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chapter i. one morning, as gregor samsa was waking upfrom anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrousverminous bug. he lay on his armour-hard back and saw, ashe lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections. from this height the blanket, just aboutready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place. his numerous legs, pitifully thin incomparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly beforehis eyes.

"what's happened to me," he thought. it was no 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 unpackedcollection of sample cloth goods was spread out--samsa was a travelling salesman--hungthe picture which he had cut out of an illustrated magazine a little while ago andset in a pretty gilt frame. it was a picture of a woman with a fur hatand a fur boa. she sat erect there, lifting up in thedirection of the viewer a solid fur muff into which her entire forearm haddisappeared.

gregor's glance then turned to the window. the dreary weather--the rain drops werefalling audibly down on the metal window ledge--made him quite melancholy. "why don't i keep sleeping for a littlewhile longer and forget all this foolishness," he thought. but this was entirely impractical, for hewas used to sleeping on his right side, and in his present state he couldn't gethimself into this position. no matter how hard he threw himself ontohis right side, he always rolled again onto his back.

he must have tried it a hundred times,closing his eyes so that he would not have to see the wriggling legs, and gave up onlywhen he began to feel a light, dull pain in his 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 greaterthan the work going on at head office, and, in addition to that, i have to cope withthe problems of travelling, the worries about train connections, irregular bad food, temporary and constantly changinghuman relationships, which never come from

the heart.to hell with it all!" he felt a slight itching on the top of hisabdomen. he slowly pushed himself on his back closerto the bed post so that he could lift his head more easily, found the itchy part,which was entirely covered with small white spots--he did not know what to make of themand wanted to feel the place with a leg. but he retracted it immediately, for thecontact felt like a cold shower all over him. he slid back again into his earlierposition. "this getting up early," he thought, "makesa man quite idiotic.

a man must have his sleep. other travelling salesmen live like haremwomen. for instance, when i come back to the innduring the course of the morning to write up the necessary orders, these gentlemenare just sitting down to breakfast. if i were to try that with my boss, i'd bethrown out on the spot. still, who knows whether that mightn't bereally good for me? if i didn't hold back for my parents' sake,i'd have quit ages ago. i would've gone to the boss and told himjust what i think from the bottom of my heart.

he would've fallen right off his desk!how weird it is to sit up at that desk and talk down to the employee from way upthere. the boss has trouble hearing, so theemployee has to step up quite close to him. anyway, i haven't completely given up thathope yet. once i've got together the money to pay offmy parents' debt to him--that should take another five or six years--i'll do it forsure. then i'll make the big break. in any case, right now i have to get up.my train 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 the hands weregoing quietly on. it was past the half hour, already nearlyquarter to. could the alarm have failed to ring? one saw from the bed that it was properlyset for four o'clock. certainly it had rung.yes, but was it possible to sleep through that noise which made the furniture shake? now, it's true he'd not slept quietly, butevidently he'd slept all 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 amad rush. the sample collection wasn't packed up yet,and he really didn't feel particularly fresh and active. and even if he caught the train, there wasno 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 the boss's minion, without backboneor intelligence. well then, what if he reported in sick? but that would be extremely embarrassingand suspicious, because during his five

years' service gregor hadn't been sick evenonce. the boss would certainly come with thedoctor from the health insurance company and would reproach his parents for theirlazy son and cut short all objections with the insurance doctor's comments; for him everyone was completely healthy but reallylazy about work. and besides, would the doctor in this casebe totally wrong? apart from a really excessive drowsinessafter the long sleep, gregor in fact felt quite well and even had a really strongappetite. as he was thinking all this over in thegreatest haste, without being able to make

the decision to get out of bed--the alarmclock was indicating exactly quarter to seven--there was a cautious knock on thedoor by the head of the bed. "gregor," a voice called--it was hismother!--"it's quarter to seven. don't you want to be on your way?" the soft voice!gregor was startled when he heard his voice answering. it was clearly and unmistakably his earliervoice, but in it was intermingled, as if from below, an irrepressibly painfulsqueaking, which left the words positively distinct only in the first moment and

distorted them in the reverberation, sothat one didn't know if one had heard correctly. gregor wanted to answer in detail andexplain everything, but in these circumstances he confined himself tosaying, "yes, yes, thank you mother. i'm getting up right away." because of the wooden door the change ingregor's voice was not really noticeable outside, so his mother calmed down withthis explanation and shuffled off. however, as a result of the shortconversation, the other family members became aware that gregor was unexpectedlystill at home, and already his father was

knocking on one side door, weakly but withhis fist. "gregor, gregor," he called out, "what'sgoing on?" and, after a short while, he urged him onagain in a deeper 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 carefularticulation and by inserting long pauses

between the individual words to removeeverything remarkable from his voice. his father turned back to his breakfast. however, the sister whispered, "gregor,open the door--i beg you." gregor had no intention of opening thedoor, but congratulated himself on his precaution, acquired from travelling, oflocking all doors during the night, even at home. first he wanted to stand up quietly andundisturbed, get dressed, above all have breakfast, and only then consider furtheraction, for--he noticed this clearly--by thinking things over in bed he would notreach a reasonable conclusion.

he remembered that he had already oftenfelt a light pain or other in bed, perhaps the result of an awkward lying position,which later turned out to be purely imaginary when he stood up, and he was eager to see how his present fantasieswould gradually dissipate. that the change in his voice was nothingother than the onset of a real chill, an occupational illness of commercialtravellers, of that he had not the slightest doubt. it was very easy to throw aside theblanket. he needed only to push himself up a little,and it fell by itself.

but to continue was difficult, particularlybecause he was so unusually wide. he needed arms and hands to push himselfupright. instead of these, however, he had only manysmall limbs which were incessantly moving with very different motions and which, inaddition, he was unable to control. if he wanted to bend one of them, then itwas the first to extend itself, and if he finally succeeded doing what he wanted withthis limb, in the meantime all the others, as if left free, moved around in anexcessively 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 yetlooked at and which he also couldn't picture clearly--proved itself toodifficult to move. the attempt went so slowly. when, having become almost frantic, hefinally hurled himself forward with all his force and without thinking, he chose hisdirection incorrectly, and he hit the lower bedpost hard. the violent pain he felt revealed to himthat the lower part of his 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 to do this easily, and in spiteof its width and weight his body mass at last slowly followed the turning of hishead. but as he finally raised his head outsidethe bed in the open air, he became anxious about moving forward any further in thismanner, for if he allowed himself eventually to fall by this process, it would take a miracle to prevent his headfrom getting injured. and at all costs he must not loseconsciousness right now. he preferred to remain in bed.

however, after a similar effort, while helay there again, sighing as before, and once again saw his small limbs fighting oneanother, if anything worse than earlier, and didn't see any chance of imposing quiet and order on this arbitrary movement, hetold himself again that he couldn't possibly remain in bed and that it might bethe most reasonable thing to sacrifice everything if there was even the slightest hope of getting himself out of bed in theprocess. at the same moment, however, he didn'tforget to remind himself from time to time of the fact that calm--indeed the calmest--reflection might be better than the most

confused decisions. at such moments, he directed his gaze asprecisely as he could toward the window, but unfortunately there was littleconfident cheer to be had from a glance at the morning mist, which concealed even theother side of the narrow street. "it's already seven o'clock," he toldhimself at the latest striking of the alarm clock, "already seven o'clock and stillsuch a fog." and for a little while longer he layquietly with weak breathing, as if perhaps waiting for normal and natural conditionsto re-emerge out of the complete stillness. but then he said to himself, "before itstrikes a quarter past seven, whatever

happens i must be completely out of bed. besides, by then someone from the officewill arrive to inquire about me, because the office will open before seven o'clock." and he made an effort then to rock hisentire body length out of the bed with a uniform motion. if he let himself fall out of the bed inthis way, his head, which in the course of the fall he intended to lift up sharply,would probably remain uninjured. his back seemed to be hard; nothing wouldreally happen to that as a result of the fall.

his greatest reservation was a worry aboutthe loud noise which the fall must create and which presumably would arouse, if notfright, then at least concern on the other side of all the doors. however, it had to be tried. as gregor was in the process of liftinghimself half out of bed--the new method was more of a game than an effort; he neededonly to rock with a constant rhythm--it struck him how easy all this would be ifsomeone were to come to his aid. two strong people--he thought of his fatherand the servant girl--would have been quite sufficient.

they would have only had to push their armsunder his arched back to get him out of the bed, to bend down with their load, and thenmerely to exercise patience and care that he completed the flip onto the floor, where his diminutive legs would then, he hoped,acquire a purpose. now, quite apart from the fact that thedoors were locked, 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 soonhe would finally have to decide, for in

five minutes it would be a quarter pastseven. then there was a ring at the door of theapartment. "that's someone from the office," he toldhimself, and he almost froze while his small limbs only danced around all thefaster. for one moment everything remained still. "they aren't opening," gregor said tohimself, caught up in some absurd hope. but of course then, as usual, the servantgirl with her firm tread went to the door and opened it. gregor needed to hear only the first wordof the visitor's greeting to recognize

immediately who it was, the managerhimself. why was gregor the only one condemned towork in a firm where, at the slightest lapse, someone immediately attracted thegreatest suspicion? were all the employees then collectively,one and all, scoundrels? among them was there then no truly devotedperson who, if he failed to use just a couple of hours in the morning for officework, would become abnormal from pangs of conscience and really be in no state to getout of bed? was it really not enough to let anapprentice make inquiries, if such questioning was even necessary?

must the manager himself come, and in theprocess must it be demonstrated to the entire innocent family that theinvestigation of this suspicious circumstance could be entrusted only to theintelligence of the manager? and more as a consequence of the excitedstate in which this idea put gregor than as a result of an actual decision, he swunghimself with all his might out of the bed. there was a loud thud, but not a realcrash. the fall was absorbed somewhat by thecarpet and, in addition, his back was more elastic than gregor had thought. for that reason the dull noise was notquite so conspicuous.

