Chapter I

by Franz Kafka

　　As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams hefound himself transformed in his bed into a giganticinsect. He was lying on his hard, as it werearmor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a littlehe could see his dome-like brown belly divided intostiff arched segments on top of which the bed quiltcould hardly keep in position and was about to slideoff completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifullythin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplesslybefore his eyes.

　　What has happened to me? he thought. It was no dream.His room, a regular human bedroom, only rather toosmall, lay quiet between the four familiar walls. Abovethe table on which a collection of cloth samples wasunpacked and spread out-Samsa was a commercialtraveler-hung the picture which he had recently cut outof an illustrated magazine and put into a pretty giltframe. It showed a lady, with a fur cap on and a furstole, sitting upright and holding out to the spectatora huge fur muff into which the whole of her forearm hadvanished! Gregor's eyes turned next to the window, andthe overcast sky-one could hear rain drops beating onthe window gutter-made him quite melancholy. What aboutsleeping a little longer and forgetting all thisnonsense, he thought, but it could not be done, for hewas accustomed to sleep on his right side and in hispresent condition he could not turn himself over.However violently he forced himself towards his rightside he always rolled on to his back again. He tried itat least a hundred times, shutting his eyes to keepfrom seeing his struggling legs, and only desisted whenhe began to feel in his side a faint dull ache he hadnever experienced before.

　　Oh God, he thought, what an exhausting job I've pickedon! Traveling about day in, day out. It's much moreirritating work than doing the actual business in theoffice, and on top of that there's the trouble ofconstant traveling, of worrying about trainconnections, the bed and irregular meals, casualacquaintances that are always new and never becomeintimate friends. The devil take it all! He felt aslight itching up on his belly; slowly pushed himselfon his back nearer to the top of the bed so that hecould lift his head more easily; identified the itchingplace which was surrounded by many small white spotsthe nature of which he could not understand and made totouch it with a leg, but drew the leg back immediately,for the contact made a cold shiver run through him.

　　He slid down again into his former position. Thisgetting up early, he thought, makes one quite stupid. Aman needs his sleep. Other commercials live like haremwomen. For instance, when I come back to the hotel of amorning to write up the orders I've got, these othersare only sitting down to breakfast. Let me just trythat with my chief; I'd be sacked on the spot. Anyhow,that might be quite a good thing for me, who can tell?If I didn't have to hold my hand because of my parentsI'd have given notice long ago, I'd have gone to thechief and told him exactly what I think of him. Thatwould knock him endways from his desk! It's a queer wayof doing, too, this sitting on high at a desk andtalking down to employees, especially when they have tocome quite near because the chief is hard of hearing.Well, there's still hope; once I've saved enough moneyto pay back my parents' debts to him-that should takeanother five or six years-I'll do it without fail. I'llcut myself completely loose then. For the moment,though, I'd better get up, since my train goes at five.

　　He looked at the alarm clock ticking on the chest.Heavenly Father! he thought. It was half-past sixo'clock and the hands were quietly moving on, it waseven past the half-hour, it was getting on toward aquarter to seven. Had the alarm clock not gone off?From the bed one could see that it had been properlyset for four o'clock; of course it must have gone off.Yes, but was it possible to sleep quietly through thatear-splitting noise? well he had not slept quietly, yetapparently all the more soundly for that. But what washe to do now? The next train went at seven o'clock; tocatch that he would need to hurry like mad and hissamples weren't even packed up, and he himself wasn'tfeeling particularly fresh and active. And even if hedid catch the train he wouldn't avoid a row with thechief, since the firm's porter would have been waitingfor the five o'clock train and would have long sincereported his failure to turn up. The porter was acreature of the chief's, spineless and stupid. Well,supposing he were to say he was sick? But that would bemost unpleasant and would look suspicious, since duringhis five years' employment he had not been ill once.The chief himself would be sure to come with thesick-insurance doctor, would reproach his parents withtheir son's laziness and would cut all excuses short byreferring to the insurance doctor, who of courseregarded all mankind as perfectly healthy malingerers.And would he be so far wrong on this occasion? Gregorreally felt quite welt apart from a drowsiness that wasutterly superfluous after such a long sleep, and he waseven unusually hungry.

