Part 1

Gregor Samsa wakes in his bed and discovers he has transformed into a giant bug. Wondering what has
happened, he looks around his small room, where everything appears normal. He sees the fabric samples
that he uses in his job as a traveling salesman, a picture of a woman in furs that he tore out of a magazine
and framed, and the rain dripping down outside his window. He tries to roll over and go back to sleep in
order to forget about what has happened, but because of the shape of his back, he can only rock from side
to side.
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. Gregor twists and rocks, managing to turn sideways and dangle off the bed. Then the doorbell
rings. 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 office manager calls through the door and demands an explanation. He
hints that Gregor’s recent work has not been satisfactory and that Gregor’s current behavior looks very
bad, especially in light of rumors that Gregor may have stolen money from the company. Gregor claims
that he had a dizzy spell and asks the office manager to spare his parents any undue concern. 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. Seeing that
Gregor is now a giant insect, the terrified office manager backs away, the mother passes out, and the
father cries. 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. Gregor unsuccessfully tries to catch him as he flees and discovers
how easily he can crawl on his new legs. The father then picks up a newspaper and the office manager’s
cane and drives Gregor back into his bedroom. Gregor injures himself when he becomes stuck in the
doorway, but the father shoves him through and slams the door.
Part 2
Gregor wakes in the evening. He sees that someone has put a bowl of milk and bread in the room. Though
milk had been his favorite drink, he finds he cannot stand the taste now. Then he listens for his family, but
the apartment is completely quiet. He recalls the pride he felt at taking care of his family and wonders
what will happen to them now. Someone cracks the door open but shuts it immediately, and Gregor
eventually sees the light go off in the other room. He crawls under a small sofa and drops into a fitful
sleep, vowing that he will do everything he can to make his new condition as small a burden on his family
as possible.
In the morning, Grete opens the door but shuts it when she sees Gregor under the sofa. She reopens it and
steps into the room. Noticing that Gregor has not eaten, she brings in various kitchen scraps and leaves
Gregor to eat alone. He enjoys the moldiest food but has no interest in the fresh vegetables. Grete returns
a little while later and sweeps up the scraps while Gregor watches her from beneath the sofa. A pattern
thus begins, with Grete feeding and cleaning up after Gregor and reporting to the mother and father how
much Gregor has eaten.
Gregor spends much of his time listening to the family through the door. He learns that the money he
regularly gave his parents has not all been spent, and he feels proud of his contribution to their wellbeing.
To avoid spending this savings, however, the family members will need to find employment. Gregor feels
embarrassed when he hears them discuss this topic, as the father has become out of shape and clumsy and
the mother has asthma, so neither seems very capable of working. Gregor also reflects on his relationship
with his family, recalling how he and his parents had grown apart but that he and Grete had remained
close, so much so that he had planned to send her to music school to study the violin.
Gregor slowly adapts to his new life. He begins to enjoy scurrying around his room and climbing on a
chair to look out the window. Though Grete continues to look after Gregor, he notices that she cannot
stand the sight of him, and he hides behind a sheet draped over the sofa when she enters the room. The
parents avoid coming in, though they seem curious about his state. The mother in particular is eager to see
him, but Grete and the father urge her not to.
Grete sees that Gregor enjoys climbing up the walls and across the ceiling, so she decides to remove the
furniture from the room to give him more space. While the father is out, Grete and the mother start taking
out furniture. Gregor hides as usual, but he grows anxious as he hears his mother worry that she and Grete
might be doing him a disservice by stripping the room of his possessions. Grete, however, considers
herself the expert on Gregor and overrules the mother’s objections. While Grete and the mother talk in the
living room, Gregor, panicked at the thought of losing all the remnants of his human life, climbs the wall
and covers the picture of the woman in furs to prevent it from being taken away.
The mother spots Gregor on the wall, goes into a panic, and passes out. Grete yells at Gregor as he lets go
of the picture and scurries into the living room. Grete rushes out, grabs medicine, and returns to Gregor’s
room, shutting the door behind her. The father returns and Grete tells him that Gregor broke out. He
misunderstands Grete and thinks Gregor attacked the mother, so he starts chasing Gregor around the
room. Gregor notices that his father has become a new man since getting a job as a bank attendant—he
stands straighter and looks cleaner and healthier. The father throws fruit at Gregor, and eventually hits
him with an apple that becomes lodged in Gregor’s back. The mother bursts from the bedroom and
Gregor rushes for the door, hearing his mother beg his father to stop.
