Chapter II

by Franz Kafka

　　Not until it was twilight did Gregor awake out of adeep sleep, more like a swoon than a sleep. He wouldcertainly have waked up of his own accord not muchlater, for he felt himself sufficiently rested and wellslept, but it seemed to him as if a fleeting step and acautious shutting of the door leading into the hall hadaroused him. The electric lights in the street cast apale sheen here and there on the ceiling and the uppersurfaces of the furniture, but down below, where helay, it was dark. Slowly, awkwardly trying out hisfeelers, which he now first learned to appreciate, hepushed his way to the door to see what had beenhappening there. His left side felt like one singlelong, unpleasantly tense scar, and he had actually tolimp on his two rows of legs. One little leg, moreover,had been severely damaged in the course of thatmorning's events-it was almost a miracle that only onehad been damaged-and trailed uselessly behind him.

　　He had reached the door before he discovered what hadreally drawn him to it: the smell of food. For therestood a basin filled with fresh milk in which floatedlittle sops of white bread. He could almost havelaughed with joy, since he was now still hungrier thanin the morning, and he dipped his head almost over theeyes straight into the milk. But soon in disappointmenthe withdrew it again; not only did he find it difficultto feed because of his tender left side-and he couldonly feed with the palpitating collaboration of hiswhole body -he did not like the milk either, althoughmilk had been his favorite drink and that was certainlywhy his sister had set it there for him, indeed it wasalmost with repulsion that he turned away from thebasin and crawled back to the middle of the room.

　　He could see through the crack of the door that the gaswas turned on in the living room, but while usually atthis time his father made a habit of reading theafternoon newspaper in a loud voice to his mother andoccasionally to his sister as well, not a sound was nowto be heard. Well, perhaps his father had recentlygiven up this habit of reading aloud, which his sisterhad mentioned so often in conversation and in herletters. But there was the same silence all around,although the flat was certainly not empty of occupants."What a quiet life our family has been leading," saidGregor to himself, and as he sat there motionlessstaring into the darkness he felt great pride in thefact that he had been able to provide such a life forhis parents and sister in such a fine flat. But what ifall the quiet, the comfort, the contentment were now toend in horror? To keep himself from being lost in suchthoughts Gregor took refuge in movement and crawled upand down the room.

　　Once during the long evening one of the side doors wasopened a little and quickly shut again, later the otherside door too; someone had apparently wanted to come inand then thought better of it. Gregor now stationedhimself immediately before the living room door,determined to persuade any hesitating visitor to comein or at least to discover who it might be; but thedoor was not opened again and he waited in vain. In theearly morning, when the doors were locked, they had allwanted to come in, now that he had opened one door andthe other had apparently been opened during the day, noone came in and even the keys were on the other side ofthe doors.

　　It was late at night before the gas went out in theliving room, and Gregor could easily tell that hisparents and his sister had all stayed awake until then,for he could clearly hear the three of them stealingaway on tiptoe. No one was likely to visit him, notuntil the morning, that was certain; so he had plentyof time to meditate at his leisure on how he was toarrange his life afresh. But the lofty, empty room inwhich he had to lie flat on the floor filled him withan apprehension he could not account for, since it hadbeen his very own room for the past five years-and witha half-unconscious action, not without a slight feelingof shame, he scuttled under the sofa, where he feltcomfortable at once, although his back was a littlecramped and he could not lift his head up, and his onlyregret was that his body was too broad to get the wholeof it under the sofa.

　　He stayed there all night, spending the time partly ina light slumber, from which his hunger kept waking himup with a start, and partly in worrying and sketchingvague hopes, which all led to the same conclusion, thathe must lie low for the present and, by exercisingpatience and the utmost consideration, help the familyto bear the inconvenience he was bound to cause them inhis present condition.

