weißes wohnzimmer ideen

chapter iii. gregor's serious wound, from which hesuffered for over a month--since no one ventured to remove the apple, it remainedin his flesh as a visible reminder--seemed by itself to have reminded the father that, in spite of his present unhappy and hatefulappearance, gregor was a member of the family, something one should not treat asan enemy, and that it was, on the contrary, a requirement of family duty to suppress one's aversion and to endure--nothing else,just endure. and if through his wound gregor had nowapparently lost for good his ability to

move and for the time being needed many,many minutes to crawl across his room, like an aged invalid--so far as creeping up high was concerned, that was unimaginable--nevertheless for this worsening of his condition, in his opinion, he did getcompletely satisfactory compensation, because every day towards evening the door to the living room, which he was in thehabit of keeping a sharp eye on even one or two hours beforehand, was opened, so thathe, lying down in the darkness of his room, invisible from the living room, could see the entire family at the illuminated tableand listen to their conversation, to a

certain extent with their commonpermission, a situation quite different from what had happened before. of course, it was no longer the animatedsocial interaction of former times, which gregor in small hotel rooms had alwaysthought about with a certain longing, when, tired out, he had had to throw himself intothe damp bedclothes. for the most part what went on now was veryquiet. after the evening meal, the father fellasleep quickly in his arm chair. the mother and sister talked guardedly toeach other in the stillness. bent far over, the mother sewed fineundergarments for a fashion shop.

the sister, who had taken on a job as asalesgirl, in the evening studied stenography and french, so as perhaps laterto obtain a better position. sometimes the father woke up and, as if hewas quite ignorant that he had been asleep, said to the mother "how long you have beensewing today?" and went right back to sleep, while the mother and the sistersmiled tiredly to each other. with a sort of stubbornness the fatherrefused to take off his servant's uniform even at home, and while his sleeping gownhung unused on the coat hook, the father dozed completely dressed in his place, as if he was always ready for hisresponsibility and even here was waiting

for the voice of his superior. as a result, in spite of all the care ofthe mother and sister, his uniform, which even at the start was not new, grew dirty,and gregor looked, often for the entire evening, at this clothing, with stains all over it and with its gold buttons alwayspolished, in which the old man, although very uncomfortable, slept peacefullynonetheless. as soon as the clock struck ten, the mothertried gently encouraging the father to wake up and then persuading him to go to bed, onthe ground that he couldn't get a proper sleep here and that the father, who had to

report for service at six o'clock, reallyneeded a good sleep. but in his stubbornness, which had grippedhim since he had become a servant, he insisted always on staying even longer bythe table, although he regularly fell asleep and then could only be prevailed upon with the greatest difficulty to tradehis chair for the bed. no matter how much the mother and sistermight at that point work on him with small admonitions, for a quarter of an hour hewould remain shaking his head slowly, his eyes closed, without standing up. the mother would pull him by the sleeve andspeak flattering words into his ear; the

sister would leave her work to help hermother, but that would not have the desired effect on the father. he would settle himself even more deeply inhis arm chair. only when the two women grabbed him underthe armpits would he throw his eyes open, look back and forth at the mother andsister, and habitually say "this is a life. this is the peace and quiet of my old age." and propped up by both women, he wouldheave himself up elaborately, as if for him it was the greatest trouble, allow himselfto be led to the door by the women, wave them away there, and proceed on his own

from there, while the mother quickly threwdown her sewing implements and the sister her pen in order to run after the fatherand help him some more. in this overworked and exhausted family whohad time to worry any longer about gregor more than was absolutely necessary?the household was constantly getting smaller. the servant girl was now let go.a huge bony cleaning woman with white hair flying all over her head came in themorning and evening to do the heaviest work. the mother took care of everything else inaddition to her considerable sewing work.