Part 3
In the wake of Gregor’s injury, which limits his mobility, the family takes pity on him and leaves the
bedroom door open at night so Gregor can watch them. The father dozes in his chair while the mother
sews lingerie for a boutique and Grete studies French and shorthand in hopes of moving up from her job
as a sales clerk. The father stops taking off his bank attendant uniform when he comes home, and the
uniform becomes increasingly filthy. Grete and the mother encourage the father to go to bed early, but he
stays up late every night, muttering about how sad his life has become.
Gregor learns that the family has been selling off jewelry to bring in money, and they replace their regular
maid with an elderly cleaning lady. He also realizes that they feel trapped by his presence. Gregor stops
sleeping and eating as he frets about the family and the past, alternating between guilt over not helping
them and outrage that they have neglected him. Grete hardly takes care of him at all anymore. Despite
this apparent indifference to Gregor, she becomes extremely upset when the mother cleans Gregor’s room
and insists that Gregor is hers to look after.
The new cleaning lady, meanwhile, regularly talks to Gregor. She openly stares at him, and even tries to
sneak into the room to catch him off-guard. One day, Gregor, tired of being peered at, attacks her, but the
cleaning lady threatens him with a chair, so he desists.
The family takes three boarders into the apartment. These men cannot stand mess and disorder, so the
family moves much of the furniture and the cleaning lady’s supplies into Gregor’s room. Gregor enjoys
crawling through the clutter, though doing so leaves him exhausted.
One night, the cleaning lady accidentally leaves the door open while the boarders are home. The boarders
eat in the dining room while the family eats in the kitchen, and Gregor notices the boarders being very
picky about the food that his mother and sister have cooked. Hearing Grete playing the violin, the
boarders invite the family into the parlor. The boarders initially stand very close to Grete as she plays, but
they soon lose interest. Gregor is entranced by the violin and slowly creeps out into the parlor. He longs
to take his sister back to his room and tell her about his plan to send her to music school.
One of the boarders spots Gregor and cries out. The father rushes the boarders out of the parlor as they
declare they will move out and not pay rent. Grete tells her parents that they have to stop believing that
the bug is Gregor and says they must find a way to get rid of it. The father wishes they could explain to
Gregor why they need him to leave, but Grete says that if he could understand them, he would have left
long ago to spare them any more pain. Gregor, feeling terrible, scuttles back to his room. He remains
motionless through the night, thinking to himself all the while that he must go away to relieve them of
their suffering. As dawn breaks, he dies.
The cleaning lady discovers Gregor’s body the next morning. The family gathers around the corpse and
Grete notices how skinny Gregor had become. The father kicks the boarders out of the apartment. The
family decides to take a walk, but first they write letters to their bosses explaining why they aren’t coming
into work. The cleaning lady tells them that she got rid of the body, but the family seems uninterested in
her, and the father decides to fire her that night. Grete and her parents leave the apartment and take a
trolley ride to the countryside. They discuss their finances and discover that they have much more money
than they thought. They decide to move to a smaller apartment in a better location. The parents notice
what an attractive young woman Grete has become and think they should find a husband for her soon. As
they reach their stop, Grete stands and stretches.

In-depth Facts:
Narrator: The narrator is an anonymous figure who recounts the events of the story in a
flat, neutral tone.
Point Of View: The narrator speaks exclusively in the third person, focusing primarily on
the thoughts, feelings, and actions of Gregor Samsa. The narrator only describes
events that Gregor sees, hears, remembers, or imagines from the actions around him.
Tone:The narrator’s tone is flat and unchanging, describing even the most outlandish
events in a neutral fashion.
Tense: Past tense
Setting (Time): Unspecified, though references to trains and streetcars suggest the late-
nineteenth century or early twentieth century
Setting (Place): The Samsa family’s apartment in an unspecified city
Protagonist: Gregor Samsa
Major Conflict: Gregor Samsa struggles to reconcile his humanity with his
transformation into a giant bug
Rising Action: When Gregor Samsa wakes up inexplicably transformed into a giant bug,
he must handle the consequences in terms of his understanding of himself and his
relationship with his family
Climax: Unable to bear the thought that all evidence of his human life will be removed
from his room, he clings to the picture of the woman in furs, startling Grete and the
mother and leading the father to attack him
Falling Action: Gregor, injured in the father’s attack, slowly weakens, venturing out of his
room once more to hear Grete play the violin and dying shortly thereafter
Themes: The absurdity of life; the disconnect between mind and body; the limits of
sympathy; alienation
Motifs:Metamorphosis; sleep and rest; money
Symbol: The picture of the woman in furs; the father’s uniform; food
Foreshadowing: Gregor is seriously injured after he leaves the room a second time and
he stops eating and sleeping, foreshadowing his eventual death; the family gradually
takes less interest in Gregor, foreshadowing their decision to get rid of him