　　As all this was running through his mind at top speedwithout his being able to decide to leave his bed-thealarm clock had just struck a quarter to seven-therecame a cautious tap at the door behind the head of hisbed. "Gregor," said a voice-it was his mother's-"it's aquarter to seven. Hadn't you a train to catch?" Thatgentle voice! Gregor had a shock as he heard his ownvoice answering hers, unmistakably his own voice, itwas true, but with a persistent horrible twitteringsqueak behind it like an undertone, that left the wordsin their clear shape only for the first moment and thenrose up reverberating round them to destroy theirsense, so that one could not be sure one had heard themrightly. Gregor wanted to answer at length and explaineverything, but in the circumstances he confinedhimself to saying: "Yes, yes, thank you, Mother, I'mgetting up now." The wooden door between them must havekept the change in his voice from being noticeableoutside, for his mother contented herself with thisstatement and shuffled away. Yet this brief exchange ofwords had made the other members of the family awarethat Gregor was still in the house, as they had notexpected, and at one of the side doors his father wasalready knocking, gently, yet with his fist. "Gregor,Gregor," he called, "what's the matter with you?" Andafter a little while he called again in a deeper voice:"Gregor! Gregor!" At the other side door his sister wassaying in a low, plaintive tone: "Gregor? Aren't youwell? Are you needing anything?" He answered them bothat once: "I'm just ready," and did his best to make hisvoice sound as normal as possible by enunciating thewords very clearly and leaving long pauses betweenthem. So his father went back to his breakfast, but hissister whispered: "Gregor, open the door, do." However,he was not thinking of opening the door, and feltthankful for the prudent habit he had acquired intraveling of locking all doors during the night, evenat home.

　　His immediate intention was to get up quietly withoutbeing disturbed, to put on his clothes and above alleat his breakfast, and only then to consider what elsewas to be done, since in bed, he was well aware, hismeditations would come to no sensible conclusion. Heremembered that often enough in bed he had felt smallaches and pains, probably caused by awkward postures,which had proved purely imaginary once he got up, andhe looked forward eagerly to seeing this morning'sdelusions gradually fall away. That the change in hisvoice was nothing but the precursor of a severe chill,a standing ailment of commercial travelers, he had notthe least possible doubt.

　　To get rid of the quilt was quite easy; he had only toinflate himself a little and it fell off by itself. Butthe next move was difficult, especially because he wasso uncommonly broad. He would have needed arms andhands to hoist himself up; instead he had only thenumerous little legs which never stopped waving in alldirections and which he could not control in the least.When he tried to bend one of them it was the first tostretch itself straight; and did he succeed at last inmaking it do what he wanted, all the other legsmeanwhile waved the more wildly in a high degree ofunpleasant agitation. "But what's the use of lying idlein bed," said Gregor to himself.

　　He thought that he might get out of bed with the lowerpart of his body first, but this lower part, which hehad not yet seen and of which he could form no clearconception, proved too difficult to move; it shifted soslowly; and when finally, almost wild with annoyance,he gathered his forces together and thrust outrecklessly, he had miscalculated the direction andbumped heavily against the lower end of the bed, andthe stinging pain he felt informed him that preciselythis lower part of his body was at the moment probablythe most sensitive.

　　So he tried to get the top part of himself out first,and cautiously moved his head towards the edge of thebed. That proved easy enough, and despite its breadthand mass the bulk of his body at last slowly followedthe movement of his head. Still, when he finally gothis head free over the edge of the bed he felt tooscared to go on advancing, for after all if he lethimself fall in this way it would take a miracle tokeep his head from being injured. And at all costs hemust not lose consciousness now, precisely now; hewould rather stay in bed.

　　But when after a repetition of the same efforts he layin his former position again, sighing, and watched hislittle legs struggling against each other more wildlythan ever, if that were possible, and saw no way ofbringing any order into this arbitrary confusion, hetold himself again that it was impossible to stay inbed and that the most sensible course was to riskeverything for the smallest hope of getting away fromit. At the same time he did not forget meanwhile toremind himself that cool reflection, the coolestpossible, was much better than desperate resolves. Insuch moments he focused his eyes as sharply as possibleon the window, but, unfortunately, the prospect of themorning fog, which muffled even the other side of thenarrow street, brought him little encouragement andcomfort. "Seven o'clock already," he said to himselfwhen the alarm clock chimed again, "seven o'clockalready and still such a thick fog." And for a littlewhile he lay quiet, breathing lightly, as if perhapsexpecting such complete repose to restore all things totheir real and normal condition.

