Cummings Study Guide

.......The Metamorphosis is a short absurdist novel seasoned with dark humor. The main character—a textile salesman—awakens one morning to discover that he has changed into a giant bug resembling a beetle or cockroach. One of his chief concerns after making this discovery is that he will be late for work at an office run by unforgiving overseers. 
.......Kafka wrote the work in German in 1912 with the title Die Verwandlung. Kurt Wolff published it in 1915 in Leipzig, Germany. 

Setting

.......The action takes place in the early years of the twentieth century in an apartment in which a textile salesman lives with his father, mother, and sister. The narrator does not say in what city or country the action takes place. But Kafka probably had in mind the city of of his birth, Prague, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today, Prague is in the Czech Republic. 

Characters

Gregor Samsa: Textile salesman who inexplicably changes into a giant bug.
Mr., Mrs. Samsa: Gregor's father and mother.
Grete Samsa: Gregor's teenage sister. 
Three Bearded Gentlemen: Renters of a room in the Samsa apartment.
Chief Clerk: Employee of the company for which Gregor works. 
Maid
Charwoman

Point of View

.......The narrator tells the story in third-person point of view from Gregor's perspective, revealing his thoughts and feelings. 

Plot Summary
Based on a Translation by David Wyllie

.......Upon awakening one morning, Gregor Samsa discovers that he has changed into a giant bug. His back is thick and hard. His belly is a layer of stiff, arch-like sections. He has many spindly legs. Everything else around him is the same as it was when he went to bed: the room, the picture on the wall, the textile samples on the table that he carries with him as a traveling salesman. 
.......Gregor always rides the five o'clock train to work. But when he notices that the clock says nearly quarter to seven, he realizes that he must have slept through the alarm and that he has no chance of getting to work on time. He goes into a panic. The office assistant, who tattles to the boss about everything, no doubt has already reported Gregor late. Gregor could call in sick, but the boss would be suspicious. After all, Gregor has not been sick in fifteen years. 
.......When the clock strikes quarter to seven, his mother knocks gently at the door, which is locked, to remind him of the time. 
.......“Didn't you want to go somewhere?" she says.
.......When he calls out that he is getting up, his voice is squeaky. Moments later, his father and sister ask him whether anything is wrong. He assures them that “I'm ready now." 
.......Gregor attributes the squeakiness in his voice to a cold. Yes, he must have caught a cold. Getting out of bed proves enormously difficult. He does not yet know how to work his legs properly. He tries rolling but fails to make progress. The clock strikes seven. 
.......He swings his body this way and that and begins rocking. At ten after seven, he hears the doorbell ring—someone from work, he thinks. After the maid answers the door, he hears the visitor speak. It is the chief clerk. Why, he wondered, did he have to work for a company that checked so closely on its employees? Suddenly, with all his force, he rolls out of bed and falls to the floor on his back. There is a thump. His sister and father both call to him, informing him of the presence of the chief clerk. His father and mother make excuses, saying Gregor is ill. His father makes it a point to tell the chief clerk that his son is entirely devoted to his work. That is all he thinks about.
.......Gregor says he will come to the door in a moment. However, when he doesn't appear, the chief clerk accuses him of failing to carry out his business responsibilities. Then he insinuates that the reason for his failure to appear at work has to do with money that the employer entrusted to Gregor. Finally, he says Gregor's job could be in jeopardy because his sales have not measured up to expectations. Gregor responds, saying he has had an attack of dizziness but is all right now and will catch the eight o'clock train to work. He tells the chief clerk not to wait for him. 
.......Gregor manages to rise, then falls back into a chair. He really wants to open the door; he wants to see the reaction of everyone to his appearance. It would give him an excuse for not going to work. 
.......Meanwhile, everyone outside is shocked at the sound of his voice. His mother and his sister, Grete, think he is very ill. The chief clerk says, “That was the voice of an animal." The mother tells Grete to get a doctor. The father shouts for someone to get a locksmith. Gregor feels a little better now that the others know something is wrong and want to help.
.......With enormous effort, Gregor rises, holds onto the door, and turns its key with his jaws (he has no teeth), unlocking the door. The chief clerk shouts “Oh!" at the sight of him, his mother faints, and his father takes a hostile stance at first but then covers his eyes with his hands and cries. Gregor does not leave the room but simply looks out. He sees the cleaned breakfast dishes, the wall photograph of himself as an army lieutenant, and the open doors of the entrance hall and the apartment. Gregor says, 
"I'll get dressed straight away now, pack up my samples and set off.  Will you please just let me leave?" 
.......To the chief clerk, he says, "You can see that I'm not stubborn and I like to do my job; being a commercial traveller is arduous but without travelling I couldn't earn my living."
.......The chief clerk—intimidated by the ghastly creature before him—slowly withdraws, then makes a dash for the door to the apartment. Gregor now realizes that his job is in jeopardy and must do something to save it. So he pushes himself out the door, but falls. However, when he gets up, he has a better feel for his body. His tiny legs begin to carry him where he wants to go. By this time, his mother has recovered. When she sees Gregor, she backs all the way up to the kitchen table and sits down on it. Coffee spills onto the carpet. Gregor's jaws begin snapping at the coffee uncontrollably. His mother screams and runs to the arms of her husband. 
.......Gregor runs toward the chief clerk, who is holding onto the bannister outside. Seeing him coming, the chief clerk hurries down the stairs, taking several steps at a time, and goes out the door. Meanwhile, Gregor's father seizes the walking stick that the chief clerk left behind and threatens Gregor with it, forcing him back toward his room. When Gregor gets stuck in the doorway, his father pushes him inside. The side of Gregor's body scrapes the door frame, causing him to bleed.
.......In the evening, his sister brings him milk with bits of bread in it. But he finds the taste of it repulsive. Grete then experiments, bringing him different kinds of food in order to discover what he likes. No one attempts to communicate with Gregor; everyone apparently believes that in his present state he cannot understand human speech. While listening to his family members talking, Gregor learns that his father had saved some money before his business failed five years before. At that time, Gregor began supporting the family. Gregor also learns that the family had put away some of his earnings. 
.......Whenever Grete enters his room, Gregor covers his body so she won't have to look at him. 
.......During the first two weeks of his confinement, his parents do not enter his room. They rely on Grete to report on his condition. 
.......After a time, Gregor discovers a pleasurable way to pass the time: climbing walls and hanging from the ceiling. Grete wants to remove furniture to give Gregor more room to roam. When she asks her mother to help her, the older woman enters the room. Gregor is hiding under the couch. The mother and daughter try to move the chest of drawers. After fifteen minutes, they make no progress. His mother then says, 

