VLADIMIR NABOKOV
349
In the origina l German text the old cha rwoman ca lls him
1\1
istkiijer,
a
"dung bee tle."
It
is obvious tha t the good woman is adding the epithet
onl y to be fri endly. He is no t, technica ll y, a dung bee tle. He is merely a
big bee tle. (I must add tha t neither Gregor nor Kafka saw that bee tle
any too clearly.)
Let us loo k closer a t the transforma tion. The change, though
shocking and s triking, is no t quite so odd as might be assumed a t first
glance. A commonsensical commenta tor (Paul
L.
Landsberg in
The
Kafka Problem,
1946, ed . Angel Flores) no tes tha t "When we go to bed
in unfamilia r surroundings, we are apt to have a moment of bewilder–
ment upo n awakening, a sudden sense o f unreality, and this experience
must occur over and over aga in in the life o f a commercial traveller, a
manner o f living tha t renders imposs ible any sense o f continuity." T he
sense o f rea lity depends upon continuity, upon dura tion . After all,
awakening as an insect is no t much different from awakening as
Napoleon or George Washing ton . (I knew a man who awoke as the
Emperor o f Brazil. ) On the other hand , the isola tion , and the stra nge–
ness, of so-ca lled reality-this is, a fter a ll , something which constantl y
characterizes the a rtist, the genius, the discoverer. T he Samsa family
around the fantas tic insec t is no thing else tha n mediocrity surrounding
genius.
PART 0 E
I am now going to spea k of struc ture. Part one of the story can be
divided into seven scenes or segments:
Scene I:
Gregor wakes up. He is alone. He has a lready been
changed into a beetl e, but his human impress io ns still mingle with his
new insec t in stincts. The scene ends with the introduc tion of the still
human time element.
"He looked at the a la rm clock ticking on the ches t. Good Lord ! he
thought.
It
was ha lf-pas t six and the hands were quietly moving on, it
was even past the ha lf-hour, it was ge lling on towa rd a quarter to
seven. Had the a la rm clock no t gone o ff? ... The next train went a t
seven o'clock; to ca tch tha t he wo uld need to hurry like mad and hi s
samples weren ' t even packed up, and he himself wasn ' t feeling particu–
larl y fresh and ac tive. And even if he did catch the train he wouldn 't
