ASSIGNMENT

Course: Continental Literature (416)

Prepared for: Syeda Afsana Ferdousi

Submitted by

Name: Shayla Akter

ID: 1914 2210 31

Date: 15th April 2021

Department of English
University of Information Technology & Science
The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka. Franz Kafka was a
German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as
one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. The Metamorphosis was first
published in 1915. It is one of Kafka's best-known works.

Marxism Fails
Marxism is a social, political, and economic philosophy named after Karl Marx. It
examines the effect of capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic
development and argues for a worker revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of
communism.

In Family life: Gergor Samsa is a travelling sales man and is the elder son of the
family. He has a sister named Grete. Gegor hates his job but still he can’t quit until
he has paid off the debts that his parents owe the chief. So, Gregor is being the
elder son who is fulfilling the responsibilities towards his family without caring
about himself. One morning Gregor wakes up and finds himself transformed into a
gigantic insect. It is not easy for anyone to accept a member of your family to
become an insect from a human being. It is not easy for Gregor as well but when
his family sees the condition of Gregor, they are thinking about the opinion of the
neighbours, the reaction of the society and their financial needs which is dependent
on Gregor. So, here Gregor who is earning money for his family, sacrificing his
own wishes and comfort, when it is time for his family to support Gregor, to be
beside him, they isolate him and consider him as a burden. Even after his death,
they are relieved and goes on a vaccation inspite of mourning as parents. After this,
we can easily define Gregor as an earning member only who has importance
because he runs the family. Rather than that he is not someone’s son, someone’s
brother. This is the real and bitter face of our system, our capitalistic society.
In Professional life: As we know Gregor is a traveling salesman who works really
hard to run his family and pay off the debt of his parents. In his professional life,
he is very punctual and does his job sincerely despite of feeling disgusted with this
job. Gregor is giving his full effort but when it is time of the office management to
be beside their worker in such a pathetic condition of Gregor where he has
transformed into an insect, the clerk of the office threats him to be fired and runs
out. As a human being, we have to face many kinds of problems, accidents in our
regular life. So, its normal to be absent at office for some days or a day for a valid
reason. Gregor has been in a pathetic situation but office management care about
their benifits only. They don’t care about their employees, they survive or die.
Here we can notice a character of capitalism which is a failure of Marxism.

In Social Life: We further see failure of Marxism in Gregor’s social life as well.
When Mr. Samsa sees Gregor’s transformation, he locks Gregor in his room from
outside because they are worried about the neighbours, the lodgers, who are a part
of the society. Even the servent quits her job seeing Gregor as an insect, the
lodgers say they will not pay for the time they have lived here and won’t stay here
if they don’t take any action regarding Gregor’s transformation. Franz Kafka has
showed the decay of social morality in his novella by presenting a true face of the
capitalistic society and its people.

Modernism
Modernist literature deals with the concept of self consciousness and identity in an
expanding world. Themes like gender, sexuality, age, space-temporal world views,
and ethnicity are important in modernist literature.
Waking up one day, as a round, centipede-like creature is the ultimate form of
unwarranted and diminutive transformation. Culturally at the time, structural
changes within a society called for the simultaneous smallness and grandeur of
human beings, which can be considered “shocking” to anyone experiencing it. This
is how the bug Gregor wakes up as, becomes a metaphor for the modern
experience.

Absurdity of Life
The absurd event is Gregor’s waking up to discover he has turned into a giant
insect, and since it’s so far beyond the boundaries of a natural occurrence—it’s not
just unlikely to happen, it’s physically impossible—Gregor’s metamorphosis takes
on a supernatural significance. Also, the story never explains Gregor’s
transformation. the story and all the members of the Samsa family treat the event
as a random occurrence, like catching an illness. All these elements together give
the story a distinct overtone of absurdity.

The responses of the various characters add to this sense of absurdity, specifically
because they seem almost as absurd as Gregor’s transformation itself. The
characters are unusually calm and unquestioning, and most don’t act particularly
surprised by the event. Even Gregor panics only at the thought of getting in trouble
at work, not at the realization that he is physically altered, and he makes no efforts
to determine what caused the change or how to fix it. He worries instead about
commonplace problems, like what makes him feel physically comfortable. In fact,
the other characters in the story generally treat the metamorphosis as something
unusual and disgusting, but not exceptionally horrifying or impossible, and they
mostly focusing on adapting to it rather than fleeing from Gregor or trying to cure
him.
Revolt against Bourgeoisie
Metamorphosis is nothing but a symbol. Kafka uses it to attract people's attention
to the problem of alienation which happens unnoticeable every day to millions of
people. The most important fact is the alienation doesn't start after Gregor has
turned into insect. Metamorphosis only shapes out the problems, which have
existed before. Alienation from the society and other people is merely a part of the
problem. But alienation of an individual from himself is the most serious problem.
Gregor is an instance of people who lose their identity in the chase for money,
popularity, and wish to correspond to the expectations of others that cause
omission of the meaning of existence. So the “metamorphosis” is as a reaction
against bourgeois society and being imprisoned by its social and economical
demands.

Existential crisis
Existential crises are seen primarily in the figure of Gregor. In the beginning, he
seemed to have little purpose of his life apart from working all day to bring money
to the family.
As he turns into a bug, however, this crisis becomes even worse. He is unable to do
anything useful as a bug, and he becomes a burden to his family (which he
realizes). Thus, he would have been in a true existential crisis, as he would realize
that his existence would not mean anything to anyone else. In fact, I would
imagine that he had planned on dying soon based on his behavior in his last night,
as he had reflected on his entire life (even if his dying moment had been
involuntary).
At the end of the story, however, they seem to have escaped from such a life. They
were able to have a vacation and do other 'pleasurable' things like finding Grete a
husband. There was no indication that they accepted the existential idea that life is
meaningless, but they were able to at least find the illusion of a meaningful life at
the end which brings them happiness.

Tragedy of a modern man

The Metamorphosis tells the tragedy of modern individual who obeys the ruls of
society without questioning as a part of the herd and forgets the meaning of his
existence or the ideal of his life on this earth. The metamorphosis undergoes
Gregor Samsa, presents the hierarchical relations based on authority and displays
slave and master interrelations beginning from the family. While the parents and
sister of Gregor are the symbols of society, Gregor himself before the
metamorphosis is the symbol of an automaton who sacrifices himself to his famil!
y's livelihood, but the vermin, in other words Gregor, after the metamorphosis is
the symbol of a real single individual who rebels against to his alienated identity

Uncertainity of Life
Uncertainty is a part of life. Everyone feels it on a daily basis. From big things to
small, being uncertain is very normal.

The members of the Samsa family continue to struggle with their uncertainty
regarding Gregor’s humanity, all the way up to his death. In a show of kindness,
they begin leaving the door to Gregor’s room open in the evenings, providing
Gregor with at least a little contact with them. This action suggests that they
continue to regard Gregor, if only slightly, as a part of their family, and that they
believe some of his former humanity persists. After Gregor frightens away the
boarders, however, Grete comes to the conclusion that nothing of Gregor remains.
The father appears to wrestle with Grete’s assessment. He suggests if the bug could
understand them maybe they could work out a mutually agreeable situation,
indicating that he holds out hope that Gregor’s mind remains intact. But that hope
is apparently minimal, as it takes Grete very little effort to convince the father and
mother that no remnant of Gregor, or any humanity at all, exists in the insect.