The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
One one morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from
anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been
changed into a monstrous, verminous bug. He lay on his
armor hard back and saw, as he lifted his head

(00:21):
up a little, his brown arched abdomen divided up into
rigid bowl like sections. From this height, the blanket, just
about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place.
His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest

(00:43):
of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his 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 quietly between the four well known walls, above the

(01:06):
table on which an unpacked collection of sample cloth goods
was spread out. Samsa was a traveling salesman. Hung the picture,
which he had cut out of an illustrated magazine a
little while ago and set in a pretty gilt frame.
It was a picture of a woman with a fur
hat and a fur boa. She sat erect there, lifting

(01:29):
up in the direction of the viewer a solid fur
muff into which her entire forearm had disappeared. Gregor's glance
then turned to the window. The dreary weather the rain
drops were falling audibly down on the metal window ledge
made him quite melancholy. Why don't I keep sleeping for

(01:52):
a little while longer and forget all this foolishness, he thought.
But this was entirely in practice, for he was used
to sleeping on his right side, and in his present state,
he couldn't get himself into this position. No matter how
hard he threw himself on to his right side, he

(02:13):
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 only when he began to feel a light, dull
pain in his side, which he had never felt before.
Oh God, he thought, what a demanding job I have chosen.

(02:38):
Day in day out on the road. The stresses of
selling are much greater than the work going on at
head office. And in addition to that, I have to
cope with the problems of traveling, the worries about train connections,
irregular bad food, temporary and constantly changing human relationships which

(03:00):
which never come from the heart to hell with it all.
He felt a slight itching on the top of his abdomen.
He slowly pushed himself on his back closer to the
bedpost so that he could lift his head more easily
found the itchy part, which was entirely covered with small

(03:20):
white spots. He didn't know what to make of them,
and wanted to fill the place with a leg, but
he retracted it immediately, for the contact felt like a
cold shower all over him. He slid back again into
his earlier position. This getting up early, he thought, makes

(03:43):
a man quite idiotic. A man must have his sleep.
Other traveling salesmen live like haroom women. For instance, when
I come back to the inn during the course of
the morning to write up the necessary orders, these gentlemen
are just sitting down to breakfast. If I were to

(04:04):
try that with my boss, I'd be thrown out on
the spot. Still, who knows whether that mightn't be really
good for me. If I didn't hold back for my
parent's sake, i'd have quit ages ago. I would have
gone to the boss and told him just what I
think from the bottom of my heart. He would have

(04:24):
fallen right off his desk. How weird it is to
sit up at that desk and talk down to the
employee from way up there. The boss has trouble hearing,
so the employee has to step up quite close to him. Anyway,
I haven't completely given up that hope yet. Once I've

(04:44):
got together the money to pay off my parent's debt
to him, that should take another five or six years,
I'll do it for sure. 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

(05:04):
the alarm clock ticking away by the chest of drawers.
Good god, he thought it was half past six, and
the hands were going quietly on. It was past the
half hour, already nearly quarter two. Could the alarm have
failed to ring? One saw from the bed that it

(05:25):
was properly set 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 hadn't slept quietly,
but evidently he'd slept all the more deeply. Still, what
should he do now? The next train left at seven o'clock.

(05:49):
To catch that one, he would have to go in
a mad 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 was no avoiding
a blow up with the boss because the firm's errand
boy would have waited for the five o'clock train and

(06:09):
reported the news of his absence long ago. He was
the boss's minion without backbone or intelligence. Well then what
if he reported in sick, But that would be extremely
embarrassing and suspicious because during his five years service Gregor
hadn't been sick even once. The boss would certainly come

(06:34):
with the doctor from the health insurance company and would
reproach his parents for their lazy son and cut short
all objections with the insurance doctor's comments for him, every
one was completely healthy, but really lazy about work. And besides,
would the doctor in this case be totally wrong. Apart

(06:58):
from a really excessive drowsy after the long sleep, Gregor
in fact felt quite well and even had a really
strong appetite. As he was thinking all this over in
the greatest haste, without being able to make the decision
to get out of bed. The alarm clock was indicating

(07:19):
exactly quarter to seven. There was a cautious knock on
the door by the head of the bed Gregor. A
voice called. It was his mother. 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

(07:41):
was clearly and unmistakably his earlier voice, but in it
was intermingled, as if from below, an irrepressibly painful squeaking,
which left the words positively distinct only in the first moment,
and distorted them in the reverberation, so that one didn't

(08:02):
know if one had heard correctly. Gregor wanted to answer
in detail and explain everything, but in these circumstances he
confined himself to saying, yes, yes, thank you, mother, I'm
getting up right away. Because of the wooden door, the
change in Gregor's voice was not really noticeable outside, so

(08:27):
his mother calmed down with this explanation and shuffled off. However,
as a result of the short conversation, the other family
members became aware that Gregor was unexpectedly still at home,
and already his father was knocking on one side door weakly,
but with his fist Gregor Gregor he called out, what's

(08:50):
going on, and after a short while he urged him
on again in a deeper voice, Gregor Gregory at the
other side door. However, his sister not lightly Gregor, are
you all right? Do you need anything? Gregor directed answers
in both directions, I'll be ready right away. He made

(09:14):
an effort with the most careful articulation and by inserting
long pauses between the individual words, to remove everything remarkable
from his voice. His father turned back to his breakfast. However,
the sister whispered, Gregor, open the door, I beg you.

(09:36):
Gregor had no intention of opening the door, but congratulated
himself on his precaution acquired from traveling of locking all
doors during the night, even at home. First, he wanted
to stand up, quietly and undisturbed, get dressed, above all,

(09:56):
have breakfast, and only then consider firs action, for he
noticed this clearly by thinking things over in bed he
would not reach a reasonable conclusion. He remembered that he
had already often felt a light pain or other in bed,
perhaps the result of an awkward lying position, which later

(10:20):
turned out to be purely imaginary. When he stood up,
and he was eager to see how his present fantasies
would gradually dissipate that the change in his voice was
nothing other than the onset of a real chill and
occupational illness of commercial travelers. Of that he had not
the slightest doubt. It was very easy to throw aside

(10:46):
the blanket. He needed only to push himself up a little,
and it fell by itself. But to continue was difficult,
particularly because he was so unusually wide he needed arm
and hands to push himself upright. Instead of these, however,
he had only many small limbs, which were incessantly moving

(11:10):
with very different motions, and which, in addition, he was
unable to control. If he wanted to bend one of them,
then it was the first to extend itself, and if
he finally succeeded in doing what he wanted with this limb,
in the meantime, all the others, as if left free,

(11:33):
moved around in an excessively painful agitation. But I must
not stay in bed, uselessly, said Gregor to himself. At first,
he wanted to get out of bed with the lower
part of his body. But this lower part, which by

(11:54):
the way, he had not yet looked at, and which
he also couldn't picture clearly, proved itself too difficult to move.
The attempt went so slowly, when having become almost frantic,
he finally hurled himself forward with all his force, and

(12:14):
without thinking, he chose his direction incorrectly, and he hit
the lower bedpost hard. The violent pain he felt revealed
to him that the lower part of his body was,
at the moment probably the most sensitive. Thus he tried
to get his upper body out of the bed first

(12:36):
and turned his head carefully toward the edge of the bed.
He managed to do this easily, and in spite of
its width and weight, his body mass at last slowly
followed the turning of his head. But as he finally
raised his head outside the bed in the open air,
he became anxious about moving forward any further in this manner,

(13:00):
for if he allowed himself eventually to fall by this process,
it would take a miracle to prevent his head from
getting injured, and at all costs, he must not lose
consciousness right now, he preferred to remain in bed. However,
after a similar effort, while he lay there again sighing

(13:22):
as before, and once again saw his small limbs fighting
one another, if anything, worse than earlier, and didn't see
any chance of imposing quiet and order on this arbitrary movement.
He told himself again that he couldn't possibly remain in bed,
and that it might be the most reasonable thing to

(13:44):
sacrifice everything if there was even the slightest hope of
getting himself out of bed in the process. At the
same moment, however, he didn't forget 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

(14:08):
such moments, he directed his gaze as precisely as he
could toward the window, but unfortunately there was little confident
cheer to be had from a glance at the morning mist,
which concealed even the other side of the narrow street.
It's already seven o'clock, he told himself at the latest

(14:31):
striking of the alarm clock. Already seven o'clock, and still
such a fog. And for a little while longer he
lay quietly with weak breathing, as if perhaps waiting for
normal and natural conditions to re emerge out of the
complete stillness. But then he said to himself, before it

(14:55):
strikes a quarter past seven, whatever happens, I must be
care completely out of bed. Besides, by then someone from
the office will arrive to inquire about me, because the
office will open before seven o'clock. And he made an
effort then to rock his entire body length out of
the bed with a uniform motion. If he let himself

(15:19):
fall out of the bed in this 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 would really happen to that as
a result of the fall. His greatest reservation was a

(15:40):
worry about the loud noise which the fall must create,
and which presumably would arouse, if not fright, 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 lifting himself half out of bed, the new

(16:01):
method was more of a game than an effort. He
needed only to rock with a constant rhythm. It struck
him how easy all this would be if someone were
to come to his aid. Two strong people, he thought
of his father and the servant girl, would have been
quite sufficient. They would have only had to push their

(16:23):
arms under his arched back to get him out of
the bed, to bend down with their load, and then
merely to exercise patience and care that he completed the
flip onto the floor, where his diminutive legs were. Then
he hoped acquire a purpose, now quite apart from the

(16:44):
fact that the doors were locked, should he really call
out for help? In spite of all his distress, he
was unable to suppress a smile at this idea. He
had already got to the point where by looking more
strongly he maintained his equilibrium with difficulty, and very soon

(17:06):
he would finally have to decide. For in five minutes
it would be a quarter past seven. Then there was
a ring at the door of the apartment. That's someone
from the office, he told himself, and he almost froze,
while his small limbs only danced around all the faster.
For one moment, everything remained still. They aren't opening, Gregor

(17:31):
said to himself, caught up in some absurd hope. But
of course, then as usual, the servant girl, with her
firm tread, went to the door and opened it. Gregor
needed to hear only the first word of the visitor's
greeting to recognize immediately who it was the manager himself.

(17:54):
Why was Gregor the only one condemned to work in
a firm where at the slight lapse someone immediately attracted
the greatest suspicion? Were all the employees then collectively one
and all scoundrels among them? There was then no truly
devoted person, who, if he failed to use just a

(18:17):
couple of hours in the morning for office work, would
become abnormal from pangs of conscience and really be in
no state to get out of bed. Was it really
not enough to let an apprentice make inquiries if such
questioning was even necessary? Must the manager himself come? And
in the process, must it be demonstrated to the entire

(18:40):
innocent family that the investigation of this suspicious circumstance could
be entrusted only to the intelligence of the manager. And
more as a consequence of the excited state in which
this idea put Gregor than as a result of an
actual decision, he swung himself with all his might out

(19:02):
of the bed. There was a loud thud, but not
a real crash. The fall was absorbed somewhat by the carpet,
and in addition, his back was more elastic than Gregor
had thought. For that reason, the dull noise was not
quite so conspicuous. But he had not held his head

(19:24):
up with sufficient 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 the manager.
In the next room on the left. Gregor tried to
imagine to himself whether anything similar to what was happening

(19:45):
to him today could have also happened at some point
to the manager. At least one had to concede the
possibility of such a thing. However, as if to give
a rough answer to this question, the manager, now with
a squeak of his polished boots, took a few determined
steps in the next room. From the neighboring room on

(20:08):
the right, the sister was whispering to inform Gregor. Gregor,
the manager is here, I know, said Gregor to himself,
but he did not dare make his voice loud enough
so that his sister could hear. Gregor. His father now said,
from the neighboring room on the left, mister manager has

(20:30):
come and is asking why you have not left on
the early train. We don't know what we should tell him. Besides,
he also wants to speak to you personally, so please
open the door. He will be good enough to forgive
the mess in your room. In the middle of all this,
the manager called out, in a friendly way, good morning,

(20:53):
mister Samsa. He's not well, said his mother to the manager,
while his father was still talking at the door. He
is not well, believe me, mister manager. Otherwise how would
Gregor miss a train. The young man has nothing in
his head except business. I'm almost angry that he never

(21:13):
goes out at night. 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 reads
the newspaper quietly, or studies his travel schedules. It's quite
a diversion for him to busy himself with fret work.
For instance, he cut out a small frame over the

(21:37):
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, mister manager. By ourselves, we
would never have made Gregor open the door. He's so stubborn,
and he's certainly not well, although he denied that this morning.

