Cited: Nabokov, Vladimir. "Vladimir Nabokov 's Lecture on 'The Metamorphosis '".
Cited: Nabokov, Vladimir. "Vladimir Nabokov 's Lecture on 'The Metamorphosis '".
As with any great literary work, there must be a purpose behind the story. Kafka’s short story was written for a few main reasons. He wanted to exemplify the absurdity of life, show that there is often a disconnect between the mind and body, and that there are limits to society’s affection for its servants. I found that all points appeared to be both relevant and accurate while maintaining the fantastical appeal of the strangeness of Gregor’s sudden transformation. I believe this contributes to why “The Metamorphosis” has made a lasting impact across the globe.…
He is often worried how his family would take him in his hideous state, he often wondered, would they accept him? “They were cleaning out his room, taking away from him everything he cherished; they had already dragged out the chest of drawers in which the fret saw and other tools were kept, and they were now loosening the writing desk which was fixed tight to the floor, the desk on which he, as a business student, a school student, indeed even as an elementary school student, had written out his assignments… He squatted on his picture and did not hand it over.” (Kafka 57, 58) As a result, even though he knows he would feel more physically comfortable if his room were emptied of furniture, allowing him to crawl anywhere he pleased, Gregor panics when Grete and his mother are taking out the furniture, such as the writing desk he remembers doing all his assignments at as a boy. In a desperate attempt to hold onto the few reminders he has of his humanity, he clings to the picture of the woman muffled in fur so that no one will take it away.…
Gregor's transformation absurdly exaggerates his shape, voice, and senses to exemplify how his physical mutation into a vermin and inarticulate struggles represent his alienation from society. "When Gregor Samsa woke up, [...] he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin" (Kafka 2). Because Gregor perceives himself of having the lowest form of life, it becomes appropriate for him to transform into a mammoth insect, instead of any other animal. Gregor's "painful and uncontrollable squeaking mixed in with the words could be made out at first but then there was a sort of echo which made them unclear, leaving the hearer unsure whether he had heard properly or not" (Kafka 4). His inability to communicate with the family does not allow him to express any of his own personal needs and thus leaving him to fail in living his own life. Gregor "perceived things with less clarity, even those a short distance away: the hospital across the street [...]was not visible anymore" (Kafka 21). His range of vision literally becomes smaller and his new and more suitable state as an insect allows his one track minded nature of only perceiving what is necessary for his family more appropriate. Although Gregor's human form represents the norm, his selfless mentality and meaningless existence isolates him physically from society.…
Irony as a literary element is present in just about every work of fiction, however, one is hard pressed to find a work of literature where the irony is as profound as it is in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The irony in The Metamorphosis runs rampant from the first sentence and doesn’t cease until the very end. Kafka crafts a sadistic tale about a man who although had an unconditionally loving heart, never learned to love himself. The most morose aspect of the story was that Gregor Samsa undoubtedly had to die. The most significant portrayals of irony that led to Gregor Samsa’s death in The Metamorphosis are shown in Gregor’s transformation, his father’s awakening and subsequent assumption of the patriarchic role in the family, Gregor’s own messiah complex, and his sister’s blossoming into womanhood.…
Frank Kafka is considered one of the most influential writers of all time. Helmut Richter would agree with this statement. Richter agreed that Kafka was a very prominent figure in world literature and was amazed by his mechanics and word usage. I feel that his essay is supportive of Kafka's writing, but also leaves out many important details in its brevity. Richter did not include Kafka's flaws and tendencies in his essay.…
In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa’s wound transform into something fatal yet spares Samsa from a worse existence by ending his life early. After returning from work and seeing Samsa outside of his room, Samsa’s dad attacks Samsa after his transformation, lodging an apple in his shell. Uncared for, the injury greatly weakens Samsa, and by preventing him from moving around or interacting with his family. Because of his lack of mobility and interaction, his injury transforms into a depression, which leads Samsa to not eating, greatly contributing to his early demise. However, Samsa’s death saves him from a miserable life without care from even his family. Samsa’s father first sets out to “drive Gregor back into his room” with…
