The Metamorphosis-Kafka

The opening line of The Metamorphosis, which reports Gregors discovery that he has become a giant insect, sets the tone for the rest of the story. The line recounts the bizarre event of Gregors transformation in a sober, straightforward manner, and this contrast between an extraordinary situation and the ordinary terms used to describe it creates the sense that the narrator expects the world in the story to be absurd and chaotic, rather than rational and orderly. Gregor embodies this absurdist tone from the very beginning. When he first recognizes his transformation, he doesnt appear significantly bothered by it, and treats it almost like any ordinary disturbance to his sleep, as if it were not entirely out of the ordinary. As the story progresses, he remains focused on largely ordinary concerns, such as losing his job, his physical comfort, and his familys financial situation, thus maintaining the storys absurdist overtone throughout. In this section, we also begin to learn the details of Gregors human life, and we get the first glimpses into his feeling of alienation from those around him. As Gregor lies in bed, unable to get himself up, he begins thinking of his job as a traveling salesman, and we learn that he only continues at it because of his parents debt. In fact, he greatly dislikes the office manager, who has come to the house to check on him. Furthermore, the friendships he makes because of his work are only casual and never intimate, since he must always be traveling. The mother hints at Gregors lack of friends when she tries to explain to the office manager what a good employee Gregor is. She says Gregor never goes out in the evenings, but sits home reading a newspaper or checking the train timetables, suggesting that Gregor already lives predominantly in isolation. Now, Gregor is no longer even physically human. In his new form, he is unable to go to work, and his voice is so altered that he cant even communicate with those around him. In addition, when he opens the door and the office manager and his family members see him, they are horrified, and together these details foreshadow that Gregors isolation from other people will only continue to grow. The section also establishes the motif of money in the story, and hints at the major role money plays in the Samsa family. Gregors greatest concern after discovering his metamorphosis is that he will lose his job, which we quickly learn he only continues at so he can pay off his parents debt. (We also know that debt is substantial since he says it will take him five or six years to pay it off.) As the section continues, we receive indications that, of the members of the Samsa family, only Gregor works, and that the father stays at home. Though it remains unclear at this point why the family is in so much debt, it is evident that they are not wealthy and that their debts hamper them. Because he is responsible for paying these debts, Gregor feels trapped in his job. Finally, the office manager also brings up money when he tells Gregor that the chief suspects him of stealing from the company.

The question of how much of Gregors humanity remains dominates the second section of the story. As the members of the Samsa family adapt to the new situation with Gregor, each one appears to develop a different perception of how much humanity remains in him. At the beginning of the section, for instance, Grete leaves milk for Gregor, apparently assuming that his preference for milk while he was human continues now that hes a bug. The assumption suggests that Grete believes, at least initially, that some part of Gregor remains the same. But as she recognizes that Gregors tastes in food have changed and that he now likes to crawl about the walls of his room, Grete gradually begins to conceive of Gregor as an insect. In response, she suggests taking all Gregors possessions out of his room to eliminate obstacles to his crawling and to make the space more suitable to an insect. The mother, on the other hand, protests that Gregor will want his things when he returns to his former self, and earlier in the section she even refers to Gregor as her unfortunate son, implying she still believes Gregor to be fundamentally the same despite his appearance. The father gives no indication that he regards Gregor as the same, and attacks him as though he were a wild animal when he escapes his room. This confusion regarding Gregors humanity extends to Gregor himself, and much of the section involves Gregor trying to reconcile his human emotions and history with the physical urges of his new body. Gregors lingering humanity is most evident through his thoughts and emotions. He continues to feel proud that he was able to help his family financially in the past, he feels shame at being unable to help them now, and he is determined to spare them any unnecessary suffering on his account. These details show that he still feels connected to his human past and still considers himself a part of the family. Physically, however, he feels more and more like an insect: his food preferences have completely changed, he feels terrified of his room and safe only under the sofa, and he takes great pleasure in scurrying up the walls and across the ceiling. This tension between Gregors mind and body culminates when Grete and the mother take the furniture out of his room. Initially, he feels he would prefer the room to be empty because that would make it more physically comfortable for him. But his ties to his possessions, which represent to him his past as a human, lead him to cling desperately to the photograph of the woman in furs. Of all the characters, Grete has by far the most interaction with Gregor in Part 2, and over the course of the section their relationship changes dramatically. Though Grete initially wants to care for Gregor and takes on all the burdens of doing so, she cannot bear the sight of him. Notably, after noticing Gregors habit of moving the chair to look out the window Grete kindly starts placing the chair by the window for him, but when she inadvertently sees him standing on it later, she is overcome with horror. Gradually, Gretes disgust appears to wear down her sympathy for Gregor, and while she continues to care for him, she does so evidently more from a sense of duty than love. In fact, she appears to regard caring for Gregor as her roleand thus part of her identityin the family. She guards that role jealously against the mother, which suggests that Grete performs these duties more for her own sake than for Gregors. Gregor, meanwhile, begins to regard Gretes presence in his room as an intrusion, and he prefers to be entirely alone. By the end of the section, Gretes and Gregors

