Kafka’s The Metamorphosis Essay

Although Gregor turned into a bug, the real Metamorphosis occurred before the change and with the whole family. Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis reflects the ideals about industrialization and existentialism during the turn of the century. In the novella, Gregor turns into a bug, and the whole family has to deal with it in different ways. Many characters go through a metamorphosis in the novella. Although the changes may not be physical the changes occurred greatly in Gregor, Mr. Samsa, and Grete.

     I have chosen The Metamorphosis as my subject for this paper; I will take a close look at how the death of Gregor Samsa opens the doors to understanding the story. I will give examples of irony through Gregor’s metamorphosis and how this irony brings together the conclusion of the story. Through his death we see the truth behind his parents, which in it’s self is ironic. It is difficult to pinpoint one specific thing to write about in the story; there are just so many things that can be brought to light. If I happen to lose sight of my topic bear with me, there is just so much to be discussed in the novella.

In Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, the character Gregor transforms from a man into a bug, specifically a cockroach. Although Gregor physically changes, he does not change as a person. Gregor merely accepts his new condition as a bug and his family’s continuous abuse and hostility. Gregor’s acceptance of his new bug form is representative of his passive personality before and after his transformation. Gregor’s passivity, in response to the hostile world around him, causes his eventual downfall. Therefore, Kafka uses the character Gregor to exemplify how a passive attitude can cause one’s demise.

In the article, written by Walter H. Sokel, he goes into depth about how Franz Kafka’s life is reflected in the book The Metamorphosis and his other writings. Sokel ties together multiple aspects of the novel and their importance to Gregor and his family dynamic as a whole. Many of the points made in the article address the absurdity of the situation the novel presents and the underlying meaning in the actions of the characters. The premise of the article is pointing to the facts that Gregor's predicament is Kafka inserting his own life frustrations into his literary works. In each passage of the article another part of Gregor's life is laid bare. Sokel’s many inferences that the fault is in Gregor's own doing and not his situation in life, create a complex maze of cause and effect.

“The Making of an Allegory,” by Edwin Honig and “Franz Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ as Death and Resurrection Fantasy,” by Peter Dow Webster illuminate how sacrifice and transformation are a vital part of the deeper meaning of "The Metamorphosis." Gregor Samsa is an ordinary young man until he wakes up one day as a giant vermin; metamorphosised into something horrendous and reviled by the world. Through Honig’s and Webster’s critical essays, this transformation, as well as many more, and sacrifice made by all involved are explored in a thorough and definitive way.

Gregor, the travelling salesman, is well placed as the head of the family in a society where assimilation and conforming to the convivial hierarchy is key. Kafka takes pains to portray the structures comportment of Gregor’s interactions within a male dominated society. This societal construct is illustrated through

In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka conveys the series of emotional and psychological repercussions of a physical transformation that befalls the protagonist, a young salesman called Gregor Samsa. As the story progresses, Gregor finds himself unfairly stigmatized, cruelly rejected because of his clear inability to financially support his family, and consequently increasingly isolated. Through extensive use of symbolism, Kafka is able to relate the surreal and absurd, seemingly arbitrary events of this short story to a general critique of society-particularly on the alienating effects that conformity generates. On a broader level, the combined themes-which include the themes of conformity, freedom, and alienation--found throughout The

The first sign of an external change comes when “Gregor … woke up one morning … (and) found himself changed in his bed into a gigantic insect” (53). He eventually recognized the limitations that his new body puts on him and learned to adjust. He started to prefer dark, cramped spaces such as the dark corner in his room and under the sofa. He also felt more comfortable resting on the ceiling and walls of his room than he does lying in his bed. Another change that Gregor undergoes is his change in appetite. When Gregor’s sister brings in a platter of food full of kitchen scraps Gregor seems to enjoy the moldiest food more than any of the fresh food provided to him. The objects in Gregor’s room that he was

