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Gregor Samsa In The Metamorphosis

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Gregor Samsa, upon awakening to discover that his body has mysteriously transformed into a gigantic, repulsive insect, never once asks why this absurd misfortune has fallen upon him. In fact, throughout the novella, Gregor instead focuses his efforts on forgetting his unfortunate physical state altogether. Samsa never plans or contemplates his future as an engorged bug, but rather fully attempts to recapture his past. By obsessing, longing, and recreating past events from his life, Gregor believes that he is able to preserve whatever is left of his humanity. In his novella The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka attempts to define what it is to be truly human. Gregor Samsa, through his recurring memories and desperate actions, incessantly tries to recapture …show more content…

This is most evident when Gregor, in spite of his animalistic senses, protests his sister’s removal of his bedroom furniture. Even though he physically wants to scurry around an empty, cave-like room, Samsa reasons, “Did he [Gregor] really want the warm room, so cozily appointed with heirlooms, transformed into a lair, where he might, of course, be able to creep, unimpeded, in any direction, though forgetting his human past swiftly and totally?” Kafka uses words like “heirlooms” to describe his furniture and “human past” to create a divide between his current and pre-metamorphosis lives. With this diction, Kafka asserts that Gregor has gilded over the inadequacies of his previous life in his head; Gregor remains fixated on his past by preserving his furniture, and thus refuses to let Grete take any of it (as doing so would be to relinquish his humanity). One piece of furniture in particular that Gregor is most fond of is the picture of the fur-muffed woman. Throughout the novella, this picture becomes a symbol for Gregor’s past humanity. In this scene, Gregor refuses to take it down — it symbolizes too much of his past, and too much of his former humanity. Gregor’s actions in this scene relate to a major theme of the novella: what it means to be human. Even though he innately wants to act like a bug, Gregor rejects turning his room into a cave and clings to the past. The reader …show more content…

This obsession proves fatal during his appearance at Grete’s violin performance. Gregor, in an attempt to remind his sister of the past times when he wanted to send her to a conservatory, sneaks out from his room to hear Grete’s beautiful music. In that daring act Gregor hopes that his family will see his reasoning behind revealing himself. Kafka asks, “Was he [Gregor] a beast if music could move him so?” Gregor’s sudden appearance only convinces his family that he is, indeed, a beast. By frightening and disgusting his family’s tenants, Gregor causes the household even more grief. Grete fails to see the humanity left in Gregor and rejects her brother. She implores, “Father, you must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we’ve believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble.” Gregor, hearing this, then realizes he can never recreate his past humanity. He curls up and dies, as that is the only thing he sees fit to

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