　　But then he said to himself: "Before it strikes aquarter past seven I must be quite out of this bed,without fail. Anyhow, by that time someone will havecome from the office to ask for me, since it opensbefore seven." And he set himself to rocking his wholebody at once in a regular rhythm, with the idea ofswinging it out of the bed. If he tipped himself out inthat way he could keep his head from injury by liftingit at an acute angle when he fell. His back seemed tobe hard and was not likely to suffer from a fall on thecarpet. His biggest worry was the loud crash he wouldnot be able to help making, which would probably causeanxiety, if not terror, behind all the doors. still hemust take the risk.

　　When he was already half out of the bed-the new methodwas more a game than an effort, for he needed only tohitch himself across by rocking to and fro-it struckhim how simple it would be if he could get help. Twostrong people-he thought of his father and the servantgirl-would be amply sufficient; they would only have tothrust their arms under his convex back, lever him outof the bed, bend down with their burden and then bepatient enough to let him turn himself right over on tothe floor, where it was to be hoped his legs would thenfind their proper function. Well, ignoring the factthat the doors were all locked, ought he really to callfor help? In spite of his misery he could not suppressa smile at the very idea of it.

　　He had got so far that he could barely keep hisequilibrium when he rocked himself strongly, and hewould have to nerve himself very soon for the finaldecision since in five minutes' time it would be aquarter past seven-when the front door bell rang."That's someone from the office," he said to himself,and grew almost rigid, while his little legs onlyjigged about all the faster. For a moment everythingstayed quiet. "They're not going to open the door,"said Gregor to himself, catching at some kind ofirrational hope. But then of course the servant girlwent as usual to the door with her heavy tread andopened it. Gregor needed only to hear the first goodmorning of the visitor to know immediately who itwas-the chief clerk himself. What a fate, to becondemned to work for a firm where the smallestomission at once gave rise to the gravest suspicion!Were all employees in a body nothing but scoundrels,was there not among them one single loyal devoted manwho, had he wasted only an hour or so of the firm'stime in a morning, was so tormented by conscience as tobe driven out of his mind and actually incapable ofleaving his bed? Wouldn't it really have beensufficient to send an apprentice to inquire-if anyinquiry were necessary at all-did the chief clerkhimself have to come and thus indicate to the entirefamily, an innocent family, that this suspiciouscircumstance could be investigated by no one lessversed in affairs than himself? And more through theagitation caused by these reflections than through anyact of will Gregor swung himself out of bed with allhis strength. There was a loud thump, but it was notreally a crash. His fall was broken to some extent bythe carpet, his back, too, was less stiff than hethought, and so there was merely a dull thud, not sovery startling. Only he had not lifted his headcarefully enough and had hit it; he turned it andrubbed it on the carpet in pain and irritation.

　　"That was something falling down in there," said thechief clerk in the next room to the left. Gregor triedto suppose to himself that something like what hadhappened to him today might some day happen to thechief clerk; one really could not deny that it waspossible. But as if in brusque reply to thissupposition the chief clerk took a couple of firm stepsin the next-door room and his patent leather bootscreaked. From the right-hand room his sister waswhispering to inform him of the situation: "Gregor, thechief clerk's here." "I know," muttered Gregor tohimself; but he didn't dare to make his voice loudenough for his sister to hear it.

