How should someone’s family react to their kin becoming a large bug? Hate them, of course. In “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning and he was no longer a human, but as a “monstrous vermin” (Kafka, “The Metamorphosis 1156). His family reacted unsympathetic and as the short story progresses the hatred towards him grows, mostly from Gregor’s father. Franz Kafka, the writer, also had many father troubles in his life time. Gregor Samsa’s relationship with his father is fashioned after Franz Kafka’s personal life.
“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, not only tells the troubling story of Gregor Samsa but of the underlying autobiographical influences of Kafka himself. The first similarity is the unhappiness in both men’s careers, both induced by their strong-willed fathers. In the short story, when Gregor awakes he realizes the problem is not that “he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” but that he will be unable to do his job, that pays for his parent’s debt (1156). Franz spent his life, unhappy but successful just like Gregor. Franz majored in law to please his father. Both men strived for similar family duties, Gregor to pay off his father’s debt and Franz for a false sense of hope that one day his father would love him (1157; Sulkes).
Out of Franz’s three siblings, Ottla was his favorite and was loved dearly by Franz just as Gregor loved his sister, Grete. Ottilie, nicknamed Ottla by Franz’s family, was also disliked by Hermann and letters sent between the two have been published as book, “Letters to Ottla”, which shed some light on their childhood and their relationship (Franz). The two siblings supported each other and sometimes boarded together as adult, and by 1918 Franz was helping Ottla search for and be admitted to an agricultural school, which was very uncommon for women to during that time, just as Gregor planned to help pay for Grete’s way into the musical conservatory before he became unable to (1171;Wagenbach). Franz loved Ottla as much as Gregor loved Grete, even as she “shoved any old food into Gregor’s room with her foot.” (1182). While Gregor died of starvation “he thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister’s.
The Metamorphosis is said to be one of Franz Kafka's best works of literature. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically. The relationship between Gregor and his father is in many ways similar to Franz and his father Herrman. The Metamorphosis also shows resemblance to some of Kafka's diary entries that depict him imagining his own extinction by dozens of elaborated methods. This paper will look into the text to show how this is a story about the author's personal life portrayed through his dream-like fantasies.
There is a theory that dream and myth are related which is conveyed through the writing of Douglas Angus’ Kafka's Metamorphosis and "The Beauty and the Beast" Tale and supported by Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The stories are very symbolic when conveying the metamorphosis of a human being. Unlike Beauty and the Beast, in the Metamorphosis some suggest love is received through acts of cruelty yet in actuality it appears that cruelty results in heartache. Due to being a beast, the repulsiveness requires genuine love which can achieve the “magical transformation.” This “magical transformation” is not achieved and creates a twist in the plot derived from the concepts in the “Beauty and the Beast.”
“Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.” John le Carr. The novel Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka is a story about the transformation of a man named Gregor who turned into a bug. The story takes place inside an apartment and describes the struggles Gregor goes through with his life and family. Throughout the entirety of the writing he is met with different challenges and obstacles. Grete, his sister and his parents have a unique bond that is not always the strongest. Gregor has not been close with his parents for awhile, but Grete especially at the beginning was the only person who truly cared about his predicament. This conflict results in the desertion of Gregor and the downfall of the family. These negatives compound, causing the his suicide. The Metamorphosis portrays how the betrayal of Gregor and Grete by their parents, and Gregor by his sister, leads to the demise of the family.
Gregor’s transformation and existentialist outlook shows parallels to the author, Franz Kafka’s, own life. Born in the nineteenth century, Kafka was a very intelligent young boy. However, he spent most of his life shying away and feeling demoralized by his overbearing father (Loveday). Kafka openly and straightforwardly reflects upon countless amounts of negative aspects of his personal life, both physical and mental. The relationship between Gregor Samsa and his father is in several ...
Kafka’s The Metamorphosis takes on an wide variety of main themes. One of the most important of these is the collapse of morality and mercy, even among those people who are expected to be most fair and compassionate. Gregor’s metamorphosis is indeed terrible, but more terrible still is the psychological corruption of Gregor’s family. Their inability to adapt to the changes that have occurred signal a total breakdown in the family structure, and offer a cautionary tale about the fragility of notions of justice and mercy and how a certain change can change a persons perception of them.
Throughout his life, Franz Kafka’s relationship with his father, Hermann Kafka, seems very dysfunctional and even, non-existent. Kafka’s father was described as dominant and hot tempered, and that he did not approve of Franz’s passion for writing. Kafka also wrote that his father was abusive and that he uttered threats towards Kafka. This negative relationship between Kafka and his father can clearly be recognized in “The Metamorphosis,” and a parallel can be drawn to Gregor’s father in the novella. Both Kafka’s father and Gregor’s father are depicted as unkind, aggressive, and unsympathetic.
Gregor’s family and how they treat him reflects the way that Kafka interacted with his family. The similarities between Kafka’s family and Gregor’s family can be seen in their name. Kafka’s friend remarks, “The hero of the story is called Samsa, it sounds like a cryptogram for Kafka” (Kennedy and Gioia 299). Kafka’s family was middle-class, and his father was a businessman. They had servants and maids just like Gregor’s family. Kafka was the eldest out of six children, and was very close to his sisters. This is seen ...
