Great works of literature

¶ … Inverted Worlds of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog," and Fritz Lang's "M"

Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," Anton Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog," and Fritz Lang's "M," all definitely serve to interrogate, each in its own unusual way, traditional, accepted artistic forms and representations of humanity, human assumptions, and the human condition in general. For example, in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," Gregor Samsa's death ironically brings his father, mother, and sister back to life, forcing them, in their own best interests as it turns out, from their previous torpid existence; in Chekhov's "The Lady with the Dog," Gurov comes to the realization that adultery is a good thing; and in Fritz Lang's "M," it is the criminals, not the police (the two forces actually become indistinguishable within the film) most responsible for tracking down the heinous child killer. In this essay, I will analyze and compare the unusual social and human perspectives of these three works, and particularly how they depart from typical, normally accepted artistic (and other) representations of humanity. In particular, I will explore and analyze the types of assumptions, about humanity, about humanity within society, and about social mores, practices, and standards, that Kafka, Chekhov, and Lang, respectively are implicitly encouraging us to reevaluate within each of these three works.

In Franz Kafka's short story "The Metamorphosis," we must first of all suspend our disbelief incredibly (which we, somehow, manage to do, a testament to Kafka's unique genius) in order to accept the idea that Gregor Samsa, a resigned and dutiful office worker, the supporter of his able-bodied yet indolent family, has turned into a big black beetle and can no longer work, or even get out of bed and dress for work. Certainly, this subverts, right away, our assumptions of what is likely and humanly possible. Later, Gregor's enraged father violently illustrates the old social maxim that appearances really do matter, by pelting his stubbornly-metamorphosed son with apples in a fury one day. Soon afterward, Gregor dies. In most cases, human beings are saddened when a son or brother dies, but in this case, the remaining Samsa family members, with the possible exception of little sister Grete, are actually relieved. Gregor's metamorphosis and subsequent death forces upon each of them a metamorphosis of his or her own: ironically, Gregor's physical metamorphosis forces each of them back into life, like butterflies finally emerging from especially stubborn cocoons. Here, Kafka is pointing out the fallacies and limitations of typical human assumptions about first (in Gregor's case) what one "should" do for others; and second, in the cases of his parents and sister, what one really can do for oneself, contrary to what one believes oneself capable of doing, when absolutely forced into it. Here, Kafka implicitly forces us to re-examine our own proscribed and automatic social roles, and our assumptions about our crucial importance to others, and/or others' crucial importance to us.