Mental Illness In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

It should be noted that, before the late 1900s, mental illness was not recognized as an illness. Instead, it was considered inhuman and people tended to view the mentally ill as, “‘dangerous,’ ‘dirty,’ ‘cold,’ ‘worthless,’ ‘bad,’ ‘weak,’ and ‘ignorant’” (Phelan, Link, and Stueve 189). When analyzing, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the main character could be suffering from a delusion when considering the parallels between Gregor’s behavior and the stigma surrounding the mentally ill in the 1950s.

When he is seen by a guest, they act as if he is human. For example, one of the lodgers, “smiled” (Kafka 41) and shook his head when he was regarding Gregor, almost as if he was amused by him. They do not act as if he is dangerous or that he is a

This emphasizes why Gregor’s family attempts to hide him away and why they begin to disregard him as human. They are hoping that society will not see that they are harboring Gregor and will not be judged. Their disgrace of Gregor is shown when they begin to describe him as an “‘it’” (Kafka 43). The family’s disdain is also clear when they begin locking Gregor in his room. However, this might also be because they view Gregor as dangerous, which was a common stereotype for the mentally

Parallels can be found considering that Gregor sees himself as a dirty bug and how he lives. The irony that Gregor’s delusion of himself being a bug makes him seem dirty to readers, because people tend to categorize bugs as dirty creatures in general. Therefore, his family probably sees a man that creeps across the floor on four legs instead of an actual bug. This is probably another reason why Grete stopped cleaning Gregor’s room, because she did not see a reason to clean a room that is not even used by a sane