In music, when the tonic note is withheld, we long more and more to hear it, and our anticipation rises as it approaches through a harmonic progression until it arrives in the last measures; and we hear it with relief and satisfaction.
Likewise, Kafka repeats the keyword quietly (ruhig) throughout The Metamorphosis, which raises our anticipation to read the opposite word, loudly.
Finally, we read loudly at the most inappropriate moment: when Gregor the Bug is found dead in his bedroom, and the charwoman who finds him slams the doors loudly and yells at the top of her voice, “It’s dead!”
But ruhig isn’t the only keyword in The Metamorphosis.
There’s also Türflügel, the wing of the double door to Gregor’s bedroom, which is festgeriegelten, or firmly shut - as firmly shut as the wing case that Gregor never discovers on his back, a wing case that he could have opened to fly away.
* Orlando Bartro is the author of Toward Two Words, a comical & surreal novel about a man who finds yet another woman he never knew, usually available at Amazon for $4.91.