　　Very early in the morning, it was still almost night,Gregor had the chance to test the strength of his newresolutions, for his sister, nearly fully dressed,opened the door from the hall and peered in. She didnot see him at once, yet when she caught sight of himunder the sofa-well, he had to be somewhere, hecouldn't have flown away, could he?-she was so startledthat without being able to help it she slammed the doorshut again. But as if regretting her behavior sheopened the door again immediately and came in ontiptoe, as if she were visiting an invalid or even astranger. Gregor had pushed his head forward to thevery edge of the sofa and watched her. Would she noticethat he had left the milk standing, and not for lack ofhunger, and would she bring in some other kind of foodmore to his taste? If she did not do it of her ownaccord, he would rather starve than draw her attentionto the fact, although he felt a wild impulse to dartout from under the sofa, throw himself at her feet andbeg her for something to eat But his sister at oncenoticed, with surprise, that the basin was still full,except for a little milk that had been spilt all aroundit, she lifted it immediately, not with her bare hands,true, but with a cloth and carried it away. Gregor waswildly curious to know what she would bring instead,and made various speculations about it. Yet what sheactually did next, in the goodness of her heart, hecould never have guessed at. To find out what he likedshe brought him a whole selection of food, all set outon an old newspaper. There were old, half-decayedvegetables, bones from last night's supper covered witha white sauce that had thickened; some raisins andalmonds; a piece of cheese that Gregor would havecalled uneatable two days ago; a dry roll of bread, abuttered roll and a roll both buttered and salted.Besides all that, she set down again the same basin,into which she had poured some water, and which wasapparently to be reserved for his exclusive use. Andwith fine tact, knowing that Gregor would not eat inher presence, she withdrew quickly and even turned thekey, to let him understand that he could take his easeas much as he liked. Gregor's legs all whizzed towardsthe food. His wounds must have healed completely,moreover, for he felt no disability, which amazed himand made him reflect how more than a month ago he hadcut one finger a little with a knife and had stillsuffered pain from the wound only the day beforeyesterday. Am I less sensitive now? he thought, andsucked greedily at the cheese, which above all theother edibles attracted him at once and strongly. Oneafter another and with tears of satisfaction in hiseyes he quickly devoured the cheese, the vegetables andthe sauce; the fresh food, on the other hand, had nocharms for him, he could not even stand the smell of itand actually dragged away to some little distance thethings he could eat. He had long finished his meal andwas only lying lazily on the same spot when his sisterturned the key slowly as a sign for him to retreat.That roused him at once, although he was nearly asleep,and he hurried under the sofa again. But it tookconsiderable self-control for him to stay under thesofa, even for the short time his sister was in theroom, since the large meal had swollen his bodysomewhat and he was so cramped he could hardly breathe.Slight attacks of breathlessness afflicted him and hiseyes were starting a little out of his head as hewatched his unsuspecting sister sweeping together witha broom not only the remains of what he had eaten buteven the things he had not touched, as if these werenow of no use to anyone, and hastily shoveling it allinto a bucket, which she covered with a wooden lid andcarried away. Hardly had she turned her back whenGregor came from under the sofa and stretched andpuffed himself out.

　　In this manner Gregor was fed, once in the earlymorning while his parents and the servant girl werestill' asleep, and a second time after they had all hadtheir midday dinner, for then his parents took a shortnap and the servant girl could be sent out on someerrand or other by his sister. Not that they would havewanted him to starve, of course, but perhaps they couldnot have borne to know more about his feeding than fromhearsay, perhaps too his sister wanted to spare themsuch little anxieties wherever possible, since they hadquite enough to bear as it was.

　　Under what pretext the doctor and the locksmith hadbeen got rid of on that first morning Gregor could notdiscover, for since what he said was not understood bythe others it never struck any of them, not even hissister, that he could understand what they said, and sowhenever his sister came into his room he had tocontent himself with hearing her utter only a sigh nowand then and an occasional appeal to the saints. Lateron, when she had got a little used to the situation-ofcourse she could never get completely used to it-shesometimes threw out a remark which was kindly meant orcould be so interpreted. "Well, he liked his dinnertoday," she would say when Gregor had made a goodclearance of his food; and when he had not eaten, whichgradually happened more and more often, she would sayalmost sadly: "Everything's been left standing again."

