Franz Kafka's Die Verwandlung: The Metamorphosis of the Fairy Tale Tradition

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“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. He was lying on his back as hard as armor plate, and when he lifted his head a little he saw his vaulted brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to whose dome the cover, about to slide off completely, could barely cling. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with size of the rest of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes” (Kafka 255). Renowned German writer, Franz Kafka, wrote the short story “The Metamorphosis (translated from its original German title: "Die Verwandlung")” in 1912 and later published in 1915 to much acclaim from both casual readers and critics alike. “The Metamorphosis” shares many characteristics of Fairy Tales, particularly that of the popular “Beauty and the Beast” tale and the “loathly lady” tales, but with some divergences from the typical traits of most fairy tales. The shift in setting, atypical characters as compared with fairy tale characters, similar themes, and straying from the common “happily ever after” ending is cause for consideration of “The Metamorphosis” as an inversion of the fairy tale form.
For centuries, children have been told countless tales of dream-like worlds with creatures that could never exist in reality. While these stories spark the imagination of children, they are often just as intriguing as adults. In Kafka’s story, he takes the very core of the fantasy story motif and manipulates it to the point of creating an almost anti-fairy tale. The transformation of Gregor into an insect, handsome to ugly, rather than the other way around is a primary example of how Kafka has twisted the would -be hero of the traditional fairy tale, into an inhuma...

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Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. "On The Loathly Bride." Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies 20.4 (1945): 391-404. JSTOR. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
Grimm, Jacob, and Willhelm Grimm. "Beauty and the Beast." : Folktales of Type 425C. Trans. D.L. Ashliman. University of Pittsburgh, 1998. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. .
Kafka, Franz."The Metamorphosis." The Longman Anthology of World Literature. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2009. 253-284. Print.Works Cited
Klaudinyi, Jennifer. "Kunstmärchen to Kafka: The Metamorphosis of Fairytale Motifs." UO Libraries. University of Oregon Libraries, 2005. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .

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