but he had not held his head up withsufficient care and had 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 whetheranything similar to what was happening to him today could have also happened at somepoint to the manager. at least one had to concede the possibilityof such a thing. however, as if to give a rough answer tothis question, the manager now, with a squeak of his polished boots, took a fewdetermined steps in the next room. from the neighbouring room on the right thesister was whispering to inform gregor:

"gregor, the manager is here.""i know," said gregor to himself. but he did not dare make his voice loudenough so that his sister could hear. "gregor," his father now said from theneighbouring room on the left, "mr. manager has come and is asking why you have notleft on the early train. we don't know what we should tell him. besides, he also wants to speak to youpersonally. so please open the door.he will be good enough to forgive the mess in your room." in the middle of all this, the managercalled out in a friendly way, "good

morning, mr. samsa." "he is not well," said his mother to themanager, while his father was still talking at the door, "he is not well, believe me,mr. manager. otherwise how would gregor miss a train? the young man has nothing in his headexcept business. i'm almost angry that he never goes out atnight. right now he's been in the city eight days,but he's been at home every evening. he sits here with us at the table and readsthe newspaper quietly or studies his travel schedules.

it's a quite a diversion for him to busyhimself 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 right inside 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 madegregor open the door. he's so stubborn, and he's certainly notwell, although he denied that this morning."

"i'm coming right away," said gregor slowlyand deliberately and didn't move, so as not to lose one word of the conversation. "my dear lady, i cannot explain it tomyself in any other way," said the manager; "i hope it is nothing serious. on the other hand, i must also say that webusiness people, luckily or unluckily, however one looks at it, very often simplyhave to overcome a slight indisposition for business reasons." "so can mr. manager come in to see younow?" asked his father impatiently and knocked once again on the door."no," said gregor.

in the neighbouring room on the left apainful stillness descended. in the neighbouring room on the right thesister began to sob. why didn't his sister go to the others? she'd probably just gotten up out of bednow and hadn't even started to get dressed yet.then why was she crying? because he wasn't getting up and wasn'tletting the manager in, because he was in danger of losing his position, and becausethen his boss would badger his parents once again with the old demands? those were probably unnecessary worriesright now.

gregor was still here and wasn't thinkingat all about abandoning his family. at the moment he was lying right there onthe carpet, and no one who knew about his condition would've seriously demanded thathe let the manager in. but gregor wouldn't be casually dismissedright way because of this small discourtesy, for which he would find aneasy and suitable excuse later on. it seemed to gregor that it might be farmore reasonable to leave him in peace at the moment, instead of disturbing him withcrying and conversation. but it was the very uncertainty whichdistressed 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,answer with only a yes and a no, are making serious and unnecessary troubles for yourparents, and neglecting (i mention this only incidentally) your commercial dutiesin a truly unheard of manner. i am speaking here in the name of yourparents and your employer, and i am requesting you in all seriousness for animmediate 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 veryday a possible explanation for your neglect--it concerned the collection ofcash entrusted to you a short while ago-- but in truth i almost gave him my word of honour that this explanation could not becorrect. however, now i see here your unimaginablepig headedness, and i am totally losing any desire to speak up for you in theslightest. and your position is not at all the mostsecure. originally i intended to mention all thisto you privately, but since you are letting me waste my time here uselessly, i don'tknow why the matter shouldn't come to the

attention of your parents. your productivity has also been veryunsatisfactory recently. of course, it's not the time of year toconduct exceptional business, we recognize that, but a time of year for conducting nobusiness, there is no such thing at all, mr. samsa, and such a thing must never be." "but mr. manager," called gregor, besidehimself and, in his agitation, forgetting everything else, "i'm opening the doorimmediately, this very moment. a slight indisposition, a dizzy spell, hasprevented me from getting up. i'm still lying in bed right now.but i'm quite refreshed once again.

i'm in the midst of getting out of bed. just have patience for a short moment!things are not going as well as i thought. but things are all right.how suddenly this can overcome someone! only yesterday evening everything was finewith me. my parents certainly know that.actually just yesterday evening i had a small premonition. people must have seen that in me.why have i not reported that to the office? but people always think that they'll getover sickness without having to stay at mr. manager!take it easy on my parents!

there is really no basis for the criticismswhich you're now making against me, and really nobody has said a word to me aboutthat. perhaps you have not read the latest orderswhich i shipped. besides, now i'm setting out on my trip onthe eight o'clock train; the few hours' rest have made me stronger. mr. manager, do not stay.i will be at the office in person right away.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 drawerswithout effort, probably as a result of the practice he had already had in bed, and now he was trying to raise himself up on it.actually, he wanted to open the door. he really wanted to let himself be seen byand to speak with the manager. he was keen to witness what the others nowasking about him would say when they saw him.if they were startled, then gregor 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 thesmooth chest of drawers. but at last he gave himself a final swingand stood upright there. he was no longer at all aware of the painsin his lower body, no matter how they might still sting. now he let himself fall against the back ofa nearby chair, on the edge of which he braced himself with his thin limbs. by doing this he gained control overhimself and kept quiet, for he could now hear the manager. "did you understood a single word?" themanager asked the parents, "is he playing

the fool with us?" "for god's sake," cried the mother alreadyin tears, "perhaps he's very ill and we're upsetting him.grete! grete!" she yelled at that point. "mother?" called the sister from the otherside. they were making themselves understoodthrough 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 themanager, remarkably quietly in comparison to the mother's cries."anna! anna!' yelled the father through the hallinto the kitchen, clapping his hands, "fetch a locksmith right away!" the two young women were already runningthrough the hall with swishing skirts--how had his sister dressed herself so quickly?--and yanked open the doors of the apartment. one couldn't hear the doors closing at all.they probably had left them open, as is customary in an apartment where a hugemisfortune has taken place.

however, gregor had become much calmer. all right, people did not understand hiswords any more, although they seemed clear enough to him, clearer than previously,perhaps because his ears had gotten used to them. but at least people now thought that thingswere not all right with him and were prepared to help him. the confidence and assurance with which thefirst arrangements had been carried out made him feel good. he felt himself included once again in thecircle of humanity and was expecting from

both the doctor and the locksmith, withoutdifferentiating between them with any real precision, splendid and surprising results. in order to get as clear a voice aspossible for the critical conversation which was imminent, he coughed a little,and certainly took the trouble to do this in a really subdued way, since it was possible that even this noise sounded likesomething different from a human cough. he no longer trusted himself to decide anymore. meanwhile in the next room it had becomereally quiet. perhaps his parents were sitting with themanager at the table whispering; perhaps

they were all leaning against the doorlistening. gregor pushed himself slowly towards thedoor, with the help of the easy chair, let go of it there, threw himself against thedoor, held himself upright against it--the balls of his tiny limbs had a little sticky stuff on them--and rested there momentarilyfrom his exertion. then he made an effort to turn the key inthe lock with his mouth. unfortunately it seemed that he had no realteeth. how then was he to grab hold of the key? but to make up for that his jaws werenaturally very strong; with their help he

managed to get the key really moving. he didn't notice that he was obviouslyinflicting 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 themanager in 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; "keepgoing, keep working on the lock." imagining that all his efforts were beingfollowed with suspense, he bit down frantically on the key with all the forcehe could muster.

as the key turned more, he danced aroundthe lock. now he was holding himself upright onlywith his mouth, and he had to hang onto the key or then press it down again with thewhole weight of his body, as necessary. the quite distinct click of the lock as itfinally snapped really woke gregor up. breathing heavily he said to himself, "so ididn'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 thisway, it was already open very wide without him yet being really visible. he first had to turn himself slowly aroundthe edge of the door, very carefully, of

course, if he didn't want to fall awkwardlyon his back right at the entrance into the room. he was still preoccupied with thisdifficult movement and had no time to pay attention to anything else, when he heardthe manager exclaim a loud "oh!"--it sounded like the wind whistling--and now he saw him, nearest to the door, pressing hishand against his open mouth and moving slowly back, as if an invisible constantforce was pushing him away. his mother--in spite of the presence of themanager she was standing here with her hair sticking up on end, still a mess from thenight--was looking at his father with her

hands clasped. she then went two steps towards gregor andcollapsed right in the middle of her skirts, which were spread out all aroundher, her face sunk on her breast, completely concealed. his father clenched his fist with a hostileexpression, as if he wished to push gregor back into his room, then looked uncertainlyaround the living room, covered his eyes with his hands, and cried so that hismighty 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 ofthe door, so that only half his body was

visible, as well as his head, tilted sideways, with which he peeped over at theothers. meanwhile it had become much brighter. standing out clearly from the other side ofthe street was a part of the endless grey- black house situated opposite--it was ahospital--with its severe regular windows breaking up the facade. the rain was still coming down, but only inlarge individual drops visibly and firmly thrown down one by one onto the ground. the breakfast dishes were standing piledaround on the table, because for his father

breakfast was the most important meal timein the day, which he prolonged for hours by reading various newspapers. directly across on the opposite wall hung aphotograph of gregor from the time of his military service; it was a picture of himas 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 sincethe door to the apartment was also open, one could see out into the landing of theapartment and the 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 thecollection of samples, and set off. you'll allow me to set out on my way, willyou not? you see, mr. manager, i am not pig-headed,and i am happy to work. travelling is exhausting, but i couldn'tlive without it. where are you going, mr. manager?to the office? really? will you report everything truthfully? a person can be incapable of workmomentarily, but that's precisely the best time to remember the earlier achievementsand to consider that later, after the

obstacles have been shoved aside, the person will work all the more eagerly andintensely. i am really so indebted to mr. chief--youknow that perfectly well. on the other hand, i am concerned about myparents and my sister. i'm in a fix, but i'll work myself out ofit again. don't make things more difficult for methan 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 andthus lead a fine life.