　　"Gregor," said his father now from the left-hand room,"the chief clerk has come and wants to know why youdidn't catch the early train. We don't know what to sayto him. Besides, he wants to talk to you in person. Soopen the door, please. He will be good enough to excusethe untidiness of your room." "Good morning, Mr.Samsa," the chief clerk was calling amiably meanwhile."He's not well," said his mother to the visitor, whilehis father was still speaking through the door, "he'snot well, sir, believe me. What else would make himmiss a train! The boy thinks about nothing but hiswork. It makes me almost cross the way he never goesout in the evenings; he's been here the last eight daysand has stayed at home every single evening. He justsits there quietly at the table reading a newspaper orlooking through railway timetables. The only amusementhe gets is doing fretwork. For instance, he spent twoor three evenings cutting out a little picture frame;you would be surprised to see how pretty it is; it'shanging in his room; you'll see it in a minute whenGregor opens the door. I must say I'm glad you've come,sir; we should never have got him to unlock the door byourselves; he's so obstinate; and I'm sure he's unwell,though he wouldn't have it to be so this morning." "I'mjust coming," said Gregor slowly and carefully, notmoving an inch for fear of losing one word of theconversation. "I can't think of any other explanation,madam," said the chief clerk, "I hope it's nothingserious. Although on the other hand I must say that wemen of business-fortunately or unfortunately-very oftensimply have to ignore any slight indisposition, sincebusiness must be attended to." "Well, can the chiefclerk come in now?" asked Gregor's father impatiently,again knocking on the door. "No," said Gregor. In theleft-hand room a painful silence followed this refusal,in the right-hand room his sister began to sob.

　　Why didn't his sister join the others? She was probablynewly out of bed and hadn't even begun to put on herclothes yet. Well, why was she crying? Because hewouldn't get up and let the chief clerk in, because hewas in danger of losing his job, and because the chiefwould begin dunning his parents again for the olddebts? Surely these were things one didn't need toworry about for the present. Gregor was still at homeand not in the least thinking of deserting the family.At the moment, true, he was lying on the carpet and noone who knew the condition he was in could seriouslyexpect him to admit the chief clerk. But for such asmall discourtesy, which could plausibly be explainedaway somehow later on, Gregor could hardly be dismissedon the spot. And it seemed to Gregor that it would bemuch more sensible to leave him in peace for thepresent than to trouble him with tears and entreaties.Still, of course, their uncertainty bewildered them alland excused their behavior.

　　"Mr. Samsa," the chief clerk called now in a loudervoice, "what's the matter with you? Here you are,barricading yourself in your room, giving only 'yes'and 'no' for answers, causing your parents a lot ofunnecessary trouble and neglecting-I mention this onlyin passing-neglecting your business duties in anincredible fashion. I am speaking here in the name ofyour parents and of your chief, and I beg you quiteseriously to give me an immediate and preciseexplanation. You amaze me, you amaze me. I thought youwere a quiet, dependable person, and now all at onceyou seem bent on making a disgraceful exhibition ofyourself. The chief did hint to me early this morning apossible explanation for your disappearance-withreference to the cash payments that were entrusted toyou recently-but I almost pledged my solemn word ofhonor that this could not be so. But now that I see howincredibly obstinate you are, I no longer have theslightest desire to take your part at all. And yourposition in the firm is not so unassailable. I camewith the intention of telling you all this in private,but since you are wasting my time so needlessly I don'tsee why your parents shouldn't hear it too. For sometime past your work has been most unsatisfactory; thisis not the season of the year for a business boom, ofcourse, we admit that, but a season of the year fordoing no business at all, that does not exist, Mr.Samsa, must not exist."

　　"But, sir," cried Gregor, beside himself and in hisagitation forgetting everything else, "I'm just goingto open the door this very minute. A slight illness, anattack of giddiness, has kept me from getting up. I'mstill lying in bed. But I feel all right again. I'mgetting out of bed now. Just give me a moment or twolonger! I'm not quite so well as I thought. But I'm allright, really. How a thing like that can suddenlystrike one down! Only last night I was quite welt myparents can tell you, or rather I did have a slightpresentiment. I must have showed some sign of it. Whydidn't I report it at the office! But one always thinksthat an indisposition can be got over without stayingin the house. Oh sir, do spare my parents! All thatyou're reproaching me with now has no foundation; noone has ever said a word to me about it. Perhaps youhaven't looked at the last orders I sent in. Anyhow, Ican still catch the eight o'clock train, I'm much thebetter for my few hours' rest. Don't let me detain youhere, sir; I'll be attending to business very soon, anddo be good enough to tell the chief so and to make myexcuses to him!"

　　And while all this was tumbling out pell-mell andGregor hardly knew what he was saying, he had reachedthe chest quite easily, perhaps because of the practicehe had had in bed, and was now trying to lever himselfupright by means of it. He meant actually to open thedoor, actually to show himself and speak to the chiefclerk; he was eager to find out what the others, afterall their insistence, would say at the sight of him. Ifthey were horrified then the responsibility was nolonger his and he could stay quiet. But if they took itcalmly, then he had no reason either to be upset, andcould really get to the station for the eight o'clocktrain if he hurried. At first he slipped down a fewtimes from the polished surface of the chest, but atlength with a last heave he stood upright; he paid nomore attention to the pains in the lower part of hisbody, however they smarted. Then he let himself fallagainst the back of a near-by chair, and clung with hislittle legs to the edges of it. That brought him intocontrol of himself again and he stopped speaking, fornow he could listen to what the chief clerk was saying.

　　"Did you understand a word of it?" the chief clerk wasasking; "surely he can't be trying to make fools ofus?" "Oh dear," cried his mother, in tears, "perhapshe's terribly ill and we're tormenting him. Grete!Grete!" she called out then. "Yes Mother?" called hissister from the other side. They were calling to eachother across Gregor's room. "You must g_o this minutefor the doctor. Gregor is ill. Go for the doctor,quick. Did you hear how he was speaking?" "That was nohuman voice," said the chief clerk in a voicenoticeably low beside the shrillness of the mother's."Anna! Anna!" his father was calling through the hallto the kitchen, clapping his hands, "get a locksmith atonce!" And the two girls were already running throughthe hall with a swish of skirts-how could his sisterhave got dressed so quickly? -and were tearing thefront door open. There was no sound of its closingagain; they had evidently left it open, as one does inhouses where some great misfortune has happened.

　　But Gregor was now much calmer. The words he utteredwere no longer understandable, apparently, althoughthey seemed clear enough to him, even clearer thanbefore, perhaps because his ear had grown accustomed tothe sound of them. Yet at any rate people now believedthat something was wrong with him, and were ready tohelp him. The positive certainty with which these firstmeasures had been taken comforted him. He felt himselfdrawn once more into the human circle and hoped forgreat and remarkable results from both the doctor andthe locksmith, without really distinguishing preciselybetween them. To make his voice as clear as possiblefor the decisive conversation that was now imminent hecoughed a little, as quietly as he could, of course,since this noise too might not sound like a human coughfor all he was able to judge. In the next roommeanwhile there was complete silence. Perhaps hisparents were sitting at the table with the chief clerk,whispering, perhaps they were all leaning against thedoor and listening.

　　Slowly Gregor pushed the chair towards the door, thenlet go of it, caught hold of the door for support- thesoles at the end of his little legs were somewhatsticky-and rested against it for a moment after hisefforts. Then he set himself to turning the key in thelock with his mouth. It seemed, unhappily, that hehadn't really any teeth-what could he grip the keywith?-but on the other hand his jaws were certainlyvery strong; with their help he did manage to set thekey in motion, heedless of the fact that he wasundoubtedly damaging them somewhere, since a brownfluid issued from his mouth, flowed over the key anddripped on the floor. "Just listen to that," said thechief clerk next door; "he's turning the key." That wasa great encouragement to Gregor; but they should allhave shouted encouragement to him, his father andmother too: "Go on, Gregor," they should have calledout, "keep going, hold on to that key!" And in thebelief that they were all following his effortsintently, he clenched his jaws recklessly on the keywith all the force at his command. As the turning ofthe key progressed he circled round the lock, holdingon now only with his mouth, pushing on the key, asrequired, or pulling it down again with all the weightof his body. The louder click of the finally yieldinglock literally quickened Gregor. With a deep breath ofrelief he said to himself: "So I didn't need thelocksmith," and laid his head on the handle to open thedoor wide.

　　Since he had to pull the door towards him, he was stillinvisible when it was really wide open. He had to edgehimself slowly round the near half of the double door,and to do it very carefully if he was not to fall plumpupon his back just on the threshold. He was stillcarrying out this difficult manoeuvre, with no time toobserve anything else, when he heard the chief clerkutter a loud "Oh!"-it sounded like a gust of wind-andnow he could see the man, standing as he was nearest tothe door, clapping one hand before his open mouth andslowly backing away as if driven by some invisiblesteady pressure. His mother-in spite of the chiefclerk's being there her hair was still undone andsticking up in all directions-first clasped her handsand looked at his father, then took two steps towardsGregor and fell on the floor among her outspreadskirts, her face quite hidden on her breast. His fatherknotted his fist with a fierce expression on his faceas if he meant to knock Gregor back into his room, thenlooked uncertainly round the living room, covered hiseyes with his hands and wept till his great chestheaved.