　　But although Gregor could get no news directly, heoverheard a lot from the neighboring rooms, and as soonas voices were audible, he would run to the door of theroom concerned and press his whole body against it. Inthe first few days especially there was no conversationthat did not refer to him somehow, even if onlyindirectly. For two whole days there were familyconsultations at every mealtime about what should bedone; but also between meals the same subject wasdiscussed, for there were always at least two membersof the family at home, since no one wanted to be alonein the flat and to leave it quite empty wasunthinkable. And on the very first of these days thehousehold cook-it was not quite clear what and how muchshe knew of the situation-went down on her knees to hismother and begged leave to go, and when she departed, aquarter of an hour later, gave thanks for her dismissalwith tears in her eyes as if for the greatest benefitthat could have been conferred on her, and without anyprompting swore a solemn oath that she would never saya single word to anyone about what had happened.

　　Now Gregor's sister had to cook too, helping hermother; true, the cooking did not amount to much, forthey ate scarcely anything. Gregor was always hearingone of the family vainly urging another to eat andgetting no answer but: "Thanks, I've had all I want,"or something similar. Perhaps they drank nothingeither. Time and again his sister kept asking hisfather if he wouldn't like some beer and offered kindlyto go and fetch it herself, and when he made no answersuggested that she could ask the concierge to fetch it,so that he need feel no sense of obligation, but then around "No" came from his father and no more was saidabout it.

　　In the course of that very first day Gregor's fatherexplained the family's financial position and prospectsto both his mother and his sister. Now and then he rosefrom the table to get some voucher or memorandum out ofthe small safe he had rescued from the collapse of hisbusiness five years earlier. One could hear him openingthe complicated lock and rustling papers out andshutting it again. This statement made by his fatherwas the first cheerful information Gregor had heardsince his imprisonment. He had been of the opinion thatnothing at all was left over from his father'sbusiness, at least his father had never said anythingto the contrary, and of course he had not asked himdirectly. At that time Gregor's sole desire was to dohis utmost to help the family to forget as soon aspossible the catastrophe which had overwhelmed thebusiness and thrown them all into a state of completedespair. And so he had set to work with unusual ardorand almost overnight had become a commercial travelerinstead of a little clerk, with of course much greaterchances of earning money, and his success wasimmediately translated into good round coin which hecould lay on the table for his amazed and happy family.These had been fine times, and they had never recurred,at least not with the same sense of glory, althoughlater on Gregor had earned so much money that he wasable to meet the expenses of the whole household anddid so. They had simply got used to it, both the familyand Gregor; the money was gratefully accepted andgladly given, but there was no special uprush of warmfeeling. With his sister alone had he remainedintimate, and it was a secret plan of his that she, wholoved music, unlike himself, and could play movingly onthe violin, should be sent next year to study at theConservatorium, despite the great expense that wouldentail, which must be made up in some other way. Duringhis brief visits home the Conservatorium was oftenmentioned in the talks he had with his sister, butalways merely as a beautiful dream which could nevercome true, and his parents discouraged even theseinnocent references to it; yet Gregor had made up hismind firmly about it and meant to announce the factwith due solemnity on Christmas Day.

　　Such were the thoughts, completely futile in hispresent condition, that went through his head as hestood clinging upright to the door and listening.Sometimes out of sheer weariness he had to give uplistening and let his head fall negligently against thedoor, but he always had to pull himself together againat once, for even the slight sound his head made wasaudible next door and brought all conversation to astop. "What can he be doing now?" his father would sayafter a while, obviously turning towards the door, andonly then would the interrupted conversation graduallybe set going again.

