An Analysis Of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

The story, “The Metamorphosis”, by Franz Kafka, is a piece of literature that introduces the idea of being an outsider, and falling out of the social order you have spent so long trying to prosper in. As a reference for some background, the story features the main character, named Gregor, waking up one morning as a beetle. This is the source of many problems to come, such as not being able to go to work, leave his room, eat normal food, or succeed in a public setting. One could easily understand how Gregor would become an outsider. This proposed this question to the reader- Are outsiders merely those who are misjudged or misunderstood? The simple answer to this is no. Outsiders are not born into their life of loneliness and solitude. They either consciously or unconsciously stray from people that love and care for them, such as friends, family, and peers. They could effortlessly re-include themselves into any social group, but instead they wallow in self pity, yearning for sympathy. Of course, there are exceptions, but they amount to few.

In the metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, there are significant actions and transformations which make the story sad, and strange with a happy ending. Explanations that are dramatic events that intensify the excitement of all these actions. Reality and reflection play an important role in this story because the events that happened could be applied and assimilated with modern society.

Ralph Freedman’s critical essay titled “Kafka’s Obscurity” on Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis delves into the idea that from changes in the protagonist’s physical limitations, familial bonds, and his being “[he] is finally reduced to a mere speck of self-awareness which is ultimately extinguished” (Freedman 131). General questions of “why” and “how” are almost immediately dismissed due to the calm and monotonous tone that Kafka implements throughout the novel. Instead, the reader is encouraged to ponder the consequences of separating one’s mind from their body, in particular, how long can their humanity stay intact when the rest of them is replaced. Freedman reveals the “paradoxical” (Freedman 131) nature of The Metamorphosis in which the demise of one’s life may also be blissful release, especially when the individual in question was arguably inhuman to begin with. The transformation itself is emphasising the character’s current dejection and is highlighted by the transformations mirrored in the family as well.

Growing up, Franz Kafka questioned his father’s use of power not only at home but also in the workplace. Kafka’s father referred to his employees as “paid enemies.” Upon noticing “the submissiveness expected of [workers] toward their superiors” in his own asbestos factory, Kafka found this true for not only his father but also most of the upper class (Speirs and Sandberg 7). Disappointed by this class hierarchy, Kafka attended anarchist meetings and referenced communist writers in his diaries (Cohn). These meetings led him to develop a similar ideology to Karl Marx, who attributed “all… [of] history [to] class struggles.” In The Metamorphosis, Kafka channels a Marxist viewpoint through Gregor Samsa’s life before his metamorphosis and his family’s life after the metamorphosis.

In The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka tells the story of a young man named Gregor who observes the radical changes in his life after transforming into an insect. Gregor’s life was centered on his job as a traveling salesperson and his family. One morning Gregor woke up transformed into an insect. Afraid of the transformation Gregor stays in his room and ignores calls from his family. When Gregor realized that his new body did not allow him to have a normal life, he tried to adapt. After his metamorphosis, Gregor is abandoned by his family and only maintains a small relationship with his sister Grete, who is in charge of serving and provide him with food, but always leaving some distance because of his ugly appearance.

The very first line of one of the most famous novellas of the 20th century, Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, is puzzling. It tells us that the main character awakes one day and finds himself turned into “ungeheueren Ungeziefer” (Gooderham par. 4). It has proven difficult to translate the line into English, as there is no precise translation. Meaning some “enormous or monstrous kind of unclean vermin” (Gooderham par. 7), it denotes “something nasty, but not specific” (Robertson 2:31). The meaning of the whole story remains similarly uncertain, and numerous readings of it have emerged in literary criticism. In our paper, we will make an attempt to give a possible interpretation of the novella, supporting it with some arguments, and then we will discuss the story’s ambiguity further.

Analysis of the story “The Metamorphosis”, by Franz Kafka was written back in the early 1900’s, but reflected a more modern way of thinking and lifestyle of today. Gregor felt that he was a slave to his job, isolated from his co-workers, and misunderstood by his family. Although that is the norm in today’s society, it was not the norm back then. In the story Gregor finds himself transformed into a cockroach and his internal struggles become a permanent reality. Kafka’s choice of the family member to play the role of the cockroach was necessary in portraying the curse of the working man only living each day in hurried lifestyle with no freedom.

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.” (Kafka 3) That right there is the famous opening line to The Metamorphosis, that line drags people in and make them want to read more of the novel. Franz Kafka gave vivid details of the morning Gregor had woke up realizing that he had changed into a monstrous verminous bug. What people don’t realize is that Gregor is Franz Kafka, it all started during 1912. “The aftermath of the war (raging as Kafka composed The Metamorphosis) was the “Balkan slaughterhouse,” as it widely called at the time with well over 200,000 soldiers killed in a few weeks” (Stach 227). Franz Kafka started writing about the dejection, which led him to envisioning himself as a large insect which is what gave him the idea to write The Metamorphosis. “The protagonist of The Metamorphosis,Gregor Samsa, has declined from a respected army lieutenant into his present status as giant house pest” (Whitlark 3).

