Metamorphosis Summary

Plot overview

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka's 1915 novella, begins with one of the most famous opening sentences in world literature: Gregor Samsa wakes one morning to find himself turned into a monstrous insect. Kafka treats the premise with complete deadpan seriousness. Gregor's first worry is not his transformation but whether he will make it to work on time. His family's worry, before long, is how to get rid of him.

The story unfolds over weeks as the Samsa family adjusts, with varying degrees of disgust and guilt, to the new situation. Gregor can no longer work, which means he has lost the only value the household ever placed on him. His sister Grete tends to him at first with something like tenderness, but the burden of his presence wears that away. His father turns openly hostile. His mother cannot bring herself to look at him.

Kafka never explains the transformation, and the story draws much of its power from that silence. The Metamorphosis can be read as a parable about alienated labor and the self that disappears once it stops being useful. It can equally be read as a precise account of illness and depression, and of what happens in a family when someone can no longer perform their expected role. Both readings are correct. Neither is complete.

Chapter summaries

1. I: Gregor's Transformation MorningGregor wakes to find himself transformed into a vermin and struggles to get out of bed as his family and the chief clerk discover him.
2. II: A Room DividedGregor wakes, hides under the couch, learns how his family treats and feeds him, and is attacked by his father upon discovery.
3. III: Decline, Confrontation, ReleaseGregor weakens to death as the family grows hardened, tenants leave, and the Samsas plan a fresh start.

Characters

• Gregor SamsaProtagonist
• Grete SamsaMajor character
• Mr. SamsaAntagonist
• Mrs. SamsaMinor character
• The CharwomanMinor character
• The Chief ClerkMinor character
• The LodgersMinor character

All 7 characters ›