In The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa woke up one morning and he had transformed into a “vermin.” His family was disgusted and frightened at the sight of him and kept him locked in his bedroom most days, mistreated him, and did not care for him. That eventually led to his death at the end of the book. It was never revealed why Gregor transformed and it never foreshadowed or alluded even in the slightest as the why he became a beetle. In The Transformation of Arachne into a Spider, Arachne insults the great goddess Pallas (Athena) to an old woman, who was Pallas in disguise. She challenges Pallas to a weaving contest, where Pallas depicts where the Gods have overruled humans while Arachne depicts the Gods’ infidelities. At the end of the story, Pallas loss and transforms Arachne into a spider forever. If the two stories are compared, they show likeness in how Gregor transformed and how Arachne transformed. Both Gregor and Arachne were transformed into some type of insect and stayed that way until death came upon them.
