Kafka\'s Metamorphosis Kafka\'s the Metamorphosis Is Not

Kafka's Metamorphosis

Kafka's The Metamorphosis is not only the story of the transformation of Gregor Samsa; it is the story of the transformation of an entire family. When Gregor suddenly becomes a "horrible vermin" overnight (I), the reader has no choice but to register the effects of that change on Gregor's immediate environment, his family apartment. Because Gregor will never leave that apartment, it is fair to ask how his transformation transforms the others around him. I will concentrate on the chief clerk from Gregor's office, as a representative of the outside world, and Gregor's father Mr. Samsa, as representative of patriarchal authority, and considered as the instrument of Gregor's destruction. I suggest that the transformation which occurs in these other characters is the chief means by which Kafka intends his readers to assess the meaning of Gregor's own metamorphosis.

Gregor's immediate response to his own transformation is to attempt, as best as he can in his new body, to follow his customary routine. As a result, his initial thoughts concentrate less on proprioception within his new insect form, and more on worrying about whether he will be late for work: once he discovers the time is already seven o'clock, his immediate panic is that "Before it strikes quarter past seven I'll definitely have to have got properly out of bed. And by then somebody will have come round from work to ask what's happened to me as well, as they open up at work before seven o'clock." (I). This prediction turns out to be absolutely correct, which implies of course that Gregor's ordinary behavior is so regular that his tardiness is sufficient to require inquiry from the office. But Kafka carefully allows the chief clerk to arrive and begin interacting with Gregor before seeing him -- Gregor is still trying to get himself out of bed, and has not unlocked the door. But by the time Gregor ultimately emerges, the chief clerk -- bizarrely -- has nothing to say:

But the chief clerk had turned away as soon as Gregor had started to speak, and, with protruding lips, only stared back at him over his trembling shoulders as he left. He did not keep still for a moment while Gregor was speaking, but moved steadily towards the door without taking his eyes off him. He moved very gradually, as if there had been some secret prohibition on leaving the room. It was only when he had reached the entrance hall that he made a sudden movement, drew his foot from the living room, and rushed forward in a panic. In the hall, he stretched his right hand far out towards the stairway as if out there, there were some supernatural force waiting to save him. (I).

This is the first external clue as to how Kafka intends us to understand Gregor's transformation from the outside, as it were. The chief clerk's reaction is one of panic and fear, which suggests that the metamorphosis of Gregor is like a contagious disease -- save for his initial calm retreat, which suggests the placation of a threat. The way Gregor's transformation changes his work environment is to render him beyond comment. The chief clerk's silence is in itself an eloquent commentary on the essence of Gregor's transformation: it places him beyond the pale, and society must reject him.

The chief clerk is escorted to Gregor's door by Gregor's own father. In his initial appearance, the elder Samsa appears a model of bourgeois propriety: he is introduced through his polite and apologetic approach to his son: " 'Gregor,' said his father now from the room to his left, 'the chief clerk has come round and wants to know why you didn't leave on the early train. We don't know what to say to him. And anyway, he wants to speak to you personally. So please open up this door. I'm sure he'll be good enough to forgive the untidiness of your room'." (I). Kafka demonstrates in the course of the story what happens to such bourgeois propriety under stress: Mr. Samsa's response to Gregor's metamorphosis is to become transformed himself. Gregor's own recognition of the change his own metamorphosis has wrought in his father occurs at the climax of the novella's second section:

"He really ought to have expected things to have changed, but still, still, was that really his father? The same tired man as used to be laying there entombed in his bed when Gregor came back from his business trips, who would receive him sitting in the armchair in his nightgown when he came back in the evenings; who was hardly even able to stand up….. He took his cap, with its gold monogram from, probably, some bank, and threw it in an arc right across the room onto the sofa, put his hands in his trouser pockets, pushing back the bottom of his long uniform coat, and, with look of determination, walked towards Gregor. He probably did not even know himself what he had in mind, but nonetheless lifted his feet unusually high." (II).

In other words, Gregor's father ultimately reacts with a kind of military discipline, as though this were the reaction of the bourgeois mindset under stress -- to prepare to defend itself by force. This is, of course, the ultimate transformation wrought in the father -- he reverts to a fearsome patriarch:

…. then, right beside him, lightly tossed, something flew down and rolled in front of him. It was an apple; then another one immediately flew at him; Gregor froze in shock; there was no longer any point in running as his father had decided to bombard him… An apple thrown without much force glanced against Gregor's back and slid off without doing any harm. Another one however, immediately following it, hit squarely and lodged in his back; Gregor wanted to drag himself away, as if he could remove the surprising, the incredible pain by changing his position; but he felt as if nailed to the spot and spread himself out, all his senses in confusion. The last thing he saw was the door of his room being pulled open, his sister was screaming, his mother ran out in front of her in her blouse (as his sister had taken off some of her clothes after she had fainted to make it easier for her to breathe), she ran to his father, her skirts unfastened and sliding one after another to the ground, stumbling over the skirts she pushed herself to his father, her arms around him, uniting herself with him totally - now Gregor lost his ability to see anything - her hands behind his father's head begging him to spare Gregor's life. (II).

Kafka clearly intends for the reader to understand that the slow building up of resentment and disgust is responsible for this transformation in the father. But I also suggest that Kafka has a symbolic attempt in mind here, by using apples as the father's weapon of choice -- especially because it is the injury from the apple that seemingly will kill Gregor in the novella's conclusion. The apple is traditionally thought of as the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Bible's Book of Genesis: although Kafka himself was Jewish and largely secular, he is careful to indicate the Samsas are conventionally Christian: