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Mitchell Fraye

Professor Beadle

English 115

October 28, 2018

The Physical Body and the Human Experience

Physical appearance and our physical form take an important role in our everyday lives,

shaping the way that we interact with the objects and people around us. Just as a hormonal

teenager is different than an elderly man, our physical bodies can have a lasting toll on our

personality and character. In The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, a young man named Gregor

had a large physical change: he wakes up one morning turned into a large and verminous insect.

As the story progresses, many changes on his lifestyle and his interactions with his family

change due to his physical condition. The tension between his human emotions/desires and the

limitations of his new body incites a loss of his human personality, as well as primal instincts and

more zoological behavior. This “metamorphosis” also forced his family to react and change in

many ways as a response to his new condition and his new limitations. He is altered through his

physical restriction, lack of communication, and isolation/alienation of the things that made him

human. Overall, physical change, like Gregor’s situation, affected his entire lifestyle and shaped

the way that he interacted with the world around him.

In the beginning of the story, we immediately see a conflict that arises from his physical

transformation. As an insect, “no matter how hard he threw himself onto his right side, he always

rocked onto his back again” (Kafka, 3). This inability to move from Gregor’s back left him late

for his job and costed him the position. Almost Immediately, we see the physical restriction of

his physicality affect the everyday norms involved with his human life. Before the
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transformation, his job took up most of his time and identity as a person. His new form kept him

from the original lifestyle given to him by his human body. The evidence presented by the

drastic change into unemployment shows light into the consequences from Gregor’s new

physical form going into the story.

As the story progresses, we see his new anatomy change his patterns of behavior. His

new abilities, like crawling on the walls and ceilings, are used much more as they become

convenient and he adapts to his new form. He also abandons specific human mannerisms, like

sleeping in a bed and eating with utensils. Kafka describes the transformation of his physical

environment (his room) as a representation of his desires and changing behavior. “Did he really

want the warm room, so cozily appointed with heirlooms, transformed into a lair, where he

might, of course, be able to creep, unimpeded, in any direction, though forgetting his human past

swiftly and totally?” (Kafka, 13). These all relate to his deviation from many aspects of typical

human lifestyle, and his abandonment of comforts and ideals that once was a large part of his

daily existence, like his room or his mannerisms. As the story progresses, these consequences

start to affect others as well.

Gregor’s family immediately see a large change and impact onto their lives. His new

insect body is very hideous and scary compared to his original regular human body, and the

unfamiliarity of his transformation and his new body created a sense of horror, confusion,

distrust, and distance from his family. Throughout the story, you see Gregor’s family start to

distrust and grow apart from him with his new body. Seen as an animal, the family starts to

distrust his new body and how much of Gregor is truly inside of it. Kafka even describes the fear

that his family has toward Gregor toward the end of the story. “And in a fit or terror that was

completely incomprehensible to Gregor, his sister abandoned even her mother… …as if she
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would sacrifice her own mother than stay near Gregor” (Kafka 50) The physical biology of his

new body destroyed his relationship that he had with his family, changing both his relationship

with his job and his relationship with the people around him. Both of these drastic changes had

major effect on Gregor, and they all resulted from his physical change.

One of the most important traits and tools that we have available to us as human beings is our

ability to communicate. We use it to express different ideas, and to negotiate and reach a higher

level of complexity in human culture. When Gregor transforms into vermin, he loses his ability

to talk as his vocal cords do not support the syllables of modern language. This physical problem

has overlying effects and creates a large strain on his human characteristics. If he could still talk

to his family, or his manager, he could explain his situation and help negotiate his new wants and

needs to them. Because Gregor could not communicate, his family began to doubt the prevalence

of Gregor in his new form, creating some of the issues mentioned earlier. He would be seen as

less animalistic and more human to his family and could help regulate and control the reactions

and repercussions involved with his transformation to his family. This lack of verbal

communication allowed Gregor’s change from his human characteristics to a more primal

animalism.

As his family feared him and grew apart, this created a cycle of losing human traits and his

family viewing him as an outsider. This growing isolation became an important factor for the

change of Gregor and his personality. L. J. N. Brent, a professor at the school of Exeter in the

UK, explains the connection between isolation and natural causes. He states that “social isolation

results from a combination of intrinsic and environmental factors.” (Brent, 2) His lack of

interaction emboldened both his biological and environmental isolation. Another factor involved

in his alienation is the responsibility shift within the family. Throughout the story, Grete, his
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sister, became his primary caretaker and his connection to his family and his human side. As his

absence at work created financial stresses within his home, she was forced to work and take over

the role as provider for the family. This shift further separated Grete from her transformed

brother, and she started to resent him and view him as a burden. These many factors allowed his

family to dehumanize him as if he had been replaced. The pure difference in physicality between

Gregor and his family and the isolation created as a result further motivated the parties to evolve

and change in many ways.