In “The Metamorphosis,” Kafka uses Gregor’s conditioned and illogical thoughts to convince people to look outside of the systems they often find themselves in, even if the system itself is immoral. For example, the culture of work generally relies on a person’s desire to be accepted and not to be looked down upon. People are brought to believe that the differences between them and animals lie mainly with the fact that human beings have built themselves based on logic, which has given rise to the languages and symbols that are unique to them. To be preoccupied with the external environment as opposed to the skills useful in work is to be in touch with the beastly base that makes up all animals. In a way, Gregor feels ashamed of being so sensitive to music because he views that as a sign that he is not only a beast on the outside, he

The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, is a relatively short work about a man who dedicated himself to working for the benefit of his family. This man, Gregor Samsa, awakens to find himself having changed into “some sort of monstrous insect” (Kafka 21), unable to properly communicate with anyone. Gregor’s life is shown to be one of isolation and alienation, and pure devotion – to his family. His work of being a travelling salesman leaves him alienated from his co-workers due to his frequent time spent away from the office. Now, with his new form, Gregor’s life devolves further. He finds himself even more separated from his family despite them being just a room away. Eventually, he is all but forgotten as his family deals with their new responsibilities due to Gregor’s predicament. Gregor goes through many emotions during his isolation – he rises and falls between happiness and sadness, melancholy and rage.

Kafka reveals very little about Gregor's life prior to this incident: all we know of him is that he had been a traveling salesman who was constantly "busying himself with his fretsaw" and who "never (went) out in the evenings," instead spending his time "sitting . . . at the table quietly reading the paper or studying" (Kafka 12-13). This imagery of Samsa as a studious carpenter characterizes him as humble and, in this, somewhat unlikable to the toughest audiences. Even imagery as simplistic as this conjures the image of Gregor as a bookish, studious milquetoast. At the same time, the carpenter characterization connotes Christ, and thus immediately hints at Samsa's eventual heroism, even before anything significant has happened. So when the book's first "metamorphosis" occurs in the first sentence, Gregor's prior circumstances make him fertile ground in which a change in spirit can occur. Samsa even acknowledges the metaphysical change enacted in himself: when he tries to explain to his family and the head clerk why he cannot leave his room, his audience can "no longer (understand) his words, even though they (are) clear enough to him, clearer than before even" (15). It is as if he is in another dimension from them completely and therefore a sort of "immortal" at heart, before the knowledge is even imparted upon him in the form

Throughout literary history, certain authors are so unique and fresh in their approach to the written word that they come to embody a genre. Franz Kafka is one such author; “Die Verwandlung” or “The Metamorphosis” is one of his works that helped coin the term “Kafkaesque.” Through this novella, Kafka addresses the timeless theme of people exploit-ing others as a means to an end. He demonstrates this point through showing that a family’s unhealthy dependence on the main character results in that character’s dependence on the family.

In Franz Kafka’s novel The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s sudden transformation into a vermin renders him unable to work. He is left alone in his room, neglected by those whom he has supported for years. Mr. Samsa is disgusted with Gregor and repeatedly mistreats him. Parallels can be drawn between Gregor’s exchanges with his father to the author’s own experiences. Similar to Kafka’s own kinship with his father, the uneasy relationship between Gregor and Mr. Samsa is due to work and feelings of inadequacy.

A man, working his life away for the betterment of those he loves, breaks from the norms of his current reality is immediately rejected and demonized for it. A scenario which the hapless Gregor Samsa finds himself being apart of in Franz Kafka’s existentialist masterpiece, the Metamorphosis. Where Kafka, utilizes a mixture of topics including the physical reasoning behind Gregor’s transformation, the psychological reasonings behind his transformation, metaphor, his family’s treatment of him, and Kafka’s own personal experience, to talk about the horrors of alienation.

The story starts with the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, awaken as a “monstrous vermin” (27) in the morning. Although the descriptions of his metamorphosed body are given yet abstract. It depends on the reader’s imagination to visualize the image of Gregor. As Kafka has mentioned in his letter that “the insect cannot be drawn” (Bloom 49), readers cannot trust the portrayal of Gregor to depict his metamorphosed body. This essay argues that Kafka uses the illustration of Gregor’s room to represent his physical and mental stages of his metamorphosis.