it even happened that various pieces offamily jewellery, which previously the mother and sister had been overjoyed towear on social and festive occasions, were sold, as gregor found out in the evening from the general discussion of the pricesthey had fetched. but the greatest complaint was always thatthey could not leave this apartment, which was too big for their present means, sinceit was impossible to imagine how gregor might be moved. but gregor fully recognized that it was notjust consideration for him which was preventing a move, for he could have beentransported easily in a suitable box with a

few air holes. the main thing holding the family back froma change in living quarters was far more their complete hopelessness and the ideathat they had been struck by a misfortune like no one else in their entire circle ofrelatives and acquaintances. what the world demands of poor people theynow carried out to an extreme degree. the father bought breakfast to the pettyofficials at the bank, the mother sacrificed herself for the undergarments ofstrangers, the sister behind her desk was at the beck and call of customers, but the family's energies did not extend anyfurther.

and the wound in his back began to paingregor all over again, when now mother and sister, after they had escorted the fatherto bed, came back, let their work lie, moved close together, and sat cheek to cheek and when his mother would now say,pointing to gregor's room, "close the door, grete," and when gregor was again in thedarkness, while close by the women mingled their tears or, quite dry eyed, stared atthe table. gregor spent his nights and days withhardly any sleep. sometimes he thought that the next time thedoor opened he would take over the family arrangements just as he had earlier.

in his imagination appeared again, after along time, his employer and supervisor and the apprentices, the excessively spinelesscustodian, two or three friends from other businesses, a chambermaid from a hotel in the provinces, a loving fleeting memory, afemale cashier from a hat shop, whom he had seriously but too slowly courted--they allappeared mixed in with strangers or people he had already forgotten, but instead of helping him and his family, they were allunapproachable, and he was happy to see them disappear.but then he was in no mood to worry about his family.

he was filled with sheer anger over thewretched care he was getting, even though he couldn't imagine anything which he mighthave an appetite for. still, he made plans about how he couldtake from the larder what he at all account deserved, even if he wasn't hungry. without thinking any more about how theymight be able to give gregor special pleasure, the sister now kicked some foodor other very quickly into his room in the morning and at noon, before she ran off to her shop, and in the evening, quiteindifferent to whether the food had perhaps only been tasted or, what happened mostfrequently, remained entirely undisturbed,

she whisked it out with one sweep of herbroom. the task of cleaning his room, which shenow always carried out in the evening, could not be done any more quickly. streaks of dirt ran along the walls; hereand there lay tangles of dust and garbage. at first, when his sister arrived, gregorpositioned himself in a particularly filthy corner in order with this posture to makesomething of a protest. but he could have well stayed there forweeks without his sister's changing her ways. in fact, she perceived the dirt as much ashe did, but she had decided just to let it

stay. in this business, with a touchiness whichwas quite new to her and which had generally taken over the entire family, shekept watch to see that the cleaning of gregor's room remained reserved for her. once his mother had undertaken a majorcleaning of gregor's room, which she had only completed successfully after using afew buckets of water. but the extensive dampness made gregor sickand he lay supine, embittered and immobile on the couch.however, the mother's punishment was not delayed for long.

for in the evening the sister had hardlyobserved the change in gregor's room before she ran into the living room mightilyoffended and, in spite of her mother's hand lifted high in entreaty, broke out in a fitof crying. her parents--the father had, of course,woken up with a start in his arm chair--at first looked at her astonished andhelpless, until they started to get agitated. turning to his right, the father heapedreproaches on the mother that she was not to take over the cleaning of gregor's roomfrom the sister and, turning to his left, he shouted at the sister that she would no

longer be allowed to clean gregor's roomever again, while the mother tried to pull the father, beside himself in hisexcitement, into the bed room. the sister, shaken by her crying fit,pounded on the table with her tiny fists, and gregor hissed at all this, angry thatno one thought about shutting the door and sparing him the sight of this commotion. but even when the sister, exhausted fromher daily work, had grown tired of caring for gregor as she had before, even then themother did not have to come at all on her behalf. and gregor did not have to be neglected.for now the cleaning woman was there.