By taking the furniture away, won't it seem like we're showing that we've given up all hope of improvement and we're abandoning him to cope for himself? I think it'd be best to leave the room exactly the way it was before so that when Gregor comes back to us again he'll find everything unchanged and he'll be able to forget the time in between all the easier. 

We can't carry on like this.  Maybe you can't see it, but I can. I don't want to call this monster my brother, all I can say is we have to try and get rid of it. We've done all that's humanly possible to look after it and be patient, I don't think anyone could accuse us of doing anything wrong. 

.......The climax occurs after the three men give notice and Greta says, "Father, Mother, we can't carry on like this. Maybe you can't see it, but I can.  I don't want to call this monster my brother, all I can say is: we have to try and get rid of it.  We've done all that's humanly possible to look after it and be patient, I don't think anyone could accuse us of doing anything wrong." This outburst signals that the family has given up on Gregor. In turn, he gives up on himself. By the next morning, he is dead.

Tone

.......The tone of the novel is objective and serious. But the attentive reader will notice that dark, subtle humor creeps into the narrative like a clown tiptoeing into a funeral. 

Themes

Absurdity

.......Life sometimes confers on a human being an absurd destiny that he is powerless to escape. Kafka makes this point with a fantasy about a man who wakes up one morning with the body of a gigantic bug. Preposterous? Of course. But, as Kafka seems to suggest, many men and women do wake up without knowing their purpose in life and without any sense of control over the course of their life. 

Alienation

.......Gregor's “condition" alienates him from his family and the rest of the world. So, too—in many cases—do the particulars of a person in ordinary life: his religion, his race, his social status, his personality, his stand on political issues, his mental or physical condition, and so on. When one becomes different from others, he often becomes isolated from them. Consider the plight of the deformed, the mentally ill, the leprous.

The Plight of the Workingman

.......After Gregor discovers that he has become a giant bug, one would expect him to exhibit sheer fright at his condition and to devote all his energies to finding a way to restore himself. Instead, he worries about being late for work. When the chief clerk arrives at the Samsa apartment, Gregor—who is locked in his room—wonders why he has to be 

condemned to work for a company where they immediately became highly suspicious at the slightest shortcoming? Were all employees, every one of them, louts . . . ? Was it really not enough to let one of the trainees make enquiries—assuming enquiries were even necessary? Did the chief clerk have to come himself, and did they have to show the whole, innocent family that this was so suspicious that only the chief clerk could be trusted to have the wisdom to investigate it? 

Inherited Sin and Suffering

.......After Adam and Eve fell, they passed to their progeny sin, suffering, and death. Kafka may be alluding to this religious tenet when he mysteriously "inherits" the body of an ugly creature (sin) and when his father (an Adam figure) throws apples at Gregor. One of them lodges in his body and causes painful festering and ulceration. Eventually, Gregor dies. 