　　Gregor did not go now into the living room, but leanedagainst the inside of the firmly shut wing of the door,so that only half his body was visible and his headabove it bending sideways to look at the others. Thelight had meanwhile strengthened; on the other side ofthe street one could see clearly a section of theendlessly long, dark gray building opposite-it was ahospital-abruptly punctuated by its row of regularwindows; the rain was still falling, but only in largesingly discernible and literally singly splashingdrops. The breakfast dishes were set out on the tablelavishly, for. breakfast was the most important meal ofthe day to Gregor's father, who lingered it out forhours over various newspapers. Right opposite Gregor onthe wall hung a photograph of himself on militaryservice, as a lieutenant, hand on sword, a carefreesmile on his face, inviting one to respect his uniformand military bearing. The door leading to the hall wasopen, and one could see that the front door stood opentoo, showing the landing beyond and the beginning ofthe stairs going down.

　　"Well," said Gregor, knowing perfectly that he was theonly one who had retained any composure, "I'll put myclothes on at once, pack up my samples and start off.Will you only let me go? You see, sir, I'm notobstinate, and I'm willing to work; traveling is a hardlife, but I couldn't live without it. Where are yougoing, sir? To the office? Yes? Will you give a trueaccount of all this? One can be temporarilyincapacitated, but that's just the moment forremembering former services and bearing in mind thatlater on, when the incapacity has been got over, onewill certainly work with all the more industry andconcentration. I'm loyally bound to serve the chief,you know that very well. Besides, I have to provide formy parents and my sister. I'm in great difficulties,but I'll get out of them again. Don't make things anyworse for me than they are. Stand up for me in thefirm. Travelers are not popular there, I know. Peoplethink they earn sacks of money and just have a goodtime. A prejudice there's no particular reason forrevising. But you, sir, have a more comprehensive viewof affairs than the rest of the staff, yes, let me tellyou in confidence, a more comprehensive view than thechief himself, who, being the owner, lets his judgmenteasily be swayed against one of his employees. And youknow very well that the traveler, who is never seen inthe office almost the whole year round, can so easilyfall a victim to gossip and ill luck and unfoundedcomplaints, which he mostly knows nothing about, exceptwhen he comes back exhausted from his rounds, and onlythen suffers in person from their evil consequences,which he can no longer trace back to the originalcauses. Sir, sir, don't go away without a word to me toshow that you think me in the right at least to someextent!"

　　But at Gregor's very first words the chief clerk hadalready backed away and only stared at him with partedlips over one twitching shoulder. And while Gregor wasspeaking he did not stand still one moment but stoleaway towards the door, without taking his eyes offGregor, yet only an inch at a time, as if obeying somesecret injunction to leave the room. He was already atthe hall, and the suddenness with which he took hislast step out of the living room would have made onebelieve he had burned the sole of his foot. Once in thehall he stretched his right arm before him towards thestaircase, as if some supernatural power were waitingthere to deliver him.

　　Gregor perceived that the chief clerk must on noaccount be allowed to go away in this frame of mind ifhis position in the firm were not to be endangered tothe utmost. His parents did not understand this sowell; they had convinced themselves in the course ofyears that Gregor was settled for life in this firm,and besides they were so preoccupied with theirimmediate troubles that all foresight had forsakenthem. Yet Gregor had this foresight. The chief clerkmust be detained, soothed, persuaded and finally wonover; the whole future of Gregor and his familydepended on it! If only his sister had been there! Shewas intelligent; she had begun to cry while Gregor wasstill lying quietly on his back. And no doubt the chiefclerk so partial to ladies, would have been guided byher; she would have shut the door of the flat and inthe hall talked him out of his horror. But she was notthere, and Gregor would have to handle the situationhimself. And without remembering that he was stillunaware what powers of movement he possessed, withouteven remembering that his words in all possibility,indeed in all likelihood, would again beunintelligible, he let go the wing of the door, pushedhimself through the opening, started to walk towardsthe chief clerk, who was already ridiculously clingingwith both hands to the railing on the landing; butimmediately, as he was feeling for a support, he felldown with a little cry upon all his numerous legs.Hardly was he down when he experienced for the firsttime this morning a sense of physical comfort; his legshad firm ground under them; they were completelyobedient, as he noted with joy; they even strove tocarry him forward in whatever direction he chose; andhe was inclined to believe that a final relief from allhis sufferings was at hand. But in the same moment ashe found himself on the floor, rocking with suppressedeagerness to move, not far from his mother, indeed justin front of her, she, who had seemed so completelycrushed, sprang all at once to her feet, her arms andfingers outspread, cried: "Help, for God's sake, help!"bent her head down as if to see Gregor better, yet onthe contrary kept backing senselessly away; had quiteforgotten that the laden table stood behind her; satupon it hastily, as if in absence of mind, when shebumped into it; and seemed altogether unaware that thebig coffee pot beside her was upset and pouring coffeein a flood over the carpet.