People want their family to love and support them during times of need, but if they are unable to develop this bond with their family members, they tend to feel alone and depressed. In the novel The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka describes the theme of alienation and its negative effect on people and their relationships with the people around them. This theme can be shown through Gregor Samsa, the main character in The Metamorphosis. After Gregor’s metamorphosis, or transformation, he is turned from a human being into a giant bug which makes him more and more distant from the people in his life. The alienation that Gregor experiences results in his eventual downfall, which could and would happen to anyone else who becomes estranged from the people around them. Gregor’s alienation and its effect on his relationship with his family can be shown through his lack of willing interaction with his family members due to his inability to communicate to them, the huge burden he puts on the family after his metamorphosis, and his family’s hope to get rid of him because he is not who he was before.
Have you ever wondered what makes a family unique and different from everyone else's? There are many similarities and differences between many families. In the story, The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka the protagonist Gregor Samsa awakes to find himself alienated from the rest of his family and from his role as a salesman. Throughout Gregor's life, he has sacrificed a lot to create a better life for his family. My life is In some ways similar to Gregor's life and the samsa family is both similar and different my own family. So how does the similarities and differences from the Samsa Family relate to my own?.
People who does not meet the standards set by society are considered “outlandish” or “abnormal” automatically. This standard can make it hard for outsiders to make new friends and spread their wings in this unbalanced world. In the story Metamorphosis, Gregor did not chose to transform into an insect; he was forced into it by nature. He was instantly treated differently by his co-workers, friends, and family. His sister treated him like an alien: a disgusting vermin that needed disposed of quickly. “‘He must go,’ cried Gregor’s sister, ‘that’s the only solution, 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.’” This quote explains how Gregor is viewed in his sister’s, along with everybody else’s, eyes. Gregor had no control over whether he was transformed into an insect and, consequently, his family labelled him as an outsider. Gregor’s
In “The Metamorphosis,” Franz Kafka depicts the life of the central character, Gregor Samsa, and his family after his transformation into a giant insect. Metamorphosis is a very major theme throughout the story, not only for Gregor but also that of his little sister Grete.
families go through a change but the difference is that Gregor's families change is for the worse they push him further away to the point they don't care about him even though he still cares about them. Billy’s family change is for the better instead of pushing him away they support him and help him get to his goal to help him live a better life.
...which eventually becomes so meager that he starves to death. Upon hearing the news, the family did not show sadness, but instead relief. "Well... now we can thank God!" (Kafka 55). Gregor's father felt relief of the economic burden of supporting his son. Although the exact story told in Kafka's The Metamorphosis could not occur outside the realm of fantasy, it represents the real scenario of a worker being abandoned by his employer and family after becoming unable to work and support them financially. By looking at the novella from a Marxist perspective, we see that the underlying theme of the story is a conflict between proletariat and bourgeoisie. Economics supersedes everything else in a capitalistic society, a citizen who is unable to labor and earn wages is quickly abandoned. The result of this abandonment is often, as it was in Gregor Samsa's case, death.
Gregor’s boldness about his desires to vacate his employment acts as a satirical commentary on his inability to make his achievable urges a reality, both before and after his transformation. The dissonance between Gregor’s aspirations and his actions during his human life is manifested by the literal discord he experiences after his metamorphosis. For example, the morning of his transformation Gregor found it difficult to get out of bed because he couldn’t control his “little legs.” Although he would try to bend them they would instead stretch themselves out. Gregor’s mind was incapable of forcing his body to cooperate with his desires, just as Gregor was incapable of acting on his wishes before his transformation. Gregor also finds that he is no longer comfortable with his sleep position, just as he was uncomfortable with his position at work, however now he cannot ignore the discomfort because it prevents him from sleeping. The literal metamorphosis of Gregor is Kafka’s representation of the choices that lead to Gregor’s dehumanization before his transformation. Although Gregor is trying to relieve his family from debt, he has allowed his job to take control of his life and hinder his human identity. Therefore, Gregor’s metamorphosis represents a loss of human identity in modern
In Franz Kafka’s short story, Metamorphosis, the idea of existentialism is brought out in a subtle, yet definite way. Existentialism is defined as a belief in which an individual is ultimately in charge of placing meaning into their life, and that life alone is meaningless. They do not believe in any sort of ultimate power and focus much of their attention on concepts such as dread, boredom, freedom and nothingness. This philosophical literary movement emerged in the twentieth-century, when Kafka was establishing his writing style in regards to alienation and distorted anxiety. A mirror to his own personal lifestyle, this story follows the short and sad life of a man unable to break out of the bonds society has placed on him. These bonds are not only evident in the work place, but at home too. Being constantly used and abused while in his human form, Gregor’s lifestyle becomes complicated once he becomes a giant insect and is deemed useless. Conflicts and confusion arise primarily between Gregor and his sister Grete, his parents, and his work. Each of these three relationships has different moral and ethical complications defining them. However, it is important for one to keep in mind that Gregor’s metamorphosis has placed him into a position of opposition, and that he has minimal control over the events to take place. Conflicts will also occur between family members as they struggle with the decision of what to do with Gregor. In the end they all come to the agreement that maintaining his uselessness is slowly draining them and they must get rid of him.