　　Gregor was now informed as amply as he could wish -forhis father tended to repeat himself in hisexplanations, partly because it was a long time sincehe had handled such matters and partly because hismother could not always grasp things at once-that acertain amount of investments, a very small amount itwas true, had survived the wreck of their fortunes andhad even increased a little because the dividends hadnot been touched meanwhile. And besides that, the moneyGregor brought home every month-he had kept only a fewdollars for himself-had never been quite used up andnow amounted to a small capital sum. Behind the doorGregor nodded his head eagerly, rejoiced at thisevidence of unexpected thrift and foresight. True, hecould really have paid off some more of his father'sdebts to the chief with this extra money, and sobrought much nearer the day on which he could quit hisjob, but doubtless it was better the way his father hadarranged it.

　　Yet this capital was by no means sufficient to let thefamily live on the interest of it; for one year,perhaps, or at the most two, they could live on theprincipal, that was all. It was simply a sum that oughtnot to be touched and should be kept for a rainy day;money for living expenses would have to be earned. Nowhis father was still hale enough but an old man, and hehad done no work for the past five years and could notbe expected to do much; during these five years, thefirst years of leisure in his laborious thoughunsuccessful life, he had grown rather fat and becomesluggish. And Gregor's old mother, how was she to earna living with her asthma, which troubled her even whenshe walked through the flat and kept her lying on asofa every other day panting for breath beside an openwindow? And was his sister to earn her bread, she whowas still a child of seventeen and whose life hithertohad been so pleasant, consisting as it did in dressingherself nicely, sleeping long, helping in thehousekeeping, going out to a few modest entertainmentsand above all playing the violin? At first whenever theneed for earning money was mentioned Gregor let go hishold on the door and threw himself down on the coolleather sofa beside it, he felt so hot with shame andgrief.

　　Often he just lay there the long nights through without sleeping at all, scrabbling for hours on theleather. Or he nerved himself to the great effort ofpushing an armchair to the window, then crawled up overthe window sill and, braced against the chair, leanedagainst the window panes, obviously in somerecollection of the sense of freedom that looking outof a window always used to give him. For in reality dayby day things that were even a little way off weregrowing dimmer to his sight; the hospital across thestreet, which he used to execrate for being all toooften before his eyes, was now quite beyond his rangeof vision, and if he had not known that he lived inCharlotte Street, a quiet street but still a citystreet, he might have believed that his window gave ona desert waste where gray sky and gray land blendedindistinguishably into each other. His quick-wittedsister only needed to observe twice that the armchairstood by the window; after that whenever she had tidiedthe room she always pushed the chair back to the sameplace at the window and even left the inner casementsopen.

　　If he could have spoken to her and thanked her for allshe had to do for him, he could have borne herministrations better; as it was, they oppressed him.She certainly tried to make as light as possible ofwhatever was disagreeable in her task, and as time wenton she succeeded, of course, more and more, but timebrought more enlightenment to Gregor too. The very wayshe came in distressed him. Hardly was she in the roomwhen she rushed to the window, without even taking timeto shut the door, careful as she was usually to shieldthe sight of Gregor's room from the others, and as ifshe were almost suffocating tore the casements openwith hasty fingers, standing then in the open draughtfor a while even in the bitterest cold and drawing deepbreaths. This noisy scurry of hers upset Gregor twice aday; he would crouch trembling under the sofa all thetime, knowing quite well that she would certainly havespared him such a disturbance had she found it at allpossible to stay in his presence without opening thewindow.

　　On one occasion, about a month after Gregor'smetamorphosis, when there was surely no reason for herto be still startled at his appearance, she came alittle earlier than usual and found him gazing out ofthe window, quite motionless, and thus well placed tolook like a bogey. Gregor would not have been surprisedhad she not come in at all, for she could notimmediately open the window while he was there, but notonly did she retreat, she jumped back as if in alarmand banged the door shut; a stranger might well havethought that he had been lying in wait for her theremeaning to bite her. Of course he hid himself under thesofa at once, but he had to wait until midday beforeshe came again, and she seemed more ill at ease thanusual. This made him realize how repulsive the sight ofhim still was to her, and that it was bound to go onbeing repulsive, and what an effort it must cost hernot to run away even from the sight of the smallportion of his body that stuck out from under the sofa.In order to spare her that, therefore, one day hecarried a sheet on his back to the sofa-it cost himfour hours' labor- and arranged it there in such a wayas to hide him completely, so that even if she were tobend down she could not see him. Had she considered thesheet unnecessary, she would certainly have stripped itoff the sofa again, for it was clear enough that thiscurtaining and confining of himself was not likely toconduce to Gregor's comfort, but she left it where itwas, and Gregor even fancied that he caught a thankfulglance from her eye when he lifted the sheet carefullya very little with his head to see how she was takingthe new arrangement.

