- end_line
- 1814
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-28T17:34:53.099Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1764
- text
- make a nuisance of herself and poked at him a little, and only when she
found she could shove him across the floor with no resistance at all
did she start to pay attention. She soon realised what had really
happened, opened her eyes wide, whistled to herself, but did not waste
time to yank open the bedroom doors and shout loudly into the darkness
of the bedrooms: “Come and ’ave a look at this, it’s dead, just lying
there, stone dead!”
Mr. and Mrs. Samsa sat upright there in their marriage bed and had to
make an effort to get over the shock caused by the cleaner before they
could grasp what she was saying. But then, each from his own side, they
hurried out of bed. Mr. Samsa threw the blanket over his shoulders,
Mrs. Samsa just came out in her nightdress; and that is how they went
into Gregor’s room. On the way they opened the door to the living room
where Grete had been sleeping since the three gentlemen had moved in;
she was fully dressed as if she had never been asleep, and the paleness
of her face seemed to confirm this. “Dead?”, asked Mrs. Samsa, looking
at the charwoman enquiringly, even though she could have checked for
herself and could have known it even without checking. “That’s what I
said”, replied the cleaner, and to prove it she gave Gregor’s body
another shove with the broom, sending it sideways across the floor.
Mrs. Samsa made a movement as if she wanted to hold back the broom, but
did not complete it. “Now then”, said Mr. Samsa, “let’s give thanks to
God for that”. He crossed himself, and the three women followed his
example. Grete, who had not taken her eyes from the corpse, said: “Just
look how thin he was. He didn’t eat anything for so long. The food came
out again just the same as when it went in”. Gregor’s body was indeed
completely dried up and flat, they had not seen it until then, but now
he was not lifted up on his little legs, nor did he do anything to make
them look away.
“Grete, come with us in here for a little while”, said Mrs. Samsa with
a pained smile, and Grete followed her parents into the bedroom but not
without looking back at the body. The cleaner shut the door and opened
the window wide. Although it was still early in the morning the fresh
air had something of warmth mixed in with it. It was already the end of
March, after all.
The three gentlemen stepped out of their room and looked round in
amazement for their breakfasts; they had been forgotten about. “Where
is our breakfast?”, the middle gentleman asked the cleaner irritably.
She just put her finger on her lips and made a quick and silent sign to
the men that they might like to come into Gregor’s room. They did so,
and stood around Gregor’s corpse with their hands in the pockets of
their well-worn coats. It was now quite light in the room.
Then the door of the bedroom opened and Mr. Samsa appeared in his
uniform with his wife on one arm and his daughter on the other. All of
them had been crying a little; Grete now and then pressed her face
against her father’s arm.
- title
- Chunk 13