Novella: The Metamorphosis

Overview
Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella follows Gregor Samsa, a dutiful traveling salesman who supports his parents and sister Grete. One morning he wakes to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect. The story traces the rapid unraveling of his family’s reliance on him, his progressive isolation, and the shift in household dynamics as his condition forces everyone to confront their own capacities and limits.

Opening Transformation
Gregor awakens late for work, confined in a new body that confounds his human intentions. He struggles with the door, while his anxious family and the chief clerk from his firm demand explanations. When he finally reveals himself, the sight horrifies them. The clerk flees in panic; Gregor’s father drives Gregor back into his room with a cane and rolled newspaper, injuring him. From the outset, Gregor’s transformation both literalizes and amplifies his preexisting sense of being trapped by obligation, and it isolates him behind a closed door that becomes the boundary of his world.

Adaptation and Decline
Grete, initially compassionate, assumes responsibility for feeding Gregor. She discovers he prefers stale scraps to fresh milk and bread and adjusts to his new appetites. Gregor learns to crawl on walls and ceiling and hides under a sofa to spare his family the sight of him. His mother wavers between maternal concern and terror; his father remains hostile and ashamed. Attempting to make the room more comfortable, Grete proposes removing furniture, but when furniture is moved Gregor panics at the loss of familiar objects that tether his fading human identity. A chaotic encounter ends with the father hurling apples; one lodges in Gregor’s back and festers, weakening him.

Family Burdens
The family’s finances, once masked by Gregor’s wages, deteriorate. The father returns to low-level work at a bank, wearing a tarnished uniform that signals both pride and strain. The mother takes in sewing, and Grete becomes a salesgirl while studying the violin. Their apartment grows drab and crowded, eventually accommodating three boarders whose rent helps cover expenses. Gregor’s room fills with dust and discarded items; the cleaning woman treats him with blunt indifference. The family’s energy shifts from caring for Gregor to managing appearances and survival, and Grete’s patience erodes as she shoulders more responsibility.

The Violin and the Decision
One evening Grete plays the violin for the boarders. Entranced, Gregor leaves his room to listen, imagining he could somehow support Grete’s talent. The boarders, disgusted, threaten to leave without paying. The scene crystallizes the family’s predicament. Grete declares that the creature is not Gregor and insists they must get rid of it. Her words carry the authority of someone who has replaced him as the household’s linchpin.

Death and Aftermath
Gregor retreats to his room, exhausted and mortally wounded, and dies quietly before dawn. The cleaning woman discovers the body and disposes of it. With Gregor gone, the family feels an immediate, guilty relief. They dismiss the boarders, decide to move to a smaller, sunnier apartment, and take a tram to the countryside. During the ride, the parents notice Grete’s vigor and maturity and begin to envision a future centered on her prospects and potential marriage.

Arc and Emphasis
The narrative moves from shock to routine to repudiation, charting how love, duty, and shame reconfigure under pressure. Gregor’s transformation exposes the brittle contracts of family and work, and his erasure is complete only when those contracts can be rewritten without him. The ending’s quiet optimism for the survivors underscores the harsh cost at which their renewal is secured.