Reader Project

“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka

CENEX – Intermediate 4

Sheila Morato Monteiro

First published in

1915

It is a fictional

prose narrative

organized in the

novella format

A modernist text:

poetic imagination or

surrealism

Kafka is considered

to be one of the most

important and

influential writers of

the 20th century.

Franz Kafka was born of

Jewish parents in Prague in

1833.

In 1906 he received his

doctorate in law.

He worked as a respected

official of a state

insurance company.

Literature, of which he

said that he “consisted”,

had to be pursued on the

side.

His emotional life was dominated by

his relationships with his father

and with a series of women:

Felice Bauer Milena Jesenská Dora Diamant

"By believing passionately in something that

still does not exist, we create it.“

Franz Kafka

He died in 1924 of the tubercular illness.

Plot Summary

3rd person narrator

A traveling salesman awakes one morning

to find himself inexplicably transformed

overnight into a gigantic insect.

“Ungeziefer”

Gregor is the sole financial provider

for his parents and sister and their

comfort is dependent on his ability to work

He becomes unable to communicate but

retains his cognitive faculties

Most of the story revolves around his

interactions with his family

In the end, his family also undergoes a

metamorphosis

Main Characters

Gregor Samsa

Mr. and Mrs. Samsa

Gregor’s sister, Grete

The world is not a place

of certainty and the ideal

is unrealizable:

“love is not enough”

The Metamorphosis

portraits the limitations

that come from being a

human:

- interpreting the world

- the system presented by

society

- human relation

- the shifting sense of

identity

Sources

http://www.kafka-franz.com/kafka-Biography.htm

http://www.surrealismnow.com/frankkortanfeatured.html

http://czechmeout.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/franz-kafka/

http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/novels/kafka_the_metamorphosis.html

http://superpunch.blogspot.com/2009/05/four-versions-of-kafkas-metamorphosis.html

Pictureshttp://www.kipbot.com/blog/2010/01/28/kindle-fail-bleak-house/

Hoffmann, Michael. Metamorphosis and Other Stories. New

York, New York: Penguin Books. 2007.

CENEX / UFMG

Reader Project – Intermediate 4by Sheila Morato Monteiro

2010