Kafka’s Metamorphosis: Gregor and the Lady in Fur (e-Mat2869)

A man in a worn suit with a briefcase stands in a dim hallway, looking up at a framed picture of a lady in fur – AI illustration of Gregor Samsa in Kafka's The Metamorphosis
  • This is how Gregor Samsa might have looked before his transformation: a travelling salesman, sample case in hand, always on the road, always tired.
  • His eyes are on the picture of the lady in fur – the one thing in his room he will later fight for.
  • Why this picture, of all things? It is one of the most intriguing details in the whole story.
  • And at the end of this page: how the image was created – including a failed first attempt that turned out to be surprisingly interesting.

The picture in the story

Most readers remember the first sentence of The Metamorphosis: Gregor Samsa wakes up and finds himself transformed into a monstrous insect. But only a few lines later, Kafka directs our attention to something quite different – a picture on the wall.

  • Where it hangs: above the table on which Gregor’s fabric samples are spread out – the tools of the job he hates.
  • What it shows: a lady sitting upright, wearing a fur hat and a fur boa, holding out towards the viewer a heavy fur muff into which her whole forearm has disappeared.
  • Where it comes from: Gregor cut it out of an illustrated magazine not long ago and put it into a pretty gilt frame. His mother later tells us that he made the frame himself, working on it in the evenings – fretwork is his only pastime.
  • When it returns: in the second part, his mother and his sister Grete start clearing out his room. Gregor, desperate, crawls up the empty wall and presses himself flat against the glass of the picture. At least this, he thinks, no one will take away. He would rather jump into Grete’s face than give it up.

What the picture might mean

Kafka never explains the picture – which is exactly why it is so rewarding to think about. Here are a few possible readings. None of them has to be the „right“ one.

  • A life that never happened. Gregor works only for his family’s debts. There is no girlfriend, no social life – just a picture from a magazine. The lady stands for everything he longs for but never allowed himself to have.
  • The last piece of his human self. When the room is emptied, Gregor loses his furniture, his desk, his past. He clings to the picture because it is the one thing that is truly his own – something he chose and even framed with his own hands.
  • Desire and power. The lady is wrapped in fur and holds her muff out towards the viewer – a slightly provocative, almost commanding pose. Many readers have noticed a link to Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s novel Venus in Furs, where the submissive hero takes on the servant name… Gregor.
  • A turning point for Grete. The fight over the picture is also the moment when Grete starts to take control of her brother’s life. From here on, her development and his run in opposite directions.

How our image was made – and why the failed version is interesting

The idea came from the Kafka community on Reddit. Someone had posted a drawing of Gregor as a half-human insect, bent over with a briefcase – a nice take on the tired salesman. In a comment we suggested that one more dimension could be added: Gregor looking longingly at the picture of the lady in fur.

So we tried it ourselves with an AI image generator (Google Gemini). The first result was puzzling: Gregor appeared twice – once walking towards the door, and once in the foreground, turning round with a frightened look. On top of that, neither of the two was looking at the picture.

First AI version: the same man appears twice in a dim hallway – once walking towards a door, once in the foreground looking back anxiously; a framed picture of a lady in fur hangs on the wall
First attempt: two Gregors, no look at the picture
Final AI version: a man with a briefcase in a dim hallway looks up at a framed picture of a lady in fur
After our correction: one Gregor, looking at the picture

After a short correction („only one figure, and he should be looking at the picture“), the second version was what we had in mind. But the „mistake“ is worth a second look. Two Gregors – one already leaving, one turning back in fear: couldn’t that be read as the old Gregor and the one he is about to become? Sometimes a failed attempt raises better questions than a perfect one.

One more detail: in the story, the picture hangs in Gregor’s room, not in a hallway. The AI took some artistic freedom here – which leads straight to the next question.

Questions to think about

  • Does it matter that the image moves the picture from Gregor’s room into a hallway? What changes if Gregor sees the lady on his way out – rather than every evening at home?
  • Which reading of the picture convinces you most – and is there one we have missed?
  • If you could add one more detail from the story to this image, what would it be?
  • Your ideas are welcome
    https://textaussage.de/schnelle-hilfe-bei-aufgaben-im-deutschunterricht
    You can send us questions and suggestions via this page (in German, but English messages are very welcome).

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