Metamorphosis recap

Traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes transformed into a giant insect-like creature. Unable to work or communicate, he loses the role through which he supported his indebted parents and sister Grete. Grete initially feeds him and cleans his room, while his parents fear and conceal him. Forced to earn their own living, the family becomes increasingly independent and increasingly resentful of Gregor. His father badly injures him with an apple, and neglect leaves him weak. When the family takes in three lodgers, Gregor is drawn out by Grete's violin playing. The lodgers see him and threaten to withhold payment. Grete declares that the creature must go, and Gregor returns to his room and dies alone that night. Relieved, the Samsas dismiss the lodgers, plan a move to a smaller home, and turn their hopes toward Grete's future.

Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who supports his parents and younger sister, wakes to find himself transformed into an enormous insect-like creature. He worries first about missing his train and angering his employer. His altered voice and unwieldy body prevent him from giving a convincing explanation through the locked door. A chief clerk arrives from the office to investigate. When Gregor finally opens the door, the clerk flees, his mother collapses, and his father forces him back into the bedroom, injuring him in the process. Gregor remains mentally concerned for his family, but they can no longer understand his speech. His sister Grete cautiously assumes responsibility for feeding him and discovering what food his new body will accept, while the family confronts the sudden loss of his income.

Gregor adjusts to confinement, hiding beneath a sofa when Grete enters and crawling over the walls when alone. Grete and her mother try to remove furniture so he can move more freely, but Gregor fears that an emptied room will erase his remaining human identity. He clings to a framed picture, startling his mother. Mr. Samsa returns in the uniform of his new job and attacks Gregor, pelting him with fruit. An apple becomes lodged in Gregor's back and leaves him seriously wounded. The closed household changes around him: his father, mother, and sister all take paid work, and exhaustion replaces their former dependence. Though the door is sometimes left open so Gregor can observe the family, he is increasingly treated as a source of shame and disruption rather than as their son and brother.

Gregor's injury and neglect weaken him. Grete's care becomes hurried, his room turns into a storage space, and an elderly charwoman deals with him more bluntly than the family can. To supplement their income, the Samsas rent a room to three demanding lodgers. One evening Grete plays violin for them. Gregor, moved by the music and imagining that he can help her pursue it seriously, crawls into the living room. The lodgers see him, react with disgust, and announce that they will leave without paying. Grete then insists that the creature must be removed, saying it cannot truly be Gregor. He returns to his room and dies before dawn. The charwoman clears away his body. Mr. Samsa orders the lodgers out, and the family takes a tram into the countryside, plans a move to a cheaper home, and looks toward Grete's adult future with renewed hope.

After the lodgers reject the household and threaten to leave without paying, Grete tells her parents that the creature can no longer be regarded as Gregor and must be removed. Gregor retreats to his room, wounded and exhausted. Thinking tenderly of his family, he dies before morning. The charwoman finds his body and disposes of it. Mr. Samsa dismisses the lodgers, and the family takes the day off to leave the apartment together. They recognize that their jobs offer reasonable prospects and decide to seek a smaller, more suitable home. On a tram into the countryside, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa notice that Grete has grown into a healthy young woman and begin considering her future marriage. Gregor's death thus releases them from the burden they had come to associate with him, while his own years of supporting them and his final self-effacement go largely unacknowledged.