Metamorphosis is a story of a traveling salesman who woke up one morning and found himself transformed into a bug. Though the movie version of Kafka’s Metamorphosis tells the major events of the story similar to the book, but it is hard to grasp the dynamic of the transformation and how one might interpret all this without examining the different details, and point of view of Gregor.

The metamorphosis advances the existentialism view that choice is the opportune of the individual. It is the responsibility of the individual to maintain a balance between work and leisure. The story gives a sense, that if one chooses to devote their life to work will just make them droning incest, and if they devote their life to only leisure they will still not maintain a stable life. A balance in life needs to be maintained. Gregor doesn’t seem to know that his choice of working was making him very unhappy. Even though, Gregor was not maintaining his job very well and failing it, whereas he ignores the basic needs for social interaction by working hard and long hours. For a long time of reaping in the unwanted started to effect him. In spite of, one day Gregor awakens to find himself with the body of monstrous vermin. However, it is never explained in the book how he was morphed into a vermin. “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams "What's happened to me?" he thought. It was no dream”. (Kafka) Kafka never mentioned the reason of Gregor weird transformation, but he gives reader a sense that Gregor’s life was always a misery and when he woke up in the morning he didn’t doubted the miserable things happening to him, In fact he

Gregor Samsa, a traveling businessman, wakes up to find himself transformed into a human-sized insect in the short story The Metamorphosis by Kafka. He’s disoriented and thinks that he’s dreaming, but, through his family’s shocked reactions, finds out that he actually is an insect. The Metamorphosis is laced with dark humor, but Wallace, in his analysis of Kafka’s works, Laughing with Kafka, says that “it is next to impossible to get them [students] to see that Kafka is funny” (23). Kafka’s piece usually fascinates readers, but it is difficult to see why at first, because it takes some thinking to realize the power of Kafka’s dark humor. The Metamorphosis engages the reader because it is funny through the use of dark humor.

In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka emphasizes the ideas of freedom and imprisonment, symbolized within the life of a young man, Gregor Samsa, who devotes himself completely to fulfill his family’s needs. Despite various interpretations of the novella, Kafka prominently portrays through the symbolism of Gregor’s apartment itself, a divide between his family’s world and his own after his transformation as an insect. In doing so, Kafka presents a dilemma that Gregor faces as the consequences of his transformation include losing his freedom and finding himself imprisoned by his own family. In this complex novella, Kafka uses the recurring imagery of disease, doors and Gregor’s room in the apartment to illustrate the loss of freedom and the gain

Franz Kafka’s book Metamorphosis, displays how the element of communication plays a major role in society. In Gregor’s case, the inability to talk deteriorated the bonds between him and his family. In extension, the inept ability to communicate, stripped away Gregor’s tangible, materialistic components of his life. Metamorphosis conveys this idea with symbolic reference to parallel to how society impacts reality. Yet, this book also showed how easily dismissed this notion is, through the ironies and litotes throughout the book. One interpretation of this point is that his inability to convey his opinions fluently, makes him suspect for misinterpretation. In this case, opens the ability to abuse Gregor through the means of physical and mental abuse that supposedly does not exist.

1. Gregor’s initial reaction to his transformation, more specifically his worrying about missing the train and dwelling on the hardships of his job, reveals the extent to which Gregor’s own self-identity and way of life is dependent on his work. While most people would probably be horrified to find themselves transformed into a bug, Gregor instantly thinks of his job because that is what comprises Gregor’s identify and without his job he has no purpose or worth in his society. As Gregor contemplates his future, he thinks to himself, “Well, there’s still some hope; once I’ve got the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to him [his boss] – another five or six years I suppose – that’s definitely what I’ll do. That’s when I’ll make the big change” (Kafka 8).

Many authors use symbolism throughout their work and in their characters to portray a certain theme that most readers can relate to. Franz Kafka, a renowned German-speaking fiction writer of the 20th century, uses a unique style of writing that many people believe is a telling of his own life story. In his well-known short story, “The Metamorphosis”, many similarities and connections can be seen between the main character, Gregor Samsa, and the author himself, Franz Kafka. A major comparison that can be made is the fact that both Samsa and Kafka died slow, lonesome deaths after being in a dysfunctional relationship with their families and especially their father figures. Franz Kafka was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1917, which he was forced to live with until he died in 1924 at the age of forty-one. Kafka’s terminal disease can be compared to Gregor Samsa’s terminal metamorphosis, which also killed Gregor at a young age. Franz ‘Samsa’ Kafka inserts himself into the story “The Metamorphosis”, into the Samsa family, and into Gregor Samsa himself.