Relationships In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis Grete

Relationships are important for any human being and great ones can shape who we are and who we become. In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis Grete's relationship with her brother is shown to be strong and to have its role in making her who she is. Kafka uses phrasing and word choice to impactfully illustrate the effect of Gregor's metamorphosis on Grete.

From the beginning of the novella, Grete has great respect for her brother. This is shown by the way she asked Gregor to open the door. The way each family member tries this is used by Kafka to show their personality. The father as a short fuse and violent tendencies and the mother cares but mostly since he makes them money. When Grete tries to know what is going on Kafka writes that she whispers “Gregor, open the door, I beg you”(Kafka 7). Grete as great respect for her brother as she knows the sacrifices he made to help the family the use word beg shows this as it connotes feelings of great respect. He also writes that she is whispering

This protest against the cleaning of is room shows how the animal instinct taking over and that he is becoming more and more insect by the day. This leads to him not appreciating Grete’s efforts to keep is well being and leads to her breakdown. Kafka writes “she ran into the living room mightily offended and, in spite of her mother’s hand lifted high in entreaty, broke out in a fit of crying”(58). At that moment Grete lost all hope that Gregor would go back to normal and she realizes that that thing that took her brother does not care about her efforts anymore. We can deduce this by the words mightily offended which has connotations of feeling disrespected. Grete as went through a lot to try and help her brother through these rough time, and realizing that all those efforts were in vain puts the final nail in the coffin. Destroying what was left of their