this old widow, who in her long life musthave managed to survive the worst with the help of her bony frame, had no real horrorof gregor. without being in the least curious, she hadonce by chance opened gregor's door. at the sight of gregor, who, totallysurprised, began to scamper here and there, although no one was chasing him, sheremained standing with her hands folded across her stomach staring at him. since then she did not fail to open thedoor furtively a little every morning and evening to look in on gregor. at first, she also called him to her withwords which she presumably thought were

friendly, like "come here for a bit, olddung beetle!" or "hey, look at the old dung beetle!" addressed in such a manner, gregor answerednothing, but remained motionless in his place, as if the door had not been openedat all. if only, instead of allowing this cleaningwoman to disturb him uselessly whenever she felt like it, they had given her orders toclean up his room every day! one day in the early morning--a harddownpour, perhaps already a sign of the coming spring, struck the window panes--when the cleaning woman started up once again with her usual conversation, gregor

was so bitter that he turned towards her,as if for an attack, although slowly and weakly. but instead of being afraid of him, thecleaning woman merely lifted up a chair standing close by the door and, as shestood there with her mouth wide open, her intention was clear: she would close her mouth only when the chair in her hand hadbeen thrown down on gregor's back. "this goes no further, all right?" sheasked, as gregor turned himself around again, and she placed the chair calmly backin the corner. gregor ate hardly anything any more.

only when he chanced to move past the foodwhich had been prepared did he, as a game, take a bit into his mouth, hold it therefor hours, and generally spit it out again. at first he thought it might be his sadnessover the condition of his room which kept him from eating, but he very soon becamereconciled to the alterations in his room. people had grown accustomed to put intostorage in his room things which they couldn't put anywhere else, and at thispoint there were many such things, now that they had rented one room of the apartmentto three lodgers. these solemn gentlemen--all three had fullbeards, as gregor once found out through a crack in the door--were meticulously intenton tidiness, not only in their own room

but, since they had now rented a room here, in the entire household, and particularlyin the kitchen. they simply did not tolerate any useless orshoddy stuff. moreover, for the most part they hadbrought with them their own pieces of furniture. thus, many items had become superfluous,and these were not really things one could sell or things people wanted to throw out. all these items ended up in gregor's room,even the box of ashes and the garbage pail from the kitchen.

the cleaning woman, always in a hurry,simply flung anything that was momentarily useless into gregor's room.fortunately gregor generally saw only the relevant object and the hand which held it. the cleaning woman perhaps was intending,when time and opportunity allowed, to take the stuff out again or to throw everythingout all at once, but in fact the things remained lying there, wherever they had ended up at the first throw, unless gregorsquirmed his way through the accumulation of junk and moved it. at first he was forced to do this becauseotherwise there was no room for him to

creep around, but later he did it with agrowing pleasure, although after such movements, tired to death and feelingwretched, he didn't budge for hours. because the lodgers sometimes also tooktheir evening meal at home in the common living room, the door to the living roomstayed shut on many evenings. but gregor had no trouble at all goingwithout the open door. already on many evenings when it was openhe had not availed himself of it, but, without the family noticing, was stretchedout in the darkest corner of his room. however, once the cleaning woman had leftthe door to the living room slightly ajar, and it remained open even when the lodgerscame in in the evening and the lights were

put on. they sat down at the head of the table,where in earlier days the mother, the father, and gregor had eaten, unfoldedtheir serviettes, and picked up their knives and forks. the mother immediately appeared in the doorwith a dish of meat and right behind her the sister with a dish piled high withpotatoes. the food gave off a lot of steam. the gentlemen lodgers bent over the plateset before them, as if they wanted to check it before eating, and in fact the one whosat in the middle--for the other two he

seemed to serve as the authority--cut off a piece of meat still on the plate obviouslyto establish whether it was sufficiently tender and whether or not something shouldbe shipped back to the kitchen. he was satisfied, and mother and sister,who had looked on in suspense, began to breathe easily and to smile.the family itself ate in the kitchen. in spite of that, before the father wentinto the kitchen, he came into the room and with a single bow, cap in hand, made a tourof the table. the lodgers rose up collectively andmurmured something in their beards. then, when they were alone, they ate almostin complete silence.

