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Cruelty In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

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The Repercussions of Cruelty Cruel actions lead to cruel endings. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist in Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, is turned into a bug from the mental and emotional abuse by the hands of his own family. The cruelty in the Samsa household is apparent from the beginning of the storyline. Their neglect and lack of compassion for Gregor's condition immediately sets the dark and miserable mood of the novella. Gregor’s whole existence has been about caring for his family and making sacrifices for their well being. However, his family never realizes these sacrifices and takes Gregor for granted, ultimately leading to his painful demise. Gregors perpetual devotion to his harsh family represents the unconditional love one feels for their own flesh and blood no matter how wicked they may be. The family's reaction to Gregor’s transformation into a bug demonstrates their lack of compassion for …show more content…

Gregor’s isolation and loneliness begins to toy with his composure, he becomes unpredictable and frightening to his family. Although, Gregor’s slow transformation from man to bug eventually becomes beneficial to Gregor. For instance, Gregor’s bug-like appearance allows him to be released from his family's high expectations. As for his developing bug-like qualities helps him to register his inner anger he feels towards his father. Gregor now realizes his father shows no sympathy towards Gregor and instead punishes him for something he has no control over. Gregor began to resent his father for throwing household items at him, squashing him like a bug. Even his beloved sister Grete began irritating Gregor by removing all of his belonging from his room, leaving him with nothing. The cruelty performed on Gregor by his own family sends him into a dark pit of despair. With nothing to live for he began to slowly end his life, making one final sacrifice for the ones he loves

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The sight of Gregor moving and talking frightens his mother causing her to spill coffee on the rug. His father tries to shove the insect into his bedroom with the manager’s cane that he left behind and a newspaper. The door is not open all the way and Gregor is slammed into the door, letting bug guts ooze all over the door. His father gives him one last push and slams the door behind

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When Gregor's father saw his condition he didn’t feel empathetic and only hated Gregor,“his father gave him a hard shove, which was truly his salvation, and bleeding profusely, he flew into his room”, Gregor's father is never really ever able to understand him and is always impatient with him and even. Grete although is nothing like the father, she is very kind to gregor and with her new responsibilities she has been helping the family a lot. “ whereas until now they had frequently been annoyed with her because she had struck them as being a little useless”, right when the family thought she was useless, Gregor’s condition had lead the family to discover how useful Grete really is. Mrs. Samsa protects Gregor because she care about him deeply and cannot stand the fact that he is a bug, “Let me go to Gregor, he is my unfortunate boy! Don't you understand that I have to go to him?”

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Gregor “had come very close to forgetting, and it had only been the voice of his mother, unheard for so long, that had shaken him out of it.” Gregor had almost forgotten about his humanity. He had embraced his new vermin form and had so little human contact that he forgot what he missed about being a human. However, as a result of Gregor’s metamorphosis, his relationship with his mother was tested and ultimately

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1. Almost from the very beginning of Gregor’s metamorphosis, Mr. Samsa has been unwilling to accept Gregor as his son. Furthermore, Gregor’s transformation into an offensive form of an insect, constantly reminds Mr. Samsa of the grotesque, feeble, and pathetic aberration that he has fathered. Consequently, now that Gregor has genuinely revealed himself in all his audacious behavior, his cruel father is driven to destroy him. In his eyes, Gregor has become everything loathsome to him—scrawny, parasitic, and futile—not the kind of son this once successful and ambitious storekeeper could be proud of.

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Most notably, his reaction is extremely calmer than normal people would be. As a human, Gregor accepted the hardships he faces by his family without complaint. He is a naive and decent person. He works in anonymity without uttering words to earn money for the whole family even he did not even like this “exhausting job he’ve picked on”(p89) since his dad’s failure in business. Similarly, when he first realized he had transformed into an insect, he was not disgusted by his looking and condition, he did not wonder how he turned to an insect and how to transform back to a human.

