As one reads The Metamorphosis, Grete's change and development in character is evident throughout each part of the story. Through several of her actions, as well as information given by both Gregor and the author, Grete undergoes her own metamorphosis from a seemingly young, light, fragile child, to a beautiful, mature, strong woman.
In part one, Grete's name is withheld from the audience. Kafka did this in order to show the audience how Grete's role as a strong member of the family was non-existent, and that she was mainly seen as a dependent child. This depiction is seen through Gregor's description of Grete's daily life which consisted of spending her days sleeping in (13). Her character is further emphasized through Gregor's explanation
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Her hard work at her job through her determination to learn stenography and French in order to obtain a higher position shows that she has developed the mature and focused mindset of a young adult (62). She does not seem like the carefree child that was described in part one, nor is she easily frightened like she was in part two. Instead, Grete has come to a consummation of a developed young adult. The resolution of her transformation is evident in two other instances towards the end of the book. The first is when she decides that it is time to let go of her brother in order to move on with the well-being of her family (79-81). This contrasts her younger spirit because her tone towards Gregor was that he deserved her care and subtle coercing in order to possibly reverse his transformation. However, she recognizes that this is in fact impossible, and decides to focus on other aspects of the family's life. The second is at the end of the book when her family notices how much she has grown physically and describes her as a voluptuous young woman that deserves a good husband (90). Kafka reinforces this through his narration of Grete by saying, "the daughter first lifted herself up and stretched her young body" (90). His narration symbolically shows that through her action of being the first to stand and stretch, she is now the first of the household and is ready to emerge in the world and put her young, strong, developed mind and body …show more content…
Her childish self is shown in her weakness concerning serious situations, and her habits of sleeping in which show her lack of required responsibility. Later, after taking on some responsibility she quickly learns to be strong and begins to mature. Her role as someone of importance and stature is symbolically given to her through the revelation of her name by Kafka. Finally, Grete's transformation has reached its culmination when she begins to prioritize her career, make decisions for her family, realize her brother's unrestorable state, and the description of her physical appearance and
Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis is so strikingly absurd that it has engendered countless essays dissecting every possible rational and irrational aspect of the book. One such essay is entitled "Kafka's Obscurity" by Ralph Freedman in which he delves down into the pages of The Metamorphosis and ferrets out the esoteric aspects of Kafka's writing. Freedman postulates that Gregor Samsa progresses through several transformations: a transformation of spatial relations, a transformation of time, and a transformation of self consciousness, with his conscious mutation having an antithetical effect on the family opposite to that of Gregor. His conjectures are, for the most part, fairly accurate; Gregor devolves in both his spatial awareness and his consciousness. However, Freedman also asserts that after Gregor's father throws the wounding apple, Gregor loses his sense of time. While his hypothesis certainly appears erudite and insightful, there really is no evidence within the book itself to determine whether if Gregor has a deteriorating sense of time. If Freedman had only written about Gregor's spatial and conscious degradation, then his entire thesis would be accurate.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is the story of Gregor Samsa, his turning into a bug, and his ultimate death. In the beginning of the novel Gregor wakes up as a bug and struggles to become used to his new body. Gregor is locked in his room and late for work; he is the only one who works in his family, so it is important that he shows up and earns money to pay off his parents debts. His office manager shows up wondering where he has been and everyone is shocked to see Gregor’s transformation when he finally makes his way out of his room. Upon seeing him, his father shoves him forcefully back into the room, scraping Gregor’s back. Grete, Gregor’s sister, is his primary caretaker throughout the book and she makes certain he is receiving the food he wants and is the only one to clean his room for him. Gregor’s mother and father do not pay much attention to him at all throughout the book. The mother occasionally checks on him, but can barely stand the sight of him. Eventually, Grete starts working and stops taking care of him too, leaving Gregor all by himself. Betrayal is evident in The Metamorphosis and contributes to
It is notable that Grete is a very good violin player. We see that Grete seems to take care of Gregor in a way, but that leads to her starting to act like his owner, and that he is a piece of property. “She had grown accustomed, certainly not without justification, so far as a discussion of matters concerning Gregor was concerned.” (Kafka, 161) Though, near the end of the story, Grete begins to care less and less for her older brother, and eventually decides to let him go. ““He must go,” cried Gregor’s sister” (Kafka, 176) It's just another example of Gregor never fitting in. He is stereotypically, just a bug. A quote, more than less an example that really hits it
Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to discover that he has been transformed into a repugnant vermin. One may never know what initiated this makeover, but the simple truth is that Gregor is now a bug, and everyone must learn to live and move on in this strenuous situation. In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the characters that interact with Gregor, including his mother, his father, and his sister Grete, must come to terms with his unfortunate metamorphosis, and each does so by reacting in a unique way. Gregor’s family members are constantly strained by this unusual event, and all three of them are pressed to their breaking point.
The relationship between Gregor and his sister Grete is perhaps the most unique. It is Grete, after all, with whom the metamorphosed Gregor has any rapport, suggesting the Kafka intended to lend at least some significance to their relationship. Grete's significance is found in her changing relationship with her brother. It is Grete's changing actions, feelings, and speech toward her brother, coupled with her accession to womanhood that seems to parallel Gregor's own metamorphosis. This change represents her metamorphosis from adolescence into adulthood but at the same time it marks the final demise of Gregor. Thus, certain symmetry is to be found in "The Metamorphosis." While Gregor falls in the midst of despair, Grete ascends to a self-sufficient, sexual
...increase her figure in the eyes of her parents. It was basically Grete who looked up to Gregor, but now it is flipped around. Lastly Grete states "It will be the death of you two, I can see it coming." Grete continues to insist that Gregor is no longer part of the family. In fact, according to her, Gregor is contributing to the disintegration of the family and must be killed to help save the family. Grete was the concerned one and now she refuses to call him her brother, and insists that he has to be disposed of just like any old household pest.