it seemed odd to gregor that, out of allthe many different sorts of sounds of eating, what was always audible was theirchewing teeth, as if by that gregor should be shown that people needed their teeth to eat and that nothing could be done evenwith the most handsome toothless jawbone. "i really do have an appetite," gregor saidto himself sorrowfully, "but not for these things. how these lodgers stuff themselves, and iam dying." on this very evening the violin soundedfrom the kitchen. gregor didn't remember hearing it allthrough this period.

the lodgers had already ended their nightmeal, the middle one had pulled out a newspaper and had given each of the othertwo a page, and they were now leaning back, reading and smoking. when the violin started playing, theybecame attentive, got up, and went on tiptoe to the hall door, at which theyremained standing pressed up against one another. they must have been audible from thekitchen, because the father called out "perhaps the gentlemen don't like theplaying? it can be stopped at once."

"on the contrary," stated the lodger in themiddle, "might the young woman not come into us and play in the room here, where itis really much more comfortable and cheerful?" "oh, thank you," cried out the father, asif he were the one playing the violin. the men stepped back into the room andwaited. soon the father came with the music stand,the mother with the sheet music, and the sister with the violin.the sister calmly prepared everything for the recital. the parents, who had never previouslyrented a room and therefore exaggerated

their politeness to the lodgers, dared notsit on their own chairs. the father leaned against the door, hisright hand stuck between two buttons of his buttoned-up uniform.the mother, however, accepted a chair offered by one lodger. since she left the chair sit where thegentleman had chanced to put it, she sat to one side in a corner.the sister began to play. the father and mother, one on each side,followed attentively the movements of her hands. attracted by the playing, gregor hadventured to advance a little further

forward and his head was already in theliving room. he scarcely wondered about the fact thatrecently he had had so little consideration for the others.earlier this consideration had been something he was proud of. and for that very reason he would have hadat this moment more reason to hide away, because as a result of the dust which layall over his room and flew around with the slightest movement, he was totally coveredin dirt. on his back and his sides he carted aroundwith him dust, threads, hair, and remnants of food.

his indifference to everything was much toogreat for him to lie on his back and scour himself on the carpet, as he often had doneearlier during the day. in spite of his condition he had notimidity about inching forward a bit on the spotless floor of the living room.in any case, no one paid him any attention. the family was all caught up in the violinplaying. the lodgers, by contrast, who for themoment had placed themselves, hands in their trouser pockets, behind the musicstand much too close to the sister, so that they could all see the sheet music, something that must certainly bother thesister, soon drew back to the window

conversing in low voices with bowed heads,where they then remained, worriedly observed by the father. it now seemed really clear that, havingassumed they were to hear a beautiful or entertaining violin recital, they weredisappointed and were allowing their peace and quiet to be disturbed only out ofpoliteness. the way in which they all blew the smokefrom their cigars out of their noses and mouths in particular led one to concludethat they were very irritated. and yet his sister was playing sobeautifully. her face was turned to the side, her gazefollowed the score intently and sadly.

gregor crept forward still a littlefurther, keeping his head close against the floor in order to be able to catch her gazeif possible. was he an animal that music so captivatedhim? for him it was as if the way to the unknownnourishment he craved was revealing itself. he was determined to press forward right tohis sister, to tug at her dress, and to indicate to her in this way that she mightstill come with her violin into his room, because here no one valued the recital ashe wanted to value it. he did not wish to let her go from his roomany more, at least not as long as he lived. his frightening appearance would for thefirst time become useful for him.