affection for one another has faded completely. Grete appears to consider Gregor a chore and inconvenience, while Gregor feels as alienated from Grete as he does everyone else, making him even more isolated from others. The reader learns a great deal more in this section about the familys financial situation, providing a greater understanding of how money shapes the relationships in the Samsa family. Through Gregors reporting of the familys conversations and his own recollections, we learn that the fathers business failed five years earlier and that subsequently the whole family fell into a state of despair. When Gregor first began supporting the family with his income, his parents were extremely grateful, but as they came to expect Gregors help, their gratitude diminished and Gregor began to feel alienated from them. These details clarify why the father in particular is so lethargic and unmotivated up to this point. It also explains why Gregor feels so distant from the mother and especially from the father, who is the only member of the Samsa family that Gregor never wishes to see. Moreover, because Gregor cannot work, he acts as an additional burden to the family, possibly contributing to their diminishing sympathy for him. The members of the Samsa family continue to struggle with their uncertainty regarding Gregors humanity, all the way up to his death. In a show of kindness, they begin leaving the door to Gregors 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 Gretes 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 Gregors 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. Gregors confused feelings about his family and his own humanity appear again as he listens to Grete play the violin to the boarders. Gregor has a strong reaction to the music, so strong in fact it appears to make him feel distinctly like a bug, as he wonders if his great attraction to the music derives from the fact that he is now an animal. But his feelings for Grete point to lingering feelings from his human life, as he still loves Grete and wants her to know it, leading him to imagine a tearful scene in which he locks Grete in his room and tells her he had intended to send her to the Conservatorium. The scene also suggests that Gregor still has the desire to take care of his family financially. Notably, however, in his fantasy Gregor is still a bug while he speaks to his sister, despite the fact that he has not been able to speak properly since his transformation. This detail signals a conflict in Gregors sense of his own identity, as he is not fully insect or human in his fantasy.

Gregor becomes even more isolated as the family loses interest in caring for him. Grete, once the family member to spend the most time in contact with Gregor, stops caring for him entirely, leaving the task instead to the new cleaning lady. By this point, the family has also lost any concern for Gregors comfort, which is apparent in the fact that they begin using Gregors room as a storage closet once the boarders move in. Gregor simultaneously appears to lose all interest in his family. He prefers to be by himself, and he even becomes angry when they leave his door open during an argument and disturb him with the noise they make. With the arrival of the boarders, Gregors presence becomes a liability rather than just a nuisancehe could scare the boarders away and cost the family the rent money they would earnand the family essentially begins pretending he doesnt exist. By this point, his only connection to his family is that they live in the same apartment, and he lives in almost total isolation but for the occasional intrusion by the cleaning lady. The familys sympathy for Gregor has steadily diminished over the course of the story, and Gregors encounter with the boarders finally exhausts what little compassion they have left. Although demanding, the boarders provide the family with an additional source of income. Gregor, on the other hand, is a burden. He has to be fed, he takes up a room that could be used for other purposes, and perhaps most importantly, his presence in the house causes the family a great deal of stress. By driving away the boarders, Gregor does, in fact, become a liability, and the family, specifically Grete, can no longer tolerate his presence. By this time, Grete also doesnt think of the bug as her brother anymore, and since Gregor cannot speak, hes not able to convince her otherwise. Grete consequently demands they get rid of Gregor, indicating that she has no sympathy remaining, and it takes her little effort to convince the father and mother, which suggests their own sympathy for Gregor was minimal. In contrast with the feeling of anxiety that dominates the story, the storys final scene has a hopeful tone, and it culminates in an image that suggests Gretes own metamorphosis into a woman is complete. As the family travels out to the countryside, the narrator describes warm sunshine filling their train car, and this image creates a marked contrast from confining image of the familys small apartment. The family also appears to have experienced a dramatic shift away from the frequent worrying over money that has preoccupied them through much of the story, as each family member realizes his or her current employment will likely lead to better opportunities. Finally, they think they can now get a smaller, cheaper, and better-located apartment, implying that it was Gregor who kept them in their current home and that, with Gregor gone, they will now be able to move onto better things. Together these details create a feeling of relief that the familys ordeal with Gregor is now over as well as a sense of hope for the future. This hope reaches its climax in the final lines of the story. Looking at Grete, the mother and father realize shes grown into a pretty young woman and

