Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis in the Metamorphosis,

Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis

In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka tells the story of Gregor Samsa, who transforms into a hideous insect-like creature. Gregor was a traveling salesman before he changed into the creature, and one day he wakes to find the transformation has taken place during the night (Kafka 13). Throughout the rest of the novella, Gregor deals with the changes that have taken place and attempts to adjust to what has happened to him. His sister and his parents find his new form repulsive, and he also attempts to deal with being shunned by them. He cannot help what he has become, and having those who once loved him turn away simply because of his appearance is difficult for Gregor to accept.

He spends most of his time listening through the walls of his bedroom as his family talks, and he hides under his furniture when his sister, Grete, comes to feed him (Kafka 27). He does not want to frighten her with his appearance. As he becomes a bigger and bigger burden on his family, he hears them talk of getting rid of him. He becomes so distraught that he dies, and the cleaning lady disposes of his body (Kafka 50). After that, his father fires the cleaning lady, kicks out the borders they have taken in for extra income, and the family takes a ride to the country where they talk of moving to a smaller apartment and finding Grete a husband (Kafka 52). There is a huge sense of relief now that Gregor is dead and they do not have to deal with what he became or support him in any way.

This is not entirely shocking, but yet in some ways it is. His family clearly loved him, but once he became something hideous, through no fault of his own, they did not want him anymore. They were glad when he died, and did not mourn the loss of their son and brother. Gregor did not even get any kind of proper burial, but had his body disposed of as one would do with any common insect. While there have been many opinions on the novella, Kafka never once offered any kind of explanation for it. He never stated why Gregor changed into an insect-like creature, how it happened, or why the family behaved as they did and did not grieve their loss. When a family cares for one another, one would think that the death of a family member would be difficult, no matter what the circumstances.

There have been various interpretations of The Metamorphosis and what Kafka was trying to convey through the writing of the novella. These have ranged from a discussion that the novella had no point at all through the possibility that Kafka was working to convey distaste for something that had happened in his own life. The true reason behind the story will probably never be known, since Kafka is long deceased and elected not to give an explanation of the idea behind Gregor Samsa and his family. The way the story was written, however, is very interesting to analyze. First of all, Gregor's transformation was basically immediate. There was no period of time in which he noticed that changes where taking place.

He went to sleep a traveling salesman and awakened as an insect. At first, he thought he was dreaming the entire thing, but he soon realized that it was very real (Kafka 13). While Kafka writes of Gregor's adjustment period, there seems to be very little pondering as to how Gregor ended up the way he did. In other words, it seems as though a person would want to explore this if it happened to him, but Gregor seems to simply accept it and try to adapt to it. The only sadness is basically about the family, which is to be expected. Gregor's transformation is complete, and it is not as though he is a talking insect who can sit and chat with the family. He cannot communicate with them anymore, and cannot speak as a human being would. That makes life even more difficult, because he has no one to talk to.

For amusement, he starts to climb the walls and ceiling of his bedroom (Kafka 22). His mother witnesses him hanging on the wall, and faints (Kafka 25). There is nothing he can do to make himself acceptable to his family, and they only see him as a burden because they have to feed him rotting scraps of food and clean up after him. They try taking some of the furniture out of his room in order to help him be more comfortable, but he gets upset because they are taking things he wants to keep and that have some meaning to him (Kafka 34). He can still think and feel like a human, and it is only his outer appearance that has been changed. That is particularly difficult for him, since he has many thoughts and feelings that he is not able to convey.

The longer he lives, the more the family comes to resent him. His sister Grete was taking care of him for a long time, because she loved him and felt sorry for him. After a while, however, she begins to feel that he is a big burden to her, as well. She wants to have a life of her own and get married, and she will not be able to do that if she is required to take care of Gregor for the rest of his life. There is no way to know how long he might live. Insects lives are usually short, but human lives are much longer. Which category Gregor falls under in that regard is not known. When Gregor realizes that even Grete is finding him a burden and wanting to get rid of him, he wills himself to die (Kafka 48). He does not want to live on the way he is, and be nothing but a burden to people he loves.