The Consequences Of Isolation In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

Societal isolation. It’s a condition that can affect anyone, regardless of their wealth or social class. It can affect the rich, the poor, the old, the young, anyone really. It is a timeless problem that has plagued society since the beginning. Franz Kafka’s book, The Metamorphosis, helps us answer the question of the causes and effects of societal isolation, and how societal isolation can affect the individual.

It appears that the people who care the most end up getting hurt by the ones they love. The more time, energy, love, and money that a person sometimes invests get thrown back in their face once something drastic happens. In turn, this causes feelings of worthlessness and isolation and can eventually lead to death. Franz Kafka understands this better than anyone else and can portray this in his novella, the Metamorphosis. In his novella, The Metamorphosis, the protagonist, Gregor Samsa is one who undergoes a physical and mental transformation due to the unrelenting pressures that his father placed upon him which eventually cause him to die. At the heart of the father-son relationship lies Gregor and his father whose relationship is explored

On the outside, Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, seems to be just a story of a man who woke up one morning to discover that he transformed into a giant insect. However, with a closer look, it exposes a central metaphor that provides the very unlikely story a great deal of relevance to the structure of society and the alienation of humans in the modern world. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist, is alienated, oppressed, and persecuted after his metamorphosis. By holding these feelings of isolation and alienation, from modern society and family, they have caused him to lose touch with reality. Gregor’s physical isolation from the outside world, by staying in his room when at home shows his general alienation from modern society. As the story goes on, Gregor feels more and more out of

It is a natural thing for people to want be surround by others but at the same time want to be by themselves. Going out with friends is fun but everyone needs time to themselves to just relax. However, being alone for too long is not always the best thing. Isolation is one of the worst things a person can experience. In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the theme that isolation has negative effects on people can be shown through symbols, setting, and character development.

To fully understand the depths of Gregor’s family’s betrayal, it must be mentioned how much he does for his family. His father had once owned a very unsuccessful small business, and when the business went under the family’s financial woes were unimaginable. Gregor saw this and wanted to bring joy to his family again. Kafka states, “At that time Gregor’s sole desire was to do his utmost to help the family to forget as soon as possible the catastrophe that had overwhelmed the business and thrown them all into a state of complete despair” (Kafka 25) He found a job so that

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.

Our sinful human nature leads us to judge everyone we meet, our first glances tend to be the appearance we base our first judgements off of. This holds true in Gregor’s case, when his family and boss find him transformed into a bug they scream and run from him. “He was still preoccupied with this difficult movement and had no time to pay attention to anything else, which he heard the manager exclaim a loud “Oh!”… pressing his hand against his mouth and moving back slowly” (Kafka, 147). The manager took no time to stop and try to help Gregor’s family out, considering Gregor was the only working soul in the house. Gregor was never late to work, a hard working employee and was trying to pay off his debt he owed to the boss. “I’m really indebted to Mr.Chief- you know that perfectly well. On the other hand, I am concerned about my parents and sister. I’m in a fix, but I’ll work myself out of it again. Don’t make things more difficult for me than they already are”

In the Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka bring out the character of a hardworking man, Gregor, who faces an incident where he soon is driven into complications to remain his once isolated life. Gregor’s alienation causes no gain for help from anyone even after the tragedy of transforming into a roach. Isolation removes all social interactions affecting the character of the persona by which can no longer seek help or gain itself being. Isolation in life, results in the expulsion of humankind partying from all social interactions, preventing contact with the world.

In Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, Gregor’s life dramatically changes with the event of his transformation to a bug. His family is not in full acceptance of what has become of him and Gregor begins to lose himself. He had once been the provider for his family and now it is as if his family reproaches him for his inability to take care of them. Gregor wants to again have a role in his family yet recognizes that his family would be better off without him and dies. There are several situations that Gregor experiences that makes him lose all hope. From Maslow’s hierarchy of needs it can be be seen that Gregor loses his humanity including the essential needs to humans such as his safety, his desire to be successful, and his desire for affection from others. The desire to feel love from his family and their rejection is the final event that leads to his depression and at the end to his death.

​When one undergoes a Metamorphosis, they change drastically. If one changes so much, people that are close to them normally can pull away and distance themselves from that person. In the book “The Metamorphosis”, Gregor experiences this and falls victim to isolation. The Samsa family secludes their son and stows him away from the outside world and everyday life because of his appearance and sudden change. Being isolated for so long can cause drastic detrimental damage to one’s mental and physiological state.

Franz Kafka’s clear isolation of Gregor underlines the families’ separation from society. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka emphasizes Gregor’s seclusion from his family. However, Gregor’s separation is involuntary unlike the family who isolates themselves by the choices they make. Each family member has characteristics separating them from society. These characteristics become more unraveling than Gregor, displaying the true isolation contained in The Metamorphosis.

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.

In Franz Kafka’s fiction novella The Metamorphosis, the isolation of Gregor Samsa is made apparent as he “[looks] out the window, obviously with some sort of memory of the freedom he formerly enjoyed”. As Gregor loses his humanity, his physical isolation parallels the social isolation he experiences from his family and society. Through the use of theme, symbolism, and characterization, Gregor’s transformation reflects the changes within an individual, a family, and a society.

Writing and literature is seen as a way for the author to freely express his or her ideas to the public. In writing, the author has control of every aspect of their work and allows for the writer, no matter the world state, a sense of freedom inside their work. The 20th century, battered by economic depression and two world wars, saw these writers take their creative control to emphasize the current state of the freedom and control of the individual. Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, various World War I poems, and Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich show the lack of individual freedom and control that people had over their lives during the destruction that occurred in the 20th century.

Kafka's metamorphosis often shows that isolation or alienation can hurt and drive people apart. In the beginning of the story we see that Gregor does not understand what is happening around him, he is confused and instead of looking for his family for help he decides to isolate himself in his room. There are other moments when his own family begin to remove themselves from his life. His sister is one of them. She was the only person keeping Gregor alive this was by giving him food and even acknowledging him. When she decides to finally leave him, Gregor begins to self-reflect and consider his own life as unimportant and that results in is death where he eventually gives up and dies. Here we see that Gregor is giving up as he is neglected by