(22:02):
I'm coming right away, said Gregor, slowly and deliberately, and
didn't move so as not to lose one word of
the conversation. My dear lady, I cannot explain it to
myself in any other way, said the manager. I hope
it is nothing serious. On the other hand, I must

(22:22):
also say that we business people, luckily or unluckily, however
one looks at it, very often simply have to overcome
a slight indisposition for business reasons. So can mister manager
come in to see you now, asked his father impatiently,
and knocked once again on the door. No, said Gregor.

(22:46):
In the neighboring room on the left, a painful stillness descended.
In the neighboring room on the right, the sister began
to sob. Why didn't his sister go to the others.
She'd probably just got up out of bed now and
hadn't even started to get dressed yet. Then why was

(23:07):
she crying? Because he wasn't getting up and wasn't letting
the manager in, because he was in danger of losing
his position, and because then his boss would badger his
parents once again with the old demands. Those were probably
unnecessary worries. Right now, Gregor was still here and wasn't

(23:29):
thinking at all about abandoning his family at the moment.
He was lying right there on the carpet, and no
one who knew about his condition would have seriously demanded
that he let the manager in. But Gregor wouldn't be
casually dismissed right away because of this small discourtesy, for

(23:50):
which he would find an easy and suitable excuse later on.
It seemed to Gregor that it might be far more
reasonable to leave him in peace at the moment instead
of disturbing him with crying and conversation. But it was
the very uncertainty which distressed the others and excused their behavior.

(24:14):
Mister 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 or a no? Are you
making serious and unnecessary troubles for your parents and neglecting
I mention this only incidentally your commercial duties in a

(24:36):
truly unheard of manner. I am speaking here in the
name of your parents and your employer, and I'm requesting you,
in all seriousness, for an immediate and clear explanation. I'm amazed.
I am amazed. I thought I knew you as a calm,

(24:56):
reasonable person, and now you appear suddenly to war want
to start parading round in weird moods. The Chief indicated
to me earlier this very day a possible explanation for
your neglect. It concerned the collection of cash entrusted to
you a short while ago. But in truth I almost

(25:17):
gave him my word of honor that this explanation could
not be correct. However, now I see here your unimaginable
pig headedness, and I'm totally losing any desire to speak
up for you in the slightest and your position is
not at all the most secure. Originally I intended to

(25:37):
mention all this to you privately, but since you are
letting me waste my time here uselessly, I don't know
why the matter shouldn't come to the attention of your parents.
Your productivity has also been very unsatisfactory recently. Of course,
it's not the time of year to conduct exceptional business,
we recognize that, but a time of the year for

(26:00):
conducting no business. There is no such thing. At all,
mister Samsa, and such a thing must never be. But
mister manager called Gregor beside himself, and in his agitation
forgetting everything else, I'm opening the door immediately this very moment,
a slight indisposition, a dizzy spell has prevented me from

(26:24):
getting up. I'm still lying in bed right now, but
I'm quite refreshed. Once again, I am 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 fine with me. My parents

(26:47):
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 get over sickness without having to
stay at home, mister manager, and take it easy on
my parents. There is really no basis for the criticisms

(27:11):
which you are now making against me, And really nobody
has said a word to me about that. Perhaps you've
not read the latest orders which I shipped. Besides, now
I'm getting out on my trip on the eight o'clock train.
The few hours rest have made me stronger. Mister manager,
do not stay. I will be in the office in

(27:33):
person right away, but please have the goodness to say
that and to convey my respects to the chief. While
Gregor was quickly blurting all this out, hardly aware of
what he was saying, he had moved close to the
chest of draws without effort, probably as a result of
the practice he had already had in bed, and now

(27:56):
he was trying to raise himself up on it. Actually,
he wanted to open the door. He really wanted to
let himself be seen by and to speak with the manager.
He was keen to witness what the others now asking
about him would say when they saw him. If they
were startled, then Gregor had no more responsibility and could

(28:19):
be calm. But if they accepted everything quietly, then he
would have no reason to get excited, and if he
got a move on, he could really be at the
station around eight o'clock. At first, he slid down a
few times on the smooth chest of drawers, but at
last he gave himself a final swing and stood upright there.

(28:44):
He was no longer at all aware of the pains
in his lower body, no matter how they might still sting.
Now he let himself fall against the back of a
nearby chair, on the edge of which he braced himself
with his thin limbs. By doing this, he gained control
over himself and kept quiet, for he could now hear

(29:06):
the manager. Did you understand a single word? The manager
asked his parents. Is he playing the fool with us?
For God's sake? Cried the mother, nearly in tears. Perhaps
he is very ill and we're upsetting him. Greta, Greta,
she yelled. At that point, mother called the sister from

(29:28):
the other side. They were making themselves understood through 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 the manager, remarkably quietly
in comparison to the mother's cries. Anna, Anna yelled the

(29:52):
father through the hall into the kitchen, clapping his hands.
Fetch a locksmith right away. The two young women already
running through the hall with swishing skirts. How had his
sister dressed herself so quickly and yanked opened the doors
of the apartment. One couldn't hear the doors closing at all,
They probably had left them open, as his customary in

(30:15):
an apartment where a huge misfortune has taken place. However,
Gregor had become much calmer. All right. People did not
understand his words anymore, although they seemed clear enough to him,
clearer than previously, perhaps because his ears had got used

(30:35):
to them. But at least people now thought that things
were not all right with him and were prepared to
help him. The confidence and assurance with which the first
arrangements had been carried out made him feel good. He
felt himself included once again in the circle of humanity,

(30:56):
and was expecting from both the doctor and the locksmith,
without differentiating between them with any real precision, splendid and
surprising results. In order to get as clear a voice
as possible for the critical conversation which was imminent, he
coughed a little, and certainly took the trouble to do

(31:17):
this in a really subdued way. Since it was possible
that even this noise sounded something different from a human cough,
he no longer trusted himself to decide anymore. Meanwhile, in
the next room it had become really quiet. Perhaps his
parents were sitting with the manager at the table whispering.

(31:40):
Perhaps they were all leaning against the door listening. Gregor
pushed himself slowly towards the door with the help of
the easy chair, let go of it. There, threw himself
against the door, held himself upright against it. The balls
of his tiny limbs had a little sticky stuff on them,

(32:02):
and rested there momentarily from his exertion. Then he made
an effort to turn the key in the lock with
his mouth. Unfortunately, it seemed that he had no real teeth.
How then was he to grab hold of the key.
But to make up for that, his jaws were naturally

(32:23):
very strong. With their help, he managed to get the
key really moving. He didn't notice that he was obviously
inflicting some damage on himself, for a brown fluid came
out of his mouth, flowed over the key and dripped
onto the floor. Just listen for a moment, said the

(32:44):
manager in the next room. He's turning the key for Gregor.
That was a great encouragement. But they all should have
called out to him, including his father and mother. Come on, Gregor,
They should have shouted, keep going, keep working on the
imagining that all his efforts were being followed with suspense.

(33:06):
He bit down frantically on the key with all the
force he could muster. As the key turned more, he
danced round the lock. Now he was holding himself upright
only with his mouth, and he had to hang on
to the key or then press it down again with
the whole weight of his body as necessary. The quite

(33:29):
distinct click of the lock as it finally snapped really
woke Gregor up, breathing heavily. He said to himself, so
I didn't need the locksmith, and he set his head
against the door handle to open the door completely. Because
he had to open the door in this way, it

(33:51):
was already opened very wide without him yet being really visible.
He first had to turn himself slowly round the edge
of the door, very carefully, of course, if he didn't
want to fall awkwardly on his back right at the
entrance into the room. He was still preoccupied with this
difficult movement and had no time to pay attention to

(34:14):
anything else when he heard the manager exclaim aloud, oh,
it sounded like the wind whistling. And now he saw
him nearest to the door, pressing his hand against his
open mouth and moving slowly back as if an invisible,
constant force were pushing him away. His mother, in spite

(34:36):
of the presence of the manager. She was standing here
with her hair sticking up on end, still a mess
from the night, was looking at his father with her
hands clasped. She then went two steps towards Gregor and
collapsed right in the middle of her skirts, which were
spread out all around her, her face sunk on, her

(34:58):
breast completely sealed. His father clenched his fist with a
hostile expression as if he wished to push Gregor back
into his room, then looked uncertainly round the living room,
covered his eyes with his hands, and cried so that
his mighty breast shook. At this point, Gregor did not

(35:22):
take one step into the room, but leaned his body
from the inside against the firmly bolted wing of the door,
so that only half his body was visible, as well
as his head tilted sideways, with which he peeped over
at the others. Meanwhile, it had become much brighter. Standing

(35:43):
out clearly from the other side of the street, was
a part of the endless gray black house situated opposite
it was a hospital, and with its severe regular windows
breaking up the facade, the rain was still coming down,
but only in large individual drops, visibly and firmly thrown

(36:05):
down one by one onto the ground. The breakfast dishes
were standing piled around on the table, because for his father,
breakfast was the most important meal time in the day,
which he prolonged for hours by reading various newspapers. Directly
across on the opposite wall hung a photograph of Gregor

(36:28):
from the time of his military service. It was a
picture of him as a lieutenant, as he smiling and
worry free, with his hand on his sword, demanded respect
for his bearing and uniform. The door to the hall
was ajar, and since the door to the apartment was
also open, one could see out into the landing of

(36:52):
the apartment and the start of the staircase going down. Now,
said Gregor, well aware that he was the only one
who'd kept his composure. I'll get dressed right away, pack
up the collection of samples and set off. You'll allow
me to set out on my way, will you not?

