The Metamorphosis

Gregor wakes up on his bedroom floor at twilight. Energized from his day-long rest, Gregor moves toward his bedroom door, "groping awkwardly with his feelers" (18). The morning's incident with Mr. Samsa has left Gregor’s left side feeling like a "long unpleasantly stretched scar" (18), and he has to hobble on his sets of legs. 

As Gregor reaches the bedroom door, he realizes what lured him there: the sweet smell of milk and bread. Excited to eat his favorite meal, Gregor thrusts his head into the milk bowl but draws back just as quickly. It's not the pain in his left side that keeps him from eating, it's that the food "does not appeal to him at all" (18). Disappointed and hungry, Gregor crawls back to the middle of his bedroom. 

Through a crack in his bedroom's double doors, Gregor sees the light from a gas lamp coming from the living room. From Grete's letters to him, Gregor knows that normally at this time, Mr. Samsa reads aloud from the newspaper to Mrs. Samsa and Grete. Gregor knows his family is in the living room, yet tonight they make no sound. Gregor feels proud that his steady job has provided his family with "all tranquility, all prosperity, all contentment" (19), but he now fears it will all end.