Plot Summary
Chapter II of The Metamorphosis opens at twilight as Gregor Samsa awakens from a deep sleep, his left side aching and one leg damaged from the morning's confrontation. Drawn to the door by the smell of food, he discovers a basin of milk and bread left by his sister Grete, but finds his once-favorite drink repulsive. He retreats to the middle of his room, noting the unnatural silence in the household. The next morning, Grete replaces the milk with an array of spoiled and leftover food spread on newspaper. Gregor devours the decaying vegetables and cheese with tears of satisfaction while ignoring anything fresh. This feeding routine becomes established: Grete brings food twice daily, and the family avoids direct contact with Gregor. The household cook departs after learning of the situation, swearing an oath of secrecy.
During the first evening, Gregor overhears his father explaining the family finances. He learns that some savings survived the collapse of the elder Samsa's business, supplemented by money Gregor himself had contributed. However, these funds can sustain the family for only a year or two. Gregor reflects on his secret plan to send Grete to the Conservatorium to study violin, a dream now rendered impossible. As weeks pass, Gregor develops a habit of crawling over the walls and ceiling, leaving sticky trails. Grete decides to remove the furniture to give him more crawling space and enlists their mother's help while the father is out.
The mother objects, arguing that removing the furniture signals they have abandoned hope of Gregor's recovery. Her words jolt Gregor back to a sense of his own humanity. When the women begin clearing the room anyway, Gregor rushes out and clings to a framed picture of a woman in furs, refusing to let it be taken. His mother catches sight of him and faints. Grete runs for smelling salts; Gregor follows, startling her, and a bottle shatters against his face. Cut off from his mother, Gregor crawls frantically around the room in despair. When the father returns home, now impressively dressed in a bank messenger's uniform, he misinterprets the situation and chases Gregor around the room. The chapter climaxes as the father bombards Gregor with apples; one lodges painfully in his back. As Gregor's vision fails, he sees his mother rush from the bedroom to embrace the father and beg for her son's life.
Character Development
Grete emerges as Gregor's primary caretaker, assuming a new authority within the household. She learns his food preferences, pushes the armchair to the window for him, and takes charge of rearranging his room. Yet her care is tinged with revulsion—she rushes to open windows upon entering and cannot bear to look at him directly. The parents are largely absent from Gregor's daily life; the mother's emotional plea to enter his room reveals her lingering maternal bond, while her fainting at the sight of him exposes the limits of that devotion. The father undergoes the most dramatic visible transformation: from a lethargic, bathrobe-clad man dependent on Gregor's income, he has become an imposing figure in a crisp bank uniform, embodying renewed authority and physical menace.
Themes and Motifs
The tension between Gregor's human consciousness and insect body intensifies throughout the chapter. His rejection of fresh milk and craving for rotten food mark his physical alienation from humanity, while his emotional response to his mother's voice and his desperate attachment to the fur portrait reveal a mind still clinging to human identity. The family's financial discussion exposes the economic exploitation that defined Gregor's pre-metamorphosis life—he sacrificed his own desires to support a household that grew complacent about his labor. The furniture removal episode crystallizes the central question: should the family accommodate Gregor's new nature or preserve hope for his return to humanity?
Literary Devices
Kafka employs rich symbolism throughout the chapter. The fur portrait represents Gregor's last tangible connection to his human identity and desires. The father's uniform symbolizes a reversal of power—the formerly dependent patriarch reclaims dominance as Gregor loses agency. The apple that lodges in Gregor's back carries biblical echoes of original sin and expulsion, marking a point of no return in his degradation. Kafka's use of free indirect discourse blurs the line between Gregor's thoughts and the narrator's observations, immersing the reader in a consciousness caught between species. The chapter's structure mirrors Gregor's shrinking world: it begins with quiet domestic observation and escalates to violent confrontation, tracing the family's trajectory from cautious accommodation to open hostility.