The Metamorphosis is a novel written by Franz Kafka and was published in 1915. The novel tells a story of a family that struggles with insect transformation of the main character and the breadwinner of the family Gregor Samsa. While the book has different themes,...
Gregor Samsa’s unconscious can be explained through three important symbols prevalent in The Metamorphosis. According to the Freudian theoretical framework, these three symbols are personified in Samsa’s mother, father and sister. For Samsa, his family members represent his id, superego and his ego. Samsa’s sister...
The nature of existence; and more precisely, the nature of humans and animals is one of selfish survival. In literature, we see this idea through novels such as Heart of Darkness that takes a historical, realistic approach to the concept, and also The Road which...
Lu Xun and Kafka’s utilization of the physical body allows for the presentation of personal criticisms towards aspects of modernity and the social, political and economic changes of the movement. Modernity, due to its nature of bringing about change, encourages the development of thoughts and...
The human mind is so active that an individual experiences approximately 70,000 thoughts each day. These thoughts are often conflicting in their nature, as the stream of consciousness does not readily divide thoughts into categories, and thoughts enter and exit the mind freely. The novella...
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary defines existentialism, in part, as “a philosophical theory that…emphasizes the existence of the individual person… determining their own development through acts of the will.” Existentialist work stresses the importance of the individual often denying the “existence of objective values.” Existentialism...
Abraham Maslow, Albert Camus, Atheist existentialism, Essence, Existentialism, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gregor Samsa, Human
Metamorphosis begins with Gregor, a travelling salesman, waking up one morning before he has to report to his miserable job, as a beetle. Throughout the short story, Franz Kafka, the author, showcases the many changes that occur from the day Gregor wakes up as a...
The first chapter of the Metamorphosis is full of meaningful symbols that contribute through the rest of the book. The tone of the text is set in the very beginning and is recurring in the first chapter. The narrator’s human lonesome life is also explained...
References to food are a recurring theme in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The food that Gregor eats to strengthen his physical body reflects the attention that he receives from his family to satiate his emotional appetite. As the story progresses, the family grows more distant,...
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis contains direct biographical references to Kafka and his family’s lives. Gregor’s father’s dishonest actions stem from Kafka’s hatred against own his father for his relentless disapproval of Kafka’s writing. Kafka depicts Gregor as a lonely, insignificant failure, because that is how...
In Franz Kafka’s short story, “The Metamorphosis”, the character Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning and finds that he has transformed into a bug. Gregor’s metamorphosis into a bug reveals a lot about his relationship with his family. In regards to his relationship with his...
Whether it be a gender hierarchy or a power system organized by income, human society has frequently fallen back on some form of an unequal power dynamic. Unfortunately, this type of structure can be extremely damaging to those at the bottom of the hierarchy as...
Dehumanization of the protagonist is a common thematic element in both Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and O’Connor’s “A Late Encounter of the Enemy,” although the various aspects of dehumanization differ between the two works. Dehumanization plays a role in the deaths of both Gregor and General...
Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis is as a disturbing look at the absurdity of life-and is literature at its most unsettling and most introspective. Throughout much of his life, Kafka suffered from insecurity and internal torment. An overweening, aggressive father with highly unattainable expectations exacerbated...
Looking at literature in a general sense, it can be seen that some pieces which use a distorted literary style, instead of the straightforward directness of realism, can, when written effectively, be very useful and highly informative, if for no other reason than the higher...
Like death or abandonment, alienation is one of the deepest-rooted fears experienced by human beings. As social creatures, humans have the need to identify themselves as one of a group, whether that group is a family, a culture, or a religion. The experience of alienation...
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, in its continuously dissected and heavily studied narrative, details a transformation from man to creature but hides the true meaning of what it means to change form, both in mind and body. From the onset, it is made clear that something...
Some of the most appealing stories to read are those of magical realism. It adds a fantastical sense, to an otherwise regular story. It gives the story that flare needed to put it aside from others. It also can provide a deeper meaning, and the...
