The Metamorphosis

Kafka wrote the Metamorphosis from mid-November to early December of 1912. The
Metamorphosis is Kafka’s best short story and has everything that could be called
"Kafkaesque", meaning that it has all of Kafka’s most famous themes and ideals. This is
also his most popular work; while few will take the time to read and ponder over works
such as The Castle or The Trial, this story is probably the best introduction to the world
of Kafka’s literature. Despite this, the story has more interpretations than virtually any
other written by Kafka, this may be simply because it is so well-known, but the story
itself does leave a lot of room for interpretation. As with the other stories of Kafka that I
have written about, with this one I will give my thoughts in combination with the most
accepted interpretation of the story. Although there are many as with his other works,
most that read the story can agree on several important points.

I want to give a synopsis of the plot, but before reading anyone’s interpretation of what
something means, especially literature as well as philosophy, one should read it for
themselves. Otherwise there will never be new ideas about a work. Gregor Samsa, a
traveling salesman who is working to pay off his fathers debts wakes up one morning to
discover that he has been transformed into a large insect. After much difficulty he
manages to get out of bed and open his door to confront his family and a clerk from his
job. The family is repulsed and the clerk leaves in fear. At this point Gregor is kept in his
room, receiving food from his sister, but completely isolated from the rest of the family.
Once when Gregor comes out of his room he is driven back in by his father who attacks
him with apples, Gregor is badly injured. Overtime he eats less and becomes gradually
weaker. One last time he comes out of his room upon hearing his sister play the violin,
once again is rejected from the human circle and goes back to his room where he dies.
Having this burden lifted the family celebrates his death with a day in the country. Also,
The Metamorphosis is written in a very realist style so as everything seems as if it is
really happening regardless of how strange or absurd it seems.

My immediate reaction to this story was sadness, it is a very sad story and that is most
likely the first reaction that most people have to it. Unless one looks a little deeper into
it, this will probably remain their final and only reaction.

PART I

In the first sentence Gregor awakens and he is an insect but we do not get an
immediate reason for this. To some, the climax of this story is in the first sentence and it
trails off from there, I can agree with this, and that Gregor is somewhat of an "anti-hero"
character, but is a hero also. This will be discussed more later. Also, it is important to
remember that his metamorphosis into an insect is supposed to be real, it is not a mere
dream or state of neurosis. Also, do not know much about how Gregor looked and it is
well-known that Kafka specifically refused to allow an insect illustration to appear on the
cover of the book.
Gregor’s first thoughts when he wakes is not horror or disbelief, he is merely worried
about getting fired from his job, which we learn some about:

"My God," he thought, "what a strenuous profession I’ve chosen! Traveling

day in and day out. The turmoil of business is much greater than in the
home office, and on top of that I’m subjected to this torment of traveling, to
the worries about train connections, the bad meals at irregular hours, an
intercourse with people that constantly changes, never lasts, never
becomes cordial. The devil take it all!"

We also learn later that Gregor is working to pay off his fathers debts (which will take
another five or six years) and to support his family but otherwise he would have "quit
long ago." In a way Gregor has sacrificed himself to his family and he has sacrificed his
soul to a life that "constantly changes, never lasts, never becomes cordial." Soon after
this, the entire family comes to his door which he has locked, trying to wake him up, a
man from his job has come to see why he is not at work. We learn that he locks
bedroom doors at night, more out of habit than anything else because he is so used to
living in hotels. This further shows how he has isolated himself from the family. Also he
thinks that if he can just get out of bed that this current state will "prove to be purely
imaginary." As absurd as it seems, he is ignoring the fact that he was transformed into
an insect.

Gregor reflects on his job again:

Were all employees simply scoundrels, was there among them not one
loyal devoted person who, even though he had merely failed to utilize a
couple morning hours on behalf of the firm, had become crazed by pangs
of conscience, to the point of being incapable of getting out of bed?

This is an important part of the story. In some people’s view, the metamorphosis
represents Gregor’s death. However a better explanation is that Gregor has been
transformed into what he had become in life, a parasite to his family, a low insect that
crawls below everyone else in his work and life. The only real family relation Gregor has
with these people is for income, an economical relation, he is really a stranger to them.
Gregor has to struggle with these facts and must confront them, but the important part
of this statement is that we see it is the "pangs of conscience" that have driven him to
his current state. It is his dehumanizing and degrading job and life in general that has
caused him such alienation that this terrible misfortune has come upon him.

That "employees are scoundrels", shows his guilt, an all too common theme in Kafka’s
work. Gregor has guilt because he feels that he must provide for his family at all costs
regardless of his current state. The guilt Gregor feels has an unnaturalness about it, it is
a result of the modern world only, not human nature itself. Gregor wants to blame
himself for something for something which he has no control over.
We also know from other comments that Gregor is overworked and way too devoted to
his job which he has no miss a day of for five years. Gregor has lived in a world for
many years that consists solely of business. I believe in this type of place the person
loses themself in a sense, with a focus on money and profit the real person, their
individuality and character gets lost in the process as somehow inconvenient or
irrelevant. At first Gregor tries to ignore the metamorphosis, because the duty he feels
toward his family is more important than the fact that he has been transformed into an
insect. He keeps looking at his clock, because time is so much more important than
ever taking a moment to look at yourself and what you are. This is how Kafka feels
about the modern world and what its effects are on the human being.

We see this again when his mother laments to the clerk about her son:

"He isn’t well, believe me, sir. How otherwise would Gregor miss a train!
The boy has no head for anything but the business. I’m almost upset, as it
is, that he never goes out at night...He sits with us at the table and reads
the paper quietly or studies timetables..."

This just further shows what Gregor’s life has become day after day, it has become
completely dehumanizing. Gregor attempts to tell them that he is trying to get ready, but
his voice has changed to where no one can really understand him. I believe that this
inability to communicate, with only one way communication coming from everyone else,
to me this is something else I believe Kafka is saying. There is an inability to
communicate with the father (which you can understand if you read about Kafka’s
relationship with his father) and humanity in general while still receiving their criticism.
Indeed the clerk blames Gregor, saying he is causing his family great harm and that he
suspects him of stealing money from the business. Although Gregor is completely
devoted to his job it is as if he is only noticed when he steps out of line, another obvious
aspect of our modern world. After this the mother mentions briefly to the clerk a picture
that Gregor had cut out and made a frame for. This has much symbolism later, but I
wish to mention it here and a point one should remember that it is a picture of a woman,
not that he knows, but a picture from a magazine, showing all the more alienation of
Gregor.

At one point Gregor thinks about his current position:

Gregor tried to imagine whether the chief clerk might not some day have
an experience similar to his today: the possibility really had to be
conceded. But, as if in brutal response to this question, the chief clerk now
took a few determined steps in the adjoining room, which made his patent-
leather boots squeak.

Gregor wonders if not all will receive this fate which has fallen upon himself. The shoes
worn by the clerk obviously have some sort of symbolism here, they could represent a
status symbol of wealth, something that keeps the clerk from becoming what Gregor
has now become. Of course the boots also represent something capable of easily
crushing Gregor, either way we reach much the same conclusion that it symbolizes
something above and more powerful than Gregor. Just as important to note, the clerk
takes "determined steps", a sign that he makes his own decisions without fear.

The clerk tells the mother:

"I hope its nothing serious. Although I am also bound to state that we
business people – unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look
at it – very often simply have to overcome a slight indisposition out of
regard for the business."

From my point of view it is this mentality that has caused Gregor to be in his current
position. "The Business" is your only cause, your only concern. It is dehumanizing in
that you do not exist as a human, but a mere tool of the business. This too Gregor
thinks, when he reflects at one point that he is "a tool of his boss." This "slight
indisposition" that must be overcome is your own self, your true inner self which I will
discuss more at the end.

With much trouble Gregor manages to open the door and everyone is immediately
repulsed and shocked by him. Anyone would have to admit that this scene is fairly
comical, Gregor scurries toward the terrified clerk, trying to explain to him that he does
not wish to get fired from his job and will be there as soon as he can then the clerk
screams and runs out of the apartment. Again, we see that Gregor totally ignores his
current state and he is only feeling guilt about his job responsibilities, not his
responsibilities to himself.

Gregor wants to open the door in order to see what everyone’s reaction is:

If they got frightened, the Gregor would have no further responsibility and
could be calm. But if they accepted everything calmly, then he, too, would
have no cause to be upset, and, if he hurried, he could really be at the
station at eight o’clock.

This tells us something more about Gregor, that he has always let other people make
his decisions for him, or more accurately, he has always let "the rest of humanity" make
his decisions for him and gone along with what everyone else thinks is acceptable to do.
It is easy to picture Gregor, separated from humanity, and then opening the door to be
judged as to what they want him to do with his life. Another thing to note here is when
Gregor first opens the door he sees a picture of himself in military uniform on the wall.
The family seems only to care about him if he is not doing his job, and this is the image
of him they want to see, this is the image of him they hang on the wall. It is as if they
want to break his door down and shove him off to work. What Gregor is now compared
to the picture on the wall is a complete opposite.

And of course, Gregor is still refusing to accept awareness of his current state:
 ...they were now so preoccupied by the troubles of the moment that they
lost all track of foresight. But Gregor possessed that foresight.

The foresight that Gregor believes he possesses is a delusion, he has always been
looking ahead and never at the moment and at himself or what he has become. He is
always thinking of paying off his fathers debts in "five or six years" but nothing really
beyond that. The "troubles at the moment" that everyone else sees is more important
than this foresight.

Also this is the first time we see the father in the family who raises his fist first, then
looks around and weeps. We see a sort of duality, "he wept so hard it shook his
powerful chest." I believe Kafka is making a reference to his own father here, and many
people believe that this strange reaction from (and description of) the father has
meaning but I am not sure it is possible to know exactly what it is.

Finally the father drives Gregor back into his room, hissing and pushing him with a
newspaper and cane. Gregor has much trouble in turning around and is frightened the
whole time that his father would strike him dead at any moment. Finally after getting
stuck in the door he is shoved back into his room (slightly injured) and the door is
locked. Immediately here we see the father and son in conflict. Where the son was once
the dominant one providing for the family, he no longer is or can be and the father
drives him out of humanity, into isolation. This type of theme happens very much in
Kafka’s writings and Kafka himself felt that his father had more or less driven the life out
of him and that because of his father he was unable to live a normal life. In his famous
letter to his father Kafka wrote that his father more or less destroyed his ability to
succeed in life, to marry and raise children and even to hold a normal job. I take this to
mean ultimately that his father had driven the life out of him. The parallel here hardly
requires comment. One other thing I notice is when Gregor reflects:

"If only his father had stopped that unbearable hissing!...what Gregor now
heard behind him was no longer anything like the voice of merely one
father..."

The father is not just one father, or even HIS father. He has become a sort of "all-
powerful force", a judging force that Gregor does not have the power to confront.

Alienation and the loss of identity in the modern world is the main theme of The
Metamorphosis. Gregor was completely alienated in his life from everyone, he had lost
his humanity because of the dehumanizing effects of his job and life in general. Gregor
has really sacrificed himself to his family. He has become what he was in his life,
something less than human without real identity. By becoming an insect Gregor is
alienated from everything and this metamorphosis forces him to truly come to terms with
his alienation. In the past he could deal with it because it did not interfere with his life,
he merely ignored the fact that he was a totally alienated person. I believe this
alienation is really how he dealt with life and how many others do too. When you look
around, this is how many people live their life, workaholics for example. It is a
phenomenon that I wonder if it would be totally rare to find it in another time period and
culture or perhaps it is just rampant in the modern world of business where we have this
horrible sense of guilt. This is the end of the first section of the story.

PART II

Gregor wakes up in his room once again after the conflict. At this point Gregor has lost
his freedom that he had as a human being and is completely isolated, but at the same
time he is now free from his job and family responsibilities. The problem is that the guilt
he has about the situation will not allow him to let go of these things and truly feel free,
although like stated earlier, this is an "unnatural guilt" as there is nothing he can do
about his situation. This is a common dilemma in society, on the one side there is
freedom and self-identity and on the other you have the duties society (or the family in
this case) places upon the individual, which he or she feels compelled to do because of
this guilt. The freedom is restricted because of this very conflict and yet if all one does is
comply with the demands that are placed upon himself they become what Gregor has
become.

Gregor discovers food left for him by his sister and he finds that he does not like milk
which he once did. Some take this as a sign of Kafka’s realism, further showing how
much he has changed, I myself take this to show that Gregor is changing in other ways
as will appear more apparent later on when he rejects food completely. The sister
comes to Gregor’s room everyday with a variety of different scraps to feed him while
Gregor stays hidden under the sofa. Gregor admits that he does not like fresh food. This
disliking of fresh food, his wound healing quickly, the sister bringing him a wide
selection and rejection of the milk are all showing a realism about the situation itself.
Also, although she feeds him, it is more out of a sense of duty, much like a nurse would
do for a stranger. She does not touch anything he has touched and throws out the food
afterwards.

Although he is isolated, Gregor tries to hear the family’s discussions in the evening
through his door. He learns that his father has some money with which they can live on
for awhile. We also learn that the fathers business had collapsed five years earlier but
that there was some money left over (which the father had not told Gregor about).

After the collapse of his father’s business Gregor had decided to provide for the family
himself:

Gregor subsequently earned so much money that he was enabled to

shoulder the expenses of the entire family, and did so. They had grown
used to it, the family as well as Gregor; they accepted the money
gratefully, he handed it over gladly, but no particularly warm feelings were
generated any longer.

We also learn that Gregor had intended to send his sister off to a conservatory soon so
she could become a professional violinist. However Gregor knows these memories are
pointless now. We see more about the situation, that the father has money stowed away
with which he could have helped pay off his own debts but did not do so. All of those
around him have taken advantage of him, but even Gregor "nodded vigorously" in
delight about his fathers plan and would "throw himself onto the cool leather sofa" out of
shame when he heard money matters discussed. To me this shows the parasitism of
his father and although Gregor does not show resentment at this point, it is because he
still feels this guilt about the family’s situation and this will not allow him to feel it.

At one point Gregor pushes a chair to the window and looks out because of the
"liberating feeling he always used to experience when looking out the window", this is
an attempt to feel human again and feel free as he once did. He notices can no longer
see the hospital across the street, and this is a sign of the loss of that freedom he once
had. But, this hospital could be a sign of help that is near, but cannot be reached, or of
Kafkas own illness. This would be easier to believe if one takes Gregor’s
metamorphosis into an insect as a mere metaphor for an illness or disability (something
that could be cured in a hospital), as some do for this story. This story definitely allows
for this type of analogy to be made between being turned into an insect and becoming
disabled (and becoming a burden to your family) but the reader should not take the
story itself this way.

Soon the visits from Gregor’s sister become more of a pain and disturbance for him
than anything else:

Her very entrance was terrible for him. The moment she walked in...she
walked straight to the window and tore it open hastily, as if she were
almost suffocating...

She came in a little earlier than usual and encountered Gregor while he
was still looking out the window...not only did she not step in, she even
jumped back and closed the door...From this he realized that the sight of
him was still unbearable for her...

Gregor tries to help the situation by pulling the sheet from the bed and stretching it
across to the couch for him to hide himself under to make the entrance for her more
convenient. His sister does not realize that he still has feelings, that he does not like to
be disturbed and treated as an insect.

Later Gregor hears his parents approval of his sisters actions "whereas up to that time
they had frequently been vexed with his sister because she had seemed a rather good
for nothing girl." I take this as an example of the family improving once they are
separate from Gregor, although they are not completely independent they begin to learn
how they can go along without him, the sister taking on this responsibility is a example.

After two months Gregor begins to lose interest in eating, and instead begins crawling
on the walls and ceiling of the room. The sister thinks he would be better off if the
furniture were taken out of the room so he could crawl around easier. The sister and
mother attempt to take furniture out of Gregor’s room. It is the sister who thinks she
knows what is best for Gregor while the mother is unsure and feels it will alienate him.
This once again shows how the sister really fails to see that he still has human feelings.
They do not realize he is still a person, they do not mind alienating him because of what
they see on the outside, I believe you can easily observe this phenomenon in society.
Many may disagree with me, but I feel it is the sister ultimately that betrays Gregor more
than anyone else, here and at the end of the story especially.

The mother and sister manage to move a large wardrobe out of the room, then Gregor
comes out of his hiding spot in a frenzy trying to save anything he can from being taken.
Gregor crawls up the wall and presses himself against the picture. This picture has a lot
of symbolism at this point. In the picture the woman is wearing furs, the symbolism here
is of wealth, much like the shoes of the clerk this is a status symbol, especially in
Kafka’s time. This is not all however. This is Gregors last link to the outside human
world. It is a woman, it could represent women in general but I think more specifically
what we see here is human relationships in general. This takes away from his alienation
in some sense. In the story it is noted that he:

...pressed himself against the glass, which held him fast and felt good on
his hot belly.

Gregor is separated by the glass from this connection with the human circle, just like his
door keeps him from being with his family. Also it says that the glass "held him fast"
meaning that he cannot let go of it and will defend it. Gregor is finally able to defend and
think about himself and what he needs. He is not worried about revealing himself to his
mother and sister, also remember this is the first time Gregor has acted in this manner.
He does not want the family to take away his only link humanity. He is even aggressive
about this defense, something new in Gregor.

Gregor’s mother sees him on the wall and faints and then the sister helps her. Now the
father comes home:

...was this still his father? The same man who would lie wearily, buried in
his bed, when Gregor used to "move out smartly" on a business trip; who
had received him wearing a bathrobe and sitting in an armchair when he
returned home in the evening...Now, however, he was perfectly erect,
dressed in a tight blue uniform with gold buttons...Above the high stiff
collar of the jacket his pronounced double chin unfurled; below his bushy
eyebrows the gaze of his dark eyes shown brightly and observantly; his
usually tousled white hair was combed down flat and gleaming, with a
painfully exact part.

The first thing to notice is the similarity between the description here of the father and
the father in The Judgement where he is putting his tired old father to bed:
 "Am I completely covered up now?" asked his father, as if he couldn’t see
whether his feet were sufficiently covered.

"So you’re already pleased to be in bed," said Georg and tucked him in
more thoroughly.

"Am I completely covered up now?" asked his father again, and seemed to
wait for the answer with particular attention.

"Relax, you’re all covered up."

"No!" shouted his father, running his reply into his preceding remark, then
threw the blanket back with such force that it completely unfolded for a
moment as it flew through the air, and stood upright on the bed. He merely
touched the ceiling lightly with one hand. "You wanted to cover me up, I
know, offspring of mine, but I’m not covered up yet. And even if I am doing
this with my last strength, it is enough for you – too much for you."

We go from the son having a dominant role to the father overtaking and having the
dominant role. From the father "who would lie wearily, buried in his bed" to a strong
almost towering figure of authority where the son is a mere insect at his mercy. In The
Judgement the father orders the son’s death, in The Metamorphosis the father attacks
the son himself.

Gregor has finally, at this moment in the story, become aggressive about asserting and
establishing his own humanity, in total rebellion against authority that the father now
represents and so he is forced once again into his room by the father. The father throws
apples at Gregor, hitting him with such force that one apple becomes lodged in his
back, causing him great injury. Generally the apples here are taken to be associated
with the Fall of man. The apples represent the universal guilt of mankind which the
father here uses to drive Gregor back into his isolation once again. Gregor here is
acting as Adam, asserting his real humanity and rebelling, then being driven out of
"paradise" or in this case driven back into isolation by the father’s force of authority.

The mother defends (and probably saves) Gregors life, I believe this shows the
connection between mother and son, one of the closest bonds in a family. This
concludes the second part of the story.

PART III

Gregor enters back into his room and suffers from the injury for a month because no
one will remove the apple that is lodged in his back. Perhaps the "injury from the father"
cannot be removed. Gregor was also much slower and could no longer crawl on the
walls. We learn that the sister has gotten a job and that the father refuses to take off his
uniform even while at home, thus it has many stains on it. The uniform of the father
represents a burden that is now on the father and the stains are the toll that the
business world takes upon the individual. In my view the gold buttons are a symbol of
money, the thing that keeps the body wrapped up in this dirty condition (the uniform).
We see that the father sleeps "in great discomfort and yet peacefully." The father sleeps
in peace because his economic situation is take care of but in discomfort because of
what he must endure for it. He is a "uniform" now, not an individual as he once was,
even in his own home he is enduring it.

Another change is now the family leaves Gregor’s door open so he can see into the
parlor where his family sits in the evenings. Because Gregor really does not pose a
threat anymore the I believe the family wants to make a small attempt to make Gregor
feel better about his situation and by leaving the door open we see that they have some
sympathy on him. This establishes a sort of human connection for Gregor, but I believe
it also places a burden on him because he sees how his family is now having to live
since his transformation. Gregor learns that the family wants to leave this apartment
because they can no longer afford it, but did not know what to do with Gregor. Also
Gregor finds out that his sister and mother were selling their jewelry.

They were performing to the hilt all that the world demands of poor people:
the father carried in breakfast for the junior bank clerks, the mother
sacrificed for the linen of strangers, the sister ran back and forth behind
her counter at the customers’ command, but by this time the family’s
strength was taxed to the limit.

Gregor thinks sadly that "the next time the door opened, he would once again take
charge of the family’s problems just as he used to." Gregor thinks back on his life about
people he remembers, but the problem is he was too alienated from them, and from
everyone that he never established a human connection:

...they all appeared, mingling with strangers or people he had forgotten,

but instead of helping him and his family they were all inaccessible...

Gregor knows that the people that might have been able to help him were people he
never took the time to establish a connection with.

The sister begins to get tired of taking care of Gregor and the family argues more than
before, causing Gregor agitation instead of guilt. We see Gregor becoming more bitter
toward the family over the course of the last part of the story. I believe the family is
beginning to fall apart at this point, the mother and sister weep together in the evenings
and there are arguments. Gregor begins to welcome his isolation more. His guilt is
leaving him because he sees how they really treat him now that he is not acting as their
workhorse.

At one point the family gets in an argument about who should clean Gregor's room and
the father says that the sister cannot do it anymore so they get a new cleaning woman.
It is especially interesting to note that at one point the cleaning woman calls Gregor and
talks to him because she is not afraid of him but Gregor takes no interest in this and
only wants to be left alone. Earlier Gregor would have jumped at the chance to have
company such as this but now he does not mind his isolation. Also at this point the
family begins to throw trash and other things in Gregor’s room, causing him more
agitation.

