Page 44 - the-metamorphosis

of drawers where it was, because, in the first place, it was too
heavy: they would not be finished before his father’s arrival,
and with the chest of drawers in the middle of the room it
would block all Gregor’s pathways, but, in the second place,
it might not be certain that Gregor would be pleased with
the removal of the furniture. To her the reverse seemed to
be true; the sight of the empty walls pierced her right to the
heart, and why should Gregor not feel the same, since he
had been accustomed to the room furnishings for a long
time and in an empty room would thus feel himself aban-
doned.
‘And is it not the case,’ his mother concluded very qui-
etly, almost whispering as if she wished to prevent Gregor,
whose exact location she really didn’t know, from hearing
even the sound of her voice (for she was convinced that he
did not understand her words), ‘and isn’t it a fact that by
removing the furniture we’re showing that we’re giving up
all hope of an improvement and are leaving him to his own
resources without any consideration? I think it would be
best if we tried to keep the room exactly in the condition in
which it was before, so that, when Gregor returns to us, he
finds everything unchanged and can forget the intervening
time all the more easily.’
As he heard his mother’s words Gregor realized that the
lack of all immediate human contact, together with the mo-
notonous life surrounded by the family over the course of
these two months must have confused his understanding,
because otherwise he couldn’t explain to himself that he
in all seriousness could’ve been so keen to have his room