think of finding her a husband, signaling both that Grete has undergone her own metamorphosis over the course of the story and that a new chapter in her life is beginning. The story concludes with Grete stretching, an act that suggests emerging after a long period of confinement, as if from a cocoon.

Themes The Absurdity of Life

Beginning with its first sentence, The Metamorphosis deals with an absurd, or wildly irrational, event, which in itself suggests that the story operates in a random, chaotic universe. The absurd event is Gregors waking up to discover he has turned into a giant insect, and since its so far beyond the boundaries of a natural occurrenceits not just unlikely to happen, its physically impossible Gregors metamorphosis takes on a supernatural significance. Also notable is the fact that the story never explains Gregors transformation. It never implies, for instance, that Gregors change is the result of any particular cause, such as punishment for some misbehavior. On the contrary, by all evidence Gregor has been a good son and brother, taking a job he dislikes so that he can provide for them and planning to pay for his sister to study music at the conservatory. There is no indication that Gregor deserves his fate. Rather, 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 and suggest a universe that functions without any governing system of order and justice. The responses of the various characters add to this sense of absurdity, specifically because they seem almost as absurd as Gregors transformation itself. The characters are unusually calm and unquestioning, and most dont act particularly surprised by the event. (The notable exception is the Samsas first maid, who begs to be fired.) 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. Gregors family, for example, doesnt seek out any help or advice, and they appear to feel more ashamed and disgusted than shocked. Their second maid also shows no surprise when she discovers Gregor, and when the boarders staying with the family see Gregor they

are mostly upset that Gregor is unclean and disturbs the sense of order they desire in the house. These unusual reactions contribute to the absurdity of the story, but they also imply that the characters to some degree expect, or at least are not surprised by, absurdity in their world.

The Disconnect Between Mind and Body

Gregors transformation completely alters his outward appearance, but it leaves his mind unchanged, creating a discord, or lack of harmony, between his mind and body. When he first gets out of his bed after waking, for instance, he tries to stand upright, even though his body is not suited to being upright. He also thinks of going to work, despite the fact that he cant by any means do so, and when Grete leaves him the milk at the beginning of Part 2, he is surprised to find he doesnt like it, even though milk was a favorite drink when he was human. In essence, he continues to think with a human mind, but because his body is no longer human, he is unable at first to reconcile these two parts of himself. As Gregor becomes accustomed to his new body, his mind begins to change in accordance with his physical needs and desires. Yet hes never able to fully bring his mind and body into harmony. Gregor gradually behaves more and more like an insect, not only craving different foods than he did when he was human, but also beginning to prefer tight, dark spaces, like the area under his sofa, and enjoying crawling on the walls and ceiling. (Through these details, the story suggests that our physical lives shape and direct our mental lives, not the other way around.) But Gregors humanity never disappears entirely, and he feels conflicted as a result. This conflict reaches its climax when Grete and the mother move the furniture out of Gregors room. Gregor initially approves of the idea because it will make his room more comfortable for him physically. Without furniture, hell be able to crawl anywhere he pleases. But realizing that his possessions, which represent to him his former life as a human, provide him emotional comfort, he suddenly faces a choice: he can be physically comfortable or emotionally comfortable, but not both. In other words, his mind and body remain opposed to one another. Gregor, unable to relinquish his humanity, chooses emotional comfort, leading him to desperately cling to the picture of the woman in furs.

