silently, and left the apartment. in what turned outto be an entirely groundless mistrust, mr.

samsa stepped with the two women out ontothe landing, leaned against the railing, and looked over as the three lodgers slowly butsteadily made their way down the long staircase, disappeared on each floor in a certain turnof the stairwell, and in a few seconds came out again. the deeper they proceeded, themore the samsa family lost interest in them, and when a butcher with a tray on his headcome to meet them and then with a proud bearing ascended the stairs high above them, mr. samsa.,together with the women, left the banister, and they all returned, as if relieved, backinto their apartment. they decided to pass that day resting andgoing for a stroll. not only had they earned this break from work, but there was no questionthat they really needed it. and so they sat

down at the table and wrote three lettersof apology: mr. samsa to his supervisor, mrs. samsa to her client, and grete to her proprietor.during the writing the cleaning woman came in to say that she was going off, for hermorning work was finished. the three people writing at first merely nodded, without glancingup. only when the cleaning woman was still unwilling to depart, did they look up angrily."well?" asked mr. samsa. the cleaning woman stood smiling in the doorway, as if she hada great stroke of luck to report to the family but would only do it if she was asked directly.the almost upright small ostrich feather in her hat, which had irritated mr. samsa duringher entire service, swayed lightly in all directions. "all right then, what do you reallywant?" asked mrs. samsa, whom the cleaning

lady still usually respected. "well," answeredthe cleaning woman, smiling so happily she couldn't go on speaking right away, "abouthow that rubbish from the next room should be thrown out, you mustn't worry about it.it's all taken care of." mrs. samsa and grete bent down to their letters, as though theywanted to go on writing. mr. samsa, who noticed that the cleaning woman wanted to start describingeverything in detail, decisively prevented her with an outstretched hand. but since shewas not allowed to explain, she remembered the great hurry she was in, and called out,clearly insulted, "bye bye, everyone," turned around furiously and left the apartment witha fearful slamming of the door. "this evening she'll be let go," said mr.samsa, but he got no answer from either his

wife or from his daughter, because the cleaningwoman seemed to have upset once again the tranquillity they had just attained. theygot up, went to the window, and remained there, with their arms about each other. mr. samsaturned around in his chair in their direction and observed them quietly for a while. thenhe called out, "all right, come here then. let's finally get rid of old things. and havea little consideration for me." the women attended to him at once. they rushed to him,caressed him, and quickly ended their letters. then all three left the apartment together,something they had not done for months now, and took the electric tram into the open airoutside the city. the car in which they were sitting by themselves was totally engulfedby the warm sun. leaning back comfortably

in their seats, they talked to each otherabout future prospects, and they discovered that on closer observation these were notat all bad, for the three of them had employment, about which they had not really questionedeach other at all, which was extremely favourable and with especially promising prospects. thegreatest improvement in their situation at this moment, of course, had to come from achange of dwelling. now they wanted to rent an apartment smaller and cheaper but bettersituated and generally more practical than the present one, which gregor had found. whilethey amused themselves in this way, it struck mr. and mrs. samsa, almost at the same moment,how their daughter, who was getting more animated all the time, had blossomed recently, in spiteof all the troubles which had made her cheeks

pale, into a beautiful and voluptuous youngwoman. growing more silent and almost unconsciously understanding each other in their glances,they thought that the time was now at hand to seek out a good honest man for her. andit was something of a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions when at theend of their journey their daughter got up first and stretched her young body.

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