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1-Page Summary of Metamorphosis

Overall Summary

Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning and discovers that he’s turned into a cockroach. He realizes he has missed his train, but can’t speak or open the door to tell his family. His boss comes by, scolds him for being late and wonders if Gregor will lose his job. Gregor tries to explain himself, but no one understands what he is saying because of the way he looks now. After hurting himself squeezing through the door again, Gregor falls asleep in pain as an insect.

Gregor was a good provider, but now that he has turned into an insect and is no longer able to work, his family needs to find another way to support themselves. Gregor feels bad about this because he knows it’s his fault they need other ways of supporting themselves. He also worries that they are going back on their promise not to abandon him when things got difficult. One month passes with Grete barely taking care of Gregor anymore. Then one day she sees him out in the open and becomes disturbed by what she sees happening to her brother. Another month goes by with Grete keeping her distance from Gregor even more than before, which upsets his mother greatly as well as herself for being unable to take care of her son anymore during such a difficult time for him. They plan on moving all the furniture out so that he can be more mobile, but then Gregor decides he wants to keep some of those items around because they remind him of who he used to be before becoming like this—a human being with feelings and emotions just like everyone else does! So instead, the father returns home after working overtime at another job only for them all (including Grete) discover that Gregor is hiding behind a curtain over their picture frame of “The Lady With The Muff”. This frightens both his parents (especially his mother), who faints right away upon seeing this creature hanging above them in their home…

Another month passes, and Gregor recovers from his injury. He feels neglected because he’s not able to help out with the family business or spend time with Grete. His parents take on three lodgers to make extra money, but that only leads to more neglect of Gregor. One night, Grete plays her violin for the lodgers. They seem bored by the performance, but Gregor is deeply moved by it and crawls out of his room in order to be closer to them. The lodgers are disgusted by him and decide they’ll leave without paying any rent at all for their stay so far. Grete tells her mother and father about this horrible event; she can’t believe that a cockroach has ruined their lives like this! She decides never again will she think kindly of Gregor or feel sorry for him after what he did tonight (the fact that he was crawling around). She goes back into her room as well, feeling hopeless about ever being close with him again.

Gregor returns into his own room as well, thinking lovingly about his family, yet knowing things won’t be right between them anymore.

The next morning, the charwoman who cleans the house discovers Gregor’s body while doing her job.  Grete, along with both sets of parents, go off work early in order to have a funeral service held for Gregory (as they’ve now decided on calling him) before going home via tramway. They talk happily about future plans together once everything settles down again – finding another apartment etcetera…

Section 1

Gregor wakes up and finds that he’s turned into a huge cockroach. The famous opening line: “One morning, Gregor Samsa woke up as a cockroach.”

Gregor looks at his new body and realizes that he’s not dreaming. He looks around the room in which he lives, containing samples for his job as a traveling salesman, along with framed prints of ladies wearing muffs. He looks out the window at the gray day and feels sad. He wants to go back to sleep but can’t get comfortable because of his awkward new body.