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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...
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…
Works Cited
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. New York: Dover Publications. 1996. Print.
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Why did Vladimir Nabokov -- a brilliant, respected and often-quoted novelist, best known perhaps for his classic novel, Lolita -- do a razor-sharp editing job on Kafka's The Metamorphosis? And what is the meaning and the motivation behind Nabokov's intervention into the classic Kafka short story? This paper reviews Kafka's iconic short story and delves into the way in which Nabokov has editorially changed the direction and
His mother Julie Kafka belonged to one of the leading families in the German-speaking, German-cultured Jewish circles of Prague. (Franz Kafka 1883-1924) His relationship with this father was not good and "...Hermann Kafka was a domestic tyrant, who directed his anger against his son." (Franz Kafka 1883-1924) There are many of his stories which can be related to the antagonism and conflict between father and son. This conflict is
And yet in his personal life despite the anguish he wrote about so eloquently he enjoyed modern novelties such as the cinema, aeroplanes, and motor-cycles. He went swimming and followed the vogue for nudism. He had his fair share of sexual affairs, and he complemented those with visits to brothels (Johnson, 2005). Doubts about his work caused Kafka before his death to ask that all of his unpublished manuscripts be
Specific events in the story reflect this posthuman and postmodernist change in form and thought of the individual, characterized by Samsa. The first incident of posthuman change and acceptance was when Samsa's family had just discovered his metamorphosis. While Samsa questioned his transformation at first, after some time, he felt comfortable with the change himself: "…for the first time that day, he began to feel alright with his body…and he
This is where the conflict between the asserting individual and the conventional society emerges, leaving the individual in isolation if he persists in asserting himself. Annotated bibliography Sandner, David. Fantastic literature: a critical reader. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. In this analysis of what he terms as 'fantastic literature,' Sandner looks into the transition of 'realities' in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. This transition of realities is the shift from the supernatural to
After some initial shock, the family simply accepts him as a somewhat unorthodox and reclusive member of the family. In terms of the meaningless, Gregor's adjustment and life as an insect is described in grim and often somewhat graphic detail. His family's interactions with him evolve according to his new status as insect, and are similarly described with great attention, as if it an important plot element. This can be