(37:12):
You see, mister manager, I'm not pig headed, and I'm
happy to work. Traveling is exhausting, but I couldn't live
without it. Where are you going, mister manager, to the
office really will you report everything truthfully. A person can
be in capable of work momentarily, but that's precisely the

(37:34):
best time to remember the earlier achievements and to consider
that later, after the obstacles have been shoved aside, the
person will work all the more eagerly and intensely. I'm
really so indebted to mister chief. You know that perfectly well.
On the other hand, I am concerned about my parents

(37:55):
and my sister. I'm in a fix, but I'll work
myself out of it. Again. Don't make things more difficult
for me than they already are. Speak upon my behalf
in the office. People don't like traveling salesmen. I know
that people think they earn pots of money and thus
lead a fine life. People don't even have any special

(38:18):
reason to think through this judgment more clearly. But you,
mister manager, you have a better perspective on what's involved
than other people, even I tell you in total confidence,
a better perspective than mister chairman himself, who, in his
capacity as the employer, may let his judgment make casual

(38:39):
mistakes at the expense of an employee. You also know
well enough that the traveling salesman who is outside the
office almost the entire year, can become so easily a
victim of gossip, coincidences, and groundless complaints against which it's
impossible for him to defend himself, since for the most

(39:01):
part he doesn't hear about them at all, and only
then when he's exhausted after finishing a trip and at
home gets to feel in his own body the nasty
consequences which can't be thoroughly explored back to their origins.
Mister manager, don't leave without speaking a word, telling me

(39:21):
that you'll at least concede that I'm a little in
the right. But at Gregor's first words, the manager had
already turned away, and now he looked back at Gregor
over his twitching shoulders with pursed lips. During Gregor's speech,
he was not still for a moment, but kept moving

(39:43):
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 the sudden movement with which he finally pulled
his foot out the living room, one would have believed
that he'd just burned the sole of his foot in

(40:05):
the hall. However, he stretched his right hand out away
from his body towards the staircase, as if some truly
supernatural relief was waiting for him there. Gregor realized that
he must not, under any circumstances, allow the manager to
go away in this frame of mind, especially if his

(40:29):
position in the firm was not to be placed in
the greatest danger. His parents didn't understand all this very well.
Over the long years, they had developed the conviction that
Gregor was set up for life in his firm, And
in addition, they had so much to do nowadays with
their present troubles, that all foresight was foreign to them.

(40:52):
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 really depended on it. If only
the sister had been there. She was clever, She had
already cried while Gregor was still lying quietly on his back,

(41:14):
and the manager, this friend of the ladies, would certainly
let himself be guided by her. She would have closed
the door to the apartment 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

(41:35):
that as yet he didn't know anything about his present
ability to move, and that his speech possibly indeed probably
had once again not been understood. He left the wing
of the door, pushed himself through the opening, and wanted
to go over to the manager, who was already holding
tight on to the handrail with both hands on the

(41:57):
landing in a ridiculous way. But as he looked for
something to hold on to, with a small scream, Gregor
immediately fell down on to his numerous little legs. Scarcely
had this happened when he felt for the first time
that morning a general physical well being. The small limbs

(42:18):
had firm floor under them, they obeyed perfectly, as he noticed,
to his joy, and strove to carry him forward in
the direction he wanted right away. He believed that the
final amelioration of all his suffering was immediately at hand.
But at the very moment when he lay on the floor,

(42:40):
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 fingers extended, and cried out help, for
God's sake. Help. She held her head bowed down as

(43:03):
if she wanted to view Gregor better, but ran senselessly back,
contradicting that gesture forgetting that behind her stood the table
with all the dishes on it. When she reached the table,
she sat down heavily on it, as if absent mindedly,
and did not appear to notice at all that next
to her, coffee was pouring out onto the carpet in

(43:26):
a full stream from the large overturned container. Mother mother,
said Gregor, quietly, looking over towards her. The manager momentarily
had disappeared completely from his mind. At the sight of
the flowing coffee, Gregor couldn't stop himself, snapping his jaws

(43:48):
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 rushing to her.
But Gregor had no time right now for his parents.
The manager was already on the staircase, his chin level

(44:09):
with the banister. The manager looked back for the last time.
Gregor took an initial movement to catch up to him,
if possible, but the manager must have suspected something because
he made a leap down over a few stairs and disappeared,
still shouting HEO. The sound echoed through the entire stairwell. Now, unfortunately,

(44:34):
this flight of the manager also seemed to bewilder his
father completely. Earlier, he'd been relatively calm for instead of
running after the manager himself, or at least not hindering
Gregor from his pursuit. With his right hand, he grabbed
hold of the manager's cane, which he'd left behind, with

(44:54):
his hat and overcoat on a chair. With his left hand,
his father picked up a large newspaper from the table, and,
stamping his feet on the floor, he set out to
drive Gregor back into his room by waving the cane
and the newspaper. No request of Gregor's was any use,
No request would even be understood, No matter how willing

(45:18):
he was to turn his head respectfully, his father just
stomped all the harder with his feet Across the room
from him, his mother had pulled open a window in
spite of the cool weather, and leaning out with her
hands on her cheeks, she pushed her face far outside
the window between the alley and the stairwell. A strong

(45:41):
draft came up the curtains on the window flew around,
The newspapers on the table 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 going backwards. It was really very

(46:04):
slow going. If Gregor only had been allowed to turn
himself round, he could have been in his room right away,
But he was afraid to make his father impatient by
the time consuming process of turning round, and each moment
he faced the threat of a mortal blow on his
back or his head from the cane in his father's hand. Finally,

(46:27):
Gregor had no other option, for he noticed with horror
that he did not understand yet how to maintain his
direction going backwards, and so he began, amid constantly anxious
sideways glances in his father's direction, to turn himself round
as quickly as possible, although in truth this was only

(46:49):
done very slowly. Perhaps his father noticed his good intentions,
for he did not disrupt Gregor in this motion, but
with the tip of the cane from a distance, he
even directed Gregor's rotating movement here and there. If only
his father had not hissed so unbearably. Because of that,

(47:12):
Gregor totally lost his head. He was already almost totally
turned round when always with this hissing in his ear,
he just made a mistake and turned himself back a little.
But when he finally was successful in getting his head
in front of the door opening, it became clear that
his body was too wide to go through any further. Naturally,

(47:37):
his father, in his present mental state, had no idea
of opening the other wing of the door a bit
to create a suitable passage for Gregor to get through.
His single fixed thought was that Gregor must get into
his room as quickly as possible. He would never have
allowed the elaborate preparations that Gregor required to warrior and

(48:00):
himself and thus perhaps get through the door. On the contrary,
as if there were no obstacle, and with a peculiar noise,
he now drove Gregor forwards. Behind Gregor. The sound at
this point was no longer like the voice of only
a single father. Now it was really no longer a joke,

(48:20):
and Gregor 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

(48:41):
have not been able to move any more on his own.
The tiny legs on one side hung twitching in the
air above, and the ones on the other side were
pushed painfully into the floor. Then his father gave him
one really strong, liberating push from behind, and he scurried,
bleeding severely, far into the interior of his room. The

(49:06):
door was slammed shut with the cane, and finally it
was quiet. End of section one two. Gregor first woke
up from his heavy, swoon like sleep in the evening twilight.

(49:26):
He would certainly have woken up soon afterwards without any disturbance,
for he felt himself sufficiently rested and wide awake, although
it appeared to him as if a hurried step and
a cautious closing of the door to the hall had
aroused him. Light from the electric street lamps lay pale

(49:48):
here and there on the ceiling and on the higher
parts of the furniture, but underneath 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 first time, to check what was happening there. His

(50:10):
left side seemed one single, long, unpleasantly stretched scar, and
he really had to hobble on his two rows of legs.
In addition, one small leg had been seriously wounded in
the course of the morning incident. It was almost a
miracle that only one had been hurt. And dragged lifelessly

(50:33):
behind by the door, he first noticed what had really
lured him there. It was the smell of something to eat.
A bowl stood there, filled with sweetened milk, in which
swam tiny pieces of white bread. He almost laughed with joy,

(50:55):
for he now had a much greater hunger than in
the morning, and he immediately dipped his head almost up
to and over his eyes, down into the milk. But
he soon drew it back again in disappointment, not just
because it was difficult for him to eat on account
of his delicate left side. He could eat only if

(51:16):
his entire panting body worked in a coordinated way, but
also because the milk, which otherwise was his favorite drink,
and which his sister had certainly placed there for that reason,
did not appeal to him at all. He turned away
from the bowl, almost with aversion, and crept back into

(51:37):
the middle of the room. In the living room, as
Gregor saw through the crack in the door, the gas
was lit, but where on other occasions at this time
of day his father was accustomed to read the afternoon
newspaper in a loud voice to his mother and sometimes
also to his sister, At the moment, no sound was audible. Now,

(52:03):
perhaps this reading aloud, about which his sister had always
spoken and written to him, had recently fallen out of
their general routine. But it was so still all around,
in spite of the fact that the apartment was certainly
not empty. What a quiet life the family leads, said

(52:24):
Gregor to himself, And as he stared fixedly out in
front of him into the darkness, he felt a great
pride that he had been able to provide such a
life in a beautiful apartment like this for his parents
and his sister. But how would things go if now

(52:45):
all tranquility, all prosperity, all contentment should come to a
horrible end. In order not to lose himself in such thoughts,
Gregor preferred to set himself moving so he moved up
and down in his room. Once during the long evening,

(53:07):
one side door and then the other door was opened
just a tiny crack, and quickly closed again. Some one
presumably needed to come in, but had then thought better
of it. Gregor immediately took up a position by the
living room door, determined to bring in the hesitant visitor

(53:28):
somehow or other, or at 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'd opened one door, and
when the others had obviously been opened during the day,

(53:50):
no one came any more, and the keys were stuck
in the locks on the outside. The light in the
living room was and off only late at night, and
now it was easy to establish that his parents and
his sister had stayed awake all this time, for one
could hear clearly as all three moved away on tiptoe.

(54:15):
Now it was certain that no one would come into
Gregor any more until the morning. Thus he had a
long time to think, undisturbed about how he would reorganize
his life from scratch, but the high, open room in
which he was compelled to lie flat on the floor

(54:35):
made him anxious, without his being able to figure out
the reason, for he had lived in the room for
five years. With a half unconscious turn, and not without
a slight shame, he scurried under the couch, where, in
spite of the fact that his back was a little
cramped and he could no longer lift up his head,

(54:58):
he felt very comfortable, and was sorry only that his
body was too wide to fit completely under it. There
he remained the entire night, which he spent partly in
a state of semi sleep, out of which his hunger
constantly woke him with a start, but partly in a

(55:19):
state of worry and murky hopes, which all led to
the conclusion that for the time being he would have
to keep calm and with patience and the greatest consideration
for his family, tolerate the troubles which, in his present
condition he was now forced to cause them. Already early

(55:42):
in the morning, it was still almost night, Gregor had
an opportunity to test the power of the decisions he
had just made. For his sister, almost fully dressed, opened
the door from the hall into his room and looked
eager inside. She did not find him immediately, but when

(56:04):
she noticed him under the couch, God, he had to
be somewhere or other, for he could hardly fly away.
She got such a shock that, without being able to
control herself, she slammed the door shut once again from
the outside. However, as if she was sorry for her behavior,
she immediately opened the door again and walked in on

(56:27):
her tiptoes, as if she was in the presence of
a serious invalid or a total stranger. Greggor had pushed
his head forward just to the edge of the couch
and was observing her. Would she really notice that he
had left the milk standing, not indeed from any lack
of hunger, and would she bring in something else to

(56:50):
eat more suitable for him? If she did not do
it on her own, he would sooner starve to death
than call her attention to the fact. Although he had
a really powerful urge to move beyond the couch, throw
himself at his sister's feet and beg her for something
or other good to eat. But his sister noticed right

(57:12):
away with astonishment that the ball was still full, with
only a little milk spilled around it. She picked it
up immediately, although not with her bare hands but with
a rag, and took it out of the room. Gregor
was extremely curious what she would bring as a substitute,
and he pictured to himself different ideas about it, but

