Throughout literary history, certain authors are so unique and fresh in
their approach to the written word that they come to embody a genre. Franz
Kafka is one such author; “Die Verwandlung” or “The Metamorphosis” is one of
his works that helped coin the term “Kafkaesque.” Through this novella, Kafka
addresses the timeless theme of people exploit-ing others as a means to an end.
He demonstrates this point through showing that a family’s unhealthy dependence
on the main character results in that character’s dependence on the family.
Kafka’s unorthodox beginning of “The Metamorphosis” reads as what would seem to
be a climactic moment: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he
found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” The reader is
henceforth bound to the story in search of the reason for and meaning of this
hideous metamorphosis. Shortly thereafter, the reader may also notice that
although Gregor is quite aware of his condition, given these bizarre
circumstances he is not at all in the state of panic one might expect. On the
contrary, the insect is frustrated that it cannot get out of bed to go to work!
As Gregor tries to rouse himself from bed in his “present condition,” his
observation that “he himself wasn\'t feeling particularly fresh and active” is
macabre in its passive acknowledgment of the absurdity of his state (p. 855).
This sets the tone for the remainder of the first chapter of the story. Gregor,
a person typically not a hindered by “small aches and pains,” (p. 857) clings
to his rational nature as he struggles with the slow-in-coming realization that
he is more than “temporarily incapacitated” (p. 863).
The first chapter ends shortly after Gregor reveals his new form. The sight of
the insect elicited an expected reaction; its mother understandably retreated
aghast and in shock. Correspondingly, the chief clerk that had been sent by
Gregor’s employer, scrambled in flight as he “had quite slipped from his mind”
(p. 864). Gregor’s father was “relatively calm” (p. 865) until the chief clerk
had completed a hastened retreat. Gregor’s father, spurred into action by this
flight, consequently repelled the insect aggressively and injuriously back into
the bedroom from which it had come.
The second chapter illustrates a family and a human-insect trying to adjust to
a new reality. Gregor’s sister Grete, while never too eager to set eyes on the
creature, was compas-sionate enough to feed him. However, as the story
progresses this compassion seems to become, or may have always been,
obligation. His mother had a waning rather reminiscent sympathy for her son,
but she never seemed to reconcile that the creature in the bedroom was the son
she had loved. She certainly could not deal with his appearance having fainted
at the sight of him (p. 876). As for Gregor’s father, he had begun to re-assume
responsibility for the family’s welfare, which as it turned out, had never been
as poor as Gregor had been lead to believe. For Gregor himself, the adjustment
was a mix of discovery and disquiet. Adjusting to his body, “He especially
enjoyed hanging suspended from the ceiling” (p. 873). However, the reader also
learns that Gregor’s health is on the decline as “he was fast losing any
interest he had ever taken in food” (p. 873). It seemed for a while that the
family had established a bit of a détente, but it was not to would last. The
end of the second chapter saw Gregor’s father gravely wound the insect with an
apple thrown into and embedded into the creature’s back. It was this wound that
eventually became infected and was likely the death of the creature.
In the third and final chapter, the family found the new drudgery of their
lives. Their “overworked and tired-out family” (p. 880) increasingly neglected
Gregor. He longed for responsibility and was “often haunted by the idea that
next time the door opened he would take the family\'s affairs in hand again
just as he used to do” (p. 881). On the contrary, Gregory’s family found no
satisfaction in the duties of life. Indicative of the family’s general
disillusionment with responsibility, Gregor’s father exhibited a “mulishness
that had obsessed him since he became a bank messenger” (p. 880). The Samsas
increasingly found themselves focused on reasons that Gregor was burdensome to
them. Kafka writes, “what they lamented most was the fact that they could not
leave the flat … because they could not think of any way to shift Gregor” (p.
880). Gregor, in his profound love for his unreciprocating family, wanted to
die. They all received their wish when Gregor finally succumbed to his infected
would and died. At the end of the story, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa ponder the eventual
marriage of their daughter – a perfectly normal thing to do.
Kafka uses a unique method of metaphor. He does not say, “Gregor is like a
bug.” He does not say Gregor is bug in a traditional metaphor; rather he says
Gregor is a bug – literally. The effect is dramatic, as the reader, by virtue
of the absurdity of the literalness of situation, is swept-up in trying to stay
footed in reality. The effect of this technique is that the reader continues
throughout the story to ask the question: why? It is in this pursuit of ‘why’
that the reader sees Kafka’s message: Don’t treat people simply as a means, or
life will have a way of turning it back on yourself. Through the transformation
of Gregor, and the transformation of the family’s life, Kafka wants the reader
to observe that despite Gregor’s metamorphosis into something very un-human, he
remains the model of humanity when compared to his family. Not only did the
family leech from Gregor, society itself seemed to call upon Gregor not as a
person, but to serve as a tool to satisfy their needs. Once transformed, Gregor
no longer served well in this capacity. Rather, he became the one in need, and
he quickly became more of a burden than he was worth to them.