he wanted to be at all the doors of hisroom simultaneously and snarl back at the attackers. however, his sister should not be compelledbut would remain with him voluntarily. she would sit next to him on the sofa, benddown her ear to him, and he would then confide in her that he firmly intended tosend her to the conservatory and that, if his misfortune had not arrived in the interim, he would have declared all thislast christmas--had christmas really already come and gone?--and would havebrooked no argument. after this explanation his sister wouldbreak out in tears of emotion, and gregor

would lift himself up to her armpit andkiss her throat, which she, from the time she started going to work, had left exposedwithout a band or a collar. "mr. samsa," called out the middle lodgerto the father and, without uttering a further word, pointed his index finger atgregor as he was moving slowly forward. the violin fell silent. the middle lodger smiled, first shaking hishead once at his friends, and then looked down at gregor once more. rather than driving gregor back again, thefather seemed to consider it of prime importance to calm down the lodgers,although they were not at all upset and

gregor seemed to entertain them more thanthe violin recital. the father hurried over to them and withoutstretched arms tried to push them into their own room and simultaneously to blocktheir view of gregor with his own body. at this point they became really somewhatirritated, although one no longer knew whether that was because of the father'sbehaviour or because of knowledge they had just acquired that they had, withoutknowing it, a neighbour like gregor. they demanded explanations from his father,raised their arms to make their points, tugged agitatedly at their beards, andmoved back towards their room quite slowly. in the meantime, the isolation which hadsuddenly fallen upon his sister after the

sudden breaking off of the recital hadoverwhelmed her. she had held onto the violin and bow in herlimp hands for a little while and had continued to look at the sheet music as ifshe was still playing. all at once she pulled herself together,placed the instrument in her mother's lap-- the mother was still sitting in her chairhaving trouble breathing for her lungs were labouring--and had run into the next room, which the lodgers, pressured by the father,were already approaching more rapidly. one could observe how under the sister'spracticed hands the sheets and pillows on the beds were thrown on high and arranged.

even before the lodgers had reached theroom, she was finished fixing the beds and was slipping out. the father seemed so gripped once againwith his stubbornness that he forgot about the respect which he always owed to hisrenters. he pressed on and on, until at the door ofthe room the middle gentleman stamped loudly with his foot and thus brought thefather to a standstill. "i hereby declare," the middle lodger said,raising his hand and casting his glance both on the mother and the sister, "thatconsidering the disgraceful conditions prevailing in this apartment and family"--

with this he spat decisively on the floor--"i immediately cancel my room. i will, of course, pay nothing at all forthe days which i have lived here; on the contrary i shall think about whether or noti will initiate some sort of action against you, something which--believe me--will bevery easy to establish." he fell silent and looked directly in frontof him, as if he was waiting for something. in fact, his two friends immediately joinedin with their opinions, "we also give immediate notice."at that he seized the door handle, banged the door shut, and locked it. the father groped his way tottering to hischair and let himself fall in it.

it looked as if he was stretching out forhis usual evening snooze, but the heavy nodding of his head, which looked as if itwas without support, showed that he was not sleeping at all. gregor had lain motionless the entire timein the spot where the lodgers had caught him. disappointment with the collapse of hisplan and perhaps also weakness brought on by his severe hunger made it impossible forhim to move. he was certainly afraid that a generaldisaster would break over him at any moment, and he waited.

he was not even startled when the violinfell from the mother's lap, out from under her trembling fingers, and gave off areverberating tone. "my dear parents," said the sister bangingher hand on the table by way of an introduction, "things cannot go on anylonger in this way. maybe if you don't understand that, well,i do. i will not utter my brother's name in frontof this monster, and thus i say only that we must try to get rid of it. we have tried what is humanly possible totake care of it and to be patient. i believe that no one can criticize us inthe slightest."