people don't even have any special reasonto think through this judgment more clearly. but you, mr. manager, you have a betterperspective on what's involved than other people, even, i tell you in totalconfidence, a better perspective than mr. chairman himself, who in his capacity as the employer may let his judgment makecasual mistakes at the expense of an employee. you also know well enough that thetravelling salesman who is outside the office almost the entire year can become soeasily a victim of gossip, coincidences,

and groundless complaints, against which it's impossible for him to defend himself,since for the most part he doesn't hear about them at all and only then when he'sexhausted after finishing a trip and at home gets to feel in his own body the nasty consequences, which can't be thoroughlyexplored back to their origins. mr. manager, don't leave without speaking aword telling me that you'll at least 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 fora moment but kept moving away towards the door, without taking his eyes off gregor,but really gradually, as if there was a secret ban on leaving the room. he was already in the hall, and given thesudden movement with which he finally pulled his foot out of the living room, onecould have believed that he had just burned the sole of his foot. in the hall, however, he stretched hisright hand out away from his body towards the staircase, as if some trulysupernatural relief 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 hisposition in the firm was not to be placed in the greatest danger. his parents did not understand all thisvery well. over the long years, they had developed theconviction that gregor was set up for life in his firm and, in addition, they had somuch to do nowadays with their present troubles that all foresight was foreign tothem. but gregor had this foresight.the manager must be held back, calmed down, convinced, and finally won over.

the future of gregor and his family reallydepended on it! if only the sister had been there!she was clever. she had already cried while gregor wasstill lying quietly on his back. and the manager, this friend of the ladies,would certainly let himself be guided by her. she would have closed the door to theapartment and talked him out of his fright in the hall.but the sister 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--indeedprobably--had once again not been understood, he left the wing of the door, pushed himself through the opening, andwanted 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 numerouslittle legs. scarcely had this happened, when he feltfor the first time that morning a general physical well being.

the small limbs had firm floor under them;they obeyed perfectly, as he noticed to his joy, and strove to carry him forward in thedirection he wanted. right away he believed that the finalamelioration of all his suffering was immediately at hand. but at the very moment when he lay on thefloor rocking in a restrained manner quite close and directly across from his mother,who had apparently totally sunk into herself, she suddenly sprang right up with her arms spread far apart and her fingersextended and cried out, "help, for god's sake, help!"

she held her head bowed down, as if shewanted to view gregor better, but ran senselessly back, contradicting thatgesture, forgetting that behind her stood the table with all the dishes on it. when she reached the table, she sat downheavily on it, as if absent-mindedly, and did not appear to notice at all that nextto her coffee was pouring out onto the carpet in a full stream from the largeoverturned container. "mother, mother," said gregor quietly, andlooked over towards her. the manager momentarily had disappearedcompletely from his mind. at the sight of the flowing coffee gregorcouldn't stop himself snapping his jaws in

the air a few times . at that his mother screamed all over again,hurried from the table, and collapsed into the arms of his father, who was rushingtowards her. but gregor had no time right now for hisparents--the manager was already on the staircase.his chin level with the banister, the manager looked back for the last time. gregor took an initial movement to catch upto him if possible. but the manager must have suspectedsomething, because he made a leap down over a few stairs and disappeared, stillshouting "huh!"

the sound echoed throughout the entirestairwell. now, unfortunately this flight of themanager also seemed to bewilder his father completely. earlier he had been relatively calm, forinstead of running after the manager himself or at least not hindering gregorfrom his pursuit, with his right hand he grabbed hold of the manager's cane, which he had left behind with his hat andovercoat on a chair. with his left hand, his father picked up alarge newspaper from the table and, stamping his feet on the floor, he set outto drive gregor back into his 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 hishead respectfully, his father just stomped all the harder with his feet. across the room from him his mother hadpulled open a window, in spite of the cool weather, and leaning out with her hands onher cheeks, she pushed her face far outside the window. between the alley and the stairwell astrong draught came up, the curtains on the window flew around, the newspapers on thetable swished, and individual sheets

fluttered down over the floor. the father relentlessly pressed forward,pushing out sibilants, like a wild man. now, gregor had no practice at all in goingbackwards--it was really very slow going. if gregor only had been allowed to turnhimself around, he would have been in his room right away, but he was afraid to makehis father impatient by the time-consuming process of turning around, and each moment he faced the threat of a mortal blow on hisback or his head from the cane in his father's hand. finally gregor had no other option, for henoticed with horror that he did not

understand yet how to maintain hisdirection going backwards. and so he began, amid constantly anxioussideways glances in his father's direction, to turn himself around as quickly aspossible, 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 thecane from a distance he even directed gregor's rotating movement here and there. if only his father had not hissed sounbearably! because of that gregor totally lost hishead.

he was already almost totally turnedaround, when, always with this hissing in his ear, he just made a mistake and turnedhimself back a little. but when he finally was successful ingetting his head in front of the door opening, it became clear that his body wastoo wide to go through any further. naturally his father, in his present mentalstate, had no idea of opening the other wing of the door a bit to create a suitablepassage for gregor to get through. his single fixed thought was that gregormust get into his room as quickly as possible. he would never have allowed the elaboratepreparations that gregor required to orient

himself and thus perhaps get through thedoor. on the contrary, as if there were noobstacle and with a peculiar noise, he now drove gregor forwards. behind gregor the sound at this point wasno longer like the voice of only a single father. now it was really no longer a joke, andgregor forced himself, come what might, into the door.one side of his body was lifted up. he lay at an angle in the door opening. his one flank was sore with the scraping.on the white door ugly blotches were left.

soon he was stuck fast and would have notbeen able to move any more on his own. the tiny legs on one side hung twitching inthe air above, and the ones on the other side were pushed painfully into the floor. then his father gave him one really strongliberating push from behind, and he scurried, bleeding severely, far into theinterior of his room. the door was slammed shut with the cane,and finally it was quiet. chapter ii. gregor first woke up from his heavy swoon-like sleep in the evening twilight. he would certainly have woken up soonafterwards without any disturbance, for he

felt himself sufficiently rested and wideawake, although it appeared to him as if a hurried step and a cautious closing of thedoor to the hall had aroused him. light from the electric streetlamps laypale here and there on the ceiling and on the higher parts of the furniture, butunderneath around gregor it was dark. he pushed himself slowly toward the door,still groping awkwardly with his feelers, which he now learned to value for the firsttime, to check what was happening there. his left side seemed one single longunpleasantly stretched scar, and he really had to hobble on his two rows of legs. in addition, one small leg had beenseriously wounded in the course of the

morning incident--it was almost a miraclethat only one had been hurt--and dragged lifelessly behind. by the door he first noticed what hadreally lured 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 indisappointment, not just because it was

difficult for him to eat on account of hisdelicate left side--he could eat only if his entire panting body worked in a coordinated way--but also because the milk,which otherwise was his favourite drink and which his sister had certainly placed therefor that reason, did not appeal to him at all. he turned away from the bowl almost withaversion 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 his mother and sometimes also to his sister, atthe moment no sound was audible. now, perhaps this reading aloud, aboutwhich his sister had always spoken and written to him, had recently fallen out oftheir 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," saidgregor 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

apartment like this for his parents and hissister. but how would things go if now alltranquillity, all prosperity, all contentment should come to a horrible end? in order not to lose himself in suchthoughts, gregor preferred to set himself moving, so he moved up and down in hisroom. once during the long evening one side doorand then the other door was opened just a tiny crack and quickly closed again.someone presumably needed to come in but had then thought better of it. gregor immediately took up a position bythe living room door, determined to bring

in the hesitant visitor somehow or other orat 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 wanted to come in to him; now, when he had opened one door and when theothers had obviously been opened during the day, no one came any more, and the keyswere stuck in the locks on 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 awayon tiptoe. now it was certain that no one would comeinto gregor any more until the morning.

thus, he had a long time to thinkundisturbed about how he should reorganize his life from scratch. but the high, open room, in which he wascompelled to lie flat on the floor, made him anxious, without his being able tofigure out the reason, for he had lived in the room for five years. with a half unconscious turn and notwithout a slight shame he scurried under the couch, where, in spite of the fact thathis back was a little cramped and he could no longer lift up his head, he felt very comfortable and was sorry only that hisbody was too wide to 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 conclusion that for the time being he wouldhave to keep calm and with patience and the greatest consideration for his familytolerate the troubles which in his present condition he was now forced to 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 whenshe noticed him under the couch--god, he had to be somewhere or other, for he couldhardly fly away--she got such a shock that, without being able to control herself, she slammed the door shut once again from theoutside. however, as if she was sorry for herbehaviour, she immediately opened the door again and walked in on her tiptoes, as ifshe was in the presence of a serious invalid or a total stranger. gregor had pushed his head forward just tothe edge of the couch and was observing

would she really notice that he had leftthe milk standing, not indeed from any lack of hunger, and would she bring in somethingelse to eat more suitable for him? if she did not do it on her own, he wouldsooner starve to death than call her attention to the fact, although he had areally powerful urge to move beyond the couch, throw himself at his sister's feet, and beg her for something or other good toeat. but his sister noticed right away withastonishment 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 curious what she wouldbring as a substitute, and he pictured to himself different ideas about it. but he never could have guessed what hissister out of the goodness of her heart in fact did. she brought him, to test his taste, anentire selection, all spread out on an old newspaper. there were old half-rotten vegetables,bones from the evening meal, covered with a white sauce which had almost solidified,some raisins and almonds, cheese which

gregor had declared inedible two days earlier, a slice of dry bread, and a sliceof salted bread smeared with butter. in addition to all this, she put down abowl--probably designated once and for all as gregor's--into which she had poured somewater. and out of her delicacy of feeling, sinceshe knew that gregor would not eat in front of her, she went away very quickly and eventurned the key in the lock, so that gregor would now observe that he could makehimself as comfortable as he wished. gregor's small limbs buzzed now that thetime for eating had come. his wounds must, in any case, have alreadyhealed completely.