...ifferent countries writing two different styles, still somehow both decide to use similar picture perfect relationships between Gregor and Grete and Florentino and Fermina and then both use money to destroy them suggests the importance of these consistencies and their contributions to the works. In the case of The Metamorphosis, one must consider that there were other reasons as to why a change took place in the relationship of Gregor and Grete, including Grete’s not being able to handle her brother’s new physique. Ultimately, however, the three boarders were the most significant. After reading these works, one can entertain the thought that authors single most important contributions to their works is the use of an outside force to initiate change in the two main relationships. If it wasn’t for the introduction of these forces, each story would have been pointless.
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.”
In “The Metamorphosis”, Kafka uses the initial transformation of Gregor to showcase Grete, Gregor’s sister, own metamorphosis to reveal the boundaries that limit growth and acceptance in societies with specific gender roles. Through a feminist point of view the representation of Grete before and after Gregor’s metamorphosis, suggests that the equality of genders is important and valued by Kafka. In “The Metamorphosis” Kafka uses Grete has an example of the concerns of unequal gender
From the beginning of The Metamorphosis Kafka offers a comical depiction of Gregor’s “squirming legs” (Kafka 13) and a body in which “he could not control” (7). Gregor’s initial reaction to this situation was the fact he was late to his dissatisfying job as a salesman, but Gregor knows that he has to continue his job in order to keep the expectation his family holds upon him to pay of the family’s everlasting debt. When Gregor’s family eventually realizes that Gregor is still lying in his bed, they are confused because they have expectations on Gregor that he will hold the family together by working. They know if Gregor was to quit his job there would be a great catastrophe since he is the glue to keeping their family out of debt. The communication between his family is quickly identified as meager and by talking to each other from the adjacent walls shows their disconnection with each other. Kafka introduces the family as lacking social skills in order to offer the reader to criticize and sympathize for Gregor’s family dynamics. Gregor’s manager makes an appearance quickly after experiencing the dysfunction within the fami...
Upon completion of Kafka's Metamorphosis I was immediately drawn away from the conclusion of the novel and back into the second section. It seemed to me that the true essence of the novella resided in the thoughts and observations revealed in this portion of the story. After watching the video adaptation I was once again intrigued by these events. I re-read the second section and found the first strong impressions of the grotesque were evident here.
Franz Kafka wrote the short story Metamorphosis in 1912. No one can truly know what he aimed to accomplish with the story, but it is thought he wrote it to demonstrate the absurdity of life. The story is written with a very simplistic undertone, ignoring how completely ludicrous the situation that Gregor Samsa and his family are in. Metamorphosis is most often thought of in the scientific meaning of the word, which according to dictionary.com is a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism. It is also defined as a complete change of form, structure, or substance, as transformation by magic or witchcraft or any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc. This word is generally reserved for describing how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, a good analogy for the process of metamorphosis. It brings to mind a pleasant event, very unlike what Gregor and his family experience. We as readers only get to see things through Gregor’s eyes. Does this skew our understanding of the story, and how do Gregor and Grete’s metamorphoses differ, and how are they alike?
Grete is a character who appears to have the most tolerance for Gregor shortly after his metamorphosis. Gregor was apparently rather fond of his sister and had hoped to finance her education in a conservatory. He was also rather mesmerized with her violin playing. His inability to follow through with these planned acts of kindness may have led to a faster deterioration of Grete’s maintenance of Gregor’s room. Although she could never get used to Gregor’s new freakish appearance, she was his sole provider throughout his life after the metamorphosis:
Through the characterization of Gregor Samsa, Kafka is sending the message that isolation can lead to the dehumanization of a person. Gregor’s own decisions, along with others, ultimately cause his isolation and lead to the dehumanization of his character. When Grete comes to bring food to Gregor, Gregor notices how she can not bear the sight of him and is always scared by his appearance. This causes Gregor to carry “a sheet on his back on the sofa.and arrange it there in such a way as to hid[e] him completely” (Kafka 99).
Many comparisons can be inferred between the main character of Gregor and the author himself, Franz Kafka. The Metamorphosis would represent a time in Kafka’s life where he had been through many similar situations as Gregor, but with a fictional spin. A description of Gregor’s mother is provided when the author states that, “She senselessly ran backwards forgetting that behind her stood the table with all the dishes on it; arriving at the table, she (as if she were absent –minded )” (28). The words “senseless”, “forgetting”, and “absent –minded” relate to the character description of Kafka’s own mother Julie who it is said that, “She lacked the intellectual depth to understand her son” (A&E). Kafka’s father Hermann is described as “a forceful tyrant with a temper, and little appreciation for his son’s creativity” (A&E). The father of Gregor is also shown with a terrible temper throughout the book, but especially in chapter two when the book says that “Gregor stood still in terror and further running was useless because the father had decided to bombard him” (48). The two fathers were also compared in the glossary at the back of the book where it says that “He, (Gregor’s father), is imposingly large, as was Kafka’s own father”