　　For the first fortnight his parents could not bringthemselves to the point of entering his room, and heoften heard them expressing their appreciation of hissister's activities, whereas formerly they hadfrequently scolded her for being as they thought asomewhat useless daughter. But now, both of them oftenwaited outside the door, his father and his mother,while his sister tidied his room, and as soon as shecame out she had to tell them exactly how things werein the room, what Gregor had eaten, how he hadconducted himself this time and whether there was notperhaps some slight improvement in his condition. Hismother, moreover, began relatively soon to want tovisit him, but his father and sister dissuaded her atfirst with arguments which Gregor listened to veryattentively and altogether approved. Later, however,she had to be held back by main force, and when shecried out: "Do let me in to Gregor, he is myunfortunate son! Can't you understand that I must go tohim?" Gregor thought that it might be well to have hercome in, not every day, of course, but perhaps once aweek; she understood things, after all, much betterthan his sister, who was only a child despite theefforts she was making and had perhaps taken on sodifficult a task merely out of childishthoughtlessness.

　　Gregor's desire to see his mother was soon fulfilled.During the daytime he did not want to show himself atthe window, out of consideration for his parents, buthe could not crawl very far around the few square yardsof floor space he had, nor could he bear lying quietlyat rest all during the night, while he was fast losingany interest he had ever taken in food, so that formere recreation he had formed the habit of crawlingcrisscross over the walls and ceiling. He especiallyenjoyed hanging suspended from the ceiling; it was muchbetter than lying on the floor; one could breathe morefreely; one's body swung and rocked lightly; and in thealmost blissful absorption induced by this suspensionit could happen to his own surprise that he let go andfell plump on the floor. Yet he now had his body muchbetter under control than formerly, and even such a bigfall did him no harm. His sister at once remarked thenew distraction Gregor had found for himself-he lefttraces behind him of the sticky stuff on his soleswherever he crawled-and she got the idea in her head ofgiving him as wide a field as possible to crawl in andof removing the pieces of furniture that hindered him,above all the chest of drawers and the writing desk.But that was more than she could manage all by herself;she did not dare ask her father to help her; and as forthe servant girl, a young creature of sixteen who hadhad the courage to stay on after the cook's departure,she could not be asked to help, for she had begged asan especial favor that she might keep the kitchen doorlocked and open it only on a definite summons; so therewas nothing left but to apply to her mother at an hourwhen her father was out. And the old lady did come,with exclamations of joyful eagerness, which, however,died away at the door of Gregor's room. Gregor'ssister, of course, went in first, to see thateverything was in order before letting his motherenter. In great haste Gregor pulled the sheet lower andtucked it more in folds so that it really looked as ifit had been thrown accidentally over the sofa. And thistime he did not peer out from under it; he renouncedthe pleasure of seeing his mother on this occasion andwas only glad that she had come at ale "Come in, he'sout of sight," said his sister, obviously leading hermother in by the hand. Gregor could now hear the twowomen struggling to shift the heavy old chest from itsplace, and his sister claiming the greater part of thelabor for herself, without listening to the admonitionsof her mother who feared she might overstrain herself.It took a long time. After at least a quarter of anhour's tugging his mother objected that the chest hadbetter be left where it was, for in the first place itwas too heavy and could never be got out before hisfather came home, and standing in the middle of theroom like that it would only hamper Gregor's movements,while in the second place it was not at all certainthat removing the furniture would be doing a service toGregor. She was inclined to think to the contrary; thesight of the naked walls made her own heart heavy, andwhy shouldn't Gregor have the same feeling, consideringthat he had been used to his furniture for so long andmight feel forlorn without it. "And doesn't it look,"she concluded in a low voice-in fact she had beenalmost whispering all the time as if to avoid lettingGregor, whose exact whereabouts she did not know, heareven the tones of her voice, for she was convinced thathe could not understand her words-"doesn't it look asif we were showing him, by taking away his furniture,that we have given up hope of his ever getting betterand are just leaving him coldly to himself? I think itwould be best to keep his room exactly as it has alwaysbeen, so that when he comes back to us he will findeverything unchanged and be able all the more easily toforget what has happened in between."