he felt no handicap on that score. he was astonished at that and thought abouthow more than a month ago he had cut his finger slightly with a knife and how thiswound had hurt enough even the day before yesterday. "am i now going to be less sensitive," hethought, already sucking greedily on the cheese, which had strongly attracted himright away, more than all the other foods. quickly and with his eyes watering withsatisfaction, 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 carriedthe things he wanted to eat a little distance away. by the time his sister slowly turned thekey as a sign that he should withdraw, he was long finished and now lay lazily in thesame spot. the noise immediately startled him, inspite of the fact that he was already almost asleep, and he scurried back againunder the couch. but it cost him great self-control toremain under the couch, even for the short time his sister was in the room, becausehis body had filled out somewhat on account of the rich meal and in the narrow spacethere he could scarcely breathe.

in the midst of minor attacks ofasphyxiation, he looked at her with somewhat protruding eyes, as hisunsuspecting 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 she closed with a wooden lid, and then carried all of it out of the room. she had hardly turned around before gregorhad already dragged himself out from the couch, stretched out, and let his bodyexpand. 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 for a little while, and the servant girlwas sent off by his sister on some errand or other. they certainly would not have wanted gregorto starve to death, but perhaps they could not have endured finding out what he ateother than by hearsay. perhaps his sister wanted to spare themwhat was possibly only a small grief, for they were really suffering quite enoughalready. what sorts of excuses people had used onthat first morning to get the doctor and

the locksmith out of the house gregor wascompletely unable to ascertain. since they could not understand him, noone, not even his sister, thought that he might be able to understand others, andthus, when his sister was in her room, he had to be content with listening now and then to her sighs and invocations to thesaints. only later, when she had grown somewhataccustomed to everything--naturally there could never be any talk of her growingcompletely accustomed to it--gregor sometimes caught a comment which was intended to be friendly or could beinterpreted as such.

"well, today it tasted good to him," shesaid, if gregor had really cleaned up what he had to eat; whereas, in the reversesituation, which gradually repeated itself more and more frequently, she used to saysadly, "now everything has stopped again." but while gregor could get no newinformation directly, he did hear a good deal from the room next door, and as soonas he heard voices, he scurried right away to the appropriate door and pressed hisentire body against it. in the early days especially, there was noconversation which was not concerned with him in some way or other, even if only insecret. for two days at all meal times discussionson that subject could be heard on how

people should now behave; but they alsotalked about the same subject in the times between meals, for there were always at least two family members at home, since noone really wanted to remain in the house alone and people could not under anycircumstances leave the apartment completely empty. in addition, on the very first day theservant girl--it was not completely clear what and how much she knew about what hadhappened--on her knees had begged his mother to let her go immediately, and when she said good bye about fifteen minuteslater, she thanked them for the dismissal

with tears in her eyes, as if she wasreceiving the greatest favour which people had shown her there, and, without anyone demanding it from her, she swore a fearfuloath not to betray anyone, not even the slightest bit. now his sister had to team up with hismother to do the cooking, although that didn't create much trouble because peoplewere eating almost nothing. again and again gregor listened as one ofthem vainly invited another one to eat and received no answer other than "thank you.i've had enough" or something like that. and perhaps they had stopped havinganything to drink, too.

his sister often asked his father whetherhe wanted to have a beer and gladly offered to fetch it herself, and when his fatherwas silent, she said, in order to remove any reservations he might have, that shecould 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 fatherlaid out all the financial circumstances and prospects to his mother and to hissister as well. from time to time he stood up from thetable and pulled out of the small lockbox salvaged from his business, which hadcollapsed five years previously, some

document or other or some notebook. the sound was audible as he opened up thecomplicated lock and, after removing what 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 hisimprisonment. he had thought that nothing at all was leftover for his father from that business; at least his father had told him nothing tocontradict that view, and gregor in any case hadn't asked him about it. at the time gregor's only concern had beento use everything he had in order to allow

his family to forget as quickly as possiblethe business misfortune which had brought them all into a state of completehopelessness. and so at that point he'd started to workwith a special intensity and from an assistant had become, almost overnight, atravelling salesman, who naturally had entirely different possibilities for earning money and whose successes at workwere converted immediately into the form of cash commissions, which could be set out onthe 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 thefact that gregor later earned so much money that he was in a position to bear the expenses of the entire family, costs whichhe, in fact, did bear. they had become quite accustomed to it,both the family and gregor as well. they took the money with thanks, and hehappily surrendered it, but the special warmth was no longer present. only the sister had remained still close togregor, 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 bemade up in other ways.

in contrast to gregor she loved music verymuch and knew how to play the violin charmingly. now and then during gregor's short stays inthe city the conservatory was mentioned in conversations with his sister, but alwaysonly as a beautiful dream, whose realization was unimaginable, and their parents never listened to these innocentexpectations with pleasure. but gregor thought about them withscrupulous consideration and intended to explain the matter ceremoniously onchristmas eve. in his present situation, such futile ideaswent through his head, while he pushed

himself right up against the door andlistened. sometimes in his general exhaustion hecouldn't listen any more and let his head bang listlessly against the door, but heimmediately pulled himself together, for even the small sound which he made by this motion was heard near by and silencedeveryone. "there he goes on again," said his fatherafter a while, clearly turning towards the door, and only then would the interruptedconversation gradually be resumed again. gregor found out clearly enough--for hisfather tended to repeat himself often in his explanations, partly because he had notpersonally concerned himself with these

matters for a long time now, and partly also because his mother did not understandeverything right away the first time--that, in spite all bad luck, a fortune, althougha very small one, was available from the old times, which the interest, which had not been touched, had in the interveningtime gradually allowed to increase a little. furthermore, in addition to this, the moneywhich gregor had brought home every month-- he had kept only a few florins for himself--had not been completely spent and had grown into a small capital amount.

gregor, behind his door, nodded eagerly,rejoicing over 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 better the way his father had arrangedthem. at the moment, however, this money was notnearly sufficient to permit the family to live on the interest payments. perhaps it would be enough to maintain thefamily for one or at most two years, that's

thus, it only added up to an amount whichone should not really draw upon and which must be set aside for an emergency.but the money to live on had to be earned. now, although his father was old, he was ahealthy man who had not worked at all for five years and thus could not be counted onfor very much. he had in these five years, the firstholidays of his trouble-filled but unsuccessful life, put on a good deal offat and thus had become really heavy. and should his old mother now perhaps workfor money, a woman who suffered from asthma, for whom wandering through theapartment even now was a great strain and who spent every second day on the sofa bythe open window labouring for breath?

should his sister earn money, a girl whowas still a seventeen-year-old child whose earlier life style had been so verydelightful that it had consisted of dressing herself nicely, sleeping in late, helping around the house, taking part in afew modest enjoyments and, above all, playing the violin? when it came to talking about this need toearn money, at first gregor went away from the door and threw himself on the coolleather sofa beside the door, for he was quite hot from shame and sorrow. often he lay there all night long.he didn't sleep a moment and just scratched

on the leather for hours at a time.he undertook the very difficult task of shoving a chair over to the window. then he crept up on the window sill 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 perceivedthings with less and less clarity, even those a short distance away: the hospitalacross the street, the all-too-frequent sight of which he had previously cursed, was not visible at all any more, and if hehad not been precisely aware that he lived

in the quiet but completely urban charlottestreet, he could have believed that from his window he was peering out at a featureless wasteland, in which the greyheaven and the grey 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 tohis sister and thank her for everything that she had to do for him, he would havetolerated her service more easily.

as it was, he suffered under it. the sister admittedly sought to cover upthe 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 alsocame to understand everything more precisely.even her entrance was terrible for him. as soon as she entered, she ran straight tothe window, without taking the time to shut the door, in spite of the fact that she wasotherwise very considerate in sparing anyone the sight of gregor's room, and yanked the window open with eager hands, asif she was almost suffocating, and remained

for a while by the window breathing deeply,even when it was still so cold. with this running and noise she frightenedgregor twice every day. the entire time he trembled under thecouch, and yet he knew very well that she would certainly have spared him gladly ifit had only been possible to remain with the window closed in a room where gregorlived. on one occasion--about one month hadalready gone by since gregor's transformation, and there was now noparticular reason any more for his sister to be startled at gregor's appearance--she arrived a little earlier than usual andcame upon gregor as he was still looking

out the window, immobile and wellpositioned to frighten someone. it would not have come as a surprise togregor if she had not come in, since his position was preventing her from openingthe window immediately. but she not only did not step inside; sheeven retreated and shut the door. a stranger really might have concluded fromthis that gregor had been lying in wait for her and wanted to bite her. of course, gregor immediately concealedhimself under the couch, but he had to wait until the noon meal before his sisterreturned, and she seemed much less calm than usual.

from this he realized that his appearancewas still constantly intolerable to her and must remain intolerable in future, and thatshe really had to exert a lot of self- 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, oneday he dragged the sheet on his back and onto the couch--this task took him fourhours--and arranged it in such a way that he was now completely concealed and his sister, even if she bent down, could notsee him. if this sheet was not necessary as far asshe was concerned, then she could remove

it, for it was clear enough that gregorcould not derive any pleasure from isolating himself away so completely. but she left the sheet just as it was, andgregor believed he even caught a look of gratitude when, on one occasion, hecarefully lifted up the sheet a little with his head to check, as his sister took stockof the new arrangement. in the first two weeks his parents couldnot bring themselves to visit him, and he often heard how they fully acknowledged hissister's present work; whereas, earlier they had often got annoyed at his sister because she had seemed to them a somewhatuseless young woman.