The family has to take in three lodgers in order to pay for their rent. One of the reasons
trash is thrown into Gregor’s room is because the lodgers do not want it around. These
lodgers sit at the table and are fed by the mother and sister and read the paper. In effect
what has happened is that they have taken over the family’s home, and the lodgers are
a contrast to what Gregor is at this point. Now not only does the family have to work
outside of the home, but while in the home also. The lodgers are another burden of
many, and that is what we see from all of this; the selling of jewelry, the lodgers, the
uniform and Gregor especially.

At one point Gregor peers out of his room, watching the lodgers eat:

"I do have an appetite," said Gregor uneasily to himself, "but not for those
things. How these lodgers pack it away, and I’m perishing!"

It is not food Gregor wants, but something more than this. Moments later the sister is
playing her violin for the lodgers. The lodgers are bored by it but Gregor was attracted
to it:

...already had his head in the parlor. He was scarcely surprised that
recently he was so little concerned about the feelings of others; previously
this considerateness had been his pride...he was also completely covered
with dust; he was dragging threads, hairs and crumbs of food around with
him on his back and sides; his indifference to everything was much too
great for him to turn over on his back and scour himself on the carpet as
he used to do several times a day.

Gregor begins to creep into the parlor, not caring what others think, he has changed
from what he once was when "considerateness had been his pride". He is able to think
about himself for once now and not simply base his life on pleasing others.

Gregor feels a connection with his sister through the music she is playing that no one
else appreciates:

Gregor crawled a little bit further forward, keeping his head close to the
floor in hopes of making eye contact with her. Was he an animal if music
stirred him that way? He felt as if he were being shown the way to the
unknown nourishment he longed for. He was resolved to push his way
right up to his sister and tug at her skirt...He intended never to let her out
of his room again...his sister would remain with him not under compulsion
but voluntarily; she was to sit next to him on the couch and incline her ear
toward him, and he would then confide to her that he had had the firm
 intention of sending her to the conservatory, and that, if misfortune hadn’t
intervened, he would have told everyone so last Christmas –
Christmas was over by now, wasn’t it?

Gregor is the only one in the room that appreciates the art of the music. Gregor has
become more human than anyone else at this point. I believe Gregor feels this hunger
and the music is his "deliverance" toward human connection. But it is not just a human
connection which he hungers for, but a spiritual one which the music represents where
the music expresses what can only be felt and experienced, not explained. He wishes to
prove to humanity that he is not an animal if music is able to excite him as it now does. I
believe he hungers for something spiritual here. It should be remembered that his
sisters playing on the violin had never really touched him before when he was a
salesman. Also we notice that Gregor does not know if Christmas has passed or not, he
has lost track of time. Time was a primary factor to his life in the beginning of the story,
but now he has lost all track of this.

Now the scene becomes very chaotic; the lodgers see Gregor and the father jumps up
to push the lodgers into their room and the mother has a coughing fit. The sister
becomes very upset saying very hurtful things about Gregor such as we "must get rid of
it", "it is not Gregor" and that "eventually it will kill both of you, I can see it coming." If
there is a climax in the third part of the story, it is the sisters speech. I would like to point
out a paradox in what she says. The sister claims that if the insect was indeed Gregor
that it would have gone away on its own. This clearly makes no sense as Gregor was
locked in his room, and that if he had never been transformed into an insect he would
have never come to these realizations that he now has.

Gregor knows that he cannot be accepted back into the human circle and he slowly
crawls back to his room. Gregor has sacrificed himself his entire life for his family and
now he does it once more because he has finally experienced freedom from his burden
and guilt and the only ones still with this burden is the family. Once back in his room
Gregor thinks to himself "And now?" He realizes that he has to die to free his family
from their guilt and the burden he causes them. Gregor remembers his family with love
and then dies. By dying Gregor the family of something that has caused their own
alienation, but I do not think this is the only reason Gregor dies because he knows that
by dying he does not take away all of his family’s burden. Gregor hungers for something
that he cannot fulfill as an outcast, that perhaps none can in the modern world. Before
Gregor dies he sees the sun rise outside his window, I believe this represents what he
has found, his "enlightenment" but it could also be taken as the end of the old and the
coming of the new.

The next morning the cleaning woman finds Gregor’s body and tells the family that he
has died. The father replies with, "Thank God." The sister says:

"Just look how thin he was. Yes he hadn’t been eating for so long. The
food came out of his room just the way it went in."
I believe this represents his hunger for something else. Gregor no longer wanted food, it
was stated earlier that he would pick up the food in his mouth only to spit it out later.
Also remember that family does mourn Gregors death, although it is brief. He was a
burden to them in our modern world where there are so many restrictions on peoples
relationships especially in the family and anything where these issues manage to creep
into our lives. However, he was still a family member and I believe the better side of
human nature comes through in the end here. After this the three remaining family
members all go out for the day, the mother and father remark on how lively and
grownup their daughter was becoming. The story ends with them remarking that they
should find a husband for her as she stood up and "stretched her young body." There
are many ideas about the meaning of the last sentence, so many that I would not like to
make a guess at whether it has any specific meaning at all.

Also it is worthy to note that the number three appears throughout the story several
times. There are three doors in the room, three members of the family (besides Gregor
the outsider), three lodgers, the story has three sections and Gregor died at three in the
morning. It is difficult to be certain of why this is done although it seems obviously done
on purpose. Three could mean the trinity or have a mythological or religious meaning. I
would think this could represent unity although in numerology this is typically
represented by the number four.

What could the ultimate conclusion of this story be and what was Kafka trying to say? It
is difficult to give one single, universal, end-all answer to this.

A society that could transform Gregor into what he became is a very sad place. This is
one of Kafka's main points here. For the family Gregor was just a source of income, a
workhorse that they do not notice until he fails to go to work. I believe one way to look at
this story is that modern man has two "selfs." The inner-self is like a mere
inconvenience to the other "outer-self" or impersonal self that comes along as a result of
the demands that the world puts upon it. This outer or impersonal self is the one that
Gregor was living out in his life and he was ignoring his inner self, thinking that after his
father’s debts are paid off he can deal with that. He is so stuck in this world of his
impersonal self that he does not even want to worry about his transformation into an
insect, it is just another inconvenience.

When Gregor dies he is redeemed with his family, but moreso with himself, his true self.
I doubt he thought that he would venture out of his room the last time and re-enter the
human circle. The music stirred something within him, his desire to be intimate with his
sister is perhaps really his desire to fulfill his own self. Gregor was still an outcast to
humanity, but no longer to himself. Through becoming an animal and being forced to
confront himself Gregor has become a true human being, but this food or "unknown
nourishment" Gregor wants is something Kafka believes is difficult to find in life, not just
modern life but at any time period.

What is sad about our world is how the person is treated when the do not keep their
inner self "under control" and only let this impersonal self rule their life. The inner self is
an inconvenience in the face of a world that focuses on business and money and family
duties. What makes this even worse is that this alienation is not even recognized, it is
hidden from us, the world forces us to ignore our true self to the point that we do not
know it and we do not ever stop to observe what we have become. Gregor only
recognized this alienation because in this case he was completely forced to confront it
on all sides. He knows that previously in life he was not a whole person, but was only
pushed through life by guilt. The modern world does not make (or allow) one to look at
their inner self, it is easy to ignore these things and at the beginning of the story Gregor
manages to ignore his own metamorphosis into an insect by trying to get up and live his
life normally. Becoming a insect is just a mere inconvenience to the other impersonal
self that must keep trudging froward, but for what? Whatever it is for, it is never for the
person doing the trudging. All of this would be okay if we could (if we so wished) ignore
our true self completely and be a slave to the other, but this is not possible either, it is
contradictory to our own nature. I will go so far as to say that our own humanity has
become a burden to this inhuman modern machine. When there is no room for the true
self, the modern machine is in control of humanity and it is not a system of individuals
but of parts.