"she is right in a thousand ways," said thefather to himself. the mother, who was still incapable ofbreathing properly, began to cough numbly with her hand held up over her mouth and amanic expression in her eyes. the sister hurried over to her mother andheld her forehead. the sister's words seemed to have led thefather to certain reflections. he sat upright, played with his uniform hatamong the plates, which still lay on the table from the lodgers' evening meal, andlooked now and then at the motionless gregor. "we must try to get rid of it," the sisternow said decisively to the father, for the

mother, in her coughing fit, was notlistening to anything. "it is killing you both. i see it coming.when people have to work as hard as we all do, they cannot also tolerate this endlesstorment at home. i just can't go on any more." and she broke out into such a crying fitthat her tears flowed out down onto her mother's face.she wiped them off her mother with mechanical motions of her hands. "child," said the father sympatheticallyand with obvious appreciation, "then what

should we do?" the sister only shrugged her shoulders as asign of the perplexity which, in contrast to her previous confidence, had come overher while she was crying. "if only he understood us," said the fatherin a semi-questioning tone. the sister, in the midst of her sobbing,shook her hand energetically as a sign that there was no point thinking of that. "if he only understood us," repeated thefather and by shutting his eyes he absorbed the sister's conviction of theimpossibility of this point, "then perhaps some compromise would be possible with him.

but as it is.. .""it must be gotten rid of," cried the sister. "that is the only way, father.you must try to get rid of the idea that this is gregor.the fact that we have believed for so long, that is truly our real misfortune. but how can it be gregor?if it were gregor, he would have long ago realized that a communal life among humanbeings is not possible with such an animal and would have gone away voluntarily.

then we would not have a brother, but wecould go on living and honour his memory. but this animal plagues us. it drives away the lodgers, will obviouslytake over the entire apartment, and leave us to spend the night in the alley.just look, father," she suddenly cried out, "he's already starting up again." with a fright which was totallyincomprehensible to gregor, the sister even left the mother, pushed herself away fromher chair, as if she would sooner sacrifice her mother than remain in gregor's vicinity, and rushed behind her father who,excited merely by her behaviour, also stood

up and half raised his arms in front of thesister as though to protect her. but gregor did not have any notion ofwishing to create problems for anyone and certainly not for his sister. he had just started to turn himself aroundin order to creep back into his room, quite a startling sight, since, as a result ofhis suffering condition, he had to guide himself through the difficulty of turning around with his head, in this processlifting and banging it against the floor several times.he paused and looked around. his good intentions seem to have beenrecognized.

the fright had lasted only for a moment.now they looked at him in silence and sorrow. his mother lay in her chair, with her legsstretched out and pressed together; her eyes were almost shut from weariness.the father and sister sat next to one the sister had set her hands around thefather's neck. "now perhaps i can actually turn myselfaround," thought gregor and began the task again. he couldn't stop puffing at the effort andhad to rest now and then. besides, no one was urging him on.it was all left to him on his own.

when he had completed turning around, heimmediately began to wander straight back. he was astonished at the great distancewhich separated him from his room and did not understand in the least how in hisweakness he had covered the same distance a short time before, almost without noticingit. constantly intent only on creeping alongquickly, he hardly paid any attention to the fact that no word or cry from hisfamily interrupted him. only when he was already in the door did heturn his head, not completely, because he felt his neck growing stiff.at any rate he still saw that behind him nothing had changed.

only the sister was standing up.his last glimpse brushed over the mother who was now completely asleep. hardly was he inside his room when the doorwas pushed shut very quickly, bolted fast, and barred. gregor was startled by the sudden commotionbehind him, so much so that his little limbs bent double under him.it was his sister who had been in such a hurry. she had stood up right away, had waited,and had then sprung forward nimbly. gregor had not heard anything of herapproach.

she cried out "finally!" to her parents, asshe turned the key in the lock. "what now?"gregor asked himself and looked around him in the darkness. he soon made the discovery that he could nolonger move at all. he was not surprised at that. on the contrary, it struck him as unnaturalthat up to this point he had really been able up to move around with these thinlittle legs. besides he felt relatively content. true, he had pains throughout his entirebody, but it seemed to him that they were

gradually becoming weaker and weaker andwould finally go away completely. the rotten apple in his back and theinflamed surrounding area, entirely covered with white dust, he hardly noticed.he remembered his family with deep feelings of love. in this business, his own thought that hehad to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than his sister's. he remained in this state of empty andpeaceful reflection until the tower clock struck three o'clock in the morning.from the window he witnessed the beginning of the general dawning outside.