however, now both his father and his motheroften waited in front of gregor's door while his sister cleaned up inside, and assoon as she came out, she had to explain in detail how things looked in the room, what gregor had eaten, how he had behaved thistime, and whether perhaps a slight improvement was perceptible. in any event, his mother comparatively soonwanted to visit gregor, but his father and his sister restrained her, at first withreasons which gregor listened to very attentively and which he completelyendorsed. later, however, they had to hold her backforcefully, and when she then cried "let me

go to gregor. he's my unlucky son!don't you understand that i have to go to him?" gregor then thought that perhaps it wouldbe a good thing if his mother came in, not every day, of course, but maybe once aweek. she understood everything much better thanhis sister, who, in spite of all her courage, was still a child and, in the lastanalysis, had perhaps undertaken such a difficult task only out of childishrecklessness. gregor's wish to see his mother was soonrealized.

while during the day gregor, out ofconsideration for his parents, did not want to show himself by the window, he couldn'tcrawl around very much on the few square metres of the floor. he found it difficult to bear lying quietlyduring the night, and soon eating no longer gave him the slightest pleasure. so for diversion he acquired the habit ofcrawling back and forth across the walls and ceiling.he was especially fond of hanging from the ceiling. the experience was quite different fromlying on the floor.

it was easier to breathe, a slightvibration went through his body, and in the midst of the almost happy amusement whichgregor found up there, it could happen that, to his own surprise, he let go andhit the floor. however, now he naturally controlled hisbody quite differently, and he did not injure himself in such a great fall. his sister noticed immediately the newamusement which gregor had found for himself--for as he crept around he leftbehind here and there traces of his sticky stuff--and so she got the idea of making gregor's creeping around as easy aspossible 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 byherself. she did not dare to ask her father to help,and the servant girl would certainly not have assisted her, for although this girl,about sixteen years old, had courageously remained since the dismissal of the previous cook, she had begged for theprivilege of being allowed to stay permanently confined to the kitchen and ofhaving to open the door only in answer to a special summons. thus, his sister had no other choice but toinvolve his mother while his father was

absent. his mother approached gregor's room withcries of excited joy, but she fell silent at the door.of course, his sister first checked whether 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.the whole thing really looked just like a coverlet thrown carelessly over the couch. on this occasion, gregor held back fromspying out from under the sheet. thus, he refrained from looking at hismother this time and was just happy that

she had come. "come on; he's not visible," said hissister, and evidently led his mother by the hand. now gregor listened as these two weak womenshifted the still heavy old chest of drawers from its position, and as hissister constantly took on herself the greater part of the work, without listening to the warnings of his mother, who wasafraid that she would strain herself. the work lasted a long time. after about a quarter of an hour hadalready gone by, his mother said it would

be better if they left the chest of drawerswhere it was, because, in the first place, it was too heavy: they would not be finished before his father's arrival, andleaving the chest of drawers in the middle of the room would block all gregor'spathways, but, in the second place, they could not be certain that gregor would bepleased with the removal of the furniture. to her the reverse seemed to be true; thesight of the empty walls pierced her right to the heart, and why should gregor notfeel the same, since he had been accustomed to the room furnishings for a long time and in an empty room would feel himselfabandoned?

"and is it not the case," his motherconcluded very quietly, almost whispering as if she wished to prevent gregor, whoseexact location she really didn't know, from hearing even the sound of her voice--for she was convinced that he did notunderstand her words--"and isn't it a fact that by removing the furniture we'reshowing that we're giving up all hope of an improvement and are leaving him to his ownresources without any consideration? i think it would be best if we tried tokeep the room exactly in the condition it was in before, so that, when gregor returnsto us, he finds everything unchanged and can forget the intervening time all themore easily."

as he heard his mother's words gregorrealized that the lack of all immediate human contact, together with the monotonouslife surrounded by the family over the course of these two months, must have confused his understanding, becauseotherwise 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 furnished with pieces he had inherited, be turned into a cavern in whichhe would, of course, then be able to crawl about in all directions without disturbance, but at the same time with aquick and complete forgetting of his human

past as well? was he then at this point already on theverge of forgetting and was it only the voice of his mother, which he had not heardfor a long time, that had aroused him? nothing was to be removed--everything mustremain. in his condition he could not functionwithout the beneficial influences of his furniture. and if the furniture prevented him fromcarrying out his senseless crawling about all over the place, then there was no harmin that, but rather a great benefit. but his sister unfortunately thoughtotherwise.

she had grown accustomed, certainly notwithout justification, so far as the discussion of matters concerning gregor wasconcerned, to act as an special expert with respect to their parents, and so now the mother's advice was for his sistersufficient reason to insist on the removal, not only of the chest of drawers and thewriting desk, which were the only items she had thought about at first, but also of all the furniture, with the exception of theindispensable couch. of course, it was not only childishdefiance and her recent very unexpected and hard won self-confidence which led her tothis demand.

she had also actually observed that gregorneeded a great deal of room to creep about; the furniture, on the other hand, as far asone 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 everyopportunity, and with it grete now felt tempted to want to make gregor's situationeven more terrifying, so that then she would be able to do even more for him thannow. for surely no one except grete would evertrust themselves to enter a room in which gregor ruled the empty walls all byhimself.

and so she did not let herself be dissuadedfrom her decision by her mother, who in this room seemed uncertain of herself inher sheer agitation and soon kept quiet, helping his sister with all her energy toget the chest of drawers out of the room. now, gregor could still do without thechest of drawers if need be, but the writing desk really had to stay. and scarcely had the women left the roomwith the chest of drawers, groaning as they pushed it, when gregor stuck his head outfrom under the sofa to take a look how he could intervene cautiously and with as muchconsideration as possible. but unfortunately it was his mother whocame back into the room first, while grete

had her arms wrapped around the chest ofdrawers in the next room and was rocking it back and forth by herself, without movingit from its position. his mother was not used to the sight ofgregor; he could have made her ill, and so, frightened, gregor scurried backwards rightto the other end of the sofa, but he could no longer prevent the sheet from movingforward a little. that was enough to catch his mother'sattention. she came to a halt, stood still for amoment, 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 offurniture were being rearranged, he soon

had to admit to himself that the movements of the women to and fro, their quietconversations, and the scratching of the furniture on the floor affected him like agreat swollen commotion on all sides, and, so firmly was he pulling in his head and legs and pressing his body into the floor,he had to tell himself unequivocally that he wouldn't be able to endure all this muchlonger. they were cleaning out his room, takingaway 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 the writing desk which was fixedtight to the floor, the desk on which he, as a business student, a school student,indeed even as an elementary school student, had written out his assignments. at that moment he really didn't have anymore time to check the good intentions of the two women, whose existence he had inany case almost forgotten, because in 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 abreather--changing the direction of his

path four times. he really didn't know what he should rescuefirst. then he saw hanging conspicuously on thewall, which was otherwise already empty, the picture of the woman dressed in nothingbut fur. he quickly scurried up over it and pressedhimself against the glass which held it in place and which made his hot abdomen feelgood. at least this picture, which gregor at themoment completely concealed, surely no one would now take away. he twisted his head towards the door of theliving room to observe the women as they

came back in.they had not allowed themselves very much rest and were coming back right away. grete had placed her arm around her motherand held her tightly. "so what shall we take now?" said grete andlooked around her. then her glance met gregor's from the wall. she kept her composure only because hermother was there. she bent her face towards her mother inorder to prevent her from looking around, and said, although in a trembling voice andtoo quickly, "come, wouldn't it be better to go back to the living room for justanother moment?"

grete's purpose was clear to gregor: shewanted 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 sooner spring into grete's face. but grete's words had immediately made themother very uneasy. she walked to the side, caught sight of theenormous brown splotch on the flowered wallpaper, and, before she became trulyaware that what she was looking at was gregor, screamed out in a high pitched raw voice "oh god, oh god" and fell withoutstretched arms, as if she was

surrendering everything, down onto thecouch and lay there motionless. "gregor, you. .." cried out his sister with a raised fist and an urgent glare. since his transformation these were thefirst words which she had directed right at she ran into the room next door to bringsome spirits or other with which she could revive her mother from her fainting spell. gregor wanted to help as well--there wastime enough to save the picture--but he was stuck fast on the glass and had to tearhimself 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 tostand there idly behind her, while she rummaged about among various small bottles. still, she was frightened when she turnedaround. 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, gretetook as many small bottles as she could hold and ran with them into her mother.she slammed the door shut with her foot.

