What the exam asks
In Paper 2, general questions frequently examine how authors use endings, family conflict, isolation, or the shift in a secondary character to construct meaning. Because Paper 2 is a closed-book exam marked on Criterion B1 (analysis and evaluation of textual features and broader authorial choices) and Criterion B2 (comparative analysis), you must be able to recall and evaluate Kafka’s macro-choices—such as the three-part structure of expulsion and the sudden narrative shift after Gregor’s death—alongside micro-choices like the pronoun shift from “he” to “it”.
Core ideas
The three-part structure of expulsion
Kafka structures the novella into three symmetrical parts. In each part, Gregor leaves his room drawn by a human connection (work in Part I, his mother and possession in Part II, music and love in Part III) and is violently driven back inside.
| Part | Why Gregor emerges | The climax / expulsion | The lingering consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part I | To appease the chief clerk and keep his job | The father drives him back with a stick and newspaper; the door is slammed shut | Gregor’s flank is bleeding; he is locked in as an invalid |
| Part II | To save the picture of the lady in furs as his room is stripped | The father bombards him with apples; one lodges in his back | The apple rots in his flesh, paralysing and slowly killing him |
| Part III | Drawn by Grete’s violin playing in the living room | Grete pronounces “It’s got to go”; he retreats and is locked in | Gregor dies at three in the morning; the family rides a tram into the country |
Characterisation: Grete’s arc and the father’s uniform
As Gregor weakens, his family grows stronger, an inverse pattern that runs through both Parts:
- Inversion of taste and humanity: At the start of Part II, Gregor cannot drink the sweetened milk Grete leaves him (once his favourite drink), preferring rotten vegetables and old cheese. Yet while his palate becomes animal, his inner life remains exquisitely considerate: he spends four hours carrying a sheet to the couch so Grete will not have to look at him, and overhears with relief that his father kept hidden savings from the failed business, though his dream of sending Grete to the conservatory is “only ever mentioned as a lovely dream”.
- Grete’s double role: Caring for Gregor gives Grete status as the sole mediator between the bedroom and the flat. When she and her mother strip his room of furniture in Part II, the mother wants to leave the room exactly as it was so that Gregor finds everything unchanged when he comes back, whereas Grete insists on clearing it out. By removing his human furniture, Grete claims ownership over his condition. When Gregor clings to the glass of the picture of the lady in furs—defending his last link to human desire and property—his mother faints, and Grete speaks her first direct words to him since the change:
"Gregor!" shouted his sister, glowering at him and shaking her fist. - Economic satire and the lodgers: In Part III, the family that once lived off Gregor must work: the father, who now fetches breakfast for the clerks of a bank and will not take off his uniform even at home, the mother sewing underwear for a shop, and Grete in a sales job. A fearless, coarse charwoman prods Gregor with a long broom and threatens him with a chair, while three bearded lodgers take over the flat, turning the proud family into nervous servants in their own home.