A counterargument against Gregor’s physicality is that he never fully changed due to any

physical transformation. One could argue that his overlying motivations were consistent from the

beginning to the end of the story. Before his transformation. Gregor was very dissatisfied with

his life; his work and the struggles of the harsh industrial society took up most of his personal

life. “Oh, God”, he thought, “what a strenuous career it is that I’ve chosen! Travelling day in and

day out. It can all go to Hell!” (Samsa 2). Although Gregor might have lost his job due to his

new body, his distaste for his job stayed consistent throughout his story. Rhodes, who has

published articles about The Metamorphosis, argues that Gregor only feels obligated to work, but

he does not enjoy it. “This and subsequent passages make it clear that while Gregor loathes his

job, he feels a deep sense of obligation and commitment to it on account of his responsibilities to

his family.” (Rhodes 241) Although he lost his job from his change, if he wanted to leave his job

anyway, it might not of been a big deal. Some argue that, although many changes occur in the

story, his headspace and his overlying opinions do not change. Also, his family changes do not

matter because Gregor has always felt some sort of alienation and separation from his family.

His active schedule from his work allowed himself to be almost separate, and his parents and

him never really had a close connection. Through his metamorphosis, those weak links to his
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family just got stressed and eventually showed the true nature of their relationship. Even towards

the end of the story, Gregor holds onto specific feelings and parts of his humanity even

throughout the long transformation. For example, his relationship with his sister Grete is the

strongest connection he has to his family. All of his actions leading to his death were involved

with maintaining a relationship with her, and these ending feelings towards Grete were consistent

with his strong feelings he's had from the beginning of the story. Although he physically

changed, the actions of the characters throughout the story could be seen as an amplification of

feelings that they already contained. The first-person narrative of the story allows us to

understand Gregor with his thoughts and feelings throughout the story. If his physical body

changed back the next day, you could still see glimpses of his old personality. Overall, although

his outward actions change, his headspace, consciousness, and feelings generally stay the

consistent throughout the story.

I disagree with the opinions of Gregor consistency because his actions represent other aspects

of change. According to Thane S. Pittman of Colby College, our basic wants and needs as

organisms have an everlasting effect on psychological behavior and motivations. Gregor’s

physical transformation changed his desires drastically, from things like his eating habits to his

fundamental nature and psychology. Although his conscious thought throughout the story

seemed relatively unchanged, his actions and behavior seemed to change drastically throughout

the story. To many philosophers like Immanual Kant, actions have a lasting effect and are more

important towards society and relationships than intentions and thoughts. Even if Gregor had

good feelings towards his Grete, his inability to express himself properly allowed for many

changes to occur within the family dynamic and the actions that each person responded with.
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Regardless of how Gregor felt throughout the story, his physical change ended up creating many

differences and changes that have larger effects than the consistency of his consciousness.

The importance of understanding the relationship between your physical body and your

character is very trivial and important. As we can see within The Metamorphosis, changes to

your physical self can create drastic changes to your personality and your relationships to others.

In Kafka own life, he felt that same alienation and disconnection to his family that Gregor feels

throughout the entire story. In A Letter to his Father, Kafka said “I was, after all, weighed down

by your mere physical presence.” His behavior, which is ultimately impacted by our physical

nature, is an important part of your life and experience living on our planet. Just as a man could

lose his job or injure himself, the ramifications involved could potentially affect the entire family

and living situation, just as Gregor's inability to work did. Overall, our physical relationship with

our own bodies and our physical nature can both affect our own actions, as well as how we affect

other people. I believe that Gregor’s physical change had everlasting effects on himself, and the

entire situation that his family underwent throughout the story. His loss of his job, his family’s

support and belief, his lack of communication, and his loss of his humanity created many

changes in his life, and ultimately led to Gregor’s death at the end of the story. The story of The

Metamorphosis is important because it shows us how fragile our humanity could be, and how we

could pay attention to physicality and how it affects our own situations. Although it is unlikely

one of us will wake up one morning an insect, it could influence us to take care of our bodies and

our own identity.

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Work Cited

Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. New York :Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. Print

Kafka, Franz, et al. Letter to the Father = Brief an Den Vater. Schocken Books, 2015.

Rhodes, C. & Westwood, R. J Bus Ethics (2016) 133: 235. https://doi-

org.libproxy.csun.edu/10.1007/s10551-014-2350-1

O'Connor, Ciaran. “A Consideration of Kafka's Metamorphosis as a Metaphor for Existential

Anxiety about Ageing.” Existential Analysis, vol. 23, no. 1, 2012, p. 56.

Hung, Ruyu. “Caring About Strangers: A Lingisian Reading of Kafka’s Metamorphosis.”

Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 45, no. 4, 2013, pp. 436–447.

Brent, L. J. N., et al. “Persistent Social Isolation Reflects Identity and Social Context but Not
Maternal Effects or Early Environment.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 19 Dec. 2017,
www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18104-4#rightslink.

Pittman, T. S., & Zeigler, K. R. (2007). Basic human needs. Social Psychology:
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Handbook of Basic Principles,2, 473–489. Ployhart, R. E., & Vandenber