59 pages • 1 hour read
Franz KafkaThe Metamorphosis
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1915A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Part 1
Reading Check
1. What is Gregor Samsa’s predicament when he wakes up?
2. Who arrives at the house looking for Gregor?
3. How does the visitor react to Gregor refusing to open his bedroom door?
4. What causes Gregor’s injuries at the end of Part I?
Multiple Choice
1. How does Gregor approach his new situation?
A) with abject terror
B) with misplaced rationality and calm
C) with a sense of awe
D) with anger and frustration
2. Why is Gregor under a great deal of pressure at work?
A) He knows management does not trust the employees.
B) He has been neglecting his work lately.
C) He stole money from the office and thought he could get away with it.
D) He angered his boss with a rude comment.
3. What does Gregor think will happen when the family and the visitor see his current state?
A) They will flee from the house.
B) They will not recognize him and assume he is someone or something else.
C) They will take over the financial responsibilities of the house.
D) They will see he cannot go to work and therefore leave him alone.
4. Why don’t Gregor’s pleas with his manager and family work?
A) They cannot hear him through the door.
B) They think he is not telling the truth.
C) They cannot understand his voice.
D) They won’t accept his predicament as a reason for not letting them in.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is Gregor’s biggest concern about his new state in Part I of the novella? What are the consequences of his new state for his job?
2. Why does Gregor struggle so much to get out of bed and open the door?
3. How does Gregor’s family react to him?
4. Why is Gregor’s mental state particularly tragic with regard to his transformation?
Part 2
Reading Check
1. Which character tries to take care of Gregor?
2. What is different about Gregor’s appetite?
3. Why does Gregor move his chair every day?
4. What does Mr. Samsa intend to do when he finds Gregor out of his room?
Multiple Choice
1. What is “the greatest favor” that Anna wants from the family?
A) to have time away to take care of her ill family
B) to be released from her position
C) to no longer speak of Gregor
D) to have a raise because of the changed circumstances
2. What was Gregor planning to do with some of his income at Christmas?
A) take the family on a vacation
B) pay Grete’s tuition for a conservatory program
C) provide a glorious feast for them
D) get his father a new chair in which to rest
3. Why does Gregor flee his room?
A) He doesn’t want his mother to see him again.
B) He is afraid for his life.
C) He cannot bear being stuck in it any longer.
D) He wants to return to work and explain everything to his superiors.
4. What’s different about Mr. Samsa when Gregor sees him for the first time in Part II?
A) He is wearing a uniform and no longer seems frail.
B) He has become far more compassionate toward Gregor.
C) He has fallen further into a state of indigence.
D) He has begun to dress and act as a wealthy person does.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Gregor realize about his role as the primary earner in the household?
2. Why is Grete’s idea of moving furniture an act of compassion toward Gregor in his new state?
3. What causes Gregor to try and stop Grete and Mrs. Samsa from moving his furniture?
4. What does Gregor’s desire to keep the picture of the woman in furs hanging up represent?
Part 3
Reading Check
1. What do each of the family members do in response to Gregor’s inability to work?
2. How does the new cleaning woman feel about Gregor?
3. What causes Gregor to leave his room in Part III?
4. What is Gregor’s fate at the end of the novella?
Multiple Choice
1. What do the Samsas do for Gregor to help him be more comfortable?
A) They built a nest for him.
B) They leave the window open for him.
C) They leave his door open in the evening.
D) They let him roam the house freely.
2. What does Grete think Gregor would have done if he could understand them?
A) left them
B) tried to communicate with them
C) responded to their requests
D) tried to help them earn money
3. What do the lodgers do in response to seeing Gregor?
A) They recoil in horror.
B) They laugh at the absurdity of him.
C) They become violent toward him.
D) They threaten legal action.
4. What must the Samsas do before they can rest at the end of the novella?
A) take care of Gregor
B) write letters to their employers
C) retrieve money from Gregor’s account
D) deal with the lodgers’ demands
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What feelings are implicit in Grete’s changed behavior toward Gregor in the early part of Part III?
2. What causes Gregor’s fate at the end of the novella?
3. Why does Mr. Samsa intend to fire the cleaning woman?
4. How does the tone of the novella change in its closing scenes?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Part 1
Reading Check
1. He has been turned into vermin (or an insect, depending on the translation).
2. the office manager
3. He starts to berate him and threaten his job.
4. his father’s push
Multiple Choice
1. B
2. A
3. D
4. C
Short-Answer Response
1. He is worried about what consequences it will have for his job.
2. He is not able to use his limbs effectively, and his back is a hard carapace.
3. They treat him with fear and disgust, which leads to his father’s attack.
4. He is still human in his mind, even though his body is transformed.
Part 2
Reading Check
1. Grete
2. He only wants rotten things.
3. to look out the window
4. He intends to kill him.
Multiple Choice
1. B
2. B
3. A
4. A
Short-Answer Response
1. He realizes that, for his parents, this was his primary value, and they received it without any “special warmth” toward him.
2. She is making it easier for him to climb on the walls and ceiling; she has begun to think of him in terms of who he is now, not who he used to be.
3. His mother’s words, that they’ve “given up hope” by doing so, make him think about himself as a human being again.
4. his desire to cling to his humanity and his dreams for himself
Part 3
Reading Check
1. They each find ways to earn income.
2. She is unafraid of him.
3. Grete’s violin playing
4. He dies.
Multiple Choice
1. C
2. A
3. D
4. B
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. She resents him for her changed circumstances and no longer wants to care for him.
2. He refuses to eat and dies of a combination of his wounds and starvation brought on by depression.
3. She disposed of Gregor’s body as though it were trash.
4. It becomes hopeful, focusing on the Samsas’ future prospects and the relief they feel now that Gregor is gone.
Related Titles
By Franz Kafka