When the sister wants to get rid of Gregor, it is because he has become a burden, an
inconvenience. What does this mean then? It means all of this survives on lies and
denial that we refuse to admit. No one considered Gregor’s supporting of his family a
"sacrifice" to his family, not even he himself did and none considered the consequences
either. That is what our world must have to thrive upon, only deception is able to keep
this denial of the self alive. Ultimately I think what we come back to here is this guilt,
probably the most common theme is Kafka’s work that appears in all of his writings in
some form or another.

By being forced to confront this issue of alienation, Gregor discovers this hunger in
himself, some say it was for human affection and love, but I believe it was for something
much bigger than this because he knows he would be deceiving himself to try to reenter
into humanity. Gregor wants something beyond this world that can only be represented
in the music of his sister’s violin. Perhaps he is killed because of his hunger for this
"unknown nourishment", or maybe he has fulfilled this hunger by finding himself, but we
must not forget that he feels a duty to his family. Either way, Gregor has recaptured his
personal self, but to Kafka the modern world refuses to nourish it.

As marxism

On the surface, Franz Kafka's 1916 novella, The Metamorphosis, seems to be just a
tale of a man who woke up one morning to find himself transformed into an insect. But,
a closer reading with Marx and Engel's economic theories in mind reveals an
overarching metaphor that gives the improbable story a great deal of relevance to the
structure of society. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist, signifies the proletariat, or the
working class, and his unnamed manager represents the bourgeoisie. The conflict that
arises between the two after Gregor's metamorphosis renders him unable to work
represents the impersonal and dehumanizing structure of class relations. The metaphor
of the story can be divided into three main parts (although they overlap within the story.)
First, Kafka establishes the characters and the economic classes which they represent.
Then, he details Gregor's metamorphosis and the way in which it impedes his labor.
Finally, he describes the final results of the worker's inability to work: abandonment by
his family and death. Although a man cannot literally be transformed into an insect, he
can, for one reason or another, become unable to work. Kafka's novella, therefore, is a
fantastic portrayal of a realistic scenario and provides us with a valuable insight into the
struggles between economic classes.

Within the first few pages of the novella, we as readers quickly discover Gregor's role as
the proletariat in the story. He is forced to labor as a traveling salesman, trying to
support his family and pay off his father's debt from a failed business venture. While
lying in bed, he comments on his life as a traveling salesman, "Day in, day out--on the
road... I've got the torture of traveling, worrying about changing trains, eating miserable
food at all hours..." (Kafka 4). The words he chooses to describe his job, "torture,"
"worrying," and "miserable" dramatically show his discontent with his daily labor. But, he
has no option other than to continue working at his monotonous job because he is a
member of "the class of modern wage-laborers who, having no means of production of
their own, are reduced to selling their labour-power in order to live" (Marx and Engels
769). Gregor knows that his only means of survival is to continue laboring, even though
the labor gives him no benefit other than a meager paycheck. He says, "If I didn't hold
back for my parents' sake, I would have quit long ago" (Kafka 4). It is only economic
necessity that keeps him going to work everyday. Conflict exists in Gregor's life between
his human desire to work for his own direct benefit and the economic demands that
alienate him from his labor by forcing him to work for someone else.

Soon after meeting Gregor, we are introduced to his manager, a typical member of the
bourgeoisie or "the class of modern Capitalists, owners of the means of social-
production and employers of wage-labour" (Marx and Engels 769). The anonymous
manager is portrayed as demanding, insensitive, and impersonal. The simple fact that
he is not given a name by Kafka signifies his lack of humanity. Gregor says that the
manager "sits on the desk and talks down from the heights to the employees" (Kafka 4).
He acts as though he is superior to the workers because of his advanced economic
position. His only concern seems to be the production of his workers. When Gregor is a
few hours late in getting to work after five years of being on time everyday, the manager
travels to his house to personally reprimand him. Because, as a member of the
bourgeoisie, the manager has no labor of his own to perform, he has the time to travel
all the way to Gregor's house just to scold him. Kafka's portrayal of the bourgeoisie
manager makes him unlikable. We are led to become more emotionally attached to the
insect Gregor than to the human manager.

Gregor's metamorphosis into a "monstrous vermin," the novella's main conflict, serves
as a metaphor for any type of impairment that renders the worker unable to work (4).
The specific characteristics of Gregor's insect form are relatively unimportant to the
understanding of the class struggle that is taking place. Because of this, the narrator's
description of the bug is rather vague. Instead, what the story focuses on is the way in
which Gregor's value a laborer diminishes when he is unable to work. After he has lost
his value his manager, family and even his life abandon him and leave him to a
miserable, solitary death.

The first to abandon Gregor was the manager, the bourgeoisie. According to Marx and
Engels, the bourgeoisie "has resolved personal worth into exchange value" (771). As
soon as the manager saw that Gregor in his transformed state, he fled the house and
never returned or sent any word to the family. An obvious interpretation of this is that he
was afraid of the insect form Gregor had taken. But, in relation to the metaphor of the
story, his realization that Gregor was unable to work caused him to calculate that the
Gregor no longer had any value and therefore he abandoned him. To the bourgeoisie,
the worker is worth nothing more than his labor. Therefore, without any labor to offer,
Gregor was worthless and expendable. The manager ran from the house without any
concern for or attachment to Gregor, the proletariat.

After Gregor becomes unable to support his family financially, they all eventually
abandon him as well. Marx and Engels state that "The bourgeoisie has torn away from
the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation into a mere money
relation" (771). The Metamorphosis serves as an example of this by showing that when
Gregor was no longer able to provide his family with money, his relationship with them
was severed. Gregor's father, with whom he had little emotional attachment, was the
harshest in dealing with Gregor. He never offers to help his son in any way after the
transformation. Upon first seeing his transformed son, he "clenched his fists, as if to
drive Gregor back into his room" (15). Then, one day when his son is trapped outside of
his room, he attacks him by throwing fruit. Although this scene sounds almost comical,
the apple that he threw left Gregor with a "serious wound, from which he suffered for
over a month" (40). It is ironic that after years of working a job he hated to pay off his
father's debts, Gregor is so quickly discarded by his father as soon as he can no longer
earn wages. The complete breakdown of the relationship following the removal of
earned wages shows the way in which the relationship was based solely on money.

Although not as harsh at first, Gregor's mother and sister eventually turn on him also.
Grete, his sister, is particularly nice to Gregor directly following the metamorphosis.
When, "during the first two weeks, his parents could not bring themselves to come into
him," Gregor's sister was the sole visitor of Gregor (31). She brought him food and
cleaned his room for him everyday despite being made very uncomfortable by his
frightening appearance. Eventually, his mother visited his room as well, to help Grete
move the furniture out into the hall. In addition to this, "she begged for Gregor's life"
when his father was assaulting him with apples (39). But, as time dragged on without
any financial support coming from Gregor, the affection of his mother and sister
gradually dwindled down to non-existence. Finally, Grete says to her father, "It has to
go," referring to Gregor (52). She has become so indifferent to her brother that she calls
him an "it." Then, she says that if the bug was really Gregor, he would have "realized
long ago that it isn't possible for human beings to live with such a creature, and he
would have gone away of his own free will" (52). Her belief that the bug is not really her
brother is obviously explainable by the fact that he is an insect. But, in respect to the
metaphor of the story, Gregor ceased to exist as a person when he became unable to
work. Because the family's relation was based solely on shared wages, the removal of
those wages also removed the relationship. She states that the human thing for the
non-working Gregor to do would be to leave the family so that he would not be a
financial burden.