gregor was now shut off from his mother,who was perhaps near death, thanks to him. he could not open the door, and he did notwant to chase away his sister who had to remain with her mother. at this point he had nothing to do butwait, 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. the servant girl was naturally shut up inher kitchen, and therefore grete had to go to open the door.the father had arrived. "what's happened?" were his first words. grete's appearance had told him everything.grete replied with a dull voice; evidently she was pressing her face into her father'schest: "mother fainted, but she's getting better now. gregor has broken loose.""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 tocalm him down, for he had neither the time nor the ability to explain things to him. and so he rushed away to the door of hisroom and pushed himself against it, so that his father could see right away as heentered from the hall that gregor fully intended to return at once to his room, that it was not necessary to drive himback, but that one only needed to open the door, and he would disappear immediately.but his father was not in the mood to

observe such niceties. "ah," he yelled as soon as he entered, witha tone as if he were all at once angry and pleased. gregor pulled his head back from the doorand raised it in the direction of his father.he had not really pictured his father as he now stood there. of course, what with his new style ofcreeping all around, he had in the past while neglected to pay attention to whatwas going on in the rest of the apartment, as he had done before, and really should

have grasped the fact that he wouldencounter different conditions. nevertheless, nevertheless, was that stillhis father? was that the same man who had lainexhausted and buried in bed in earlier days when gregor was setting out on a businesstrip, who had received him on the evenings of his return in a sleeping gown and arm chair, totally incapable of standing up,who had only lifted his arm as a sign of happiness, and who in their rare strollstogether a few sundays a year and on the important holidays made his way slowly forwards between gregor and his mother--whothemselves moved slowly--always a bit more

slowly than them, bundled up in his oldcoat, all the time setting down his walking 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 servantswear in a banking company. above the high stiff collar of his jackethis firm double chin stuck out prominently, beneath his bushy eyebrows the glance ofhis black eyes was freshly penetrating and 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 the bank, was affixed, in an arc across the entire roomonto the sofa and moved, throwing back the edge of the long coat of his uniform, with his hands in his trouser pockets and a grimface, 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 thegigantic size of the sole of his boot. however, he did not linger on that point. for he knew from the first day of his newlife that, as far as he was concerned, his

father considered the greatest force theonly appropriate response. and so he scurried away from his father,stopped when his father remained standing, and scampered forward again when his fathermerely stirred. in this way they made their way around theroom repeatedly, without anything decisive taking place.in fact, because of the slow pace, it didn't look like a chase. gregor remained on the floor for the timebeing, especially since he was afraid that his father could take a flight up onto thewall or the ceiling as an act of real malice.

at any event, gregor had to tell himselfthat he couldn't keep up this running around for a long time, because wheneverhis father took a single step, he had to go through an enormous number of movements. already he was starting to suffer from ashortage of breath, just as in his earlier days when his lungs had been quiteunreliable. as he now staggered around in this way inorder to gather all his energies for running, hardly keeping his eyes open andfeeling so listless that he had no notion at all of any escape other than by running and had almost already forgotten that thewalls were available to him, although they

were obstructed by carefully carvedfurniture full of sharp points and spikes, at that moment something or other thrown casually flew down close by and rolled infront of him. it was an apple.immediately a second one flew after it. gregor stood still in fright. further running away was useless, for hisfather had decided to bombard him. from the fruit bowl on the sideboard hisfather had filled his pockets. and now, without for the moment takingaccurate aim, he was throwing apple after apple.

these small red apples rolled around on thefloor, as if electrified, and collided with each other.a weakly thrown apple grazed gregor's back but skidded off harmlessly. however, another thrown immediately afterthat one drove into gregor's back really hard. gregor wanted to drag himself off, as ifthe unexpected and incredible pain would go away if he changed his position. but he felt as if he was nailed in placeand lay stretched out completely confused in all his senses.

only with his final glance did he noticehow 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 order to give her some freedom tobreathe in her fainting spell, and how his mother then ran up to his father, on theway her tied up skirts slipped toward the floor one after the other, and how, tripping over her skirts, she hurledherself onto his father and, throwing her arms around him, in complete union withhim--but at this moment gregor's powers of sight gave way--as her hands reached to the

back of his father's head and she beggedhim to spare gregor's life. chapter iii. gregor's serious wound, from which hesuffered for over a month--since no one ventured to remove the apple, it remainedin his flesh as a visible reminder--seemed by itself to have reminded the father that, in spite of his present unhappy and hatefulappearance, gregor was a member of the family, something one should not treat asan enemy, and that it was, on the contrary, a requirement of family duty to suppress one's aversion and to endure--nothing else,just endure.

and if through his wound gregor had nowapparently lost for good his ability to move and for the time being needed many,many minutes to crawl across his room, like an aged invalid--so far as creeping up high was concerned, that was unimaginable--nevertheless for this worsening of his condition, in his opinion, he did getcompletely satisfactory compensation, because every day towards evening the door to the living room, which he was in thehabit of keeping a sharp eye on even one or two hours beforehand, was opened, so thathe, lying down in the darkness of his room, invisible from the living room, could see

the entire family at the illuminated tableand listen to their conversation, to a certain extent with their commonpermission, a situation quite different from what had happened before. of course, it was no longer the animatedsocial interaction of former times, which gregor in small hotel rooms had alwaysthought about with a certain longing, when, tired out, he had had to throw himself intothe damp bedclothes. for the most part what went on now was veryquiet. after the evening meal, the father fellasleep quickly in his arm chair. the mother and sister talked guardedly toeach other in the stillness.

bent far over, the mother sewed fineundergarments for a fashion shop. the sister, who had taken on a job as asalesgirl, in the evening studied stenography and french, so as perhaps laterto obtain a better position. sometimes the father woke up and, as if hewas quite ignorant that he had been asleep, said to the mother "how long you have beensewing today?" and went right back to sleep, while the mother and the sistersmiled tiredly to each other. with a sort of stubbornness the fatherrefused to take off his servant's uniform even at home, and while his sleeping gownhung unused on the coat hook, the father dozed completely dressed in his place, as

if he was always ready for hisresponsibility and even here was waiting for the voice of his superior. as a result, in spite of all the care ofthe mother and sister, his uniform, which even at 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 alwayspolished, in which the old man, although very uncomfortable, slept peacefullynonetheless. 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 report for service at six o'clock, reallyneeded a good sleep. but in his stubbornness, which had grippedhim since he had become a servant, he insisted always on staying even longer bythe table, although he regularly fell asleep and then could only be prevailed upon with the greatest difficulty to tradehis chair for the bed. no matter how much the mother and sistermight at that point work on him with small admonitions, for a quarter of an hour hewould remain shaking his head slowly, his eyes closed, without standing up.

the mother would pull him by the sleeve andspeak flattering words into his ear; the sister would leave her work to help hermother, but that would not have the desired effect on the father. he would settle himself even more deeply inhis arm chair. only when the two women grabbed him underthe armpits would he throw his eyes open, look back and forth at the mother andsister, and habitually say "this is a life. this is the peace and quiet of my old age." and propped up by both women, he wouldheave himself up elaborately, as if for him it was the greatest trouble, allow himselfto 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 fatherand help him some more. in this overworked and exhausted family whohad time to worry any longer about gregor more than was absolutely necessary?the household was constantly getting smaller. the servant girl was now let go.a huge bony cleaning woman with white hair flying all over her head came in themorning and evening to do the heaviest work.

the mother took care of everything else inaddition to her considerable sewing work. it even happened that various pieces offamily jewellery, which previously the mother and sister had been overjoyed towear on social and festive occasions, were sold, as gregor found out in the evening from the general discussion of the pricesthey had fetched. but the greatest complaint was always thatthey could not leave this apartment, which was too big for their present means, sinceit was impossible to imagine how gregor might be moved. but gregor fully recognized that it was notjust consideration for him which was

preventing a move, for he could have beentransported easily in a suitable box with a few air holes. the main thing holding the family back froma change in living quarters was far more their complete hopelessness and the ideathat they had been struck by a misfortune like no one else in their entire circle ofrelatives and acquaintances. what the world demands of poor people theynow carried out to an extreme degree. the father bought breakfast to the pettyofficials at the bank, the mother sacrificed herself for the undergarments ofstrangers, the sister behind her desk was at the beck and call of customers, but the

family's energies did not extend anyfurther. and the wound in his back began to paingregor all over again, when now mother and sister, after they had escorted the fatherto bed, came back, let their work lie, moved close together, and sat cheek to cheek and when his mother would now say,pointing to gregor's room, "close the door, grete," and when gregor was again in thedarkness, while close by the women mingled their tears or, quite dry eyed, stared atthe table. gregor spent his nights and days withhardly any sleep. sometimes he thought that the next time thedoor opened he would take over the family

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 in the provinces, a loving fleeting memory, afemale cashier from a hat shop, whom he had seriously but too slowly courted--they allappeared mixed in with strangers or people he had already forgotten, but instead of helping him and his family, they were allunapproachable, and he was happy to see them disappear.but then he was in no mood to worry about

his family. he was filled with sheer anger over thewretched care he was getting, even though he couldn't imagine anything which he mighthave an appetite for. still, he made plans about how he couldtake from the larder what he at all account deserved, even if he wasn't hungry. without thinking any more about how theymight be able to give gregor special pleasure, the sister now kicked some foodor other very quickly into his room in the morning and at noon, before she ran off to her shop, and in the evening, quiteindifferent to whether the food had perhaps

only been tasted or, what happened mostfrequently, remained entirely undisturbed, she whisked it out with one sweep of herbroom. the task of cleaning his room, which shenow always carried out in the evening, could not be done any more quickly. streaks of dirt ran along the walls; hereand there lay tangles of dust and garbage. at first, when his sister arrived, gregorpositioned himself in a particularly filthy corner in order with this posture to makesomething of a protest. but he could have well stayed there forweeks without his sister's changing her ways.

in fact, she perceived the dirt as much ashe 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, shekept watch to see that the cleaning of gregor's room remained reserved for her. once his mother had undertaken a majorcleaning of gregor's room, which she had only completed successfully after using afew buckets of water. but the extensive dampness made gregor sickand he lay supine, embittered and immobile on the couch.however, the mother's punishment was not

delayed for long. for in the evening the sister had hardlyobserved the change in gregor's room before she ran into the living room mightilyoffended and, in spite of her mother's hand lifted high in entreaty, broke out in a fitof crying. her parents--the father had, of course,woken up with a start in his arm chair--at first looked at her astonished andhelpless, until they started to get agitated. turning to his right, the father heapedreproaches on the mother that she was not to take over the cleaning of gregor's roomfrom the sister and, turning to his left,

he shouted at the sister that she would no longer be allowed to clean gregor's roomever again, while the mother tried to pull the father, beside himself in hisexcitement, into the bed room. the sister, shaken by her crying fit,pounded on the table with her tiny fists, and gregor hissed at all this, angry thatno one thought about shutting the door and sparing him the sight of this commotion. but even when the sister, exhausted fromher daily work, had grown tired of caring for gregor as she had before, even then themother did not have to come at all on her behalf.

