The Metamorphosis Book Quiz
Eight multiple-choice questions on Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915) — plot, characters and the moments everyone quotes. Two minutes, instant score, every answer explained below. For the full mixed-classics version, take the original book quiz — 15 questions across the whole canon.
All 8 questions and answers
Prefer to read the quiz instead of taking it? Expand for every question, answer and a one-line explanation.
- What does Gregor Samsa wake up as? — A monstrous vermin — a giant insect. Flat on his hard back, many little legs waving helplessly: Kafka's unsurpassed opening transformation.
- What is Gregor's job? — Traveling salesman for a cloth firm. The job he cannot quit because of his parents' debt to his boss — the trap that made him vermin long before the change.
- What is Gregor's first worry after transforming? — Missing his train and losing his job. Not 'why am I a monster' but 'the five o'clock train' — Kafka's joke on modern work in one beat.
- What does Gregor's father throw at him? — An apple, which lodges in his back and rots. The wound from that apple weakens Gregor for the rest of the book — the family's love gone literally bad.
- Who cares for Gregor longest? — His sister Grete. She brings him rotten food scraps and clears his room — until even she cannot bear the sight of him.
- What is Grete doing when Gregor crawls out to listen? — Playing the violin. Music he feels as 'unknown nourishment' — the scene that brings the lodgers, the shame, and the end.
- What do the three lodgers do when they see Gregor? — Give notice and threaten the family. Paying guests the family took in — and Gregor's public appearance costs them even that income.
- How does the novella end? — Gregor dies quietly; the family, relieved, takes a tram to the countryside. The scrupulous care of the corpse, the day off, the notice that Grete has blossomed into a young woman.
About The Metamorphosis
Traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin — and the true horror is how quickly everyone else adapts. Work, family and duty dissected with a perfectly straight face: the most famous short novel of the twentieth century. The novel runs about 22,000 words (roughly 55 pages in a standard paperback) — about 1 hour and 32 minutes of reading at an average pace. Before you commit, see the full breakdown in how long it takes to read The Metamorphosis or calculate reading time for any other book.
Easy-to-moderate — short and lucid; the dream logic is unsettling rather than difficult. If you get 6 or more of the eight questions right, the book clearly stuck.
What this quiz covers
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis sits in our dystopia & allegory shelf, and the eight questions follow the book the way a reader experiences it: how the story opens, the turn in the middle, the characters who carry it, and the ending people still argue about. You will not be asked for page numbers or publication trivia — but three or four questions are built to separate people who read the book from people who read a summary. If a question stumps you, that gap is your reading list talking.
Fair warning for the ambitious: readers who clear this quiz often move straight to the reading-time breakdown for The Metamorphosis to plan the reread, then test the rest of their shelf against the mixed classic literature quiz.
More book quizzes
1984 quiz, Animal Farm quiz, Brave New World quiz, Lord of the Flies quiz, Frankenstein quiz, Dracula quiz, The Picture of Dorian Gray quiz — or browse every book quiz on the site. For scale, The Metamorphosis is the 131st longest of the 133 classics timed here — shorter than Romeo and Juliet but longer than Macbeth.
Doing the whole author? Our Franz Kafka books in order guide lists every book with the best entry point.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are in the Metamorphosis quiz?
Eight multiple-choice questions covering Franz Kafka's plot, characters and most famous moments. The quiz takes about two minutes and your score is instant.
Is the Metamorphosis book quiz free?
Yes — no signup, no email, nothing to install. Answer the eight questions and get your score immediately.
What score should I aim for?
8/8 means you know the book cold; 6+ is a solid score. Below 4, the book is calling you back for a reread.
Is the Metamorphosis quiz hard?
Easy-to-moderate — short and lucid; the dream logic is unsettling rather than difficult. The questions themselves stick to famous, load-bearing moments — the scenes and lines the book is remembered for — so a genuine read usually scores 6+.
How long is the Metamorphosis reading itself?
About 22,000 words — roughly 55 pages, or about 1 hour and 32 minutes at an average pace. The full pace breakdown is in how long it takes to read The Metamorphosis. It runs 3 parts, averaging 7,333 words each; see the book-count guide for its full structure.