The eventual result of Gregor's metamorphosis, and the corresponding inability to labor,
was his death. Being unable to feed himself, Gregor's fate was dependent on the charity
of his family, which eventually became meager enough that he starved to death. The
cleaning lady came upon his corpse one morning and quickly informed the family. Upon
hearing the news, they did not show sadness, but instead relief. Mr. Samsa's comment
was, "Well... now we can thank God!" (55). He was happy to be freed of the economic
burden of supporting his son. Instead of mourning, the family decided to travel to the
country to enjoy the warm sunshine. And instead of reminiscing about their lost son,
they spoke of the economic benefits of his death and of their future financial plans.
Because of his inability to work, Gregor had become worthless to the family and would
not be missed. No matter how much they may have loved him while he was an asset,
they could not love him while he was a liability. Economics superceded any emotional
attachment in the family. As the parents sat on the trolley with their daughter, thinking
about her upcoming marriage, they were certainly thinking about the economic benefits
that her future husband would bring them. And, although it remains unsaid, we can
assume that even though the whole family was sitting so happily on the trolley that
afternoon, Grete would be abandoned by her parents, just as Gregor was, if
circumstances came up that made her a financial burden instead of an asset.

Although the exact story told in Kafka's The Metamorphosis could not occur outside the
realm of fantasy, it represents the very real scenario of a worker being abandoned by
his employer and family after becoming unable to work and support them financially. By
looking at the novella from a Marxist perspective, we see that the underlying theme of
the story is a conflict between proletariat and bourgeoisie. Because economics
supercede everything else in capitalistic society, a citizen who is unable to labor and
earn wages is quickly abandoned. And, the result of this abandonment is often (as it
was in Gregor Samsa's case) death.

The Metamorphosis

They were clearing out his room; depriving him of everything that he loved;
they had already carried away the chest of drawers, in which he kept the
fretsaw and other tools; were now budging the desk firmly embedded in the
floor, the desk he had done his homework on when he was a student at
business college, in high school yes, even in public school now he really had
no more time to examine the good intentions of the two women . . . And so he
broke out the women were just leaning against the desk in the next room to
catch their breath for a minute changed his course four times, he really didn't
know what to salvage first, then he saw hanging conspicuously on the wall,
which was otherwise bare already, the picture of the lady all dressed in furs,
hurriedly crawled up on it and pressed himself against the glass, which gave a
good surface to stick to and soothed his hot belly. At least no one would take
away this picture, while Gregor completely covered it up (Kafka 35).

In Kafka's The Metamorphosis it is possible to see the dehumanization of

Gregor Samsa. Dehumanization can be caused by the loss of being
independent. Whether it comes in the form of the loss of a bodily function, an
amputation or a loss of sight, but in the case of Gregor Samsa it is caused by
his metamorphosis from human to dung beetle. Before Gregor Samsa became
a dung beetle he was a successful salesman. He was the provider and the
leader of his family. His father's business had failed, his mother didn't work, and
his sister was enrolled in school. When Gregor becomes a dung beetle he
slowly loses his human characteristics. Immediately he lost the physical
characteristics of a human, but he also slowly loses his senses of taste, pain,
and the ability to speak. Not only did he lose these characteristics but he lost
the one thing that fulfilled him, he lost the ability to be a salesman and the
responsibilities of being the leader of the family. When Gregor's sister begins to
feed him he finds that the foods that were once delicious to him become
repulsive. In the attached passage it is possible to see how the dehumanization
of Gregor led him to hang on to simple items that most people might take for
granted.
After Gregor's metamorphosis his room is the only item that actually gives him
some human feelings. He tried to eat human food but found that three day old
cheese was more appetizing. He tried to talk to his family but found that his
voice had also changed. Gregor's sister, Grete began to take on Gregor's
responsibilities and now she took care of Gregor. She was the one who
decided to take the furniture out of his room. Subconsciously she no longer
viewed Gregor as her brother but as a large dung beetle. Before Gregor's sister
and mother began to remove the furniture from his room he was longing for
more room because of his new animalistic yearnings to crawl. Once Gregor
notices the furniture being removed piece by piece he realizes that each piece
of furniture has his human sentiments attached to them. He begins to
remember the desk where he had done his home work in college, high school,
and public school. We all take for granted the simple characteristics and
feelings that make us human. The picture that Gregor salvages probably meant
nothing to Gregor when he was a working business man. He described it
plainly as a "picture of the lady dressed in all furs", but when he felt all his ties
to humanity being loss it became extremely important and even comforting to
Gregor. 
Once Gregor became a dung beetle his family distanced themselves from him.
They kept him locked up in his room, unable to come to terms to the fact that
their son was now a beetle. They pretended as if he was not there and even
rented out a room in their home and did not inform them about Gregor. It must
have been hard for Gregor to hold on to his humanity and his family did not
 make it easy for him. He listened to them talk about him but no one talked to
him except the housekeeper who yelled negative words at him. Gregor lost his
human characteristics and his father became so ignorant to the fact that Gregor
was still his son. He kept Gregor as a prisoner to his room and punished him
for coming out. In one part of the book Gregor's threw an apple into his back
and it becomes embedded in Gregor's back.
The dehumanization of Gregor Samsa although unrealistic is a lesson to be
learned. It is absolutely devastating to lose the ability to be independent.
People who become paraplegic or lose their eyesight, they too can become an
animal because they feel as if they are no longer whole. Gregor's family was
ignorant to his feelings, his sister did not even realize that Gregor was trying to
hold on to a piece of his human feelings. Gregor Samsa was a tragic case and
example of a man that lost everything. He lost his job, family, and most
important he lost his humanity.

“He must go,” cried Gregor’s sister, “that’s the only solution, Father. You must just try to
get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. The fact that we’ve believed it for so long is the
root of all our trouble.”
This quote may be found toward the end of the 3rd part of the novel where the family
finally decides to get rid of the root of all their trouble, Gregor after he is accidentally
revealed to the boarders. This is a climactic quote because it represents the turning
point of the novel as well as the negligence of Gregor by his family. This particuarly
speaks to the importance of the novel because it is the moment the family's patience
runs thin as does their sympathy for a once beloved family member. 
"Lapsing into silence and communicating almost unconsciously with their eyes, they
reflected that it was high time they found a decent husband for her. And it was like a
confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions that at the end of their ride the
daughter was the first to get up, stretching her young body."
Yet another turning point at the very end of the novel signifying the meaning of the
title The Metamorphosis. Aside from the obvious physical transformation of the
protagonist from a human to a bug, the other characters of the novel, most prominently
Grete, also undergo a transformation of their own. This quote, particularly signifies
Grete's transition to womanhood. 
"The sister played so beautifully. Her face was tilted to one side and she followed the
notes with soulful and probing eyes. Gregor advanced a little, keeping his eyes low so
that they might possibly meet hers. Was he a beast if music could move him so?"
One of my favorite quotes from the novel, this is one of the moments in which Gregor
considers his humanity and the validity of his transformation. He is completely
entranced by his sister's violin playing, a sound that to others sounds dull. This drives
him to ponder whether he is dehumanized after all and it is a moment which bonds him
closer to his sister and fuels his intention to send her to music school. 
 

