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Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka Essay

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Franz Kafka’s absurdist short story “The Metamorphosis”, told in three parts to illustrate the drastic and violent changes taking place in the main character Gregor Samsa’s life and the life of his family, takes a long hard look at the life of a man who is solely dictated by routine and driven by his quest to balance money, work, and family and turns everything the character knows on its head and makes him battle with his own ideals of humanity and existence. All of this because he woke up one day as a huge bug. The area in the story in which we see the most drastic effects of the changes is the climax where we see Gregor finally come to terms with what he must do if he wants to continue making his family happy. Throughout the story, the tension continues to rise as the family must come face to face with the bug that was once Gregor month after month as they lose the only source of income they …show more content…

Through this, we know that Gregor holds no ill will towards any of the members of his family during his time as a bug, even when we see them brutalize and neglect him. “His thoughts went back to his family with tenderness and love” (Kafka 125). The love for his family is the only part of his old human life that he can reasonably keep intact, though his family would rather he didn’t. Every single one of them wants him gone, especially his dear little sister Grete. When she finally locks him in his room she cries, “At last!” (Kafka 125) because she feels with this he will finally be gone for good. Within the story, Grete has changed the most, even more so than Gregor, becoming more assertive and mature as the story goes on. She is the force that makes Gregor’s isolated room even more of a prison, with the area being overrun with trash and useless, broken items that the family has no use for. His room reflects his current state, beaten and

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After Gregor’s metamorphosis the cruelty his family showed him changed. He was now not just confined to his house but his bedroom with very little human interaction. His sister Grete who seemed to show Gregor the most compassion in the begining changed and in the end was the one to say “it has to go”. Grete’s sudden change of heart towards Gregor triggered his death as he crawled back to his room and died at 3

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Grete seems to be the only character in this novella that genuinely cares about Gregor. In the beginning, Grete is compassionate toward Gregor, while Gregor’s parents are demanding and wants to know why he is still in bed and not on his way to the airport. This kindheartedness is shown when Grete says, “Gregor? Are

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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

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The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka focuses on the twisted hidden identity of people and how it affects the society when it is reveled. Kafka depicts this ugly truth through an exaggerated extended metaphor of Gregor Samsa’s random transformation to a bug. Gregor is a travel salesman who found himself “transformed…into a horrible vermin” (1) one morning, and this transformation is what causes Gregor and everything around him to change: the ones he loved, the ones loved him, and the rest of the society. Kafka’s usage of extended metaphor crates an understated tone, which argues the restricted social norms and social rejections when one revels his or her true self. Kafka compares the idea of your true self to a bug to unravel how everyone—including

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While Gregor begins are the all mighty, male provider, he regresses into an effeminate state as he no longer can perform his tasks for work. As his transformation into a vermin worsens, he no longer can perform any action and further conforms to the true identity of a bug. Grete, on the other hand, picks up the male provider role that Gregor could no longer perform, but then, as she becomes tired with the work and as Gregor identifies with an “it”, goes back to her female role. Gregor's physical change forces him to degenerate to death, but allows Grete to thrive, growing into a

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Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a novel in which the reader gets to witness a normal everyday man, transform into a “monstrous vermin”. Throughout the book, the reader is able to witness Gregor’s metamorphic changes, his new life, and how the people around him were affected. In Metamorphosis, Gregor had many stresses burdened upon him throughout his life that possibly caused his transformation from a hard-working human, to a functionless bug. The main subjects of stress for Gregor come in his work. Perhaps the stresses in his life were the ultimate cause in his dramatic changes?

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As the main character, Gregor Samsa, transforms from human state to that of a beetle, there are many aspects that are left unexplained and seemingly unstable. For example, in the novel, Gregor’s transformation into a beetle is left unexplained by Kafka. Kafka opens up the novel by stating, “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1). There is no scientific or physical evidence as to why this transformation occurred, but it can be ascertained that it is a psychological transformation.

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Considering they do not have close relationships with their parents, they grow close to each other. Even when Gregor has transformed into a bug, Grete still cares for him. Since his parents refuse to attend to him, Grete steps up and assumes a motherly role to him. She delivers him food and “To find out his likes and dislikes, she brought him a wide assortment of things… in addition to this she put down some water” (Kafka 24). Even with all of her assistance, Gregor never displays any sign of improving, ergo Grete abandons him.

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He feels closest to his sister Grete in the family because she is the only one who feeds him most of the time in the whole story. For example, in part 2, she leaves him bread and milk because milk used to be his favorite as a human. Since he has changed into a cockroach he had stopped liking foods he used to like, so instead she leaves a tray of various foods to find out what he likes as a bug, for example rotten foods. But at one point the family had start to lose interest in feeding Gregor. One night as the family had dinner with the samsa’s family, he had been locked out of his room, not allowed to join.

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Vast bits of the comic minutes in this story result from the relentless clash between Gregor 's troublesome body and his trapped mindfulness. This quote is from the scene where Grete and his mother cleanse Gregor 's room of furniture in perspective of his new condition, he obliged more space. This mean the crest of the story where Gregor 's fight to oblige his human past with his new life and physical structure. His change changes his

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He loathes that as a vermin, he is a burden to his family. Under the couch, Gregor is “(…) in a state of worry and murky hopes, which led to the conclusion that for the time being he would have to keep calm and with patience and the greatest consideration for his family tolerate the troubles which in his present condition he was now forced to cause them.” (Kafka 11). Gregor’s family, on the other side, never accepts his new condition and are not capable of adapting psychologically to the sight of a their son/brother as

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However, Grete does not even notice. Towards the end of the piece, Grete is fed up with Gregor when she insists to her parents they must get rid of him. Grete states “I will not mention my brothers name when I speak of this monster here; I merely want to say: we must find some means of getting rid of it” (pg. 124). At this point, Grete has no more time to spend on Gregor.

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She is often “exhausted… [she] had gotten fed up with taking care of Gregor” (42) and increasingly neglects Gregor’s humanity as he is no longer the only source that gives her merit to her family. She later proposes that the family “must try to get rid of it” (49) as Gregor has little pragmatic use to her, and his existence only threatens her

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Prior to the transformation, Gregor had always only been living for his family, due to his complete absorption in familial duties, bringing money “home every month – he had kept only a few florins for himself” (Kafka, 36), trapped at a job “he wished he could be rid of” (Kafka, 36). The extension of his alienation from the society is symbolized by the “picture…cut out of an illustrated magazine”, where he has a deeper attachment to the picture than an actual person. Hence, the transformation has freed him, which can be said to be a rebirth. From initially wanting to be “completely concealed” (Kafka, 38) to not frighten his family, to his aggressiveness in protecting the magazine cut-out, as “he squatted on his picture and…would sooner spring into Grete’s face” (Kafka, 44), the change can be observed whereby his familial responsibilities, for the first time, were not prioritized with his usual guilt towards his family being replaced with “sheer anger” (Kafka, 52). Yet, the “violin recital” (Kafka, 59) serves as the catalyst where “it was as if the way to the unknown nourishment he craved was revealing itself” (Kafka, 58), reigniting his “deep feelings of love” (Kafka, 64) for his family.

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