(57:37):
he never could have guessed what his sister, out of
the goodness of her heart, in fact, did she brought
him to test his taste and entire selection, all spread
out on an old newspaper. There were old, half rotten vegetables,
bones from the evening meal covered in a white sauce

(58:00):
which had almost solidified, some raisins and almonds, cheese which
Gregor had declared inedible two days earlier, a slice of
dry bread, and a slice of salted bread smeared with butter.
In addition to all this, she put down a bowl,
probably designated once and for all as Gregor's, into which

(58:23):
she had poured some water, and out of her delicacy
of feeling, since she knew that Gregor would not eat
in front of her, she went away very quickly and
even turned the key in the lock, so that Gregor
would now observe that he could make himself as comfortable
as he wished. Gregor's small limbs buzzed. Now that the

(58:45):
time for eating had come, his wounds must, in any case,
have already healed completely. He felt no handicap on that score.
He was astonished at that, and thought about how more
than a month ago he'd got his finger slightly with
a knife, and how this wound had hurt enough even
the day before yesterday. Am I now going to be

(59:09):
less sensitive? He thought, already sucking greedily on the cheese,
which had strongly attracted him right away, more than all
the other foods. Quickly, and with his eyes watering with satisfaction,
he ate one after the other, the cheese, the vegetables,

(59:30):
and the sauce. The fresh food, by contrast, didn't taste
good to him. He couldn't bear the smell, and even
carried the things he wanted to eat a little distance away.
By the time his sister slowly turned the key as
a sign that he should withdraw, he was long finished,

(59:51):
and now lay lazily in the same spot. The noise
immediately startled him, in spite of the fact that he
was already almost to sleep, and he scurried back again
under the couch. But it cost him great self control
to remain under the couch, even for the short time
his sister was in the room, because his body had

(01:00:14):
filled out somewhat on account of the rich meal, and
in the narrow space there he could scarcely breathe in
the midst of minor attacks of asphyxiation. He looked at
her with somewhat protruding eyes as his unsuspecting sister swept
up with a broom not just the remnants, but even

(01:00:37):
the foods, which Gregor had not touched at all, as
if these were also now useless, And as she dumped
everything quickly into a bucket, which he closed with a
wooden lid, and then carried all of it out of
the room, she had hardly turned around before Gregor had
already dragged himself out from the couch, stretched out and

(01:01:00):
let his body expand. In this way, Gregor got his
food every day, once in the morning, when his parents
and the servant girl were still asleep, and a second
time after the common noon meal, for his parents were
as before asleep then for a little while, and the

(01:01:21):
servant girl was sent off by his sister on some
errand or other. They certainly would not have wanted Gregor
to starve to death. But perhaps they could not have
endured finding out what he ate other than by hearsay.
Perhaps his sister wanted to spare them what was possibly

(01:01:41):
only a small grief, for they were really suffering quite
enough already. What sorts of excuses people had used on
that first morning to get the doctor and the locksmith
out of the house, Gregor was completely unable to ascertain,

(01:02:02):
since they could not understand him. No one, not even
his sister, thought that he might be able to understand others,
And thus, when his sister was in her room, he
had to be content with listening now and then to
her sighs and invocations to the saints. Only later, when

(01:02:23):
she had grown somewhat accustomed to everything. Naturally, there could
never be any talk of her growing completely accustomed to it.
Gregor sometimes caught a comment which was intended to be friendly,
or could be interpreted as such. Well, today it tasted
good to him, she said, if Gregor had really cleaned

(01:02:44):
up what he had to eat. Whereas, in the reverse situation,
which gradually repeated itself more and more frequently, she used
to say, sadly, now everything has stopped again. But while
Gregor could get no new information, directly, he did hear

(01:03:04):
a good deal from the room next door, and as
soon as he heard voices, he scurried right away to
the appropriate door and pressed his entire body against it.
In the early days, especially, there was no conversation which
was not concerned with him in some way or another,

(01:03:24):
even if only in secret. For two days, at all
meal times, discussions on that subject could be heard on
how people should now behave, But they also talked about
the same subject in the times between meals, for there
were always at least two family members at home, since

(01:03:45):
no one really wanted to remain in the house alone,
and people could not, under any circumstances leave the apartment
completely empty. In addition, on the very first day, the servant,
it was not completely clear what and how much she
knew about what had happened on her knees, had begged

(01:04:07):
his mother to let her go immediately, and when she
said goodbye about fifteen minutes later, she thanked them for
the dismissal with tears in her eyes, as if she
was receiving the greatest favor which people had shown her
there and without anyone demanding it from her. She swore

(01:04:27):
a fearful oath not to betray anyone, not even the
slightest bit. Now his sister had to team up with
his mother to do the cooking, although that didn't create
much trouble because people were eating almost nothing. Again and again,
Gregor listened as one of them vainly invited another one

(01:04:49):
to eat and receive no answer other than thank you,
I've had enough, or something like that, and perhaps they
had stopped having anything to drink too. His sister often
asked his father whether he wanted to have a beer,
and gladly offered to fetch it herself, and when his

(01:05:10):
father was silent, she said, in order to remove any
reservations he might have, that she could send the caretaker's
wife to get it. But then his father finally said
a resounding no, and nothing more would be spoken about it.
Already during the first day, his father laid out all

(01:05:32):
the financial circumstances and prospects to his mother and to
his sister as well. From time to time, he stood
up from the table and pulled out of the small
lock box salvage from his business, which had collapsed five
years previously, some document or other or some notebook. The

(01:05:53):
sound was audible as he opened up the complicated lock,
and after removing what he was looking for, locked it
up again. These explanations by his father were in part
the first enjoyable thing that Gregor had the chance to
listen to since his imprisonment. He had thought that nothing

(01:06:15):
at all was left over for his father from that business.
At least, his father had told him nothing to contradict
that view, and Gregor, in any case, hadn't asked him
about it. At the time, Gregor's only concern had been
to use everything he had in order to allow his
family to forget as quickly as possible the business misfortune

(01:06:38):
which had brought them all into a state of complete hopelessness.
And so at that point he'd started to work with
a special intensity, and from an assistant had become almost overnight,
a traveling salesman who naturally had entirely different possibilities for
earning money, and whose successes at work were converted immediately

(01:07:01):
into the form of cash commissions, which could be set
out on the table at home in front of his
astonished and delighted family. Those had been beautiful days, and
they had never come back afterwards, at least not with
the same splendor In spite of the fact that Gregor

(01:07:22):
later earned so much money that he was in a
position to bear the expenses of the entire family, costs
which he 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 he happily surrendered it.
But the special warmth was no longer present. Only the

(01:07:46):
sister had remained still close to Gregor, 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 be made up in ways. In contrast to Gregor,
she loved music very much and knew how to play

(01:08:07):
the violin charmingly. Now and then, during Gregor's short stays
in the city, the Conservatory was mentioned in conversations with
his sister, but always only as a beautiful dream whose
realization was unimaginable, and their parents never listened to these
innocent expectations with pleasure. But Gregor thought about them with

(01:08:32):
scrupulous consideration and intended to explain the matter ceremoniously on
Christmas Eve. In his present situation, such futile ideas went
through his head while he pushed himself right up against
the door and listened. Sometimes, in his general exhaustion, he

(01:08:54):
couldn't listen any more, and let his head bang listlessly
against the door. But he immediately pulled himself together, for
even the small sound which he made by this motion
was heard near by and silenced every one. There he
goes on again, said his father, after a while, clearly

(01:09:15):
turning towards the door. And only then would the interrupted
conversation gradually be resumed again, Gregor found out clearly enough,
for his father tended to repeat himself often in his explanations,
partly because he had not personally concerned himself with these
matters for a long time now, and partly also because

(01:09:39):
his mother didn't understand everything right away the first time,
that in spite all bad luck, a fortune, although a
very small one, was available from the old times, which
the interest, which had not been touched, had, in the
intervening time gradually allowed to in increase a little. Furthermore,

(01:10:03):
in addition to this, the money which 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

(01:10:28):
excess money, he could have paid off more of his
father's debt to his employer, and the day on which
he could be rid of this position would have been
a lot closer. But now things were doubtless better the
way his father had arranged them. At the moment, however,
this money was not nearly sufficient to permit the family

(01:10:48):
to live on the interest payments. Perhaps it would be
enough to maintain the family for one or at most
two years, that's all. Thus it only added up to
an amount which one 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

(01:11:11):
his father was old, he was a healthy man who
had not worked at all for five years, and thus
could not be counted on for very much. He had,
in these five years the first holidays of his trouble
filled but unsuccessful life, put on a good deal of fat,
and thus had become really heavy. And should his old

(01:11:35):
mother now perhaps work for money a woman who suffered
from asthma, for whom wandering through the apartment even now
was a great strain, and who spent every second day
on the sofa by the open window, laboring for breath,
should his sister earn money, a girl who was still
a seventeen year old child, whose earlier lifestyle had been

(01:11:59):
so very delightful that it had consisted of dressing herself nicely,
sleeping in late, helping around the house, taking part in
a few modest enjoyments, and above all, playing the violin.
When it came to talking about this need to earn money,
at first, Gregor went away from the door and threw

(01:12:21):
himself on the cold leather 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

(01:12:43):
over to the window. Then he crept up on the
window sill and braced on the chair, leaned against the
window to look out, obviously with some memory or other
of the satisfaction which that used to bring him in
earlier times. Actually, from day to day he perceived things

(01:13:04):
with less and less clarity, even those a short distance
away the hospital across the street, the all too frequent
sight of which he had previously cursed, was not visible
at all anymore, And if he had not been precisely
aware that he lived in the quiet but completely urban

(01:13:24):
Charlotte Street, he could have believed that from his window
he was peering out at a featureless waste land in
which the gray heaven and the gray earth had merged
and were indistinguishable. His attentive sister must have observed a
couple of times that the chair stood by the window, then,

(01:13:45):
after cleaning up the room, each time she pushed the
chair back right against the window, and from now on
she even left the inner casement open. If Gregor had
only been able to speak to his sister and thanked
her for everything that she had to do for him,
he would have tolerated her service more easily. As it was,

(01:14:09):
he suffered under it. The sister admittedly sought to cover
up the awkwardness of everything as much as possible, and
as time went by she naturally got more successful at it.
But with the passing of time Gregor also came to
understand everything more precisely. Even her entrance was terrible for him.

(01:14:32):
As soon as she entered, she ran straight to the
window without taking the time to shut the door, in
spite of the fact that she was otherwise very considerate
in sparing anyone the sight of Gregor's room, and yanked
the window open with eager hands as if she was
almost suffocating, and remained for a while by the window,

(01:14:54):
breathing deeply, even when it was still so cold. With
this run and noise, she frightened Gregor twice every day,
the entire time he trembled under the couch, And yet
he knew very well that she would certainly have spared
him gladly if it had only been possible to remain

(01:15:15):
with the window closed in a room where Gregor lived.
On one occasion, about one month had already gone by
since Gregor's transformation, and there was now no particular reason
any more for his sister to be startled at Gregor's appearance.
She arrived a little earlier than usual and came upon

(01:15:36):
Gregor as he was still looking out the window, immobile
and well positioned to frighten some one. It would not
have come as a surprise to Gregor if she had
not come in, since his position was preventing her from
opening the window immediately, but she not only did not
step inside, she even retreated and shut the door. A

(01:16:00):
stranger really might have concluded from this that Gregor had
been lying in wait for her and wanted to bite her.
Of course, Gregor immediately concealed himself under the couch, but
he had to wait until the noon meal before his
sister returned, and she seemed much less calm than usual.

