Metamorphosis Essay

Leisure and wealth come at an immense price. In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915), the miserable nuclear family translates their suffering into anger as they are increasingly stifled by poverty. Gregor Samsa, the main character who transforms into a vague yet vile creature, witnesses frigid desertion as he becomes the family’s deadweight and shows no sign of recovery. As an archetype of warmth, security and love, ‘family’ obtains the opposite meaning as the Samsas take full advantage of Gregor’s filial obligation, thus unearthing the underlying evils of self-interest. Financial security is subsequently destroyed following Gregor’s fantastical affliction, capturing the pitiful craving for being royally supported scot-free. Kafka’s humorously macabre tale traces the social shunning of the everyman’s plunge into disability in order to expose the evils of the new-age family corrupt by capitalism, the fundamental darkness of human nature, and the polarity of goodness and man.
Gregor’s terrible judgment from his family is delivered primarily to stop rapid descent into the pit of poverty. Much like the age-old paradigm of catering to the rich and famous, capitalist ideals proportionally construe being poor as the utmost disgrace. Capitalism teaches the perverse ideal that being poor is indicative of lacking intelligence and ambition when, in reality, money is very difficult to earn. “[The Samsas] carried out absolutely everything that the world expects from poor people, Gregor's father brought bank employees their breakfast, his mother sacrificed herself by washing clothes for strangers, his sister ran back and forth behind her desk at the behest of the customers, but they just did not have the strength to do any more” (172). Poor p...

... middle of paper ...

...self against its glass, it held him firmly and felt good on his hot belly” (161). Gregor’s deformity allows him to reawaken his sensuality--something he was incapable of when he was a man. Gregor’s metamorphosis is accepting that spiritually connecting with others is rife with futility because humans are indubitably evil. ‘‘‘What now?’ Gregor wondered, peering around in the dark. He soon discovered that he could no longer budge at all… he felt relatively comfortable.. He lingered in this state of blank and peaceful musing until the tower clock struck three in the morning” (187). His new form is the conduit which releases him from a life of misery and neglect. In becoming human vermin, Gregor’s metamorphosis conversely allows him to become spiritually complete. Though he loses his family, Gregor is finally at peace when he fully abandons the desire to be human again.