Home > Work > The Metamorphosis
1 " The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred. "
― Franz Kafka , The Metamorphosis
2 " I only fear danger where I want to fear it. "
3 " What's happened to me,' he thought. It was no dream. "
4 " Was he a beast if music could move him so? "
5 " However, Gregor had become much calmer. All right, people did not understand his words any more, although they seemed clear enough to him, clearer than previously, perhaps because had gotten used to them "
6 " As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. "
7 " A man might find for a moment that he was unable to work, but that's exactly the right time to remember his past accomplishments and to consider that later on, when the obstacles has been removed, he's bound to work all the harder and more efficiently. "
8 " But what now if all the peace, the comfort, the contentment were to come to a horrible end? "
9 " I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself. "
10 " Was he an animal, that music could move him so? He felt as if the way to the unknown nourishment he longed for were coming to light. "
11 " How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense", "
12 " He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's. He remained in this state of empty and peaceful reflection until the tower clock struck three in the morning. He still saw that outside the window everything was beginning to grow light. Then, without his consent, his head sank down to the floor, and from his nostrils streamed his last weak breath. "
13 " He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone. "
14 " The sister played so beautifully. Her face was tilted to one side and she followed the notes with soulful and probing eyes. Gregor advanced a little, keeping his eyes low so that they might possibly meet hers. Was he a beast if music could move him so? "
15 " What a fate: to be condemned to work for a firm where the slightest negligence at once gave rise to the gravest suspicion! Were all the employees nothing but a bunch of scoundrels, was there not among them one single loyal devoted man who, had he wasted only an hour or so of the firm's time in the morning, was so tormented by conscience as to be driven out of his mind and actually incapable of leaving his bed? "
16 " the blend of absurd, surreal and mundane which gave rise to the adjective "kafkaesque "
17 " Calm —indeed the calmest— reflection might be better than the most confused decisions "
18 " One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous bug… "
19 " But Gregor understood easily that it was not only consideration for him which prevented their moving, for he could easily have been transported in a suitable crate with a few air holes; what mainly prevented the family from moving was their complete hopelessness and the thought that they had been struck by a misfortune as none of their relatives and acquaintances had ever been hit. "
20 " If I didn't have my parents to think about I'd have given in my notice a long time ago, I'd have gone up to the boss and told him just what I think, tell him everything I would, let him know just what I feel. He'd fall right off his desk! And it's a funny sort of business to be sitting up there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there, especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is hard of hearing. "
