symbolizing ones humanity

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Recommended: Literary analysis of the metamorphosis

“Symbolizing ones humanity”

Although Gregor’s transformation into a bug symbolizes his dehumanized and alienated humanity in The Metamorphosis, his passionate response to Grete’s violin playing embodies a relationship between his transformation as a bug and his fantasy of protecting Grete as he slowly crawls up to her. Throughout the Novella and Gregor’s transformation into a vermin, the theme of the story becomes contingent on what and who Gregor Samsa once was and has become. Grete playing the violin toward the end of the story fills a void that Gregor had been missing for some time since his transformation.
Gregor Samsa’s transformation into a vermin is a literal representation of the dehumanized and alienated life that he has come to live. Gregor in his human form represented nothing more then a paycheck to keep his family afloat because of his father’s misfortune. As Gregor took on the role as the family’s income and support, he lost all touch with reality, lust, love, enjoyment and friendship, which are symbolized by his transformation into a vermin. As Gregor hears the music from Grete’s violin, it is the first time he has heard her music since his transformation into a vermin. While Gregor listens to Grete play the violin, he begins to feel a love for the music, which he once felt in his human form. “Was he an animal if music could captivate him so” (Kafka 58)? Gregor’s passionate response to Grete’s music is because “He was being shown the way to the unknown nourishment he had been yearning for” (Kafka 59). The music that was being played by Grete allowed Gregor to justify his humanity and love for her violin playing, which then lead to his fantasy of protecting Grete as he crawled up toward her.
Although Gregor’s...

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...technique suggest that it is a precipitation in fantasy of his lifelong sense of loneliness and exclusion” (Angus 70).
Throughout Gregor’s transformation he never looses sight of who he once was, but has to learn to adapt to his new body mentally and physically in order to survive. As Gregor responds with such passion to Grete’s music, he is reminded of his humanity and love for his sister’s musical talent. When Gregor remembers these feeling of humanity through listening to Grete play the violin, he is able to then remember his sexual and erotic desires as he fantasizes about protecting Grete. Gregor’s decision to pass in the early morning hours can be viewed as either a heroic option, resembling the roles Gregor took on as a man in the beginning of the Novella or as David Angus says “…the last desperate appeal of the narcissistic neurotic dies for pity” (71).

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