Gregor Samsa awakes one morning to discover that he has been transformed into a repugnant vermin. One may never know what initiated this makeover, but the simple truth is that Gregor is now a bug, and everyone must learn to live and move on in this strenuous situation. In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the characters that interact with Gregor, including his mother, his father, and his sister Grete, must come to terms with his unfortunate metamorphosis, and each does so by reacting in a unique way. Gregor’s family members are constantly strained by this unusual event, and all three of them are pressed to their breaking point.
Gregor Samsa’s mother, whose name is never revealed, is a physically and constitutionally weak woman. She cares dearly for Gregor which is first shown by her distress as Gregor does not wake up at his usual time. It is evident that Gregor’s mother has the hardest time coping with his transformation. She can not bear to lay eyes upon Gregor. Though she has trouble adjusting, she doesn’t stop loving her only son. As Gregor’s mother and sister begin to move furniture out of his room, his mother stops to contemplate whether this is the right course of action. As Sheldon Goldfarb states in his critical essay, “When his mother and sister start removing his furniture, his mother's second thoughts provoke him to resist: he does not want to give up his human past and the possibility of returning to it” (Goldfarb). On the outside, Gregor’s mother reacts with repulsion at the sight of the bug, but on the inside still cares deeply about her son underneath. Gregor is able to see this and it gives him new hope.
Mr. Samsa, Gregor’s father, whose failed business has cast him into a lifestyle of weakness and despair, reacts very distinctively to the metamorphosis. At first, Mr. Samsa, after his initial shock, seems to be the least affected by Gregor’s nauseating state. It seems that Mr. Samsa feels that he must protect the rest of his family from this abomination living in his flat. Unlike his mother and sister, Gregor’s father no longer recognizes Gregor as his son. This is made clear when Mr. Samsa attacks Gregor by pelting him with apples; the catalyst that ultimately led to the death of Gregor.
“Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.” John le Carr. The novel Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka is a story about the transformation of a man named Gregor who turned into a bug. The story takes place inside an apartment and describes the struggles Gregor goes through with his life and family. Throughout the entirety of the writing he is met with different challenges and obstacles. Grete, his sister and his parents have a unique bond that is not always the strongest. Gregor has not been close with his parents for awhile, but Grete especially at the beginning was the only person who truly cared about his predicament. This conflict results in the desertion of Gregor and the downfall of the family. These negatives compound, causing the his suicide. The Metamorphosis portrays how the betrayal of Gregor and Grete by their parents, and Gregor by his sister, leads to the demise of the family.
...top loving him. Without his initial function, he became an outlaw of family life. Gregor eventually wanted the family to give up all hope in him, a hope that he wanted to exist but did not. “He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister’s.” Immediately after this line, Gregor Samsa committed suicide. As a the family came to learn of Gregor’s death, the father said, “Well, now thanks be to God.” The sister appears to not be upset, but rather in a state of disbelief that the burden on their family is finally gone. When Gregor’s mother learns of his death, she questions it, to check the validity, and then tell her daughter to come join them with a “tremendous smile.” However, it is arguable whether he killed himself, or Gregor died of a broken heart.
Although Gregor turned into a bug, the real Metamorphosis occurred before the change and with the whole family. Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis reflects the ideals about industrialization and existentialism during the turn of the century. In the novella, Gregor turns into a bug, and the whole family has to deal with it in different ways. Many characters go through a metamorphosis in the novella. Although the changes may not be physical the changes occurred greatly in Gregor, Mr. Samsa, and Grete.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a classic piece of literature. This masterpiece of stunning psychological, sociological and existential angst has blessed the minds of readers since it was written in 1912. It is the story of Gregor Samsa, a hardworking man trying to pay off the debt of his family, but transforms into a vermin, (bug). There are many parallels of Kafka’s life to Gregor’s in Metamorphosis. Both Kafka and Gregor were in family and social discord, and a bureaucracy of a work world. The way Kafka chose to write his novella, in third person limited omniscient narration, serves his purpose of wanting to understand and reflect on his own experiences along with entertaining. Choosing Gregor to narrate the novella would change the purpose, plot, and understanding of the story.
“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” (Kafka). What just happened? Has Gregor really become a bug? This story, The Metamorphosis, is about Gregor Samsa who deals with a job he hates in order to financially support his family and pay off their debt. The story is told through the lens that is Gregor Samsa. As the eyes and ears of the story, Gregor tells the reader many things that all lead to one conclusion, he really has become a bug; however, this is not true, Gregor, in his current mental state, cannot be trusted. Due to the extreme amounts of stress Gregor is under, he has convinced himself that he has become a “monstrous verminous bug” and Kafka tries to convince the reader of that same fact (Kafka).
People want their family to love and support them during times of need, but if they are unable to develop this bond with their family members, they tend to feel alone and depressed. In the novel The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Kafka describes the theme of alienation and its negative effect on people and their relationships with the people around them. This theme can be shown through Gregor Samsa, the main character in The Metamorphosis. After Gregor’s metamorphosis, or transformation, he is turned from a human being into a giant bug which makes him more and more distant from the people in his life. The alienation that Gregor experiences results in his eventual downfall, which could and would happen to anyone else who becomes estranged from the people around them. Gregor’s alienation and its effect on his relationship with his family can be shown through his lack of willing interaction with his family members due to his inability to communicate to them, the huge burden he puts on the family after his metamorphosis, and his family’s hope to get rid of him because he is not who he was before.
