We are defined in life by the series of transformations we undergo. In Franz Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis, the main character, Gregor, experiences a transformation from a man into an insect. In Kate Chopin’s, the Story of an Hour, the main character, Louise, transforms from a married woman into a free woman when she is under the impression that her husband has passed away. A theme common to both stories is the relationship between the mind and body. Kafka suggests that the mind can remain the same, despite changes to the body, whereas Chopin suggests that the mind and body are intimately interlinked.
From the perspective of the stories other characters, the condition of Gregor’s mind is far less significant than his outward appearance. Despite the fact that Gregor has provided for his family, once he transforms, it becomes clear that he was only valued for his earnings. Gregor’s family stiffened at the thought of having to return the favor and chose not to see beyond his exterior. To elaborate, Gregor’s sister, Grete degrades Gregor, implying he is less than human, when she stresses how “human beings can’t live with such a creature” (Kafka 134) and later refers to this creature as an “it” (Kafka 134). Likewise, the lodgers who reside with “such a neighbor as Gregor next door” (Kafka 131) often associated him with filth, overlooking the condition of Gregor’s state of mind. In contrary to the other characters attitude towards Gregor, Kafka proposes that the state of mind does not intertwine with the body and shows this through Gregor’s own experience.
Gregor’s mind whirls with confusion with what is a thoroughly human and realistic reaction in an unrealistic scenario. Gregor’s own body repulses him as he saw “his numerous legs ...
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...n the form of death, either by Brently or Louise.
In the course of “The Metamorphosis”, Kafka suggests that the mind is independent from the body, whereas Chopin continuously reiterates how the mind and body dictate one another. However, with both authors ending their stories in the form of death, they collapse the idea that the mind can continue on a journey, separate from the body’s. The sources of struggle for the two characters are different. It is impossible for Gregor to satisfy his families demands while it is impossible for Louise to remain married or unmarried; for the two characters, the last and only viable transformation is death.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” The Complete Works of Kate Chopin (1969): pp.
352-354. Print.
Kafka, Franz. “The Metamorphosis.” Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories (1971): pp.
89-139. Print.
Grete’s isolation from society stems from her passion and interest for her loved ones. Grete spends all her time at home caring for her family members. Kafka describes her as “perceptive; she had already begun to cry when Gregor was still lying calmly on his back” (Kafka 16). Throughout the text she becomes the sole reason Gregor stays alive. Grete spends her days worrying about the various foods Gregor likes and dislikes, how to make his room more comfortable, and trying to make him feel more comfortable. Gregor is not the only family member whose health is cared for by Grete. “Now his sister, working with her mother, had to do the cooking too; of course that did not cause her much trouble, since they hardly ate anything” (Kafka 25). Kafka incorporates household chores and her mother’s illness, escalating Grete’s isolation. During her mother’s many asthma attacks, Grete arrives first
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.
Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis is a masterfully written short story about Gregor Samsa, a man who devotes his life to his family and work, for nothing in return. Only when he is transformed into a helpless beetle does he begin to develop a self-identity and understanding of the relationships around him. The underlying theme of The Metamorphosis is an existential view that says any given choice will govern the later course of a person's life, and that the person has ultimate will over making choices. In this case, Gregor?s lack of identity has caused him to be numb to everything around him.
In Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the book begins by the author describing, “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug”. It is the body, the form that has transformed and no...
“Life can either be accepted or changed. If it is not accepted it must be changed. If it cannot be changed it must be accepted.”- Winston Churchill. Change is frightening, but without change you can never accomplish a greater goal. Gregor experienced a dramatic change in his life. He may or may not have experienced the physical change described, but he did experience a mental change. The mental change opened Gregor’s eyes to what really mattered in life. Once Gregor accepted his physical change he was able to begin his mental change. Gregor’s values in life had changed dramatically from beginning to end. Though Gregor was subjected to ridicule, he was given the greatest gift. The opportunity to change is the greatest gift anyone can
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.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th Compact Ed. New York: Longman, 2013. 268-98. Print.
In the novella “The Metamorphosis”, Franz Kafka focuses on the topic of alienation and considers its underlying effect on the human consciousness and self-identity. The alienation Kafka instigates is propagated towards the main character Gregor Samsa, who inevitably transforms into a giant cockroach. The alienation by family relations affects him to the extent that he prioritizes his extensive need to be the family’s provider before his own well-being. This overwhelming need to provide inevitably diminishes Gregor’s ability to be human-like. Kafka also enforces the idea of the ability to resurrect one’s self-identity following psychologically demanding events. In this essay, I utilize Gregor Samsa’s metamorphosis to address that alienation, in its various forms, is instrumental in the dehumanization process and can also oppositely induce a restoration of self-identity. The metamorphosis acts as a metaphor to express the inhumane change of state that occurs to a victim of alienation; it also formulates Gregor’s epiphany. He suffers through three forms of alienation: exploitation, violence, and neglect. The joint presence of these three external forces deprives him of a human distinctiveness, but in turn, influences a final realization that enforces the restoration of his self-identity, and therefore human identity.
Gregor is obviously trapped by his external appearance. His physical limitations deepen his feeling of futility. His external appearance mimics his internal feelings, as he now feels helpless by not being able to physically carry out his responsibilities.
In the novels The Metamorphosis and The Stranger by Franz Kafka and Albert Camus, Kubler-Ross’s five stages of death are incorporated to emphasize the themes of individualism and isolation. While denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance are common emotions when dealing with death, denial, anger, and acceptance are essential in connecting to Kafka and Camus’s ideas regarding individualism. Through their experiences relating to those three stages of death, the protagonists, Gregor Samsa and Meursault, are isolated from greater society and forced to acknowledge their individuality. Both Gregor and Meursault have pivotal experiences with denial, the first stage of the grief process, in their respective novels. While Gregor refuses to accept his transformation in order to remain a part of society, Meursault denies God in the religious culture of Algeria, proving his individuality while isolating himself.
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...
Cunningham, Mark. "The Autonomous Female Self and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour.” English Language Notes 42.1 (2004): 48-55. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
The height of palpable conflict is when Gregor moves to defend his possessions as his sister, Grete, now possessing power and autonomy within the family, removes the furniture from his bedroom. Gregor is emotional and possessive, and he attempts to guard and protect his belongings. This marks the first time throughout the course of the novel that Gregor displays self-interest, putting his own desires before another’s. Nevertheless, this is not a l...
In Kate Chopin’s short story, a woman named Louise Mallard suffered of a heart disease. When her sister Josephine reveals to Louise about her husband’s tragic train accident, causing his death, her reaction was bizarre. After she is notified about her husband’s decease, she goes upstairs and locks herself in her room. She sits on her armchair, looks out her window, and fantasizes about what her life will be like without her husband, Mr. Mallard. Shortly after, Josephine comes for her, thinking Louise will get ill about the news and they both walk down the stairs. To Mrs. Mallard’s dismay, the door flings open: Mr. Mallard was alive! Mrs. Mallard was in shock but mostly disappointed, for the future she dreamed of without her husband was ruined, and dies. According to the doctor she had died of the joy that kills. There is no doubt that Kate Chopin included an abundant of symbolic and ironic references in her short story “The Story of an Hour.”
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.