Comparisons and Contrasts between Kefka’s “Metamorphosis” and Cronenberg’s The Fly

At what point does a person break and become something inhuman? Humanity has been fascinated with that question for centuries and devised stories to try and illustrate that point. Some examples of this are werewolves, who become hybrid creatures that transform every full moon and terrorize peaceful villages; The Shining, where a novelist snaps and tries to murder his family in a hotel; and Lord of the Flies, where a group of kids trapped on an island start to fight among themselves while waiting for rescue. These are just some examples of stories that show this question, and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” and David Cronenberg’s The Fly illustrate this point further.

The main similarity between the two stories is that the main character in each character in each story is transformed into a giant insect. Seth Brundle in The Fly becomes a giant fly/human hybrid, and in Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” Gregor Samsa wakes up as a giant beetle inside of his bed. Both stories show a mental progression after the main characters transform, gradually becoming something that can be barely recognized as human.

The mental transformation happens slowly in each story. In Cronenberg’s The Fly, after Seth’s teleporter accident, he starts having a shorter temper, loses his reasoning and compassion, and becomes more interested in primitive impulses. It becomes even worse when his girlfriend becomes pregnant and is debating about aborting the baby as she does not know if it will be a hideous mutant like its father. Seth kidnaps his girlfriend and attempts to fuse himself, his girlfriend, and their unborn baby together through the teleporter into the “perfect family.” However, he is stopped by teleporting with a pile of scrap metal, which pier...

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..., and the family never calls for a doctor which shows the level of sympathy they have for Gregor in his altered state.

This brings us to the final major similarity of their deaths. Both realized how much of a monster they were to their loved ones and realized that they had to die for their loved-ones’ safety and well-being. They conquered the monster inside long enough for the realization of what needed to happen and to be a hero of sorts, once they conquered the monster.

The two stories have a similar premise and might look to be of a very similar storyline at first, but the similarities are outweighed by the differences in the end. The beasts may look similar on the outside, but they have different instincts.

Works Cited

The Fly. Dir. David Cronenberg. 20th Century Fox., 1986. DVD.

Kafka, Franz. “Metamorphosis.” New Haven: Yale University, 1966. Print.