“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself”(3). Before even getting up from bed, Gregor Samsa’s life and the life of his family is irreversibly changed. In The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka, Gregor, a traveling salesman, transforms overnight into a gigantic insect. As a result of this physical change, Gregor’s relationships with his family deteriorate as they are repulsed by his vile appearance. The Metamorphosis suggests that Gregor’s transformation serves as an allegory for mental illness. Kafka creates these parallels through the casual nature of Gregor’s metamorphosis, his inability to function as a member of
Undoubtedly, Franz Kafka depicts the relationship between himself and his father Hermann within The Metamorphosis. For instance, his father treated him poorly as he resembled disappointment in his eyes. When Mr. Samsa threatens Gregor, he feels that “No plea of [his] helped, no plea was even understood; however humbly he might turn his head, his father merely stamped his feet more forcefully” (Kafka 14). This shows that Mr. Samsa treats Gregor brutally, and rather than understanding him, he intends on pushing Gregor to the limit. Also, he resembles an ill-tempered human as numerous things bother him. Similarly, within Kafka’s life he underwent abuse and regularly got yelled at as a young boy and viewed as a sinking ship (Stephens). In addition, his father set certain expectations for Kafka which he desired him to fulfill. Gregor represents the only source of income in the family. For this particular reason, when Kafka introduces Gregor, he states, “...Samsa was a traveling salesmen...”(3). Ironically, Kafka’s father, Hermann, wanted Kafka to pursue a career as a salesmen even though his son opposed this idea (Stephens). Instead, Kafka wished to pursu...
In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka manifests naïveté of Gregor Samsa by prolonging his realization of societal banishment due to underexposure. Revelations made by Samsa later prove his ignorance of his purpose in the eyes of his family. In addition to the many instances in which Gregor is trialed, Kafka’s continuous stream of distractions mimic Gregor’s persona.
Kafka used the constant setting of the Samsa household to show the true repercussions of the metamorphosis. It is here that Gregor is truly dehumanized. No longer can he stand the taste of what used to be his favorite dish. He is reduced to a vermin who feeds on rotted, decaying food and who finds the presence of fresh food repulsing. The very means by which he sustained himself is not fit for a human, but rather for a dependent beast.
In “The Metamorphosis,” by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up one day as an insect. His family doesn't react how a normal family would. They don't show deep concern, rather they react in absolute horror. His mother, who has severe asthma, faints. His father tries to swat him away with his cane, and his sister sobs in the next room out of fear. From then on, they locked him up in his room. Since they couldn’t even stand the sight of him, no one dared to even enter his room except his younger sister Grete, who brought him food, though when she came in, he hid under the couch. Gregor supported the entire family single-handedly since his father and mother had a lot of debts due to a business failure. Therefore, when he becomes unable to work, the
When comparing Franz Kafka and his personal life to The Metamorphosis it is obvious in more ways than one that he was writing a twisted story of his life. The emotional and physical abuse Gregor goes through are similar to what Kafka went through in real life. They were both abused and neglected by their fathers when they were disappointed with them. Kafka uses Gregor transforming into a bug as a way of exaggerating himself, trying to express his feelings and point of view. When writing, Kafka felt as if he was trapped in his room which he referred to as "the noise headquarters of the apartment". Gregor was an exaggeration of this because he could not leave the house to escape the noises and abuse.
In light of, the event that occurred in the Samsa’s household not only affected Gregor but his whole family. As for his family change was sudden with their only breadwinner out of the picture not being able to work no more they were financially unstable and needed to make a change if they still wanted food on their table. Every member of the family is forced to get a job to withstand their financial problems. Mr. Samsa, for instance, was reincorporated into the workforce always looking “as if he was ready for service at any moment and even here only at the beck and call of his superior”(Kafka 32). For Ms. Samsa, she is “devoted her energy on making underwear for strangers,” as for Grete, she became a sales girl for the meantime to help out the family financially (Kafka 38). For the most part, all of them have dehumanizing jobs and the household always seemed depressed. With the Samsa’s new lives they began to switch feelings towards Gregor with the burden of having Gregor in the household being a major problem for the family due to the reason that they want to sell the house but with Gregor
Life is full of difficult choices. But who knew even a bug and his human family would have to face the same dilemma. In Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” the Samsa family has to deal with making choices concerning their son and brother who has all of a sudden turned into a bug. Gregor’s life got increasingly harder than when he was human and he had to brainstorm and make decisions to survive in his family.
As soon as the Samsa’s returned to their flat, the family reminisces of the trials and ordeals which they were forced to endure upon their Gregor’s revolting transformation. Subsequent to discussing the matter the Samsa’s felt they could each hover above ground from the amount of anxiety which had been lifted from their shoulders. The Samsa’s decide they should clean their home and dispose of anything that brings the thought of Gregor to their minds. Mr. Samsa consumed with anger and disgust does not dare to go inside of Gregor’s dormitory. When the time comes however, to re-arrange what used to belong to their son, Gregor’s mother and sister enter the room.