Kafka's "Metamorphosis"

The following research is on the subject of Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis." The central presence in Kafka's "Metamorphosis" is Gregor Samsa, a character who lives entirely through an introspective view of life and the world. The story is a devastating critique of modern social systems and their relationship to them. Gregor lives within himself, and his outward physical change is somehow irrelevant to the mental view he takes of it. The story title has also been translated as "The Transformation," and it is the transformed self of Gregor Samsa that is the true self, the self within. Kafka uses the insect Gregor becomes as a metaphor for the subservient life Gregor leads, little more than an insect crawling through the bureaucracy of the time.

The introspective mind of the protagonist is more important to him than his outward appearance. The change that comes over Gregor comes in the night while he is asleep. The origin is clearly subconscious, as seen in the first line: "as Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." It is clearly stated that this is not a dream: the transformation of Gregor Samsa is a reality brought about the uneasy dreams of his subconscious. Gregor has seen himself s an insect, and now he has become one. The internal life is now an outward form. Gregor does not even seem overly surprised, and he adapts to his new form slowly and with difficulty, but without undue psychic s

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be pleased with his obstacles. He has done the same thing in his transformation -- he has withdrawn from this job and family and fulfilled his wish in as loathsome a manner as possible. Even at the point of his death, Gregor and his mind are in control of the situation. He makes the decision to disappear, and in the morning he is found dead. The rotting apple in is side is the immediate cause of his death, but it is still a matter of conscious decision. "In this tale of vacant and peaceful meditation he remained until the tower clock struck three in the morning" -- death is repose and the final escape. The mentality that Gregor presents to us is thoroughly conditioned by the norms and requirements of his work as a commercial traveler, by the need to be punctual, and by his acute anxiety about living up to the expectations of his superiors. (This latter includes living up to the expectations of his parents, and -- in a sense -- of himself.) Gregor's transformation is again seen as a special form of punishment for his doubts, because the world he would like to secure admiration from, the world of his boss, his clients, his family, is hardly going to admire the ugly insect he turns into overnight. The world has treated

Category: Literature - K