Kafka then goes on to show these views in his writings, specifically that of “The metamorphosis.” Gregor, a travelling sales man was a man who hated his job and only…
Throughout the novel Kafka constantly utilizes depressing language that emphasizes the hopelessness of Gregor’s situation. From the very start, Gregor describes his unappealing (and helpless) physical state as a bug and contrasts it with a pretty picture of a lady with lots of fur next to him. “What has happened to me? He thought. It was no dream” (106). By acknowledging that it is really not a dream, Gregor comes to accept his dire circumstance and seals his own fate with the profound realization of his situation. Kafka’s utilization of Gregor’s point of view in such…
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka offers much to be critiqued, including the reason why Gregor Samsa was transformed into a hideous beetle. The truth is Gregor had put himself into a position of demise long ago. Over the years, he had worked himself into both physical and mental exhaustion. Gregor was the sole provider, and eventually his family grew less appreciative of him. His relationship with his family had gone south. They were no longer as close, and it were as if he had become isolated. In Education for Tragedy, Walter H. Sokel elaborates on that point.…
At a point of someone's life that individual get accustomed to new changes. Change isn't always good, but change is always an aspect to deal with in everyday life. Change can affect the way we love someone or something. Many individuals feel imprisoned by new changes because they haven't adapted change. In the short story, Metamorphosis written by Franz Kafka Gregor experienced imprisonment before he even transformed into a big bug. Gregor's change made him emotionally and physically separated from his family members. In the story, he even refers to his change as his “imprisonment.” Also, with the new transformation that Gregor is experiencing this made him feel useless to his family since he couldn't provide anymore. Kafka shows us that people…
From both essays, what really stuck out to me the most was at the end of “The Beetle in the Story “the Metamorphosis’”. The author of this essay points out how music was the one thing that “fed” the beetle. When Gregor was the beetle he says the sound of the violins fulfilled an unknown nourishment. The author of the essay points out how this is Kafka showing that music was a big part of his rough childhood by saying that the nourishment the bug felt was the relief that Kafka felt.…
In the second paragraph of chapter one, Kafka connects Gregor to his human life, contrasting the life he lives with that of the monster he turned into. In doing so, Kafka distances the two lives of Gregor, forced apart by his sudden and unfortunate change in fate, and removes any possibility of the complete acceptance of his becoming a monster. In this setting, everything appears modern and “normal”. He describes Gregor’s room as one ordinary of his time and even an ordinary room of our time. Through this modernization of Gregor’s environment, the reader can easily understand Gregor’s upbringings and the social consequences inevitable to the poor monster. Though one will most likely never go to sleep a human and wake as anything but a human, this situation has the social…
“The death of the ‘family unit’ and its implications in The Stranger and The Metamorphosis”…
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a masterfully written novella about Gregor Samsa, a man who devotes his life to his family and work, for nothing in return. Only when he is transformed into a helpless beetle does he begin to develop a self-identity and understand the relationships around him. The underlying theme of The Metamorphosis is an existential one that says that any given choice will govern the later course of a person’s life and that a person has ultimate will over making choices. In this case, Gregor’s choices of his part in society cause him to have a lack of identity that has made him to be numb to everything around him.…
To begin, the reader must first understand why Gregor’s metamorphosis occurs, which is simply that he is incredibly unsatisfied with his life. Before his transformation, Gregor expresses pure disdain for “the torture of traveling, worrying about changing trains, eating miserable food at all hours, constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last or get more intimate” (Kafka 4). Here, Gregor is presenting his unhappiness in every part of his life. The interesting part is that Gregor seems to both dislike meeting new people, but is despondent that his human interaction is extremely limited. However, his need to be disconnected from society overshadows his desire to have new interactions, as Gregor explains…