(01:16:22):
From this, he realized that his appearance was still constantly
intolerable to her, and must remain intolerable in future, and
that she 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 stuck out from
under the couch. In order to spare her even this sight,

(01:16:47):
one day, he dragged the sheet on his back and
onto the couch. This task took him four hours, and
arranged it in such a way that he was now
completely concealed, and his sister, even if she bent down,
could not see him. If this sheet was not necessary

(01:17:08):
as far as she was concerned, then she could remove it,
for it was clear enough that Gregor could not derive
any pleasure from isolating himself so completely. But she left
the sheet just as it was, and Gregor believed he
even caught a look of gratitude when, on one occasion

(01:17:28):
he carefully lifted up the sheet a little with his
head to check as his sister took stock of the
new arrangement. In the first two weeks, his parents could
not bring themselves to visit him, and he often heard
how they fully acknowledged his sister's present work, whereas earlier

(01:17:51):
they had often got annoyed at his sister because she
had seemed to them a somewhat useless young woman. However,
now both his father and his mother often waited in
front of Gregor's door while his sister cleaned up inside,
and as soon as she came out, she had to
explain in detail how things looked in the room, what

(01:18:14):
Gregor had eaten, how he had behaved this time, and
whether perhaps a slight improvement was perceptible. In any event,
his mother, comparatively soon wanted to visit Gregor, but his
father and his sister restrained her at first with reasons
which Gregor listened to very attentively and which he completely endorsed. Later, however,

(01:18:39):
they had to hold her back forcefully, 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 would be a good
thing if his mother came in, not every day, of course,
but maybe once a week. She understood everything much better

(01:19:01):
than his sister, who, in spite of all her courage,
was still a child, and, in the last analysis, had
perhaps undertaken such a difficult task only out of childish recklessness.
Gregor's wish to see his mother was soon realized. While

(01:19:22):
during the day, Gregor, out of consideration for his parents,
did not want to show himself by the window, he
couldn't crawl around very much on the few square meters
of the floor. He found it difficult to bear lying
quietly during the night, and soon eating no longer gave
him the slightest pleasure. So for diversion he acquired the

(01:19:46):
habit of crawling back and forth across the walls and ceiling.
He was especially fond of hanging from the ceiling. The
experience was quite different from lying on the floor. It
was easier to breathe, A slight vibration went through his body,
and in the midst of the almost happy amusement which

(01:20:07):
Gregor found up there. It could happen that, to his
own surprise, he let go and hit the floor. However,
now he naturally controlled his body quite differently, and he
did not injure himself in such a great fall. His
sister noticed immediately the new amusement which Gregor had found

(01:20:29):
for himself, for as he crept around, he left behind
here and there traces of his sticky stuff. And so
she got the idea of making Gregor's creeping around as
easy as possible, and thus of removing the furniture which
got in the way, especially the chest of drawers and
the writing desk. But she was in no position to

(01:20:52):
do this by herself. She did not dare to ask
her father to help, and the servant girl would certain
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 the privilege of being
allowed to stay permanently confined to the kitchen, and of

(01:21:16):
having to open the door only in answer to a
special summons. Thus, his sister had no other choice but
to involve his mother, while his father was absent. His
mother approached Gregor's room with cries of excited joy, but
she fell silent at the door. Of course, his sister

(01:21:39):
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,

(01:22:00):
Gregor held back from spying out from under the sheet.
Thus he refrained from looking at his mother this time,
and was just happy that she had come. Come on,
he's not visible, said his sister, and evidently led his
mother by the hand. Now Gregor listened as these two

(01:22:21):
weak women shifted the still heavy old chest of drawers
from its position, and his sister constantly took on herself
the greatest part of the work, without listening to the
warnings of his mother, who was afraid that she would
strain herself. The work lasted a long time. After about

(01:22:42):
a quarter of an hour had already gone by, his
mother said it would be better if they left the
chest of drawers where it was, because in the first
place it was too heavy. They would not be finished
before his father's arrival, and leaving the chest of drawers
in the middle of the room would block all Gregor's pathways.

(01:23:03):
But in the second place, they could not be certain
that Gregor would be pleased with the removal of the furniture.
To her, the reverse seemed to be true. The sight
of the empty walls pierced her right to the heart.
And why should Gregor not feel the same, since he
had been accustomed to the room furnishings for a long time,

(01:23:25):
and in an empty room would feel himself abandoned? And
is it not the case? Said his mother, concluding very quietly,
almost whispering, as if she wished to prevent Gregor, whose
exact location she really didn't know, from hearing even the
sound of her voice, for she was convinced that he

(01:23:46):
did not understand her words. And isn't it a fact
that by removing the furniture, we're showing that where giving
up all hope of an improvement and leaving him to
his own resources without any consideration. I think it would
be best if we tried to keep the room exactly
in the condition it was in before, so that when

(01:24:07):
Gregor returns to us, he finds everything unchanged, and can
forget the intervening time all the more easily. As he
heard his mother's words, Gregor realized that the lack of
all immediate human contact, together with the monotonous life surrounded
by the family over the course of these two months,

(01:24:30):
must have confused his understanding, because otherwise he couldn't explain
to himself how he, in all seriousness, could have been
so 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 which

(01:24:51):
he would, of course then be able to crawl about
in all directions without disturbance, but at the same time
with a quick and co complete forgetting of his human
past as well. Was he then, at this point already
on the verge of forgetting? And was it only the
voice of his mother, which he had not heard for

(01:25:13):
a long time, that had aroused him. Nothing was to
be removed. Everything must remain. In his condition, he could
not function without the beneficial influences of his furniture, And
if the furniture prevented him from carrying out his senseless
crawling about all over the place. Then there was no

(01:25:34):
harm in that, but rather a great benefit. But his
sister unfortunately thought otherwise. She had grown accustomed, certainly, not
without justification, so far as the discussion of matters concerning
Gregor was concerned. To act as a special expert with

(01:25:55):
respect to their parents, and so now the mother's advice
was for him. His sister sufficient reason to insist on
the removal not only of the chest of drawers and
the writing desk, which were the only items she had
thought about at first, but also of all the furniture,
with the exception of the indispensable couch. Of course, it

(01:26:18):
was not only childish defiance and her recent, very unexpected
and hard won self confidence which led her to this demand.
She had also actually observed that Gregor needed a great
deal of room to creep about. The furniture, on the
other hand, as far as one could see, was not
of the slightest use. But perhaps the enthusiastic sensibility of

(01:26:45):
young women of her age also played a role. This
feeling sought release at every opportunity, and with it Greta
now felt tempted to want to make Gregor's situation even
more terrifying, so that then she would be able to
do even more for him than now, For surely no

(01:27:05):
one except Greta would ever trust themselves to enter a
room in which Gregor ruled the empty walls all by himself,
and so she did not let herself be dissuaded from
her decision by her mother, who in this room seemed
uncertain of herself in her sheer agitation, and soon kept quiet,

(01:27:27):
helping his sister with all her energy to get the
chest of draws out of the room. Now Gregor could
still do without the chest of draws if need be,
but the writing desk really had to stay, and scarcely
had the women left the room with the chest of
draws groaning as they pushed it, when Gregor stuck his

(01:27:50):
head out from under the sofa to take a look.
How he could intervene cautiously and with as much consideration
as possible, But unfortunately it was his mother who came
back into the room first. While Greta had her arms
wrapped around the chest of drawers in the next room
and was rocking it back and forth by herself without

(01:28:14):
moving it from its position. His mother was not used
to the sight of Gregor. He could have made her
ill and so frightened. Gregor scurried backwards, right to the
other side of the sofa, but he could no longer
prevent the sheet from moving forward. A little. That was
enough to catch his mother's attention. She came to a halt,

(01:28:38):
stood still for a moment, and then went back to Greta.
Although Gregor kept repeating to himself over and over that
really nothing unusual was going on, that only a few
pieces of furniture were being rearranged, he soon had to
admit to himself that the movements of the women to

(01:29:00):
and fro, their quiet conversations, and the scratching of the
furniture on the floor affected him like a great swollen
commotion on all sides. And so firmly was he pulling
in his head and legs and pressing his body to
the floor. He had to tell himself unequivocally that he

(01:29:22):
wouldn't be able to endure all this much longer. They
were cleaning out his room, taking away from him everything
he cherished. They had already dragged out the chest of
drawers in which the fretsaw and other tools were kept,
and they were now loosening the writing desk, which was
fixed tight to the floor the desk on which he,

(01:29:45):
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 any more time to
check the good intentions of the two women, whose existence
he had in any case almost forgotten, because in their exhaustion,

(01:30:06):
they were working really silently, and the heavy stumbling of
their feet was the only sound to be heard, and
so he scuttled out. The women were just propping themselves
up on the writing desk in the next room in
order to take a breather, changing the direction of his
path four times, he really didn't know what he should

(01:30:27):
rescue first. Then he saw, hanging conspicuously on the wall,
which was otherwise already empty, the picture of the woman
dressed in nothing but fur. He quickly scurried up over
it and pressed himself against the glass, which held it
in place, and which made his hot abdomen feel good.

(01:30:49):
At least this picture, which Gregor at the moment completely concealed.
Surely no one would now take it away. He twisted
his head towards the door of the living room to
observe the women as they came back in they had
not allowed themselves very much rest and were coming back
right away. Greta had placed her arm around her mother

(01:31:13):
and held her tightly. So what shall we take now,
said Greta, and looked around her. Then her glance met
Gregor's from the wall. She kept her composure only because
her mother was there. She bent her face towards her
mother in order to prevent her from looking round, and said,

(01:31:33):
although in a trembling voice, and too quickly come, wouldn't
it be better to go back to the living room
for just another moment. Greta's purpose was clear to Gregor.
She wanted 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

(01:31:55):
not hand it over. He would sooner spring into Greta's face.
But Greta's words had immediately made the mother very uneasy.
She walked to the side, caught sight of the enormous
brown splotch on the flowered wallpaper, and before she became
truly aware that what she was looking at was Gregor,

(01:32:18):
screamed out in a high pitched, raw voice, oh God,
Oh God, and fell with outstretched arms as if she
were surrendering everything down onto the couch and lay there motionless. Gregor, you,
cried out his sister with a raised fist and an
urgent glare. Since his transformation. These were the first words

(01:32:42):
which she had directed right at him. She ran into
the room next door to bring some spirits or other
with which she could revive her mother from her fainting spell.
Gregor wanted to help us well, there was time enough
to save the picture, but he was stuck fast on
the glass and had to tear himself loose forcefully. Then

(01:33:04):
he also scurried into the next room as if he
could give his sister some advice, as in earlier times.
But then he had to stand there idly behind her
while she rummaged around among various small bottles. Still, she
was frightened. When she turned round, the bottle fell on
to the floor and shattered. A splinter of glass wounded

(01:33:28):
Gregor in the face. Some corrosive medicine or other dripped
over him. Now, without lingering any longer, Greta took 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

(01:33:52):
not open the door, and he did not want to
chase away his sister, who had to remain with her mother.
At this point, he had nothing to do but wait
and overwhelmed with self reproach and worry, he began to
creep and crawl over everything, walls, furniture, and ceiling. Finally,

(01:34:14):
in his despair, as the entire room started 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

(01:34:35):
was a ring at the door. The servant girl was
naturally shot up in her kitchen, and therefore Greta had
to go to open the door. The father had arrived.
What's happened were his first words. Greta's appearance had told
him everything, Greta replied with a dull voice. Evidently she