then without willing it, his head sank allthe way down, and from his nostrils flowed out weakly his last breath.early in the morning the cleaning woman came. in her sheer energy and haste she bangedall the doors--in precisely the way people had already asked her to avoid--so much sothat once she arrived a quiet sleep was no longer possible anywhere in the entireapartment. in her customarily brief visit to gregorshe at first found nothing special. she thought he lay so immobile therebecause he wanted to play the offended party.she gave him credit for as complete an

understanding as possible. since she happened to be holding the longbroom in her hand, she tried to tickle gregor with it from the door. when that was quite unsuccessful, shebecame irritated and poked gregor a little, and only when she had shoved him from hisplace without any resistance did she become attentive. when she quickly realized the true state ofaffairs, her eyes grew large, she whistled to herself.however, she didn't restrain herself for long.

she pulled open the door of the bedroom andyelled in a loud voice into the darkness, "come and look.it's kicked the bucket. it's lying there, totally snuffed!" the samsa married couple sat upright intheir marriage bed and had to get over their fright at the cleaning woman beforethey managed to grasp her message. but then mr. and mrs. samsa climbed veryquickly out of bed, one on either side. mr. samsa threw the bedspread over hisshoulders, mrs. samsa came out only in her night-shirt, and like this they steppedinto gregor's room. meanwhile, the door of the living room, inwhich grete had slept since the lodgers had

arrived on the scene, had also opened. she was fully clothed, as if she had notslept at all; her white face also seem to indicate that. "dead?" said mrs. samsa and lookedquestioningly at the cleaning woman, although she could check everything on herown and even understand without a check. "i should say so," said the cleaning womanand, by way of proof, poked gregor's body with the broom a considerable distance moreto the side. mrs. samsa made a movement as if she wishedto restrain the broom, but didn't do it. "well," said mr. samsa, "now we can givethanks to god."

he crossed himself, and the three womenfollowed his example. grete, who did not take her eyes off thecorpse, said, "look how thin he was. he had eaten nothing for such a long time. the meals which came in here came out againexactly the same." in fact, gregor's body was completely flatand dry. that was apparent really for the firsttime, now that he was no longer raised on his small limbs and nothing else distractedone's gaze. "grete, come into us for a moment," saidmrs. samsa with a melancholy smile, and grete went, not without looking back at thecorpse, behind her parents into the bed

room. the cleaning woman shut the door and openedthe window wide. in spite of the early morning, the freshair was partly tinged with warmth. it was already the end of march. the three lodgers stepped out of their roomand looked around for their breakfast, astonished that they had been forgotten. "where is the breakfast?" asked the middleone of the gentlemen grumpily to the cleaning woman. however, she laid her finger to her lipsand then quickly and silently indicated to

the lodgers that they could come intogregor's room. so they came and stood in the room, whichwas already quite bright, around gregor's corpse, their hands in the pockets of theirsomewhat worn jackets. then the door of the bed room opened, andmr. samsa appeared in his uniform, with his wife on one arm and his daughter on theother. all were a little tear stained. now and then grete pressed her face ontoher father's arm. "get out of my apartment immediately," saidmr. samsa and pulled open the door, without letting go of the women.

