The Metamorphosis

Life is full of twists and turns, but none as dramatic as the events Gregor Samsa experiences in the novella ‘The Metamorphosis.’ Franz Kafka cleverly incorporates elements of his life into this story about a man who wakes up one morning as a bug. During the story, Gregor experiences several conflicts with his family members, specifically Grete and his father, surrounding his living arrangements and money issues. At the end of this novella, Gregor feels dejected and like a nuisance to the family, and decides to embrace the cold grasp of death. Kafka uses characterization, symbolism, and irony to show the familial conflicts caused by Gregor’s transformation. These problems, along with pre existing relationship issues, lead to the rest of

Grete took the initiative with all things related to Gregor. She showed him a slight bit of compassion and consideration by trying to accommodate his diet and cleaning up after him. Despite being repulsed by the sight of Gregor, she took care of him because she knew that the bug she saw was her brother. During the time Grete took care of Gregor she experienced a transformation, developing her levels of “confidence and responsibility”(Hibberd). In an attempt to make Gregor happy, one day she decided to remove the furniture from his room so he would be able to move around more freely; however, in Gregor’s eyes she was removing all the physical reminders of his human life. In an act of defiance, he decided to prevent her from taking away a picture of a woman in furs on his wall by lying on top of it. When the women of the house returned to the room, they saw Gregor, causing Mrs. Samsa to feint. This angered Grete, because she saw this as Gregor purposely making himself visible; from this point on, Grete’s patience with Gregor was much smaller. The family began to blame him for their misfortunes and financial issues. They saw him as the reason they had to keep paying rent for the expensive apartment because they could not move him easily. 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