　　On hearing these words from his mother Gregor realizedthat the lack of all direct human speech for the pasttwo months together with the monotony of family lifemust have confused his mind, otherwise he could notaccount for the fact that he had quite earnestly lookedforward to having his room emptied of furnishing. Didhe really want his warm room, so comfortably fittedwith old family furniture, to be turned into a nakedden in which he would certainly be able to crawlunhampered in all directions but at the price ofshedding simultaneously all recollection of his humanbackground? He had indeed been so near the brink offorgetfulness that only the voice of his mother, whichhe had not heard for so long, had drawn him back fromit. Nothing should be taken out of his room; everythingmust stay as it was; he could not dispense with thegood influence of the furniture on his state of mind;and even if the furniture did hamper him in hissenseless crawling round and round, that was nodrawback but a great advantage.

　　Unfortunately his sister was of the contrary opinion;she had grown accustomed, and not without reason, toconsider herself an expert in Gregor's affairs asagainst her parents, and so her mother's advice was nowenough to make her determined on the removal not onlyof the chest and the writing desk, which had been herfirst intention, but of all the furniture except theindispensable sofa. This determination was not, ofcourse, merely the outcome of childish recalcitranceand of the self-confidence she had recently developedso unexpectedly and at such cost; she had in factperceived that Gregor needed a lot of space to crawlabout in, while on the other hand he never used thefurniture at all, so far as could be seen. Anotherfactor might have been also the enthusiastictemperament of an adolescent girl, which seeks toindulge itself on every opportunity and which nowtempted Grete to exaggerate the horror of her brother'scircumstances in order that she might do all the morefor him. In a room where Gregor forded it all aloneover empty walls no one save herself was likely ever toset foot.

　　And so she was not to be moved from her resolve by hermother, who seemed moreover to be ill at ease inGregor's room and therefore unsure of herself, was soonreduced to silence and helped her daughter as best shecould to push the chest outside. Now, Gregor could dowithout the chest, if need be, but the writing desk hemust retain. As soon as the two women had got the chestout of his room, groaning as they pushed it, Gregorstuck his head out from under the sofa to see how hemight intervene as kindly and cautiously as possible.But as bad luck would have it, his mother was the firstto return, leaving Grete clasping the chest in the roomnext door where she was trying to shift it all byherself, without of course moving it from the spot. Hismother however was not accustomed to the sight of him,it might sicken her and so in alarm Gregor backedquickly to the other end of the sofa, yet could notprevent the sheet from swaying a little in front. Thatwas enough to put her on the alert. She paused, stoodstill for a moment and then went back to Grete.

　　Although Gregor kept reassuring himself that nothingout of the way was happening, but only a few bits offurniture were being changed round, he soon had toadmit that all this trotting to and fro of the twowomen, their little ejaculations and the scraping offurniture along the floor affected him like a vastdisturbance coming from all sides at once, and howevermuch he tucked in his head and legs and cowered to thevery floor he was bound to confess that he would not beable to stand it for long. They were clearing his roomout; taking away everything he loved; the chest inwhich he kept his fret saw and other tools was alreadydragged off; they were now loosening the writing deskwhich had almost sunk into the floor, the desk at whichhe had done all his homework when he was at thecommercial academy, at the grammar school before that,and, yes, even at the primary school-he had no moretime to waste in weighing the good intentions of thetwo women, whose existence he had by now almostforgotten, for they were so exhausted that they werelaboring in silence and nothing could be heard but theheavy scuffling of their feet.