"what do you mean?" said the middle lodger,somewhat dismayed and with a sugary smile. the two others kept their hands behind themand constantly rubbed them against each other, as if in joyful anticipation of agreat squabble which must end up in their favour. "i mean exactly what i say," replied mr.samsa and went directly with his two female companions up to the lodger. the latter at first stood there motionlessand looked at the floor, as if matters were arranging themselves in a new way in hishead. "all right, then we'll go," he said andlooked up at mr. samsa as if, suddenly

overcome by humility, he was asking freshpermission for this decision. mr. samsa merely nodded to him repeatedlywith his eyes open wide. following that, the lodger actually wentwith long strides immediately out into the hall. his two friends had already been listeningfor a while with their hands quite still, and now they hopped smartly after him, asif afraid that mr. samsa could step into the hall ahead of them and disturb theirreunion with their leader. in the hall all three of them took theirhats from the coat rack, pulled their canes from the cane holder, bowed silently, andleft the apartment.

in what turned out to be an entirelygroundless mistrust, mr. samsa stepped with the two women out onto the landing, leanedagainst the railing, and looked over as the three lodgers slowly but steadily made their way down the long staircase,disappeared on each floor in a certain turn of the stairwell, and in a few seconds cameout again. the deeper they proceeded, the more thesamsa family lost interest in them, and when a butcher with a tray on his head cometo meet them and then with a proud bearing ascended the stairs high above them, mr. samsa., together with the women, left thebanister, and they all returned, as if

relieved, back into their apartment.they decided to pass that day resting and going for a stroll. not only had they earned this break fromwork, but there was no question that they really needed it. and so they sat down at the table and wrotethree letters of apology: mr. samsa to his supervisor, mrs. samsa to her client, andgrete to her proprietor. during the writing the cleaning woman camein to say that she was going off, for her morning work was finished.the three people writing at first merely nodded, without glancing up.

only when the cleaning woman was stillunwilling to depart, did they look up angrily."well?" asked mr. samsa. the cleaning woman stood smiling in thedoorway, as if she had a great stroke of luck to report to the family but would onlydo it if she was asked directly. the almost upright small ostrich feather inher hat, which had irritated mr. samsa during her entire service, swayed lightlyin all directions. "all right then, what do you really want?"asked mrs. samsa, whom the cleaning lady still usually respected. "well," answered the cleaning woman,smiling so happily she couldn't go on

speaking right away, "about how thatrubbish from the next room should be thrown out, you mustn't worry about it. it's all taken care of."mrs. samsa and grete bent down to their letters, as though they wanted to go onwriting. mr. samsa, who noticed that the cleaningwoman wanted to start describing everything in detail, decisively prevented her with anoutstretched hand. but since she was not allowed to explain,she remembered the great hurry she was in, and called out, clearly insulted, "bye bye,everyone," turned around furiously and left the apartment with a fearful slamming ofthe door.

"this evening she'll be let go," said mr.samsa, but he got no answer from either his wife or from his daughter, because thecleaning woman seemed to have upset once again the tranquillity they had justattained. they got up, went to the window, andremained there, with their arms about each other. mr. samsa turned around in his chair intheir direction and observed them quietly for a while.then he called out, "all right, come here then. let's finally get rid of old things.and have a little consideration for me."

the women attended to him at once.they rushed to him, caressed him, and quickly ended their letters. then all three left the apartment together,something they had not done for months now, and took the electric tram into the openair outside the city. the car in which they were sitting bythemselves was totally engulfed by the warm sun. leaning back comfortably in their seats,they talked to each other about future prospects, and they discovered that oncloser observation these were not at all bad, for the three of them had employment,

about which they had not really questionedeach other at all, which was extremely favourable and with especially promisingprospects. the greatest improvement in their situationat this moment, of course, had to come from a change of dwelling. now they wanted to rent an apartmentsmaller and cheaper but better situated and generally more practical than the presentone, which gregor had found. while they amused themselves in this way,it struck mr. and mrs. samsa, almost at the same moment, how their daughter, who wasgetting more animated all the time, had blossomed recently, in spite of all the

troubles which had made her cheeks pale,into a beautiful and voluptuous young woman. growing more silent and almostunconsciously understanding each other in their glances, they thought that the timewas now at hand to seek out a good honest man for her. and it was something of a confirmation oftheir new dreams and good intentions when at the end of their journey their daughtergot up first and stretched her young body.

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