　　"Mother, Mother," said Gregor in a low voice, andlooked up at her. The chief clerk for the moment, hadquite slipped from his mind; instead, he could notresist snapping his jaws together at the sight of thestreaming coffee. That made his mother scream again,she fled from the table and fell into the arms of hisfather, who hastened to catch her. But Gregor had nowno time to spare for his parents; the chief clerk wasalready on the stairs; with his chin on the banistershe was taking one last backward look. Gregor made aspring, to be as sure as possible of overtaking him;the chief clerk must have divined his intention, for heleaped down several steps and vanished; he was stillyelling "Ugh!" and it echoed through the wholestaircase.

　　Unfortunately, the flight of the chief clerk seemedcompletely to upset Gregor's father, who had remainedrelatively calm until now, for instead of running afterthe man himself, or at least not hindering Gregor, inhis pursuit, he seized in his right hand the walkingstick which the chief clerk had left behind on a chair,together with a hat and greatcoat, snatched in his lefthand a large news paper from the table and beganstamping his feet and flourishing the stick and thenewspaper to drive Gregor back into his room. Noentreaty of Gregor's availed, indeed no entreaty waseven understood, however humbly he bent his head hisfather only stamped on the floor the more loudly.Behind his father his mother had torn open a window,despite the cold weather, and was leaning far out of itwith her face in her hands. A strong draught set infrom the street to the staircase, the window curtainsblew in, the newspapers on the table fluttered, straypages whisked over the floor. Pitilessly Gregor'sfather drove him back, hissing and crying "Shoo!" likea savage. But Gregor was quite unpracticed in walkingbackwards, it really was a slow business. If he onlyhad a chance to turn round he could get back to hisroom at once, but he was afraid of exasperating hisfather by the slowness of such a rotation and at anymoment the stick in his father's hand might hit him afatal blow on the back or on the head. In the end,however, nothing else was left for him to do since tohis horror he observed that in moving backwards hecould not even control the direction he took; and so,keeping an anxious eye on his father all the time overhis shoulder, he began to turn round as quickly as hecould, which was in reality very slowly. Perhaps hisfather noted his good intentions, for he did notinterfere except every now and then to help him in themanoeuvre from a distance with the point of the stick.If only he would have stopped making that unbearablehissing noise! It made Gregor quite lose his head. Hehad turned almost completely round when the hissingnoise so distracted him that he even turned a littlethe wrong way again. But when at last his head wasfortunately right in front of the doorway, it appearedthat his body was too broad simply to get through theopening. His father, of course, in his present mood wasfar from thinking of such a thing as opening the otherhalf of the door, to let Gregor have enough space. Hehad merely the fixed idea of driving Gregor back intohis room as quickly as possible. He would never havesuffered Gregor to make the circumstantial preparationsfor standing up on end and perhaps slipping his waythrough the door. Maybe he was now making more noisethan ever to urge Gregor forward, as if no obstacleimpeded him; to Gregor, anyhow, the noise in his rearsounded no longer like the voice of one single father;this was really no joke, and Gregor thrust himself-comewhat might-into the doorway. One side of his body roseup, he was tilted at an angle in the doorway, his flankwas quite bruised, horrid blotches stained the whitedoor, soon he was stuck fast and, left to himself,could not have moved at ale his legs on one sidefluttered trembling in the air, those on the other werecrushed painfully to the floor-when from behind hisfather gave him a strong push which was literally adeliverance and he flew far into the room, bleedingfreely. The door was slammed behind him with the stick,and then at last there was silence.