and gregor did not have to be neglected.for now the cleaning woman was there. this old widow, who in her long life musthave managed to survive the worst with the help of her bony frame, had no real horrorof gregor. without being in the least curious, she hadonce by chance opened gregor's door. at the sight of gregor, who, totallysurprised, began to scamper here and there, although no one was chasing him, sheremained standing with her hands folded across her stomach staring at him. since then she did not fail to open thedoor furtively a little every morning and evening to look in on gregor.

at first, she also called him to her withwords which she presumably thought were friendly, like "come here for a bit, olddung beetle!" or "hey, look at the old dung beetle!" addressed in such a manner, gregor answerednothing, but remained motionless in his place, as if the door had not been openedat all. if only, instead of allowing this cleaningwoman to disturb him uselessly whenever she felt like it, they had given her orders toclean up his room every day! one day in the early morning--a harddownpour, perhaps already a sign of the coming spring, struck the window panes--when the cleaning woman started up once

again with her usual conversation, gregor was so bitter that he turned towards her,as if for an attack, although slowly and weakly. but instead of being afraid of him, thecleaning woman merely lifted up a chair standing close by the door and, as shestood there with her mouth wide open, her intention was clear: she would close her mouth only when the chair in her hand hadbeen thrown down on gregor's back. "this goes no further, all right?" sheasked, as gregor turned himself around again, and she placed the chair calmly backin the corner.

gregor ate hardly anything any more. only when he chanced to move past the foodwhich had been prepared did he, as a game, take a bit into his mouth, hold it therefor hours, and generally spit it out again. at first he thought it might be his sadnessover the condition of his room which kept him from eating, but he very soon becamereconciled to the alterations in his room. people had grown accustomed to put intostorage in his room things which they couldn't put anywhere else, and at thispoint there were many such things, now that they had rented one room of the apartmentto three lodgers. these solemn gentlemen--all three had fullbeards, as gregor once found out through a

crack in the door--were meticulously intenton tidiness, not only in their own room but, since they had now rented a room here, in the entire household, and particularlyin the kitchen. they simply did not tolerate any useless orshoddy stuff. moreover, for the most part they hadbrought with them their own pieces of thus, many items had become superfluous,and these were not really things one could sell or things people wanted to throw out. all these items ended up in gregor's room,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 take the stuff out again or to throw everythingout all at once, but in fact the things remained lying there, wherever they had ended up at the first throw, unless gregorsquirmed his way 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 agrowing pleasure, although after such movements, tired to death and feelingwretched, he didn't budge for hours. because the lodgers sometimes also tooktheir evening meal at home in the common living room, the door to the living roomstayed shut on many evenings. but gregor had no trouble at all goingwithout the open door. already on many evenings when it was openhe had not availed himself of it, but, without the family noticing, was stretchedout in the darkest corner of his room. however, once the cleaning woman had leftthe door to the living room slightly ajar, and it remained open even when the lodgerscame in in the evening and the lights were

put on. they sat down at the head of 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 appeared in the doorwith a dish of meat and right behind her the sister with a dish piled high withpotatoes. the food gave off a lot of steam. the gentlemen lodgers bent over the plateset before them, as if they wanted to check it before eating, and in fact the one whosat in the middle--for the other two he

seemed to serve as the authority--cut off a piece of meat still on the plate obviouslyto establish whether it was sufficiently tender and whether or not something shouldbe shipped back to the kitchen. he was satisfied, and mother and sister,who had looked on in suspense, began to breathe easily and to smile.the family itself ate in the kitchen. in spite of that, before the father wentinto the kitchen, he came into the room and with a single bow, cap in hand, made a tourof the table. the lodgers rose up collectively andmurmured something in their beards. then, when they were alone, they ate almostin complete silence.

it seemed odd to gregor that, out of allthe many different sorts of sounds of eating, what was always audible was theirchewing teeth, as if by that gregor should be shown that people needed their teeth to eat and that nothing could be done evenwith the most handsome toothless jawbone. "i really do have an appetite," gregor saidto himself sorrowfully, "but not for these things. how these lodgers stuff themselves, and iam dying." on this very evening the violin soundedfrom the kitchen. gregor didn't remember hearing it allthrough this period.

the lodgers had already ended their nightmeal, the middle one had pulled out a newspaper and had given each of the othertwo a page, and they were now leaning back, reading and smoking. when the violin started playing, theybecame attentive, got up, and went on tiptoe to the hall door, at which theyremained standing pressed up against one another. they must have been audible from thekitchen, 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 themiddle, "might the young woman not come into us and play in the room here, where itis really much more comfortable and cheerful?" "oh, thank you," cried out the father, asif he were the one playing the violin. the men stepped back into the room andwaited. soon the father came 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 notsit on their own chairs. the father leaned against the door, hisright hand stuck between two buttons of his buttoned-up uniform.the mother, however, accepted a chair offered by one lodger. since she left the chair sit where thegentleman had chanced to put it, she sat to one side in 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 hadventured to advance a little further

forward and his head was already in theliving room. he scarcely wondered about the fact thatrecently he had had so little consideration for the others.earlier this consideration had been something he was proud of. and for that very reason he would have hadat this moment more reason to hide away, because as a result of the dust which layall over his room and flew around with the slightest movement, he was totally coveredin dirt. on his back and his sides he carted aroundwith him dust, threads, hair, and remnants of food.

his indifference to everything was much toogreat for him to lie on his back and scour himself on the carpet, as he often had doneearlier during the day. in spite of his condition he had notimidity about inching forward a bit on the spotless floor of the living room.in any case, no one paid him any attention. the family was all caught up in the violinplaying. the lodgers, by contrast, who for themoment had placed themselves, hands in their trouser pockets, behind the musicstand much too close to the sister, so that they could all see the sheet music, something that must certainly bother thesister, soon drew back to the window

conversing in low voices with bowed heads,where they then remained, worriedly observed by the father. it now seemed really clear that, havingassumed they were to hear a beautiful or entertaining violin recital, they weredisappointed and were allowing their peace and quiet to be disturbed only out ofpoliteness. the way in which they all blew the smokefrom their cigars out of their noses and mouths in particular led one to concludethat they were very irritated. and yet his sister was playing sobeautifully. her face was turned to the side, her gazefollowed the score intently and sadly.

gregor crept forward still a littlefurther, keeping his head close against the floor in order to be able to catch her gazeif possible. was he an animal that music so captivatedhim? 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 mightstill come with her violin into his room, because here no one valued the recital ashe wanted to value it. he did not wish to let her go from his roomany more, at least not as long as he lived. his frightening appearance would for thefirst time become useful for him.

he wanted to be at all the doors of hisroom simultaneously and snarl back at the attackers. however, his sister should not be compelledbut would remain with him voluntarily. she would sit next to him on the sofa, benddown her ear to him, and he would then confide in her that he firmly intended tosend her to the conservatory and that, if his misfortune had not arrived in the interim, he would have declared all thislast christmas--had christmas really already come and gone?--and would havebrooked no argument. after this explanation his sister wouldbreak out in tears of emotion, and gregor

would lift himself up to her armpit andkiss 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 atgregor as he was moving slowly forward. the violin fell silent. the middle lodger smiled, first shaking hishead once at his friends, and then looked down at gregor once more. rather than driving gregor back again, thefather 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 thanthe violin recital. the father hurried over to them and withoutstretched arms tried to push them into their own room and simultaneously to blocktheir view of gregor with his own body. at this point they became really somewhatirritated, although one no longer knew whether that was because of the father'sbehaviour or because of knowledge they had just acquired that they had, withoutknowing it, a neighbour like gregor. they demanded explanations from his father,raised their arms to make their points, tugged agitatedly at their beards, andmoved back towards their room quite slowly. in the meantime, the isolation which hadsuddenly fallen upon his sister after the

sudden breaking off of the recital hadoverwhelmed her. she had held onto the violin and bow in herlimp hands for a little while and had continued to look at the sheet music as ifshe 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 chairhaving trouble 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 under the sister'spracticed hands the sheets and pillows on the beds were thrown on high and arranged.

even before the lodgers had reached theroom, she was finished fixing the beds and was slipping out. the father seemed so gripped once againwith his stubbornness that he forgot about the respect which he always owed to hisrenters. he pressed on and on, until at the door ofthe room the middle gentleman stamped loudly with his foot and thus brought thefather to a standstill. "i hereby declare," the middle lodger said,raising his hand and casting his glance both on the mother and the sister, "thatconsidering the disgraceful conditions prevailing in this apartment and family"--

with this he spat decisively on the 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 noti will initiate some sort of action against you, something which--believe me--will bevery easy to establish." he fell silent and looked directly in frontof him, as if he was waiting for something. in fact, his two friends immediately joinedin with their opinions, "we also give immediate 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 forhis usual evening snooze, but the heavy nodding of his head, which looked as if itwas without support, showed that he was not sleeping at all. gregor had lain motionless the entire timein the spot where the lodgers had caught disappointment with the collapse of hisplan and perhaps also weakness brought on by his severe hunger made it impossible forhim to move. he was certainly afraid that a generaldisaster would break over him at any moment, and he waited. he was not even startled when the violinfell from the mother's lap, out from under

her trembling fingers, and gave off areverberating tone. "my dear parents," said the sister bangingher hand on the table by way of an introduction, "things cannot go on anylonger in this way. maybe if you don't understand that, well,i do. i will not utter my brother's name in frontof this monster, and thus i say only that we must try to get rid of it. we have tried what is humanly possible totake care of it and to be patient. i believe that no one can criticize us inthe slightest." "she is right in a thousand ways," said thefather to himself.

the mother, who was still incapable ofbreathing properly, began to cough numbly with her hand held up over her mouth and amanic expression in her eyes. the sister hurried over to her mother andheld her forehead. the sister's words seemed to have led thefather to certain reflections. he sat upright, played with his uniform hatamong the plates, which still lay on the table from the lodgers' evening meal, andlooked 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 notlistening to anything.