The Theme of Dehumanization in Metamorphosis and Heart of Darkness

The act of dehumanization entails the degrading or demeaning of one person by

another. This may entail holding beliefs that other people were less human and
possessed few human characteristics or carrying out acts that treat other people as if
they were not humans. Dehumanization greatly features in the two
stories-“Metamorphosis” and “Heart of Darkness” under highlight in the Norton
anthology.Kafkas’ “Metamorphosis” features the theme of dehumanization in the setting
of the industrial revolution. The story depicts how it is like to be under the constant
control and surveillance of one’s own family members that keep one from any
interaction with other people or the normal world.

This story portrays the theme of dehumanization through the narration of Gregor’s
metamorphosis story-which may be metaphorical of a person acting like a drone in the
revolution of industry. The main character-Gregor-transforms into a bug and his family
have to keep him in seclusion where he is always locked up in his room-not even his
mother is allowed to see him. Prior to his transformation Gregor had been loyal to his
family and he carried out his work well even though he had limited communication with
his family. He always provided for his family and they loved him for that, because there
main concern was his provision to them.

However, after the transformation that inexplicably made Gregor a bug, his family lost
their concern for him. They cared least about him and their attitudes towards Gregor
became negative and bitter by the day.After transforming into a bug Gregor’s family
locks him up in his room never allowing him to get out to the world. Throughout the story
the family members treat Gregor as though he were not human anymore. The family’s
view of Gregor as a human gets lost because of their fear for him and the fear of
exposure to other people. The beginning of dehumanization is perhaps best alluded by
the visiting manager that visits Gregor’s home to inquire about his whereabouts.

This can be inferred from the conversation between the manager and Gregor’s parents
in the following quote: “Did you hear Gregor speak just now?” “That was an animal’s
voice,” said the manager, remarkably quiet in comparison to the mother’s cries (Franz
n.pag).” After the transformation Gregor became unreliable and he could not provide for
his family anymore and the transformation coupled with his inability to provide made his
family to despise him further. The whole family avoided him, but for a few occasional
visits by his sister Crete who came to clean and offer him food.
His father and sister denied Gregor’s mother entry into his room, because they did not
want her to experience shock and fright after realizing the truth. As depicted in the
following quote the family was totally repulsed from Gregor: “In any event, his mother
comparatively soon wanted to visit Gregor, but his father and his sister restrained her….
“Let me go to Gregor. He’s my unfortunate son! Don’t you understand that I have to go
to him? (Franz n.pag)” Gregor’s disfigurement causes his family to dislike and feel
repulsed because of a total lack of communication.

In turn, this causes Gregor to lose his self worth. He gets torn between his simplistic,
repulsive looks as an insect and his older emotional and loving self that was being
denied a chance in humanity. The family worsens the delineation and dehumanization
by taking in lodgers and takes Gregor’s room as a store of miscellaneous household
items and furniture. This act of taking up his room serves to further the dehumanization
because he gets reduced to living in a room that serves like a store. At some point his
further violently forces Gregor back into his room by hurling apples at him-an act that
lives Gregor with extreme injuries.

The display of this cruelty portrays not only Gregor’s dehumanization, but also his
family’s dehumanization. The family also gets dehumanized because they lose their
loving and caring touch with Gregor and finally result to treating him like a roach rather
than a son or brother.The “Heart of Darkness” on the other hand portrays
dehumanization at a racial level. The book mainly features Marlow’s story on his voyage
on the upstream course of the Congo River. The novel’s story has its setting at a time in
which the British Empire was in its helm of conquer and control of colonial territories in
many continents including Africa.

As it was popularly said then the “sun never sets on the British Empire.” Through the
exploration of imperialism exerted by European forces by means of economic, political
and military coercion the natives in most African colonial territories were tortured,
enslaved, killed and treated as savages with no culture. The novel depicts the treatment
of colonialists as utterly demeaning and degrading because it denied native African’s
culture and language simply because their languages and culture could not be
comprehended by the white colonialists. The colonialists treated the blacks as if they
had no culture, even though in actual sense they had a culture, and whenever they
showed any acceptance of it they termed it savage and backward.

The Africans were reduced to metaphorical expanse of dangerous and dark jungle of
animals into which the European colonists venture. In the work distinctions like savage
and civilized, outward and inward, light and dark, serve to express the opposites with
which the white people regard the black natives. Marlow’s narration is clearly critical
about imperialism, but the reasons behind his critique are more on what imperialism
does to the Europeans rather than the colonized natives. In this regard he states that
partaking of imperialism degrades the civilized Europeans by extracting them from a
‘civilized’ context and exposing them not only to an uncivilized context, but also allows
them to participate in savage-like acts that dehumanize their civilized personality.
 An analysis of The Metamorphosis from Marxist Point of View

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis shows the capitalist system's dehumanizing effect on

human through an economic perspective. In Capitalist system, humans can only
maintain efficiency and value by assuming ‘the status of an object’. They must objectify,
quantify, and label their current selves in order to know their state of being, then
contrast it with the ideal and continue changing themselves for efficiency. In The
Metamorphosis, the production that an individual (here Gregor Samsa) generates
represents the same value to the system as a whole, no matter by whom or by what
means it is produced.
According to Karl Marx, the means of production in society controlled the society-
whoever owned the factories owned the ‘culture’. Literature is the reflection of culture.
So, every single piece of literature bears the social background and life style of the
people of that society.

To analyze The Metamorphosis from Marxist point of view, we have to discuss the ideal
process of the critics first. In “Beginning Theory”, the writer Peter Barry has noted five
important attempts that critics do for analyzing a text from Marxist point of view:
1.      Make division between the ‘overt’ (manifest or surface) and ‘covert’ (latent or hidden)
content of a literary work and then relate the covert subject matter of the literary work to
basic Marxist themes, such as class struggle, or the progression of society through
various historical stages, such as, the transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism.
2.      Relate the context of a work to the social-class status of the author. In such cases, an
assumption is made that the author is unaware of precisely what he or she is saying or
revealing in the text.
3.      Explain the nature of a whole literary genre in terms of the social period which
‘produced’ it.
4.      Relate the literary work to the social assumptions of the time in which it is ‘consumed’,
a strategy which is used particularly in the later variant of Marxist criticism known as
cultural materialism.
5.      Politicize the literary form of the work- that is, the claim that literary forms are
themselves determined by political circumstances.
All of these five attempts are applicable to The Metamorphosis. The text could be seen
experiences a worker is likely to have in the fight for a fair life. The process described
symbolizes the class struggle of the proletariat to break out from a life of
exploitation. Proletariat is the class of people who possess no assets and live only on
salaries. Gregor is, of course, lumpenproletariat for he has no business of his own but is
leading a life of working for others. Similarly, such classification into the proletariat is
true for all other family members who do not even work. By contrast, the boss of the
company that Gregor works for owns the capital and is, hence, seated in the social
upper class—the bourgeoisie. According to Marxist theory, Gregor’s family and the boss
are in the two opposite classes.
The Metamorphosis begins with Gregor Samsa's waking up transformed into a
“monstrous vermin”. Gregor does not scream. He does not panic; in fact, he reacts with
an eerie calm, convinced he can still function within human society. As the story
progresses, Gregor slowly accepts he is not human. Not only can he not function within
normal society, but he is also an outcast from his own family, even his beloved sister.
Marxist literary criticism asserts that a writer's social class, and its dominating
'ideology'(outlook, values, tacit assumptions,  half-realized allegiances, etc.) have a 
major bearing on what
is written by a member of that class. So instead of seeing authors as primarily autono
mous'inspired'
individuals whose 'genius' and creative imagination enables them to bring forth original
and timeless
works of art, the Marxist sees them as constantly formed by their social contextsin way
s which they themselves would usually not admit.  It is certain; Marxism’s effect on
people’s thoughts is deep and profound. It is natural for people living in the birthplace
and at the birth time of Marxism, Franz Kafka for instance, to have been affected by this
theory to a greater extent.

