The Metamorphosis

By Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka• 1883-1924 born in Prague, Czechoslovakia into a

middle-class Jewish family, eldest child with 3 surviving younger sisters, 2 younger brothers died during infancy

• His father was an ambitious entrepreneur and married above his social station

• Kafka’s relationship with his harsh father was strained and bitter

• After his schooling, Kafka knew his vocation was writing, but held a position as a law clerk and then with an insurance firm

• His writing was deeply personal and equitable to a religious experience, and probably therapeutic

• He died of tuberculosis at age 41, and most of his writings were published posthumously

The Metamorphosis

• The premise of this novel involves the sudden, inexplicable transformation of Gregor Samsa into a giant insect and the implications of this for his family and livelihood

The novella is organized into 3 sections:

• Section 1 – Gregor awakens to discover his metamorphosis into an insect, his chief clerk from his job shows up to find out why he hasn’t gone to work, and consequently the secret is discovered by the family and the employer

• Section 2 – attempting to deal with his transformation, Gregor is simultaneously discovering the changing wants and needs from his former human self to his present insect self, his sister Grete is somewhat in tune to what his changing food and room organization preferences are and assumes the care of him, but cannot bear the sight of him, neither can his mother, and the father lashes out at him when he inadvertently ended up in the kitchen

• Section 3 – The wound made by the apples thrown at Gregor by his father have rendered him an invalid, Grete, the father and mother are all working and the 3 lodgers have been brought in, so financial security has since been achieved and therefore interest in Gregor has waned. One night when Grete plays violin, the lodgers ask her to play for them in the parlor and drawn by the music, Gregor approaches, the lodgers threaten to sue, and the family realizes this insect will never become the human Gregor again, that night he dies

Conclusion

• The following morning Gregor is discovered, the family dismisses the lodgers, takes a trolley to the countryside, and begins to think of finding a husband for Grete

Characters• Gregor Samsa – protagonist of the

novella, who is the sole breadwinner for his father, mother, and sister although he despises his job as a traveling salesman, one morning he awakens to discover he has metamorphosed into an insect

• Grete – Gregor’s younger sister, who plays the violin and following Gregor’s transformation assumes the care of him

Characters cont’d• Gregor’s father – defeated,

unemployed, harsh, he is forced to find employment after Gregor’s transformation and it provides him with self esteem, pelting his insect son with apples however, leads to Gregor’s demise

• Gregor’s mother – physically weak woman who suffers immensely from the transformation of her son, this fact causes Gregor’s sister and father to begin to resent him

Characters cont’d

• The tenants – fastidious lodgers brought in to supplement financially the Samsa’s household, when they discover Gregor, they threaten them with a lawsuit, upon Gregor’s death they are dismissed from the household and a new found freedom exists for Gregor’s parents and sister

Thoughts on The Metamorphosis• The novella has been subject to many, varied

interpretations• A multitude of schools of literary criticism

have attempted analysis of this work• Certain pervading themes have been often

associated with The Metamorphosis, some of these include the following: dissatisfaction with bourgeois existence; response to emergence of totalitarian governments; anti-Semitism; Kafka’s personal relationship with his father

• There is also a dark, black humor to the absurdity of this novel

The Theater of the Absurdand Existentialism

• Kafka’s works such as The Metamorphosis, have been described as existentialist because of the ideas of the uniqueness and isolation of individual experience in a universe of indifference or hostility to man

• The Theater of the Absurd is surrealism often linked with existentialism