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After the commotion of Gregor first day of becoming a bug he had awoke to the smell of food from which his sister made this shows that his sister Grete has accepted the fact that Gregor is not himself and he wont be able to work again if he doesn’t change back. While Gregor was still a bug he started to get the hang of his new bug like abilities like climbing up the wall this is similar to the supernatural talent of some heroes in the

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Gregor also has become an unwanted responsibility. Not many people would wake up and want to take care of an insect out of the blue. With Gregor in the house, at least one person need to stay in the house to watch him. One of the maids after learning the

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Gregor Samsa’s transition from human to vermin was not the only shift that happened through the duration of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The novel is centered around Gregor who wakes up as a vermin, presumably a cockroach, which catalyses a series of emotionally traumatic experiences for him and his family, culminating in Gregor’s death. Yet the most significant change is, in fact, the gender role reversal seen both with Gregor and Grete, his sister, as Gregor becomes more effeminate and Grete becomes more emasculate, directly correlating with their societal and emotional transformation due to Gregor's physical change. From the moment, Gregor wakes up he has transformed. But not just as a vermin.

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Gregor’s sister still cares about him, but she starts to become possessive; she eventually gets a job to support Gregor. Gregor’s mother is trying to be supportive and help him through the transformation. Gregor’s father is violent and angry about the transformation, and eventually begins to throw apples at Gregor. When Gregor dies, the family is relieved that their burden is gone. Gregor’s point Of View

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When the story starts, Gregor is more or less unhappy with how things are going but is unable to change the fact that he is the sole provider for his family. Throughout the story we do see Gregor realize he spent his whole life pleasing his family then, when he is unable to provide for them we see his family getting fed up and annoyed with him. They are unable to deal with his change and to make it easier for them to cope, they try to not even think of him as Gregor. Father often refers to him as “it” and towards the end Mother and Grete do too. He became more and more frustrated with his family and acted impulsive at times because he was not able to make his family understand.

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“The Metamorphosis” is a short story written by Franz Kafka. The story shows how one’s work shapes their identity. In “The Metamorphosis”, Franz Kafka demonstrates how work can shape one’s identity by showing how Gregor Samsa’s job changed him into a cockroach. “The Metamorphosis” is a story about a man named Gregor Samsa. Gregor Samsa lives with his family, who is in debt, in a small, middle-class home on a low-income salary.

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As Grete starts to alienate Gregor and become more indifferent about him, Gregor gets increasingly agitated. Throughout the story, Gregor shows little impatience or agitation with his family and puts them on a bizarre, undeserved pedestal with all of his affection with the exception of when Grete in particular alienates him. Society’s alienation of Gregor, and Grete’s alienation in particular, is one of the main causes of Gregor’s death. Up until the point when Grete rejects Gregor after Gregor is drawn in by her violin playing, Gregor had hope of acceptance. After Gregor realizes society, including Grete, had completely alienated him, he gives up and lets himself die.

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Human Weariness in The Metamorphosis Typically associated with the transformation of an ugly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, the word “metamorphosis” tends to represent promise and change. However, as Gregor and Grete prove, The Metamorphosis provides an almost ironic meaning of the word. In conjunction with Gregor deteriorating physically after his initial transformation, the reader can see this transformation take place on an emotional and psychological level as well. Young Grete diminishes from loving sister to an unsympathetic young woman. Through a variety of character developments, Kafka 's The Metamorphosis shows the effects that change has on people, proving that human weariness is inevitable.

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Through his imagery of Gregor’s feeling "as if he had been buried alive" (Kafka 11) in his isolation, Kafka emphasizes the negative impact of social isolation on mental health. The article The Metamorphosis Masterplots II by Gerhard Brand agrees a literary critic. As he writes “Gregor’s isolation and alienation intensify” (Brand). The author examines the themes of estrangement, isolation, and their detrimental consequences. The protagonist, Gregor, undergoes a physical transformation into a giant insect, which results in his growing social isolation from his family and society, leading him to

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In Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa works as a traveling salesman in order to provide money for his sister’s education and parents living expenses. Gregor is underappreciated and taken advantage of by his ungrateful family. One morning, Gregor wakes up as a massive bug that reflects the truth of how his family views him. Throughout the novella, Kafka uses symbolism of the repugnant bug that Gregor becomes, removal of furniture previously used by Gregor and an apple thrown at Gregor by his father, which essentially takes a large part in his death, to express the need of care and love to feel true happiness and the importance of receiving attention to avoid the consequences of loneliness and isolation.

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