　　And so he rushed out-the women were just leaningagainst the writing desk in the next room to givethemselves a breather-and four times changed hisdirection, since he really did not know what to rescuefirst, then on the wall opposite, which was alreadyotherwise cleared, he was struck by the picture of thelady muffled in so much fur and quickly crawled up toit and pressed himself to the glass, which was a goodsurface to hold on to and comforted his hot belly. Thispicture at least, which was entirely hidden beneathhim, was going to be removed by nobody. He turned hishead towards the door of the living room so as toobserve the women when they came back.

　　They had not allowed themselves much of a rest and werealready coming; Grete had twined her arm round hermother and was almost supporting her. "Well, what shallwe take now? " said Grete, looking round. Her eyes metGregor's from the wall. She kept her composure,presumably because of her mother, bent her head down toher mother, to keep her from looking up, and said,although in a fluttering, unpremeditated voice: "Come,hadn't we better go back to the living room for amoment?" Her intentions were clear enough to Gregor,she wanted to bestow her mother in safety and thenchase him down from the wall. Well, just let her tryit! He clung to his picture and would not give it up.He would rather fly in Grete's face.

　　But Grete's words had succeeded in disquieting hermother, who took a step to one side, caught sight ofthe huge brown mass on the flowered wallpaper, andbefore she was really conscious that what she saw wasGregor screamed in a loud, hoarse voice: "Oh God, ohGod!" fell with outspread arms over the sofa as ifgiving up and did not move. "Gregor'" cried his sister,shaking her fist and glaring at him. This was the firsttime she had directly addressed him since hismetamorphosis. She ran into the next room for somearomatic essence with which to rouse her mother fromher fainting fit. Gregor wanted to help too-there wasstill time to rescue the picture-but he was stuck fastto the glass and had to tear himself loose; he then ranafter his sister into the next room as if he couldadvise her, as he used to do; but then had to standhelplessly behind her; she meanwhile searched amongvarious small bottles and when she turned round startedin alarm at the sight of him; one bottle fell on thefloor and broke; a splinter of glass cut Gregor's faceand some kind of corrosive medicine splashed him;without pausing a moment longer Grete gathered up allthe bottles she could carry and ran to her mother withthem; she banged the door shut with her foot. Gregorwas now cut off from his mother, who was perhaps nearlydying because of him; he dared not open the door forfear of frightening away his sister, who had to staywith her mother; there was nothing he could do butwait; and harassed by self-reproach and worry he begannow to crawl to and fro, over everything, walls,furniture and ceiling, and finally in his despair, whenthe whole room seemed to be reeling round him, felldown on to the middle of the big table.

　　A little while elapsed, Gregor was still lying therefeebly and all around was quiet, perhaps that was agood omen. Then the doorbell rang. The servant girl wasof course locked in her kitchen, and Grete would haveto open the door. It was his father. "What's beenhappening?" were his first words; Grete's face musthave told him everything. Grete answered in a muffledvoice, apparently hiding her head on his breast:"Mother has been fainting, but she's better now.Gregor's broken loose." "Just what I expected," saidhis father, "just what I've been telling you, but youwomen would never listen." It was clear to Gregor thathis father had taken the worst interpretation ofGrete's all too brief statement and was assuming thatGregor had been guilty of some violent act. ThereforeGregor must now try to propitiate his father, since hehad neither time nor means for an explanation. And sohe fled to the door of his own room and crouchedagainst it, to let his father see as soon as he came infrom the hall that his son had the good intention ofgetting back into his room immediately and that it wasnot necessary to drive him there, but that if only thedoor were opened he would disappear at once.

