Gregor Samsa opens his eyes to the pale light of dawn, expecting another weary day on the road. But something is wrong. His limbs don’t respond. His back is stiff, curved unnaturally. When he tries to speak, only a strange clicking escapes his mouth. Panic surges as he realizes he hasn’t overslept—he has awakened as something else entirely. Trapped in a grotesque new form, Gregor is forced to confront a reality that not even the most restless dream could have conjured.
Outside his locked door, life continues. His family pleads, his manager arrives demanding explanations, and Gregor listens, helpless, as their confusion curdles into horror. What once defined him—his work, his duty, his role as a provider—slips away as he becomes a burden too shameful to face. His room becomes a prison, time stretches thin, and the walls close in as the world forgets the man who once lived behind them.
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a haunting and unforgettable descent into alienation, told through the quiet desperation of a man whose humanity is lost even before his body changes.