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Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis Essay

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A metamorphosis is a process of change which often produces a beautiful end to the subject involved in the change. However, The Metamorphosis, a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1915 does not end with a positive development for Gregor, the main character. The story revolves around a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who lives under the crushing feeling that he has no control in a life he has not chosen for himself. This lack of control leads him to wake up one day to find himself literally transformed into a cockroach. “he found himself changed into a monstrous cockroach” at the beginning of the tale on page 1204. His metaphoric transformation resulted from the weight of the futility he feels toward his job and his obligation to work, the …show more content…

Gregor is the only working family member, and he takes his job seriously. He makes many sacrifices for his family, and in return he feels unappreciated. His father failed to support the family, and he acts aggressively towards Gregor. On the other parental side, his mother defends him occasionally but mainly feeds in to the father’s anger. After Gregor’s transformation, every member of the family abandoned Gregor and waited for him to disappear. Ultimately, they were disgusted by his appearance and they felt betrayed by his sad condition. Gregor is already having a hard time coping with this horrific transformation. He eventually starts to realize that his adaption is impossible. He finds himself losing attachment to humanity, and he starts to lose hope. His family begins to clear out his bedroom furniture. In this circumstance, they are making it clear that his existence is a burden to the family. Gregor concludes his family would be happier without him. It is clear he was trapped forever. His family is not supportive of his transformation. In fact, they are disgusted by it. Over time, Gregor’s personality changes along with his new physical desires in his new body. He begins to prefer cramped, dark spaces, and doesn’t feel comfortable in his own bed. Also, he begins to get disturbed by noise, which leads to him preferring to be left alone entirely. He considers any human contact upsetting as a result of his

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Gregor’s initial reaction to his transformation shows his preoccupation with work. His confusion over his radical transformation does not last long, quickly becoming concerned with work and disregarding that he woke up physically transformed into a monstrous vermin. Immediately after realizing he had transformed, Gregor explains, “Well, I haven’t given up hope completely; once I’ve gotten the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to [the boss] that will probably take another five to six years… But for the time being I’d better get up, since my train leaves at five” (4). The quick transition of Gregor’s thoughts from the initial shock to his economic duties reveals his ironic nonchalant attitude towards his nonsensical transformation and

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Here Gregor is contemplating the impracticality of missing work, while completely ignoring the fact that he turned into a vermin. Gregor’s ignorance to his own personal problems highlights his dedication to pay off his family 's debts (pg 9), at the expense of his wellness. The overcast weather and the mention of his depressed mood creates a pessimistic mood which would feed into Gregor’s already gloomy outlook on life. His want to sleep and forget his problems shows a pressure that Gregor must always be under. His hardworking attitude doesn’t match up to his willingness to ignore his problems.

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“The Metamorphosis”, written by Franz Kafka, takes place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the city is unspecified. The protagonist, Gregor Samsa, is turned into a giant bug and struggles to regain his harmonious life as a traveling salesman. Gregor goes through both a physical and emotional change throughout the novel, from turning into a bug and then being unable to provide for his family because of his condition. Gregor has been changed into a giant bug where he is a not a pleasant eyesight to his family and isn't accepted by his father and mother but only his sister. As the novella begins,”he found himself transformed right there in his bed into some sort of monstrous insect”.

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804 Words | 4 Pages

This is the reason he isolated himself from his family. Gregor is forced to work in an environment he hates but his transformation overlooks that. He doesn’t have to suffer from his occupation and allows him to spend more time with his family. However, this change only had a positive affect temporarily.

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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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Initially, he was in shock and denial about the change, but as the story progressed, he began to feel worthless and alone. He struggled to find a new spot in his family, which led to a deep sense of despair. Gregor’s mental state mirrors his physical changes, which both transform as the novella continues. Miles and Gregor both changed significantly throughout their stories and they became two completely different people than what they started as. Not only did Gregor lose his life, but he lost any sense of identity he might have had.

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The first thought that comes to his mind is being late for work. Gregor hated his job but he could not quit because he had to pay off his families' debt. Throughout most of the story, Gregor lives a life of serving and not receiving anything for his troubles. He feels it is his reasonability to take care of his loved one's finical needs but his father takes advantage of Gregor's kindness. '' Oh God, he thought, what a grueling job I've picked.

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Despite their desperation, they end up locking him in the room, almost like a prisoner, after seeing the change Gregor went through. “Now that he had opened up one of the doors and the other had clearly been unlocked some time during the day, no-one came, and the

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They also saw him as the reason they had to keep tenants because they had to be able to afford the expensive apartment to accommodate him. Their views of Gregor quickly became sour and led to the family spending less and less time with him and viewing him as “primarily an animal”(Klingenstein) than as a human. This treatment of Gregor greatly affected him, leading him to eat less and become depressed, until he eventually dies from “his family’s neglect and his own guilty despair. ”(Metamorphosis) The family’s view of Gregor throughout the story causes Gregor to experience a metamorphosis within his mind. When Gregor discovered he

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Gregor enjoys the play and moves into the main room. The door to his room was accidentally left open by the new cleaning lady. When the tenants saw Gregor, they immediately gave notice that they were moving, and refused to pay for the time they had already stayed. Then, Gregor 's sister stated that they had to cut of Gregor.

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The family reacts in such shock that they leave Gregor in his room and they are scared to even see Gregor in his bug form. While Gregor’s father and mother were both unable to look or even bare to take care of their transformed son, their daughter, Grete, took on the role as care taker of Gregor. The short story is written in such great detail of how Gregor was treated and what happened during the life of his metamorphosis. Throughout the story Grete continued to try to make Gregor’s situation better and it was impressive that she tried to do the things she did for Gregor, but near the end of the story she begins to question whether Gregor is still in the form that used to be her brother. Although the story ends tragically for Gregor, the story portrays Grete to grow stronger in the end and how she became a

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He became embodied by his weak form and closed off to the real world, literally. Gregor’s influence on his family also allowed his father to grow as an individual and appear superior when dressing within his

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By not treating Gregor with the respect to mourn for him, his family further dehumanizes him. To conclude, Franz Kafka illustrates the themes of alienation and dehumanization in his novella, The Metamorphosis, when the main character is isolated, physically abused, and not mourned by his family. Due to this, Gregor dies trying to remember better days instead of living them. Through displaying these themes, Kafka shows that humans, no matter their relation to someone, have limited sympathy. After the sympathy runs out, humans result to the dehumanization and and isolation of

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862 Words | 4 Pages

With his desire to fulfil family duties, he forgets about his own. Gregor still at this point fails to comprehend the full extent of his transformation showing no change in his psychological

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He wants the best for each of his relatives, and he needs frantically to be adored by them. At the point when Gregor transforms into a cockroach, he can 't live with the way that his family will never cherish him and will dependably exclude him. Lamentably, Gregor does not encounter a significant change of his character similarly that he encounters a change of his physical body. Although Gregor recognizes that his family will never embrace him, he experiences difficulties living with this fact.

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