(01:34:57):
was pressing her face against her father chest 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 you women don't want to listen. It
was clear to Gregor that his father had badly misunderstood

(01:35:20):
Greta's short message and was assuming that Gregor had committed
some violent crime or other. Thus, Gregor now had to
find his father to calm 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 his
room and pushed himself against it so that his father

(01:35:43):
could see right away as he entered from the hall
that Gregor fully intended to return at once to his room,
and that it was not necessary to drive him back,
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

(01:36:07):
soon as he entered, with a tone as if he
were all at once angry and pleased. Gregor pulled his
head back from the door and 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 of creeping all around, he had in

(01:36:28):
the past while neglected to pay attention to what was
going on in the rest of the apartment as he
had done before, and really should have grasped the fact
that he would encounter different conditions. Nevertheless, nevertheless, was that
still his father. Was that the same man who had

(01:36:48):
lain exhausted and buried in bed in earlier days when
Gregor was setting out on a business trip, 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 strolls together a few sundays

(01:37:11):
a year, and on the important holidays, made his way
slowly forwards between Gregor and his mother, who themselves moved slowly,
always a bit more slowly than them, bundled up in
his old coat all the time, setting down his walking
stick carefully, and who, when he had wanted to say something,

(01:37:34):
almost always stood 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
one servants wear in a banking company. Above the high
stiff collar of his jacket, his firm double chin stuck

(01:37:57):
out prominently beneath his bushy eyebrows. The glance of his
black eyes was freshly penetrating and alert. His otherwise disheveled
white hair was combed down into a carefully exact, shining part.
He threw his cap, on which a gold monogram apparently

(01:38:17):
the symbol of the bank, was affixed in an arc
across the entire room, onto the sofa, and moved, throwing
back the edge of the long coat of his uniform,
with his hands in his trouser pockets and a grim face,
right up to Gregor. He really didn't know what he

(01:38:38):
had in mind, but he raised his foot uncommonly high anyway,
and Gregor was astonished at the gigantic size of the
soul of his boot. However, he did not linger on
that point, for he knew from the first day of
his new life that, as far as he was concerned,

(01:38:58):
his father considered the grayst force the only appropriate response,
and so he scurried away from his father, stopped when
his father remained standing, and scampered forward again when his
father merely stirred. And in this way they made their
way round the room repeatedly without anything decisive taking place.

(01:39:21):
In fact, because of the slow pace, it didn't look
like a chase. Gregor remained on the floor for the
time being, especially since he was afraid that his father
could take a flight up onto the wall or the
ceiling as an act of real malice. At any event,
Gregor had to tell himself that he couldn't keep up

(01:39:43):
this running round for a long time, because whenever his
father took a single step he had to go through
an enormous number of movements. Already he was starting to
suffer from a shortage of breath, just as in his
earlier days when his lung had been quite unreliable, as
he now staggered around in this way in order to

(01:40:06):
gather all his energies for running, hardly keeping his eyes
open and feeling so listless that he had no notion
at all of any escape other than by running, and
had almost already forgotten that the walls were available to him,
although they were obstructed by carefully carved furniture full of

(01:40:27):
sharp objects and spikes. At that moment, something or other
thrown casually flew down close by and rolled in front
of him. It was an apple. Immediately a second one
flew after it, Gregor stood still in fright. Further running

(01:40:47):
away was useless, for his father had decided to bombard
him from the fruit bowl on the sideboard. His father
had filled his pockets, and now without for the moment
taking accurate aim, he was throwing apple after apple. These
small red apples rolled around on the floor as if electrified,

(01:41:10):
and collided with each other. A weakly thrown apple grazed
Gregor's back, but skid it off harmlessly. However, another thrown
immediately after that one drove into Gregor's back really hard.
Gregor wanted to drag himself off, as if the unexpected
and incredible pain would go away if he changed his position,

(01:41:34):
but he felt as if he was nailed in place,
and lay stretched out, completely confused in all his senses.
Only with his final glance did he notice how the
door of his room was pulled open, and how, right
in front of his sister, who was yelling, his mother
ran out in her undergarments, for his sister had undressed

(01:41:56):
her in order to give her some freedom to breathe
in her fainting's pace, And how his mother then ran
up to his father. On the way, her tied up
skirts slipped toward the floor one after the other, and
how tripping over her skirts, she hurled herself on to
his father and throwing her arms around him in complete

(01:42:18):
union with him, 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 begged him to spare
Gregor's life. End of Part two three. Gregor's serious wound,

(01:42:40):
from which he suffered for over a month, since no
one ventured to remove the apple, it remained in his
flesh as a visible reminder, seemed by itself to have
reminded the father that, in spite of his present unhappy
and hateful appearance, Gregor was a member of the family
one should not treat as an enemy, and that it was,

(01:43:03):
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 now apparently lost for
good his ability to move, and for the time being
needed many many minutes to crawl across his room like

(01:43:27):
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 get completely satisfactory compensation because
every day, towards evening, the door to the living room
which he was in the habit of keeping a sharp

(01:43:48):
eye on even one or two hours beforehand was opened,
so that he, lying in the darkness of his room,
invisible from the living room, could see the entire family
at the illuminated table, and listened to their conversation to
a certain extent, with their common permission. A situation quite

(01:44:10):
different from what had happened before. Of course, it was
no longer the animated social interaction of former times, which Gregor,
in small hotel rooms, had always thought about with a
certain longing. When tired out, he had had to throw
himself into the damp bedclothes. For the most part, what

(01:44:33):
went on now was very quiet. After the evening meal,
the father fell asleep quickly in his arm chair. The
mother and sister talked guardedly to each other in the stillness.
Bent far over. The mother sewed fine undergarments for a
fashion shop. The sister, who had taken on a job

(01:44:55):
as a sales girl in the evening, studied stenography and
French so as perhaps later to obtain a better position.
Sometimes the father woke up, and, as if he was
quite ignorant that he'd been asleep, said to the mother,
how long have you been sewing? To day? And went

(01:45:15):
right back to sleep, while the mother and the sister
smiled tiredly to each other. With a sort of stubbornness,
the father refused to take off his servant's uniform even
at home, and while his sleeping gown hung unused on
the coat hook, the father dozed completely dressed in his place,

(01:45:38):
as if he was always ready for his responsibility, and
even here was waiting for the voice of his superior.
As a result, in spite of all the care of
the mother and sister, his uniform, which even at the
start was not new, grew dirty, and Gregor looked often
for the entire evening at the clothing with stains all

(01:46:02):
over it, and with its gold buttons always polished, in
which the old man, although very uncomfortable, slept peacefully. Nonetheless,
as soon as the clock struck ten, the mother tried
gently encouraging the father to wake up, and then persuading
him to go to bed, on the ground that he

(01:46:23):
couldn't get a proper sleep here, and that the father,
who had to report for service at six o'clock, really
needed a good sleep. But in his stubbornness, which had
gripped him since he'd become a servant. He insisted always
on staying even longer by the table, although he regularly
fell asleep, and then could only be prevailed upon with

(01:46:47):
the greatest difficulty to trade his chair for the bed,
no matter how much the mother and sister might at
that point work on him with small admonitions. For a
quarter of an hour, he would remain shaking his head slowly,
eyes closed, without standing up. The mother would pull him

(01:47:07):
by the sleeve and speak flattering words into his ear.
The sister would leave her work to help her mother,
but that would not have the desired effect on the father.
He would settle himself even more deeply in his arm chair.
Only when the two women grabbed him under the armpits
would he throw his eyes open, look back and forth

(01:47:30):
at the mother and sister, and habitually say, this is
a life, this is the peace and quiet of my
old age. And propped up by both women, he would
heave himself up elaborately, as if for him it was
the greatest obstacle, allow himself to be led to the
door by the women, wave them away there, and proceed

(01:47:53):
on his own from there, while the mother quickly threw
down her sewing implements and the sister her pen in
order to run after the father and help him some more.
In this overworked and exhausted family, who had time to
worry any longer about Gregor more than was absolutely necessary,

(01:48:15):
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 the morning
and evening to do the heaviest work. The mother took
care of everything else, in addition to her considerable sewing work.

(01:48:36):
It even happened that various pieces of family jewelry, which
previously the mother and sister had been overjoyed to wear
on social and festive occasions, were sold, as Gregor found
out in the evening from the general discussion of the
prices they had fetched. But the greatest complaint was always

(01:48:56):
that they could not leave this apartment, which was too
big for their present means, since it was impossible to
imagine how Gregor might be moved. But Gregor fully recognized
that it was not just consideration for him which was
preventing a move, for he could have been transported easily

(01:49:16):
in a sizeable box with a few air holes. The
main thing holding the family back from a change in
living quarters, was far more their complete hopelessness and the
idea that they had been struck by a misfortune like
no one else in their entire circle of relatives and acquaintances.

(01:49:39):
What the world demands of poor people, they now carried
out to an extreme degree. The father bought breakfast to
the petty officials at the bank. The mother sacrificed herself
for the undergarments of strangers. The sister behind her desk
was at the beckon call of customers. But the family's

(01:50:01):
energies did not extend any further, and the wound in
his back began to pain Gregor all over again. When
now mother and sister, after they had escorted the father
back to bed, came back, let their work lie, moved
close together and sat cheeked to cheek, And when his

(01:50:22):
mother would now say, pointing to Gregor's room, closed the
door Greta. And when Gregor was again in the darkness,
while close by the women mingled their tears or quite
dry eyed, stared at the table. Gregor spent his nights

(01:50:43):
and days with hardly any sleep. Sometimes he thought that
the next time the door opened, he would take over
the family arrangements, just as he had earlier in his imagination,
appeared again after a long time, his employer and supervisor,
and the apprentices, the excessively spineless custodian, two or three

(01:51:06):
friends from other businesses, a chamber made from a hotel
in the provinces, a loving fleeting memory, a female cashier
from a hat shop whom he had seriously but too
slowly courted. They all appeared, mixed in with strangers or
people he had already forgotten, But instead of helping him

(01:51:28):
and his family, they were all unapproachable, 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 the wretched care he was getting.
Even though he couldn't imagine anything which he might have

(01:51:48):
an appetite for. Still, he made plans about how he
could take from the larder what he at all account deserved,
even if he wasn't hungry, without thinking any more about
how they might be able to give gregor special pleasure.
The sister now kicked some food or other very quickly

(01:52:09):
into his room in the morning and at noon before
she ran off to her shop, and in the evening,
quite indifferent to whether the food had perhaps only been
tasted or what happened most frequently remained entirely undisturbed. She
whisked it out with one sweep of her broom. The

(01:52:29):
task of cleaning his room, which she now always carried
out in the evening, could not be done any more quickly.
Streaks of dirt ran along the walls. Here and there
lay tangles of dust and garbage. At first, when his
sister arrived, Gregor positioned himself in a particularly filthy corner

(01:52:51):
in order, with this posture, to make something of a protest.
But he could have well stayed there for weeks without
his sister's changing her ways. In fact, she perceived the
dirt as much as he did, but she had decided
just to let it stay. In this business with a

(01:53:13):
touchiness which was quite new to her and which had
generally taken over the entire family, she kept watch to
see that the cleaning of Gregor's room remained reserved for her.
Once his mother had undertaken a major cleaning of Gregor's room,
which she had only completed successfully after using a few

(01:53:34):
buckets of water, But the extensive dampness made Gregor sick,
and 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 hardly observed the change in
Gregor's room before she ran into the living room, mightily offended, and,

