Scene V: This is a very distressing scene. It transpires that in his human past Gregor has
been deceived by his family. Gregor had taken that dreadful job with that nightmare firm
because he wished to help his father who five years ago had gone bankrupt. “They had
simply got used to it, both the family and Gregor; the money was gratefully accepted and
gladly given, but there was no special uprush of warm feeling. With his sister alone had
he remained intimate, and it was a secret plan of his that she, who loved music, unlike
himself, and could play movingly on the violin, should be sent next year to study at the
School of Music, despite the great expense that would entail, which must be made up in
some other way. During his brief visits home the School of Music was often mentioned in
the talks he had with his sister, but always merely as a beautiful dream which could never
come true, and his parents discouraged even these innocent references to it; yet Gregor
had made up his mind firmly about it and meant to announce the fact with due solemnity
on Christmas Day.” Gregor now overhears his father explaining “that a certain amount of
investments, a very small amount it was true, had survived the wreck of their fortunes
and had even increased a little because the dividends had not been touched meanwhile.
And besides that, the money Gregor brought home every month—he had kept only a few
dollars for himself—had never been quite used up and now amounted to a small capital
sum. Behind the door Gregor nodded his head eagerly, rejoiced at his evidence of
unexpected thrift and foresight. True, he could really have paid off some more of his
father’s debts to the boss with this extra money, and so brought much nearer the day on
which he could quit his job, but doubtless it was better the way his father had arranged
it.” The family believes this sum should be kept untouched for a rainy day, but in the
meantime how are the living expenses to be met? The father has not worked for five
years and could not be expected to do much. And Gregor’s mother’s asthma would keep
her from working. ”And was his sister to earn her bread, she who was still a child of
seventeen and whose life hitherto had been so pleasant, consisting as it did in dressing
herself nicely, sleeping long, helping in the housekeeping, going out to a few modest
entertainments and above all playing the violin? At first whenever the need for earning
money was mentioned Gregor let go his hold on the door and threw himself down on the
cool leather sofa beside it, he felt so hot with shame and grief.”
Scene VI: A new relationship begins between brother and sister, this time having to do
with a window instead of a door. Gregor “nerved himself to the great effort of pushing an
armchair to the window, then crawled up over the window sill and, braced against the
chair, leaned against the windowpanes, obviously in some recollection of the sense of
freedom that looking out of a window always used to give him.” Gregor, or Kafka, seems
to think that Gregor’s urge to approach the window was a recollection of human
experience. Actually, it is a typical insect reaction to light: one finds all sorts of dusty
bugs near windowpanes, a moth on its back, a lame daddy longlegs, poor insects
cobwebbed in a corner, a buzzing fly still trying to conquer the glass pane. Gregor’s
human sight is growing dimmer so that he cannot see clearly even across the street. The
human detail is dominated by the insect general idea. (But let us not ourselves be insects.
Let us first of all study every detail in this story; the general idea will come of itself later
when we have all the data we need.) His sister does not understand that Gregor has
retained a human heart, human sensitivity, a human sense of decorum, of shame, of
humility and pathetic pride. She disturbs him horribly by the noise and haste with which
she opens the window to breathe some fresh air, and she does not bother to conceal her