"it is killing you both. i see it coming.when people have to work as hard as we all do, they cannot also tolerate this endlesstorment at home. i just can't go on any more." and she broke out into such a crying fitthat her tears flowed out down onto her mother's face.she wiped them off her mother with mechanical motions of her hands. "child," said the father sympatheticallyand with obvious appreciation, "then what should we do?"

the sister only shrugged her shoulders as asign 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 energetically as a sign that there was no point thinking of that. "if he only understood us," repeated thefather and by shutting his eyes he absorbed the sister's conviction of theimpossibility 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 how can it be gregor?if it were gregor, he would have long ago realized that a communal life among humanbeings is not possible with such an animal and would have gone away voluntarily. then we would not have a brother, but wecould go on living and honour his memory.

but this animal plagues us. it drives away the lodgers, will obviouslytake 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 totallyincomprehensible to gregor, the sister even left the mother, pushed herself away fromher chair, as if she would sooner sacrifice 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 ofwishing to create problems for anyone and certainly not for his sister. he had just started to turn himself aroundin order to creep back into his room, quite a startling sight, since, as a result ofhis suffering condition, he had to guide himself through the difficulty of turning around with his head, in this processlifting and banging it against the floor several times.he paused and looked around. his good intentions seem to have beenrecognized. the fright had lasted only for a moment.now they looked at him in silence and

sorrow. his mother lay in her chair, with her legsstretched out and pressed together; her eyes were almost shut from weariness.the father and sister sat next to one the sister had set her hands around thefather's neck. "now perhaps i can actually turn myselfaround," thought gregor and began the task again. he couldn't stop puffing at the effort andhad to rest now and then. besides, no one was urging him on.it was all left to him on his own. when he had completed turning around, heimmediately began to wander straight back.

he was astonished at the great distancewhich separated him from his room and did not understand in the least how in hisweakness he had covered the same distance a short time before, almost without noticingit. constantly intent only on creeping alongquickly, he hardly paid any attention to the fact that no word or cry from hisfamily interrupted him. only when he was already in the door did heturn his head, not completely, because he felt his neck growing stiff.at any rate he still saw that behind him nothing had changed. only the sister was standing up.his last glimpse brushed over the mother

who was now completely asleep. hardly was he inside his room when the doorwas pushed shut very quickly, bolted fast, and barred. gregor was startled by the sudden commotionbehind him, so much so that his little limbs bent double under him.it was his sister who had been in such a hurry. she had stood up right away, had waited,and had then sprung forward nimbly. gregor had not heard anything of herapproach. she cried out "finally!" to her parents, asshe turned the key in the lock.

"what now?"gregor asked himself and looked around him in the darkness. he soon made the discovery that he could nolonger move at all. he was not surprised at that. on the contrary, it struck him as unnaturalthat up to this point he had really been able up to move around with these thinlittle legs. besides he felt relatively content. true, he had pains throughout his entirebody, but it seemed to him that they were gradually becoming weaker and weaker andwould finally go away completely.

the rotten apple in his back and theinflamed surrounding area, entirely covered with white dust, he hardly noticed.he remembered his family with deep feelings of love. in this business, his own thought that hehad to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than his sister's. he remained in this state of empty andpeaceful reflection until the tower clock struck three o'clock in the morning.from the window he witnessed the 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 bangedall the doors--in precisely the way people had already asked her to avoid--so much sothat once she arrived a quiet sleep was no longer possible anywhere in the entireapartment. in her customarily brief visit to gregorshe at first found nothing special. she thought he lay so immobile therebecause he wanted to play the offended party.she gave him credit for as complete an understanding as possible.

since she happened to be holding the longbroom in her hand, she tried to tickle gregor with it from the door. when that was quite unsuccessful, shebecame irritated and poked gregor a little, and only when she had shoved him from hisplace without any resistance did she become attentive. when she quickly realized the true state ofaffairs, her eyes grew large, she whistled to herself.however, she didn't restrain herself for long. she pulled open the door of the bedroom andyelled in a loud voice into the darkness,

"come and look.it's kicked the bucket. it's lying there, totally snuffed!" the samsa married couple sat upright intheir marriage bed and had to get over their fright at the cleaning woman beforethey managed to grasp her message. but then mr. and mrs. samsa climbed veryquickly out of bed, one on either side. mr. samsa threw the bedspread over hisshoulders, mrs. samsa came out only in her night-shirt, and like this they steppedinto gregor's room. meanwhile, the door of the living room, inwhich grete had slept since the lodgers had arrived on the scene, had also opened.

she was fully clothed, as if she had notslept at all; her white face also seem to indicate that. "dead?" said mrs. samsa and lookedquestioningly at the cleaning woman, although she could check everything on herown and even understand without a check. "i should say so," said the cleaning womanand, by way of proof, poked gregor's body with the broom a considerable distance moreto the side. mrs. samsa made a movement as if she wishedto restrain the broom, but didn't do it. "well," said mr. samsa, "now we can givethanks to god." he crossed himself, and the three womenfollowed his example.

grete, who did not take her eyes off thecorpse, said, "look how thin he was. he had eaten nothing for such a long time. the meals which came in here came out againexactly the same." in fact, gregor's body was completely flatand dry. that was apparent really for the firsttime, now that he was no longer raised on his small limbs and nothing else distractedone's gaze. "grete, come into us for a moment," saidmrs. samsa with a melancholy smile, and grete went, not without looking back at thecorpse, behind her parents into the bed the cleaning woman shut the door and openedthe window wide.

in spite of the early morning, the freshair was partly tinged with warmth. it was already 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 the breakfast?" asked the middleone of the gentlemen grumpily to the cleaning woman. however, she laid her finger to her lipsand then quickly and silently indicated to the lodgers that they could come intogregor's room. so they came and stood in the room, whichwas already quite bright, around gregor's

corpse, their hands in the pockets of theirsomewhat worn jackets. then the door of the bed room opened, andmr. samsa appeared in his uniform, with his wife on one arm and his daughter on theother. all were a little tear stained. now and then grete pressed her face ontoher 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 kept their hands behind themand constantly rubbed them against each

other, as if in joyful anticipation of agreat squabble which must end up in their favour. "i mean exactly what i say," replied mr.samsa and went directly with his two female companions up to the lodger. the latter at first stood there motionlessand looked at the floor, as if matters were arranging themselves in a new way in hishead. "all right, then we'll go," he said andlooked up at mr. samsa as if, suddenly overcome by humility, he was asking freshpermission for this decision. mr. samsa merely nodded to him repeatedlywith his eyes open wide.

following that, the lodger actually wentwith long 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 theirreunion with their leader. in the hall all three of them took theirhats from the coat rack, pulled their canes from the cane holder, bowed silently, andleft the apartment. in what turned out to be an entirelygroundless mistrust, mr. samsa stepped with the two women out onto the landing, leanedagainst the railing, and looked over as the

three lodgers slowly but steadily made their way down the long staircase,disappeared on each floor in a certain turn of the stairwell, and in a few seconds cameout again. the deeper they proceeded, the more thesamsa family lost interest in them, and when a butcher with a tray on his head cometo meet them and then with a proud bearing ascended the stairs high above them, mr. samsa., together with the women, left thebanister, and they all returned, as if relieved, back into their apartment.they decided to pass that day resting and going for a stroll.

not only had they earned this break fromwork, but there was no question that they really needed it. and so they sat down at the table and wrotethree letters of apology: mr. samsa to his supervisor, mrs. samsa to her client, andgrete to her proprietor. during the writing the cleaning woman camein to say that she was going off, for her morning work was finished.the three people writing at first merely nodded, without glancing up. only when the cleaning woman was stillunwilling to depart, did they look up angrily."well?" asked mr. samsa.

the cleaning woman stood smiling in thedoorway, as if she had a great stroke of luck to report to the family but would onlydo it if she was asked directly. the almost upright small ostrich feather inher hat, which had irritated mr. samsa during her entire service, swayed lightlyin all directions. "all right then, what do you really want?"asked mrs. samsa, whom the cleaning lady still usually respected. "well," answered the cleaning woman,smiling so happily she couldn't go on speaking right away, "about how thatrubbish 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 they wanted to go onwriting. mr. samsa, who noticed that the cleaningwoman wanted to start describing everything in detail, decisively prevented her with anoutstretched hand. but since she was 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 with a fearful slamming ofthe 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 thecleaning woman seemed to have upset once

again the tranquillity they had justattained. they got up, went to the window, andremained there, with their arms about each other. mr. samsa turned around in his chair intheir direction and observed them quietly for a while.then he called out, "all right, come here then. let's finally get rid of old things.and have a 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 openair outside the city. the car in which they were sitting bythemselves was totally engulfed by the warm sun. leaning back comfortably in their seats,they talked to each other about future prospects, and they discovered that oncloser observation these were not at 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 promisingprospects.

the greatest improvement in their situationat this moment, of course, had to come from a change of dwelling. now they wanted to rent an apartmentsmaller and cheaper but better situated and generally more practical than the presentone, which gregor had found. while they amused themselves in this way,it struck mr. and mrs. samsa, almost at the same moment, how their daughter, who wasgetting more animated all the time, had blossomed recently, in spite of all the troubles which had made her cheeks pale,into a beautiful and voluptuous young woman.

growing more silent and almostunconsciously understanding each other in their glances, they thought that the timewas now at hand to seek out a good honest man for her. and it was something of a confirmation oftheir new dreams and good intentions when at the end of their journey their daughtergot up first and stretched her young body.

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