Ap94 P1 The Metamorphosis

voices. The reader has not yet met Gregor’s family members, but the description of their voices as they call to Gregor through the locked door reveals a little about each of them. When his mother calls to him, Gregor thinks, “That gentle voice!” His father speaks “with a warning deepness in his voice,” and his sister speaks “plaintively” and then whispers to him. The words they say are all basically the same, but his mother’s gentleness, his father’s harshness, and his sister’s solicitousness are evident in the description of their voices.

elaborate on it. The first clause states that throwing off the covers was “a simple matter.” The second and third clauses elaborate on this statement by explaining that Gregor “only had to blow himself up a little and they fell off by themselves.” The second part of the sentence does not merely restate, or reiterate, the first. It adds more detail.

self-serving. Gregor is clearly resentful of his demanding job and his unreasonable boss, but he dutifully remains in his job, and will do so for another five or six years, so that he can make money to pay off his parents’ debt. He pities himself for having to get up early and complains that “Other travelling salesmen live a life of luxury.” As much as he would like to quit his job, he is pragmatic in his conclusion that he cannot afford to do so at this point, and he tells himself, “I’ve got to get up, my train leaves at five.” Gregor is not self-serving; he puts his family’s interests and needs above his own.

dreams of a more comfortable life and lack of interpersonal relationships. In this passage, we learn that Gregor is unhappy with his tedious life as a salesman who gets no appreciation and no rest. He has hung a framed magazine picture of a lady covered in furs, suggesting that he is attracted by material comforts, in contrast to his own difficult life. The fact that he has framed an impersonal magazine picture instead of a photograph of an acquaintance or loved one hints that Gregor lacks significant interpersonal relationships. He comments in the next paragraph that in his job “you can never get to know anyone or become friendly with them.” There is nothing to suggest that the magazine illustration is particularly aesthetically pleasing. In fact, the “gilded frame” around a picture cut from a magazine evokes an image of gaudy excess.

the narrator relates the events in a straightforward manner. The first paragraph provides no information about Gregor’s level of awareness regarding his situation. The reader knows that being transformed into “a horrible vermin” is worse than any “troubled dreams” Gregor may have been having, and we are told that Gregor is able to see his new body. However, these are plain facts, not ironic ones. The irony lies in the completely straightforward manner in which the narrator explains that “One morning,” Gregor awoke to find himself “transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.” This revelation is given without any comment. The narrator simply proceeds to detail Gregor’s movements as he wakes. The completely dispassionate narration of an event of such enormity is incongruous and ironic.

litotes. It is a steep understatement to say that Gregor, who has been transformed into an insect, “did not at all feel particularly fresh and lively” this morning. Litotes is an understatement phrased in negative terms (“did not at all feel . . .”).

non sequitur. Gregor’s thoughts are about the inconveniences of his career: travelling all the time, bad food, “contact with different people all the time.” These thoughts do not logically follow (the definition of non sequitur) from what has just occurred. He has seen that he has been transformed into a giant insect, shutting his eyes so as not to look at his “floundering legs.” Rather than lament this fact, though, he begins to reflect on the annoyances of his job.

evaluation of the momentous change that has occurred. In this paragraph, Gregor does not matter-of-factly observe his changed appearance as he has done up to this point. He remembers that he often feels pain in bed as a result of lying awkwardly, and he decides that the pain he feels today will turn out, like those other pains, to be “pure imagination.” He wonders “how his imaginings would slowly resolve themselves today.” He reflects that the odd change in his voice “was nothing more than the first sign of a serious cold, which was an occupational hazard for travelling salesmen.” Only in this paragraph does Gregor indulge in denial of his situation. By the following paragraph, he is aware that numerous “little legs” have replaced his arms and hands. Whether Gregor is in denial or, as in the previous paragraphs, admitting his situation, his approach remains practical and pragmatic. In the preceding paragraph, he carefully considers how he must modulate his voice when he understands that he has changed. In this paragraph, he remains practical, considering details about dressing and breakfast.