THE METAMORPHOSIS

THE METAMORPHOSIS
FRANZ KAFKA
FIRST PUBLISHED:1915

“Father. You must just try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we’ve believed it for so long is the root of all our trouble.” 

‘Metamorphosis’ is one of Franz Kafka’s known works. Written from the vantage point of Gregor Samsa, Kafka provides readers with an individual’s sudden transformation into a vermin and the corresponding impact it has on his family, identity and state of consciousness. His family is forced to adjust lives to accommodate to living with a human-sized insect in the house. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka explores the four stages of isolation through symbolism, plot, and contrasting characterizations of Gregor and his family.

One of the many symbols is a picture that hangs on Gregor’s wall. Kafka describes Gregor’s surroundings in great detail, making sure to include a lengthy depiction of a cut out picture of a lady “sitting upright, dressed in a fur hat and fur boa”. The lady sits, symbolizing all that is human and civilized, and yet sets herself apart by enveloping herself in the animal world. Gregor, like the lady in furs, is isolated in the animal world, even though he considers himself fully human on the inside. 

The great irony is, prior to Gregor's transformation, he led a pretty boring life, which didn't differ greatly from the life of an insect. He concerned himself with his work and doing everything he could to provide for his family. Gregor didn't have any real friends or hobbies, and just besides his sister, had a distant relationship with his family. He DID NOT COMMUNICATE and was anything but a "normal" human being during the industrial revolution. His tangible metamorphosis happens when he realizes his present situation (experiences an epiphany), and his role in his household. Therefore, the audience realized that this entire time before he was a beetle, he actually was a beetle.

Gregor is the archetype of many of Kafka's male characters: he is a man reluctant to act, fearful of possible mishaps, and rather prone to exaggerated contemplation. Though it would be unfair to blame him for procrastinating, for not getting out of bed on the first morning of his metamorphosis, we have every reason to assume that he has procrastinated long before this — especially in regard to a decision about his unbearable situation at work. He craves love and understanding, but his prolonged inactivity gradually leads him to feel ever more indifferent about everything. It is through all his failures to act, then, rather than from specific irresponsible actions he commits, that Gregor is guilty. The price his guilt exacts is that of agonizing loneliness.

What strikes one most immediately is the fact that although he is outwardly equipped with all the features of an insect, he reacts like a human being. Gregor never identifies himself with an insect. But then, one must realise, the insect is Gregor's "innermost self" It refuses to be further subjected to the miserable life Gregor has led in his concern for money. At last it has intruded into Gregor's life and it is not going to be chased away like a ghost. The insect represents all the dimensions of Gregor's existence which elude description because they transcend rational and empirical categories. 

After Gregor’s metamorphosis is complete it was not until after- “two weeks…[that] his parents could not bring themselves to come into see him”, The strength of the mother’s unconditional love for Gregor has diminished over the process of his metamorphosis, so much so, that she is repulsed by Gregor’s presence and is afraid to even be in the same room as him. His father acts as if this fate were something to be expected from his son. The maid treats him like a curious pet, and the three lodgers are amused, rather than appalled, by the sight of the insect. The reason for the astounding behavior of all these people is found in their incapacity to comprehend disaster. But something one least expects, Gregor remains calm until his death. 

Gregor's unbelievably stayed reaction to his horrible fate shows Kafka, the master painter of the grotesque, at his best. In paragraphs bristling with the most precise descriptions of the absurd, Kafka achieves the utmost in humor and irony. Gregor's crawling up and down the wall, his delighting in dirt, and the fact that he "takes food only as a pastime" — all these are described in detail and presented as normal; at the same time, however, on the morning of his metamorphosis, Gregor "catches at some kind of irrational hope" that nobody will open the door. 

Gregor had believed it was his duty to help them pay their debts and secure a financially carefree life, and he did that by selling his soul to the company. The truth is that his father has far more money than Gregor knows about; also, he was not nearly as sick as he has made Gregor believe. Gregor's self-chosen sacrifice has been senseless. Worse than that, the more he has done for his family, the more "they had simply got used to it". All love in this world is conditional.

And then, one day, Gregor dies. Just like that, remaining a bug. He was doomed without knowing the charges or the verdict. As the maid sweeps out the dead insect, the Samsas have arrived at the threshold of what looks like a bright future. This return of the family to a life unfettered by a tragedy like Gregor's has often been seen as proof of their hypocrisy, possibly foreshadowing the emergence of another "inner insect" from one of them. 

Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis may seem out of the ordinary to the reader, but is truly a biography of modern family interactions. Indeed, The Metamorphosis reveals that modern families who are not accustomed to spending time with one another are not always the best functioning families. While on the surface, The Metamorphosis is a book about an insect locked in a room, Kafka writes to explore the four different stages of isolation through symbolism, plot, and characterizations.