The Limits of Sympathy

After Gregors metamorphosis, his family members struggle with feelings of both sympathy and revulsion toward him. Grete and the mother in particular feel a great deal of sympathy for Gregor after his change, apparently because they suspect some aspect of his humanity remains despite his appearance. This sympathy leads Grete initially to take on the role of Gregors caretakershe even goes so far as to try to discover what food he likes after his changeand it leads the mother to fight

with Grete over moving the furniture out of Gregors room since she holds out hope that he will return to his human form. Even the father, who shows the least sympathy of the family members toward Gregor and even attacks him twice, never suggests that they kill him or force him out of the house. Instead, he implicitly shows compassion for Gregor by allowing the family to care for him. Eventually, however, the stresses caused by Gregors presence wear down the family members sympathy, and even the most caring of them find that their sympathy has a limit. One of those sources of stress is Gregors appearance. Grete is so upset and revolted by the way he looks that she can hardly stand to be in the room with him, and his mother is so horrified when she sees him as she and Grete are moving his furniture that she faints. In addition, Gregors presence is never forgotten in the house, causing the family members to feel constantly uncomfortable and leading them to speak to each other mostly in whispers. Moreover, the fact that Gregor cannot communicate his thoughts and feelings to them leaves them without any connection to his human side, and consequently, they come to see him more and more as an actual insect. All these factors combined steadily work against their sympathy, and the family reaches a point where Gregors presence is too much to bear. Significantly, it is Grete, the character to show the most sympathy toward Gregor, who decides they must get rid of him.

Alienation
Perhaps the greatest consequence of Gregors metamorphosis is the psychological distance it creates between Gregor and those around him. Gregors change makes him literally and emotionally separate from his family membersindeed, from humanity in generaland he even refers to it as his imprisonment. After his transformation he stays almost exclusively in his room with his door closed and has almost no contact with other people. At most, Grete spends a few minutes in the room with him, and during this time Gregor always hides under the couch and has no interaction with her. Furthermore, he is unable to speak, and consequently he has no way of communicating with other people. Lastly, Gregors metamorphosis literally separates him from the human race as it makes him no longer human. Essentially he has become totally isolated from everyone around him, including those people he cares for like Grete and his mother. But as we learn over the course of the story, this feeling of estrangement actually preceded his transformation. Shortly after waking and discovering that he has become a bug, for example, Gregor reflects on his life as a traveling salesman, noting how superficial and transitory his relationships have become as a result of his constant traveling. Later, Gregor recalls how his initial pride at being able to support his family faded once his parents began to expect that support, and how he felt emotionally distant from them as a result. There is also no mention in the story of any close friends

or intimate relationships outside his family. In fact, the alienation caused by Gregors metamorphosis can be viewed as an extension of the alienation he already felt as a person.

Motifs Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis depicts multiple transformations, with the most significant and obvious example being Gregors metamorphosis into an insect. Though Gregors physical change is complete when the story begins, he also undergoes a related change, a psychological transformation as he adapts to his new body. Grete experiences her own transformation in the story as she develops from a child into an adult. (In fact, in zoology the word metamorphosis refers to a stage in insect and amphibian development during which an immature form of the animal undergoes a physical transformation to become an adult.) At the beginning of the work, she is essentially still a girl, but as she begins to take on adult duties, such as caring for Gregor and then getting a job to help support her family, she steadily matures. In the storys closing scene, her parents realize she has grown into a pretty young woman and think of finding her a husband. The scene signals that she is now an adult emotionally and also physically, as it describes the change her body has undergone and echoes Gregors own physical change. The family as a whole also undergoes a metamorphosis as well. Initially, the members of the Samsa family appear hopeless and static, owing to the difficulties resulting from Gregors transformation as well as their financial predicament. But over time they are able to overcome their money problems, and when Gregor finally dies and the family no longer has to deal with his presence, all the family members are reinvigorated. As the story closes, they have completed an emotional transformation and their hope is revitalized.

