Gregor frets about his exhausting job. He notices that his belly itches, but when he touches the area with a leg he feels "a cold shiver." He ruminates on the importance of sleep, and thinks about how he'd like to criticize his boss to his face, except for the fact that he has to keep working to support his parents.
Reality clashes with the absurd when Gregor Samsa awakens to find himself transformed into an insect in Franz Kafka's 'Metamorphosis.' The first chapter of this story begins Gregor's examination ...
Find out what happens in our Part 1 summary for The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. This free study guide is stuffed with the juicy details and important facts you need to know.
Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up in his bed to find himself transformed into a large insect.He looks around his room, which appears normal, and decides to go back to sleep to forget about what has happened. He attempts to roll over, only to discover that he cannot due to his new body—he is stuck on his hard, convex back.
Gregor delivers a long speech asking the office manager to put in a good word for him at work, since traveling salesmen often become the subjects of negative gossip, but the office manager continues to back out of the apartment.
Feeling sore from his effort, Gregor thinks about what a difficult job he has and the fact that his constant traveling prevents him from making any lasting friendships. He thinks that he would leave his overbearing employer but he has to work off a debt that his parents incurred.
He suddenly realizes that he has overslept and does not have a good excuse to give his boss. Gregor’s mother reminds him that he has to catch his train to work. When Gregor responds, he finds his voice has changed. His father and Grete, his sister, join his mother at the door, urging him to get up and unlock it.
While Gregor tries to lift himself off the floor, the office manager and his family discuss the strange change in his voice, and his sister leaves to fetch a doctor and a locksmith. Gregor reaches the door, turns the lock with his mouth, and slowly pulls open the door.
It is the office manager , come to check on Gregor. Gregor rocks his body violently and finally tumbles to the floor. His family and the office manager come to the door to inquire if he is all right. Gregor’s mother pleads with the office manager , telling him what a devoted worker Gregor is, while Grete cries in the next room.
The opening line of The Metamorphosis, which reports Gregor’s discovery that he has become a giant insect, sets the tone for the rest of the story. The line recounts the bizarre event of Gregor’s transformation in a sober, straightforward manner, and this contrast between an extraordinary situation and the ordinary terms used to describe it creates the sense that the narrator expects the world in the story to be absurd and chaotic, rather than rational and orderly. Gregor embodies this absurdist tone from the very beginning. When he first recognizes his transformation, he doesn’t appear significantly bothered by it, and treats it almost like any ordinary disturbance to his sleep, as if it were not entirely out of the ordinary. As the story progresses, he remains focused on largely ordinary concerns, such as losing his job, his physical comfort, and his family’s financial situation, thus maintaining the story’s absurdist overtone throughout.
Gregor thinks that he can save the situation by opening the door. He still does not understand the implications of what it means to be a giant bug. When Gregor’s family manages to open the door, they are terrified by what they see. The second part of The Metamorphosis story starts with Gregor waking up from a deep sleep.
The reader gets to understand why Gregor works so hard. He is the only person who supports the family. It’s been like that for at least five years. Gregor wonders who will bring bread to the table when he is unable to do so. His father is old and sick, his mother is frail, and his younger sister has never worked a day. The thought of money is more distressing to Gregor than his appearance. He cares for the members of his family and especially for Grete.
As the maid disperses the body, the family chases away the lodgers and decides to take a break, leaving the house. They are not mourning Gregor’s death; instead, they feel as if a huge weight has lifted.
When he could not care for himself any longer, he was left alone. Gregor is a human trapped in the insect body, while his family members are insects in the human form. They do not feel love for Gregor as they injure and hurt him.
The Metamorphosis story starts with Gregor, who is a traveling salesman, waking up late for work. He tries to get up from his bed, but he cannot do it for some unknown reason. There is no explanation of why this happened to the protagonist, but he finds himself turned into a vermin overnight. He decides to sleep a little longer to avoid the problem, hoping that it will disappear. However, he cannot do so.
It is the moment when the transformations that happen to Gregor’s family members become apparent. Gregor’s sister turned into an active and helpful young woman. His mother found a job as a seamstress and looks more engaged. Finally, his father goes back to work and regains his strength and authority. When Gregor sees him, at the end of the second chapter, he cannot believe his eyes. When Mr. Samsa attacks his son with apples and desires to murder him, Gregor is as terrified as ever. Suffering from the damages in his room, the protagonist understands that they have become independent of his constant protection.
The German word that Kafka used to describe the creature is “ungeziefer.”. It means an unclean animal that you do not want to touch. The Metamorphosis meaning of the work as a whole can be explained through one of its central themes, alienation.
As the family's concern grows, Gregor's office manager arrives to find out why Gregor missed the train to work. Gregor, scoffing at the idea of the office manager checking up on him, grows determined to get out of bed—and ends up throwing himself on the floor. Gregor then realizes that his back is far more elastic and flexible than he thought.
Gregor's (and likely Kafka 's) attitude about modern work comes across strongly in this section. He sneers at the thought of a high-ranking employee like the office manager checking up on him. Kafka paints a picture of a highly suspicious, untrusting management team that operates from the top down and values profitability above all else.
In The Metamorphosis, Gregor leaves his room for the first time because he is concerned about his mother. She ran to her room and fainted when she saw him climbing the walls, and Grete has to get some medicine to help revive her. He wants to help but cannot. He leaves his room later because he wants to listen to Grete play the violin, and she is performing for the boarders.
When Grete sees him behind her, she startles and drops a glass bottle, and though a shard from the bottle injures Gregor, Grete grabs as many medicines as she can and runs into another room with her mother. She doesn't come out again until their father returns to the apartment and rings the bell, which Grete must answer.
Gregor delivers a long speech asking the office manager to put in a good word for him at work, since traveling salesmen often become the subjects of negative gossip, but the office manager continues to back out of the apartment.
Feeling sore from his effort, Gregor thinks about what a difficult job he has and the fact that his constant traveling prevents him from making any lasting friendships. He thinks that he would leave his overbearing employer but he has to work off a debt that his parents incurred.
He suddenly realizes that he has overslept and does not have a good excuse to give his boss. Gregor’s mother reminds him that he has to catch his train to work. When Gregor responds, he finds his voice has changed. His father and Grete, his sister, join his mother at the door, urging him to get up and unlock it.
While Gregor tries to lift himself off the floor, the office manager and his family discuss the strange change in his voice, and his sister leaves to fetch a doctor and a locksmith. Gregor reaches the door, turns the lock with his mouth, and slowly pulls open the door.
It is the office manager , come to check on Gregor. Gregor rocks his body violently and finally tumbles to the floor. His family and the office manager come to the door to inquire if he is all right. Gregor’s mother pleads with the office manager , telling him what a devoted worker Gregor is, while Grete cries in the next room.
The opening line of The Metamorphosis, which reports Gregor’s discovery that he has become a giant insect, sets the tone for the rest of the story. The line recounts the bizarre event of Gregor’s transformation in a sober, straightforward manner, and this contrast between an extraordinary situation and the ordinary terms used to describe it creates the sense that the narrator expects the world in the story to be absurd and chaotic, rather than rational and orderly. Gregor embodies this absurdist tone from the very beginning. When he first recognizes his transformation, he doesn’t appear significantly bothered by it, and treats it almost like any ordinary disturbance to his sleep, as if it were not entirely out of the ordinary. As the story progresses, he remains focused on largely ordinary concerns, such as losing his job, his physical comfort, and his family’s financial situation, thus maintaining the story’s absurdist overtone throughout.