Choice is inescapable and inevitable to all who exist or have ever existed. When meeting a fork in the road, a decision is always made, even if no action is taken. Utterly paradoxical, even the act of no decision at all is stepping in one...
One thing that Shusaku Endo’s Silence and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis have in common is the aftertaste they leave in the reader’s intellectual palate. Unlike most authors, Endo and Kafka refuse to oblige the readers with a satisfying happy ending, opting instead for a less...
Throughout the ages, the theme of impossible love in literature has prevailed. Impossible love is an overall broad theme; generally speaking, it is a love that is forbidden, unrequired, or unable to flourish. Somewhere between 29 and 19 B.C. the legendary Roman author Virgil wrote...
There is something about donning on a uniform that makes a man feel invincible and demand the respect of those around him. When times are tough, people tend to look towards the uniformed man for guidance and to help pull them through a difficult situation....
In Metamorphoses, Ovid attempts the great task of recounting the history of the world, from its creation to the death of Julius Caesar. However, Ovid’s work is not solely an encyclopaedia of mythology; it is also the source of much standard figurative language. Similarly, Dante...
At the end of the Metamorphoses, Ovid boldly states “I will be borne, /The finer part of me, above the stars, /Immortal, and my name shall never die” (XV. 877-78). For Ovid, metamorphosis is a path to eternity and the preservation of time. Characters no...
Classical Poetry, Daphne, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Julius Caesar, La Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea, Luis de Góngora, Metamorphoses, Natural environment, Natural World, Nature
During the twentieth century, life in Europe changed drastically, due to the multitude of events and changes that crowded this century. From the wars to the effects of the Industrial revolution, the lives of Europeans were constantly changing, with the priorities and views of society...
Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a work about transience, and perhaps no two things in the natural world are more fleeting than life and beauty. Artists aim to preserve these two qualities in their work by simultaneously imitating the natural world to give the appearance of life...
In Franz Kafka’s stories “The Metamorphosis”, “In The Penal Colony”, and “The Fasting-Artist”, the protagonists, Gregor Samsa, the officer, and the fasting-artist, each make apparent sacrifices. These characters give their lives for others, but their deeds are unacknowledged by those they should benefit, who neither...
In Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, there are a great many instances that link love and war, thus creating a disconcerting antithetical comparison prominent throughout the canon of literature. In particular, this theme can be seen in and around the region of Thrace: home to a “primitive, warlike,...
Naguib Mahfouz and Franz Kafka both use setting as an important literary feature in their respective works, Midaq Alley and The Metamorphosis. Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley takes place in the back streets of Cairo, Egypt during the Second World War, specifically in Midaq Alley. The alley...
In Book X of The Metamorphoses, Ovid recounts the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It is the well-known story of a Thracian poet, Orpheus, who travels into the underworld seeking return of his new bride, Eurydice, who had been bitten by a serpent and...
Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition. His tyrannical father forces him to hide in his bedroom, and, after his father throws an apple at him, Gregor slowly dies from both his family’s neglect and his own guilty despair.
Theme
Themes in The Metamorphosis include a sudden, unexpected transformation, family duty, responsibility, and alienation, etc. Franz Kafka has shown a surrealistic transformation in an individual and its impacts on the relationships.
Characters
Gregor Samsa, Grete Samsa, Mr Samsa, Mrs Samsa, The Charwoman
Interpretations
Like most of Kafka's works, Metamorphosis tends to be given a religious or psychological interpretation by most of its interpreters. It has been particularly common to read the story as an expression of Kafka's father complex, as was first done by Charles Neider in his The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka (1948). Besides the psychological approach, interpretations focusing on sociological aspects, which see the Samsa family as a portrayal of general social circumstances, have also gained a large following.
Quotes
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
“Calm — indeed the calmest — reflection might be better than the most confused decisions”
“I only fear danger where I want to fear it.”
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