Generosity of Spirit

.......Gregor suffers indignities from the chief clerk and his family. Yet he returns only goodwill. For example, he treats the chief clerk courteously even though the clerk implies that Gregor has misused company money and hints that Gregor's job may be in jeopardy. Moreover, Gregor remains faithful to his family members and even feels guilty that he can no longer provide for them. He does not complain. And he does not give up on his father, mother, and sister until they give up on him. 

Taking People for Granted

.......In a job he did not like, Gregor supported himself, his parents, and his sister. Not until he turns into vermin do his parents and Grete lift a hand to support themselves. They had taken Gregor for granted. After a time, they neglect Gregor. When he dies, they are relieved. 

Irony

.......Gregor is ugly on the outside. But the other characters are just as ugly—in fact, more ugly—on the inside. One can argue that they are the real vermin in the story. 

Humor

.......The Metamorphosis is at times hilarious in its absurdity. But the humor is subtle and disciplined, never calling attention to itself. In fact, the story maintains a deadly serious tone throughout. The humor relies in part on Gregor's unexpected reaction reaction to his situation. One would expect him to go into a panic when he wakes up and finds out that he is a giant bug. Instead, he calmly thinks about going back to sleep. 

"How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense", he thought, but that was something he was unable to do because he was used to sleeping on his right, and in his present state couldn't get into that position. However hard he threw himself onto his right, he always rolled back to where he was. He must have tried it a hundred times, shut his eyes so that he wouldn't have to look at the floundering legs, and only stopped when he began to feel a mild, dull pain there that he had never felt before.

What should he do now? The next train went at seven; if he were to catch that he would have to rush like mad and the collection of samples was still not packed, and he did not at all feel particularly fresh and lively.  And even if he did catch the train he would not avoid his boss's anger as the office assistant would have been there to see the five o'clock train go, he would have put in his report about Gregor's not being there a long time ago.

What Is the Creature?
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......In the original German version of the novel, Kafka never tells readers what kind of creature Gregor has become. Instead, he uses the generic term Ungeziefer, which means vermin. Vermin include cockroaches, bedbugs, centipedes, lice, ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, weevils, and even rats and mice. The narrator's description indicates that Gregor has the body of an insect with an antennae. The charwoman refers to him as a dung beetle, which eats dung and breeds in it. 

Biographical Information
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.......Franz Kafka was well primed to write a novel about an isolated individual. His father despised him, he never married, and he was a Jew at a time when anti-Semitism was gaining sway again in Europe. 
.......Kafka was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague (now part of the Czech Republic but then part of Austria-Hungry). When he was an adolescent, he was a good student, but he disliked the traditional, hidebound, authoritarian approach to education at his school, the Altstädter Staatsgymnasium. Although he later earned a law degree at the Charles University in Prague, he did not practice law but instead worked in Prague for an insurance company and then for an insurance institute. He found insurance work tedious. Nevertheless, he did his job well, earning the respect of colleagues, and remained an office worker until 1923, when he moved to Berlin to pursue writing. By then, however, he was suffering from tuberculosis and died the following year. 
.......Throughout his life, he was never close to his parents, Hermann Kafka and Julie Löwy Kafka. His father, a successful merchant, was a tyrant who bullied Franz psychologically. Although Kafka had relationships with several women, one to whom he was engaged, he never married. At the end of his life, Kafka was almost completely isolated—from his family, from a regular job and the companionship of co-workers, from the wife that he never had, and from anti-Semitic Germans whose language he wrote in. He tried desperately to find God—whom he regarded as an "indestructible" reality—but felt that God remained distant from him. He did have one close friend, however: Max Brod, an essay writer, drama critic, and novelist who published Kafka's works after he died even though Kafka had told him to destroy all of his manuscripts. 
.......Among Franz Kafka's other works are Meditation (1913), The Judgment (1912), In the Penal Colony (1919), "A Hunger Artist" (1922), The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926), and Amerika (1927). He died on June 3, 1924, at Kierling, Austria. For a more detailed biography of Franz Kafka, click here.

Study Questions and Writing Topics

• Do you believe Kafka intended the story as a portrait of an insane man?
• Does Gregor resemble the author in any way?
• Does any character in the novel besides Gregor undergo a metamorphosis?
• Kafka was a Jew. Write an essay arguing that Kafka intended Gregor to represent Jews, whom many anti-Semites regarded as vermin. 
• The author describes Gregor as vermin. Write an essay arguing that other characters in the story are the real vermin. 
• Write an essay that compares and contrasts Gregor Samsa with Joseph K. in Kafka's The Trial.

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