Sleep and Rest

References to sleep and rest, as well as the lack of sleep and rest, recur throughout The Metamorphosis. The story opens, for instance, with Gregor waking from sleep to discover his transformation, and Part 2 of the story begins with Gregor waking a second time, in this instance late in the day after the incident in which his father drove him back into his room. He quickly crawls under the sofa in his room to rest, and he spends a great deal of the story beneath the sofa either resting quietly or anxious and unable to rest. Moreover, Gregor describes how his father used to while away the day in bed or dozing in his armchair, and after the father resumes working, he often refuses to go to bed in the evenings and instead falls asleep in uniform in his chair. Toward the end of the work, as Gregors health declines he stops sleeping almost entirely until finally he dies.

Money
Because of the failure of the fathers business and the debts that resulted, money is a chief concern for the Samsa family, and consequently it appears as a frequent topic in Gregors thoughts and in the conversations of the family members. Gregors chief concern after discovering hes become an insect is that hell lose his job, which we quickly learn he took solely as a means of earning money for his family. The office manager also implies while checking on Gregor that Gregors boss suspects him of stealing money from the firm. Then, shortly after Gregor awakes at the beginning of Part 2, he overhears the father explaining the familys financial situation in detail to the mother and Grete. Later, the father and Grete both take jobs to make up for the loss of Gregors income, and the family even takes in a few borders as a means of bringing in extra money, which results in an argument about money after the borders discover Gregor.

Symbols The Picture of the Woman in Furs

Mentioned right at the outset of the story, the picture of the woman in furs serves as a symbol of Gregors former humanity. Exactly why the picture, which shows a woman wearing a fur hat, a fur boa, and a thick fur muff that covers her arms, originally attracted Gregor is never made clear (though it could be that it embodied Gregors desiresthe presumably attractive woman may be sexually alluring while the furs she wears could signal wealth to Gregor). But Gregors strong attachment to it does not derive from the content of the picture so much as from the fact that he put it on his wall when he was still human. He clings to it in panic when Grete and the mother are clearing out his room because, as he looks around the room in desperation, he sees it as one object from his former life that he can save. The content of the picture is irrelevant at that moment. It acts foremost as a reminder that a human lived there and chose that object to frame and display.

The Fathers Uniform

The uniform the father wears for his job symbolizes the fathers dignity, as well as Gregors shifting feelings of pity and respect for him. Throughout the story, we see the father primarily from Gregors point of view. We learn about the failure of the fathers business, for example, from Gregors thoughts as he overhears the father explaining the familys financial situation, and through Gregor we gain a picture of the father as a shiftless and depressed man whom Gregor appears to feel sorry for but not necessarily respect. But when Gregor runs out of his room in Part 2 and sees the father for the first time in weeks, Gregors opinion of the father changes. This shift is most evident through Gregors description of the fathers uniform, which gives the father an air of dignity: Gregor notices

the smart blue uniform with gold buttons, and thinks the father looks to be in fine shape, suggesting the fathers self-respect has been restored, and with it Gregors respect for him. As the story continues, however, the father again declinesapparently from the pressure of living with Gregorand in the evenings Gregor watches him sleep in his uniform, now dirty and covered with grease spots. As a result, the dignity the uniform conveyed to the father deteriorates, and Gregor again looks at him with pity. (Notably, there is also a picture in the house of Gregor in uniform. It is an army uniform, and in the picture Gregor smiles, inviting one to respect his uniform and military bearing.)

Food
Food represents the way the members of the Samsa family feel toward Gregor. Notably, it is Grete, the family member Gregor feels closest to, who feeds Gregor for most of the story. At the beginning of Part 2, she leaves milk and bread for him, showing sympathy and consideration for him after his transformation, particularly as milk was one of his favorite foods when he was human. When she sees he hasnt drank the milk, she goes so far as to leave a tray of various foods out in order to discover what he now likes. Eventually, however, the work suggests that the family loses interest in feeding Gregor. One night, after the borders have moved in, the charwoman leaves his door open, and able to see everyone gathered, he watches as his mother feeds the borders. The scene causes Gregor to feel a great deal of resentment, and he thinks that he is starving while the borders stuff themselves, suggesting that as the members of the Samsa family have lost their sympathy for Gregor, they have stopped taking the same interest in feeding him. Significantly, the father inflicts the injury in Gregors back with an apple, and this wound appears to weaken Gregor and contribute to his death.