As the author of The Metamorphosis, Kafka reveals his social background through the
novella. It is a fantastic portrayal of the realistic scenario and provides the insight into
the struggles between economic classes in his time. Kafka was a Jewish resident and
quite low in social rank. Further, he was verbally assaulted for his lack of success by his
father often, a fact reflected in much of Kafka’s stories and within his diaries. Living at
home with his parents was difficult for Kafka, who suffered from hyper-sensitivity to
noise and a desire for solitude.

It is much too easy to see the Kafka name in “Samsa” — there was no effort by the
author to hide the fact he was writing a story about his own emotional state. Kafka’s
acute sense of alienation is well documented. In his diaries, he often compared himself
to a bug, a worm, and other animals meant to generate disgust. There are many
passages within the story worthy of in-depth analysis, particularly Gregor’s relationships
within the family. Kafka himself had one sister, Ottla, with whom he was particularly
close. The setting of The Metamorphosis indicates Kafka’s own household.  So, the
author’s social context was revealed through the story of The Metamorphosis.

The Metamorphosis is a classic in the genre of experimental symbolic fiction that arose
in the early 20th century. Following hard upon Marx's theories of worker alienation, the
protagonist is the personification of the deadening of the soul amidst the rise of the
industrial revolution.

According to Karl Marx, the labourer’s "work is external to the worker, i.e., it does not
form part of his essential being so that instead of feeling well in his work, he feels
unhappy, instead of developing his free physical and mental energy, he abuses his
body and ruins his mind" (Bloom 107). Gregor is the ideal symbol for what Marx is
complaining about; he is alienated from the product he works to create because he
doesn't own it. In addition, he really isn't even working for a wage for himself; his wages
are directed toward taking care of his father's debts. Once Gregor changes bodily into
the bug he was philosophically all along, his isolation and alienation becomes complete.
Finally, Gregor's alienation from his humanity is totally physicalized and realized.  That
is to say, Samsa, having been a successful salesman, was once the pillar of his family,
but now, being helpless, his sister assumes in the eyes of his parents the role of
leadership and reassuring strength that he had once occupied.

Gregor concerned himself almost solely with his work, doing everything he could to
provide for his family. Gregor did not have any real friends or hobbies, and outside of
his sister, maintained a distant relationship with his family. He was anything but a
normal human being. The real metamorphosis occurs when he realizes his present
situation and his role in his household. Gregor does not turn into a vermin; he simply
recognizes that he has been one for quite some time. This sudden epiphany could most
definitely send him into a shock that causes the mental sickness, which eventually leads
to his death.

Gregor’s helplessness and alienation indicate that, like vermin, Gregor has no control
over his life or the conditions in which he lives, whether he is employed or unemployed.
Once his salary as financial head of the household ceases, his family, like the
bourgeoisie, also begin to treat him like vermin by not feeding him and not cleaning his
room. Unless, to paraphrase a Marxist phrase 'the vermin of the world unite' to take
over the 'means of production, distribution and exchange', things will continue as they
are and workers will continue to be trampled underfoot (die).

The ironic lesson that is learned from reading The Metamorphosis is that Gregor Samsa
undergoes a metamorphosis in the physical sense only; philosophically Gregor had
always been a bug and becoming one physically has no effect on his enjoyment of life.
After realizing that he is no longer human, Gregor's thought processes experience no
transformation.

Out of all the things Gregor could change into, he changes into an insect. One cannot
help but draw parallels between the Gregor's life and an insect's life. Most insects,
especially ants and bees, have some sort of workers that provide for the rest of the
group. Gregor provides for his family in much the same way as an insect would provide
for its nest or hive. He sacrifices almost all aspects of fun, and does not desire to do
anything but work. Eventually, his income becomes less of a generous act, and more of
an expectation. His family's existence rests solely on his shoulders, just as a queen bee
relies on the worker bees.
Gregor finally realizes that he serves as an insect that carries out his family's work in
order for them to continue living lazily. Thus the metamorphosis occurs. Upon this
realization, Gregor's role reverses completely.  Once the sole breadwinner, Gregor
becomes unable to do work for his family, probably because he grows fed up with their
dependency on him. This aspect of the metamorphosis appears to happen
subconsciously, as Gregor still wants to work. Somewhere deep down, however, he
knows that the family will be better off if he does not.
                                                                                                                                            
          
Marx’s philosophy is reflected throughout the story of the novella. It covers the major
point of Marx philosophy of cultural materialism and its effects in the society as well as
to an individual. Greogor’s death implies the perpetual result of this kind of class
struggle.

Marxist Criticism of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis

Marxist Criticism of the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

           There is a very oppressive, top down theme present in this writing.  The feeling
of fear and hopelessness is very evident.  As I am preparing this writing, I too am feeling
the residual effects of working class terror - fear, guilt, shame and anxiety for not
adhering to a predetermined schedule. 

            There is a tug-of-war incident between the harsh and dismissive perspective of

the “boss” and “the insurance doctor” in that they believe “everyone is completely
healthy but really lazy about work”; versus the general perspective of “the worker” who
is trying to resolve his right to survive, which is entangled with dehumanizing, miserable
work conditions.  The “boss” and “insurance doctor” gang-up and crush the worker with
their policies.

            Throughout the composition, there is an absence of the names of the

characters. There are only functions: the boss, the errand boy, the insurance doctor and
traveling salesman, erasing the need to be concerned with the individual, only with their
utility. 
            The “worker” does not have control of his own life.  His life is run by machines -
clocks, watches and trains.  His life is excruciatingly regimented.  He has never missed
a day of work in (5) years.  He must get up at 4.  He can’t be late.  He must get up
early. He has an ever looming fear of losing his livelihood.

            The image that comes to my mind when I read the description of Gregor’s boss
is of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  A fat, loud, domineering, red-faced, cigar
chewing, type A personality.  The boss is placed physically above “the workers”, talking
down to them, forcing them to look up at him in an uncomfortable, awkward way;
amplifying their insignificance and his dominance.  Gregor’s boss is apparently “the
boss” everywhere.  He is able to enter into the personal home and family life of “the
worker” and can usurp the family hierarchy.  The “boss” knows Gregor’s parents.  The
“boss” is able to disrespect and criticize the parent’s child rearing skills.  There is an
indentured servant relationship between “the boss”, Gregor’s family and Gregor.  The
parents are indebted to the boss, and have handed over their son to work off their debt.

            Our protagonist is so dehumanized that he is in the form of an insect.  He finds

himself on his back, wriggling and writhing, unable to stand, turnover or control his
legs. His underbelly is exposed, which is the Achilles heel of an insect.  An insect is
something that you step on.  It is miniscule.  It is unwanted.  It is something that
disgusts others.  It embodies how the worker feels, and how he is viewed by “the boss”
and society.

            Gregor is isolated and has no one to talk to about his feelings.  His family serves
as reinforcement of servile working class values.  Everyone in the house comes to the
door to encourage him to go to work.  He is unable to share with them that he has
serious “physical problems”. 

Gregor wants to break free from his servile life.   He states: “If I were to try that
with my boss, I’d be thrown out on the spot.  Still, who knows whether that mightn’t be
really good for me.” And further when the insurance doctor makes his poorly thought out
statements about everyone being healthy but lazy, Gregor adds “And besides, would
the doctor in this case be totally wrong?”
 This excerpt from Franz Kafka is a wonderfully creative and thought provoking
way of presenting working class struggles, worker vexation and iron-handed capitalism.