356
PARTISAN REVIEW
and the sauce; the fresh food, on the other hand, had no charms for
him, he could not even stand the smell of it and actually dragged away
to some little distance the things he could eat." The sister turns the key
in the lock slowly as a warning that he shou ld retreat, and she comes
and cleans up while Gregor, full of food, tries to hide under the couch.
Scene IV:
Grete, the sister, takes on a new importance. It is she who
feeds the beetle; she a lone enters the beetle's lair, sighing and with an
occasional appeal to the saints-it is such a Christian family . In a
wonderful passage the cook goes down on her knees to Mrs . Samsa and
begs to leave. With tears in her eyes she thanks the Samsas for all owing
her to go- as if she were a liberated slave-and without any prompting
she swears a solemn oath that she wi ll never say a single word to
anyone about what is happening in the Samsa household. "Gregor was
fed, once in the early morning while his parents and the servant girl
were still asleep, and a second time after they had a ll had their midday
dinner, for then his parents took a short nap and the servant g irl could
be sent out on some errand or other by his sister. Not that they would
have wanted him to starve, of course, but perhaps they could not have
borne to know more about his feeding than from hearsay, perhaps too
his sister wanted to spare them such little anx iet ies wherever possible,
since they had quite enough to bear as it was. "
Scene V:
This is a very distressing scene. It transpires that in his
human past Gregor has been deceived by his family. Gregor had taken
that dreadful job with that nightmare firm because he wished to help
his father who five years ago had gone bankrupt. "They had simply got
used to it, both the family and Gregor; the money was gratefully
accepted and gladly given, but there was no specia l uprush of warm
feeling. With his sister a lone had he remained intimate, and it was a
secret plan of his that she, who loved music, unlike himself, and could
play movingly on the violin, shou ld be sent next year to study at the
School of Music, despite the great expense that would entail, which
must be made up in some other way . During his brief visits home the
School of Music was often mentioned in the talks he had with his sister,
but always merely as a beautiful dream which cou ld never come true,
and his parents discouraged even these innocent references to it; yet
Gregor had made up his mind firmly about it and meant to announce
the fact with due so lemnity on Christmas Day. " Gregor now overhears
his father exp la ining "that a certain amount of investments, a very
small amount it was true, had survived the wreck of their fortunes and
had even increased a little because the dividends had not been touched
meanwhile. And besides that, the money Gregor brought home every