(01:53:58):
in spite of her mother's hand lifted high in entreaty,
broke out into a fit of crying her parents. The father,
had of course woken up with a start in his armchair,
had first looked at her, astonished and helpless, until they
started to get agitated. Turning to his right, the father

(01:54:19):
heaped reproaches on the mother that she was not to
take over the cleaning of Gregor's room from the sister,
and turning to his left, he shouted at the sister
that she would no longer be allowed to clean Gregor's
room ever again. While the mother tried to pull the
father beside himself in his excitement into the bedroom, the sister,

(01:54:42):
shaken by her crying fit, pounded on the table with
her tiny fists, and Gregor hissed at all this angry
that no one thought about shutting the door and sparing
him the sight of this commotion. But even when sister,
exhausted from her daily work, had grown tired of caring

(01:55:05):
for Gregor as she had before, even then, the mother
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 must have managed to survive the worst
with the help of her bony frame, had no real

(01:55:27):
horror of Gregor, without being in the least curious. She
had once, by chance opened Gregor's door at the sight
of Gregor, who, totally surprised, began to scamper here and there.
Although no one was chasing him. She remained standing with
her hands folded across her stomach, staring at him. Since

(01:55:49):
then she did not fail to open the door furtively
a little every morning and evening to look in on Gregor.
At first, she also called him to her with words
which she presumably thought were friendly, like come here for
a bit, old dung beetle, or hey, look at the
old dung beetle. Addressed in such a manner, Gregor answered nothing,

(01:56:15):
but remained motionless in his place, as if the door
had not been opened at all. If only Instead of
allowing this cleaning woman to disturb him uselessly whenever she
felt like it, they had given her orders to clean
up his room every day. One day, in the early morning,

(01:56:35):
a hard downpour, 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,

(01:56:57):
the cleaning woman merely lifted up a chair standing close
by the door, and as she stood there with her
mouth wide open, her intention was clear. She would close
her mouth only when the chair in her hand had
been thrown down on Gregor's back. This goes on no further,
all right, she asked, as Gregor turned himself around again,

(01:57:21):
and she placed the chair calmly back in the corner.
Gregor ate hardly anything anymore. Only when he chanced to
move past the food which had been prepared, did he,
as a game, take a bit into his mouth, hold
it there for hours, and generally spit it out again.

(01:57:44):
At first, he thought it might be his sadness over
the condition of his room, which kept him from eating,
But he very soon became reconciled to the alterations in
his room. People had grown accustomed to put into storage
in his room which they couldn't put anywhere else, and
at this point there were many such things. Now that

(01:58:06):
they had rented one room of the apartment to three lodgers.
These solemn gentlemen, all three had full beards, as Gregor
once found out through a crack in the door, were
meticulously intent on tidiness, not only in their own room,
but once they had now rented a room there in

(01:58:27):
the entire household, and particularly in the kitchen. They simply
did not tolerate any useless or shoddy stuff. Moreover, for
the most part, they had brought with them their own
pieces of furniture. Thus many items had become superfluous, and
these were not really things one could sell or things

(01:58:50):
people wanted to throw out. All these items ended up
in Gregor's room, even the box of ashes and the
garbage pail for 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

(01:59:14):
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 everything out all at once,
but in fact the things remained lying there wherever they
had ended up at the first throw, unless Gregor squirmed

(01:59:35):
his way through the accumulation of junk and moved it.
At first, he was forced to do this because otherwise
there was no room for him to creep around, but
later he did it with a growing pleasure, although after
such movements, tired to death and feeling wretched, he didn't
budge for hours. Because the lodgers sometimes took their evening

(02:00:01):
meal at home in the common living room, the door
to the living room stayed shut on many evenings, but
Gregor had no trouble at all going without the open door. Already,
on many evenings when it was open, he had not
availed himself of it, but without the family noticing, was

(02:00:21):
stretched out in the darkest corner of his room. However,
once the cleaning woman had left the door to the
living room slightly ajar, and it remained open even when
the lodgers came 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,

(02:00:42):
and Gregor had eaten, unfolded their serviettes and picked up
their knives and forks. The mother immediately appeared in the
door with a dish of meat, and right behind her
the sister with a dish piled high with potatoes. The
food gave off a lot of steam. The gentlemen lodgers

(02:01:03):
bent over the plate set before them as if they
wanted to check it before eating, and in fact, the
one who sat in the middle for the other two
he seemed to serve as the authority, cut off a
piece of meat still on the plate, obviously to establish
whether it was sufficiently tender and whether or not something
should be shipped back to the kitchen. He was satisfied,

(02:01:26):
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 went into the kitchen, he came into the room
and with a single bow cap in hand, made a

(02:01:47):
tour of the table. The lodgers rose up collectively and
murmured something in their beards. Then, when they were alone
they ate almost in complete silence, and odd to Gregor
that out of all the many different sorts of sounds
of eating, what was always audible was their chewing teeth,

(02:02:09):
as if by that Gregor should be shown that people
needed their teeth to eat, and that nothing could be
done even with the most handsome, toothless jawbone. I really
do have an appetite, Gregor said to himself sorrowfully, but
not for these things. How these lodgers stuffed themselves, and

(02:02:32):
I am dying on this very evening. The violin sounded
from the kitchen. Gregor didn't remember hearing it. All Through
this period, the lodgers had already ended their night meal.
The middle one had pulled out a newspaper and had

(02:02:52):
given each of the other two a page, and they
were now leaning back, reading and smoking. When the viol
lynn started playing, they became attentive, got up, and went
on tiptoe to the hall door, at which they remained
standing pressed up against one another. They must have been
audible from the kitchen, because the father called out, Perhaps

(02:03:16):
the gentlemen don't like the playing. It can be stopped
at once. On the contrary, stated the lodger in the
middle might the young woman not come out into us
and play in the room here, where it is really
much more comfortable and cheerful. Oh thank you, cried out
the father, as if he were the one playing the violin.

(02:03:37):
The men stepped back into the room and waited. 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 previously rented a room and therefore exaggerated their

(02:03:58):
politeness to the lodgers, dared not sit on their own chairs.
The father leaned against the door, his right 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 the gentleman had chanced to put it,

(02:04:19):
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 had ventured to advance a little further forward, and
his head was already in the living room. He scarcely

(02:04:43):
wondered about the fact that recently 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 had at this moment more reason to
hide away, because, as a re is result of the
dust which lay all over his room and flew around

(02:05:04):
with the slightest movement, he was totally covered in dirt
on his back and his sides. He carted around with
him dust, threads, hair, and remnants of food. His indifference
to everything was much too great for him to lie
on his back and scour himself on the carpet, as

(02:05:25):
he often had done earlier during the day. In spite
of his condition, he had no timidity 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 violin playing, the Lodgers,

(02:05:46):
by contrast, who for the moment had placed themselves hands
in their trouser pockets behind the music stand, much too
close to the sister, so that they could all see
the sheet music, something that must certainly bother. The sister
soon drew back to the window, conversing in low voices
with bowed heads, where they then remained worriedly observed by

(02:06:10):
the father. It now seemed really clear that, having assumed
they were to hear a beautiful or entertaining violin recital,
they were disappointed, and were allowing their peace and quiet
to be disturbed only out of politeness. The way in
which they all blew the smoke from their cigars out

(02:06:31):
of their noses and mouths, in particular, led one to
conclude that they were very irritated. And yet his sister
was playing so beautifully. Her face was turned to the side,
her gaze followed the score intently, and sadly, Gregor crept
forward still a little further, keeping his head close against

(02:06:55):
the floor, in order to be able to catch her gaze.
If possible, was he an animal that music so captivated him.
For him, it was as if the way to the
unknown nourishment he craved was revealing itself. He was determined
to press forward right to his sister, to tug at

(02:07:16):
her dress, and to indicate to her in this way
that she might still come with her violin into his room.
Because here no one valued the recital as he wanted
to value it. He did not wish to let her
go from his room any more, at least not as
long as he lived. His frightening appearance would for the

(02:07:38):
first time become useful for him. He wanted to be
at all the doors of his room simultaneously and snarl
back at the attackers. However, his sister should not be compelled,
but would remain with him voluntarily. She would sit next
to him on the sofa, bend down her ear to him,

(02:08:00):
and he would then confide in her that he firmly
intended to send her to the conservatory, and that if
his misfortune had not arrived in the interim, he would
have declared all this last Christmas, had Christmas really already
come and gone, and would have brooked no argument. After

(02:08:22):
this explanation, his sister would break out in tears of emotion,
and Gregor would lift himself up to her armpit and
kiss her throat, which she, from the time she started
going to work, had left exposed without a band or
a collar. Mister Samson called out the middle lodger to

(02:08:43):
his father, and without uttering a further word, pointed his
index finger at Gregor. As he was moving slowly forward.
The violin fell silent. The middle Lodger smiled, first, shaking
his head once at his friend's and then looked down
at Gregor once more. Rather than driving Gregor back again,

(02:09:07):
the father 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 than the
violin recital, The father hurried over to them and with
outstretched arms, tried to push them into their own room
and simultaneously to block their view of Gregor with his

(02:09:28):
own body. At this they became really somewhat irritated, although
one no longer knew whether that was because of the
father's behavior or because of knowledge they had just acquired
that they had without knowing it a neighbor like Gregor.
They demanded explanations from his father, raised their arms to

(02:09:49):
make their points, tugged agitatedly at their beards, and moved
back towards their room quite slowly. In the meantime, the
isolation which had suddenly fallen upon his sister after the
sudden breaking off of the recital, had overwhelmed her. She
had held on to her violin and bow in her

(02:10:09):
limp hands for a little while and had continued to
look at the sheet music as if she was still playing.
All at once, she pulled herself together put the instrument
in her mother's lap. The mother was still sitting in
her chair, having trouble breathing, for her lungs were laboring,
and had run into the next room, which the lodgers,

(02:10:31):
pressured by the father, were already approaching more rapidly. One
could observe how, under the sister's practiced hands, the sheets
and pillows on the beds were thrown on high and arranged.
Even before the lodgers had reached the room. She was
finishing fixing the beds and was slipping out. The father

(02:10:53):
seemed so gripped once again with his stubbornness, that he
forgot about the respect which he always showed to hiss.
He pressed on and on, until at the door of
the room, the middle gentleman stamped loudly with his foot,
and thus brought the father to a standstill. I hereby declare,
the middle lodger, said, raising his hands and casting his

(02:11:15):
glance both on the mother and the sister, that, considering
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 for the
days which I have lived here. On the contrary, I
shall think about whether or not I will initiate some

(02:11:36):
sort of action against you, something which, believe me, will
be very easy to establish. He fell silent and looked
directly in front of him, as if he was waiting
for something. In fact, his two friends immediately joined in
with their opinions. We also give immediate notice. At that

(02:11:58):
he seized the door handle, banged the door shut, and
locked it. The father groped his way, tottering to his
chair and let himself fall in it. It looked as
if he was stretching out for his usual evening snooze,
but the heavy nodding of his head, which looked as
if it was without support, showed that he was not

(02:12:21):
sleeping at all. Gregor had lain motionless the entire time
on the spot where the lodgers had caught him. Disappointment
with the collapse of his plan, and perhaps also weakness
brought on by his severe hunger, made it impossible for
him to move. He was certainly afraid that a general

(02:12:41):
disaster would break over him. At any moment, and he waited.
He was not even startled when the violin fell from
the mother's lap, out from under her trembling fingers, and
gave off a reverberating tone, My dear parents, the sister,
banging her hand on the table by way of an introduction.

