Summary
In the wake of Gregor’s injury, which limits his mobility, the family
takes pity on him and leaves the bedroom door open at night so Gregor can watch
them. The father dozes in his chair while the mother sews lingerie for a
boutique and Grete studies French and shorthand in hopes of moving up from her
job as a sales clerk. The father stops taking off his bank attendant uniform
when he comes home, and the uniform becomes increasingly filthy. Grete and the
mother encourage the father to go to bed early, but he stays up late every
night, muttering about how sad his life has become.
Gregor learns that the family has been selling off jewelry to bring in
money, and they replace their regular maid with an elderly cleaning lady. He
also realizes that they feel trapped by his presence. Gregor stops sleeping and
eating as he frets about the family and the past, alternating between guilt over
not helping them and outrage that they have neglected him. Grete hardly takes
care of him at all anymore. Despite this apparent indifference to Gregor, she
becomes extremely upset when the mother cleans Gregor’s room and insists that
Gregor is hers to look after.
The new cleaning lady, meanwhile, regularly talks to Gregor. She openly
stares at him, and even tries to sneak into the room to catch him off-guard. One
day, Gregor, tired of being peered at, attacks her, but the cleaning lady
threatens him with a chair, so he desists.
The family takes three boarders into the apartment. These men cannot stand
mess and disorder, so the family moves much of the furniture and the cleaning
lady’s supplies into Gregor’s room. Gregor enjoys crawling through the clutter,
though doing so leaves him exhausted.
One night, the cleaning lady accidentally leaves the door open while the
boarders are home. The boarders eat in the dining room while the family eats in
the kitchen, and Gregor notices the boarders being very picky about the food
that his mother and sister have cooked. Hearing Grete playing the violin, the
boarders invite the family into the parlor. The boarders initially stand very
close to Grete as she plays, but they soon lose interest. Gregor is entranced by
the violin and slowly creeps out into the parlor. He longs to take his sister
back to his room and tell her about his plan to send her to music
school.
One of the boarders spots Gregor and cries out. The father rushes the
boarders out of the parlor as they declare they will move out and not pay rent.
Grete tells her parents that they have to stop believing that the bug is Gregor
and says they must find a way to get rid of it. The father wishes they could
explain to Gregor why they need him to leave, but Grete says that if he could
understand them, he would have left long ago to spare them any more pain.
Gregor, feeling terrible, scuttles back to his room. He remains motionless
through the night, thinking to himself all the while that he must go away to
relieve them of their suffering. As dawn breaks, he dies.