　　Yet his father was not in the mood to perceive suchfine distinctions. "Ah!" he cried as soon as heappeared, in a tone which sounded at once angry andexultant. Gregor drew his head back from the door andlifted it to look at his father. Truly, this was notthe father he had imagined to himself; admittedly hehad been too absorbed of late in his new recreation ofcrawling over the ceiling to take the same interest asbefore in what was happening elsewhere in the flat, andhe ought really to be prepared for some changes. Andyet, and yet, could that be his father? The man whoused to lie wearily sunk in bed whenever Gregor set outon a business journey; who welcomed him back of anevening lying in a long chair in a dressing gown; whocould not really rise to his feet but only lifted hisarms in greeting, and on the rare occasions when he didgo out with his family, on one or two Sundays a yearand on high holidays, walked between Gregor and hismother, who were slow walkers anyhow, even more slowlythan they did, muffled in his old greatcoat, shufflinglaboriously forward with the help of his crook-handledstick which he set down most cautiously at every stepand, whenever he wanted to say anything, nearly alwayscame to a full stop and gathered his escort around him?Now he was standing there in fine shape; dressed in asmart blue uniform with gold buttons, such as bankmessengers wear; his strong double chin bulged over thestiff high collar of his jacket; from under his bushyeyebrows his black eyes darted fresh and penetratingglances; his onetime tangled white hair had been combedflat on either side of a shining and carefully exactparting. He pitched his cap, which bore a goldmonogram, probably the badge of some bank, in a widesweep across the whole room on to a sofa and with thetailends of his jacket thrown back, his hands in histrouser pockets, advanced with a grim visage towardsGregor. Likely enough he did not himself know what hemeant to do; at any rate he lifted his feet uncommonlyhigh, and Gregor was dumbfounded at the enormous sizeof his shoe soles. But Gregor could not risk standingup to him, aware as he had been from the very first dayof his new life that his father believed only theseverest measures suitable for dealing with him. And sohe ran before his father, stopping when he stopped andscuttling forward again when his father made any kindof move. In this way they circled the room severaltimes without anything decisive happening, indeed thewhole operation did not even look like a pursuitbecause it was carried out so slowly. And so Gregor didnot leave the floor, for he feared that his fathermight take as a piece of peculiar wickedness anyexcursion of his over the walls or the ceiling. All thesame, he could not stay this course much longer, forwhile his father took one step he had to carry out awhole series of movements. He was already beginning tofeel breathless, just as in his former life his lungshad not been very dependable. As he was staggeringalong, trying to concentrate his energy on running,hardly keeping his eyes open; in his dazed state nevereven thinking of any other escape than simply goingforward; and having almost forgotten that the wallswere free to him, which in this room w-ere wellprovided with finely carved pieces of furniture full ofknobs and crevices-suddenly something lightly flunglanded close behind him and rolled before him. It wasan apple; a second apple followed immediately; Gregorcame to a stop in alarm; there was no point in runningon, for his father was determined to bombard him. Hehad filled his pockets with fruit from the dish on thesideboard and was now shying apple after apple, withouttaking particularly good aim for the moment. The smallred apples rolled about the floor as if magnetized andcannoned into each other. An apple thrown without muchforce grazed Gregor's back and glanced off harmlessly.But another following immediately landed right on hisback and sank in; Gregor wanted to drag himselfforward, as if this startling, incredible pain could beleft behind him; but he felt as if nailed to the spotand flattened himself out in a complete derangement ofall his senses. With his last conscious look he saw thedoor of his room being torn open and his mother rushingout ahead of his screaming sister, in her underbodice,for her daughter had loosened her clothing to let herbreathe more freely and recover from her swoon, he sawhis mother rushing towards his father, leaving oneafter another behind her on the floor her loosenedpetticoats, stumbling over her petticoats straight tohis father and embracing him, in complete union withhim-but here Gregor's sight began to fail-with herhands clasped round his father's neck as she begged forher son's life.