(02:13:04):
Things cannot go any longer in this way. Maybe if
you don't understand that, well I do. I will not
utter my brother's name in front of this monster. And
thus I say only that we must try to get
rid of it. We have tried what is humanly possible
to take care of it, and to be patient. I
believe that no one can criticize us in the slightest.

(02:13:27):
She is right in a thousand ways, said the father
to himself. The mother, who was still incapable of breathing properly,
began to cough numbly, with her hand held up over
her mouth and a manic expression in her eyes. The
sister hurried over to her mother and held her forehead.

(02:13:48):
The sister's words seemed to have led the father to
certain reflections. He sat upright, played with his uniform hat
among the plates which still lay on the table from
the low evening meal, and looked now and then at
the motionless gregor. We must try to get rid of it,
the sister now said decisively to the father, for the mother,

(02:14:12):
in her coughing fit, was not listening 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 endless torment at home. I just
can't go on any more. And she broke out into
such a crying fit that her tears flowed out down

(02:14:34):
on to her mother's face. She wiped them off her
mother with mechanical motions of her hands. Child, said the
father sympathetically and with obvious appreciation. Then what should we do?
The sister only shrugged her shoulders as a sign of perplexity, which,
in contrast to her previous confidence, had come over her

(02:14:58):
while she was crying. If he only understood us, said
the father in 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 the father, and by

(02:15:18):
shutting his eyes he absorbed the sister's conviction of the
impossibility 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

(02:15:39):
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 human
beings is not possible with such an animal, and would
have gone away voluntarily. Then we would not have a brother,

(02:16:00):
but we could go on living and honor his memory.
But this animal plagues us, it drives away. The lodgers
will obviously take 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 totally incomprehensible to Gregor. The sister

(02:16:24):
even left. The mother pushed herself away from her chair
as if she would sooner sacrifice her mother than remaining
Gregor's vicinity, and rushed behind her father, who, excited merely
by her behavior, also stood up and half raised his
arms in front of the sister, as though to protect her.
But Gregor did not have any notion of wishing to

(02:16:47):
create problems to anyone, and certainly not for his sister.
He had just started to turn himself round in order
to creep back into his room. Quite a startling sight,
since as a result of his suffering condition, he had
to guide himself through the difficulty of turning round, with
his head in this process, lifting and banging it against

(02:17:11):
the floor several times. He paused and looked around. His
good intentions seemed to have been recognized. 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 legs stretched out and pressed together. Her eyes

(02:17:34):
were almost shot from weariness. The father and sister sat
next to one another. The sister had set her hands
around the father's neck. Now, perhaps I can actually turn
myself around, thought Gregor, and began to task again. He
couldn't stop puffing at the effort and had to rest

(02:17:56):
now and then. Besides, no one urging him on, it
was all left to him on his own. When he
had completed turning round, he immediately began to wander straight back.
He was astonished at the great distance which separated him
from his room, and did not understand in the least

(02:18:17):
how in his weakness he had covered the same distance
a short time before, almost without noticing it. Constantly, intent
only on creeping along quickly, he hardly paid any attention
to the fact that no word or cry from his
family interrupted him. Only when he was already at the

(02:18:37):
door did he turn 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

(02:18:58):
room when the door was pushed shut very quickly, bolted fast,
and barred. Gregor was startled by the sudden commotion behind him,
so much so that his little limbs bent double under him.
It was his sister who'd been in such a hurry.
She had stood up right away, had waited, and had

(02:19:20):
then sprung forward nimbly. Gregor had not heard anything of
her approach. She cried out finally to her parents as
she 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 no longer move

(02:19:43):
at all. He was not surprised at that. On the contrary,
it struck him as unnatural that up to this point
he had really been able to move around with these little,
thin legs. Besides, he felt relatively content. True, he had
pains throughout his entire body, but it seemed to him

(02:20:04):
that they were gradually becoming weaker and weaker and would
finally go away completely. The rotten apple in his back
and the inflamed 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 he

(02:20:27):
had to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than
his sisters. He remained in this state of empty and
peaceful 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

(02:20:50):
sank all the way down, and from his nostrils flowed
out weakly his last breath. Early in the morning, the
cleaning in her sheer energy and haste she banged all
the doors in precisely the way people had already asked
her to avoid, so much so that once she arrived,

(02:21:12):
a quiet sleep was no longer possible anywhere in the
entire apartment. In her customarily brief visit to Gregor, she
at first found nothing special. She thought he lay so
immobile there because he wanted to play the offended party.
She gave him credit for as complete an understanding as possible.

(02:21:36):
Since she happened to be holding the long broom in
her hand, she tried to tickle Gregor with it from
the door. When that was quite unsuccessful, she became irritated
and poked Gregor a little. And only when she had
shoved him from his place without any resistance did she
become attentive. When she quickly realized the true state of affairs,

(02:22:00):
her eyes grew large. She whistled to herself. However, she
didn't restrain herself for long. She pulled open the door
of the bedroom and yelled in a loud voice into
the darkness, Come and look. It's kick the bucket. It's
lying there totally snuffed. The Samson married Copple sat upright

(02:22:23):
in their marriage bed and had to get over their
fright at the cleaning woman before they managed to grasp
her message, and then mister and Missus Samsa climbed very
quickly out of bed, one on either side. Mister Samsa
threw the bedspread over his shoulders. Missus Samsa came out
only in her night shirt, and like this they stepped

(02:22:46):
into Gregor's room. Meanwhile, the door of the living room
in which Greta had slept since the lodgers had arrived
on the scene had also opened. She was fully clothed,
as if she had not slept at all. Her white
face also seemed to indicate that dead, said Missus Samsa,

(02:23:08):
and looked questioningly at the cleaning woman, although she could
check everything on her own and even understand without a check,
I should say so, said the cleaning woman, and by
way of proof, poked Gregor's body with the broom a
considerable distance more to the side. Missus Samson made a
movement as if she wished to restrain the broom, but

(02:23:30):
didn't do it well, said mister Samson. Now we can
give thanks to God. He crossed himself, and the three
women followed his example. Greta, who did not take her
eyes off the corpse, said, look how thin he was.
He had eaten nothing for such a long time. The

(02:23:54):
meals which came in here came out again exactly the same.
In fact, Gregor's body was completely flat and dry. That
was apparent really for the first time, now that he
was no longer raised on his small limbs, and nothing
else distracted one's gaze. Greta, come in to us for

(02:24:16):
a moment, said missus Samsa with a melancholy smile, and
Greta went, not without looking back at the corpse behind
her parents, into the living room. The cleaning woman shut
the door and opened the window wide. In spite of
the early morning, the fresh air was partly tinged with warmth.

(02:24:38):
It was already the end of March. The three lodgers
stepped out of their room and looked around for their breakfast,
Astonished that they had been forgotten. Where is the breakfast,
asked the middle one of the gentlemen, grumpily to the
cleaning woman. However, she laid her finger to her lips

(02:24:59):
and then quickly and silently indicated to the lodgers that
they could come into Gregor's room. So they came and
stood in the room, which was already quite bright around
Gregor's corpse, their hands in the pockets of their somewhat
worn jackets. Then the door of the room opened, and

(02:25:21):
mister Samsa appeared in his uniform, with his wife on
one arm and his daughter on the other. All were
a little tear stained now, and then Greta pressed her
face into her father's arm. Get out of my apartment, immediately,
said mister Samson, and pulled open the door without letting

(02:25:41):
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 them and constantly rubbed
them against each other, as if enjoy for anticipation of
a great squabble which must end in their favor. I
mean exactly what I say, replied mister Samsa, and went

(02:26:05):
directly with his two female companions up to the lodger.
The latter at first stood there motionless and looked at
the floor as if matters were arranging themselves in a
new way in his head. All right, then we'll go,
he said, and looked up at mister Samsa as if

(02:26:25):
suddenly overcome by humility, he was asking fresh permission for
this decision. Mister Samson merely nodded to him repeatedly with
his eyes open wide. Following that the lodger actually went
with long strides immediately into the hall. His two friends

(02:26:46):
had already been listening for a while with their hands
quite still, and now they hopped smartly after him, as
if afraid that mister Samsa could step into the hall
ahead of them and disturb their reunion with their leader.
In the hall, all three of them took their hats
from the coat rack, pulled their canes from the cane holder,

(02:27:06):
bowed silently, and left the apartment in what turned out
to be an entirely groundless mistrost. Mister Samsa stepped with
the two women out on to the landing, leaned against
the railing, and looked over as the three lodgers slowly
but steadily made their way down the long staircase, disappeared

(02:27:28):
on each floor in a certain turn of the stairwell,
and in a few seconds came out again. The deeper
they proceeded, the more the Samsa family lost interest in them,
and when a butcher with a tray on his head
came to meet them, and then with a proud bearing,
ascended the stairs high above them. Mister Samsa, together with

(02:27:50):
the women, left the banister, 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 from work, but there was
no question that they really needed it, and so they

(02:28:11):
sat down at the table and wrote three letters of apology,
mister Samsa to his superior Missus, Samsa to her client,
and Greta to her proprietor. During the writing, the cleaning
woman came in to say that she was going off
for her morning work was finished. The three people writing

(02:28:32):
at first merely nodded without glancing up. Only when the
cleaning woman was still unwilling to depart did they look up. Angrily. Well,
asked mister Samsa. The cleaning woman stood smiling in the
doorway as if she had a great stroke of luck
to report to the family, but would only do it

(02:28:53):
if she was asked directly. The almost upright small ostrich
feather in her hat, which had irritated mister Samsa during
her entire service swayed lightly in all directions. All right, then,
what do you really want? Asked missus Samson, whom the
cleaning lady still usually respected well, answered the cleaning woman,

(02:29:18):
smiling so happily she couldn't go on speaking right away
about how that rubbish from the next room should be
thrown out. You mustn't worry about it. It's all taken
care of. Missus Samson and Greta bent down to their
letters as though they wanted to go on writing. Mister Samsa,

(02:29:38):
who noticed that the cleaning woman wanted to start describing
everything in detail, decisively prevented her with an outstretched 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 round fury and left the

(02:30:01):
apartment with a fearful slamming of the door. This evening,
she'll be let go, said mister Samsa, but he got
no answer from either his wife or from his daughter.
Because the cleaning woman seemed to have upset once again
the tranquility they had just attained. They got up, went

(02:30:22):
to the window and remained there with their arms about
each other. Mister Samsa turned around in his chair in
their 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

(02:30:43):
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 open air outside the city. The car in

(02:31:05):
which they were sitting by themselves 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 on closer observation these were not at all bad.
For the three of them had employment about which they

(02:31:25):
had not really questioned each other at all, which was
extremely favorable, and with especially promising prospects. The greatest improvement
in their situation at this moment, of course, had to
come from a change of dwelling. Now they wanted to
rent an apartment smaller and cheaper, but better suited and

(02:31:46):
generally more practical than the present one, which Gregor had found.
While they amused themselves in this way. It struck mister
and missus Samson, almost at the same moment, how their daughter,
who was getting more animated all the time, had blossomed recently,
in spite of all the troubles which had made her

(02:32:07):
cheeks pale, into a beautiful and voluptuous young woman, growing
more silent and almost unconsciously understanding each other in their glances.
They thought that the time was now at hand to
seek out a good, honest man for her, and it
was something of a confirmation of their new dreams and

(02:32:28):
good intentions when, at the end of their journey their
daughter got up first and stretched her young body. End
of the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka