The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka

INTRODUCTION
The Metamorphosis is one of the most frequently analyzed works in literature. This elusive
story, which chronicles the transformation of Gregor Samsa from a human being into an
enormous insect, is renowned for its ability to inspire diverse, sometimes mutually exclusive
interpretations. For this reason The Metamorphosis has come to be considered one of the
central enigmas of the modern literary imagination. Nevertheless, critics generally praise
Kafka's powerful and symbolic portrayal of alienation achieved through the literalized
metaphor of man as insect.
Plot and Major Characters
The Metamorphosis opens as Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, awakes to find himself
transformed into a "monstrous vermin." Initially shocked by the change, Gregor soon begins
to worry that he will miss his train and be late for work. He also laments the boredom of his
job, employment to which he had resigned himself for as long as necessary to pay off his
parents' debts. From outside the room, Gregor's worried mother calls to him. Gregor,
unfamiliar with his new body, struggles to get out of bed. Later, the chief clerk of his office
appears outside the locked door to Gregor's room, inquiring why his employee has missed
the early train. Speaking through the door, Gregor claims that he is slightly ill but will soon
be on his way. Meanwhile, Gregor's concerned mother asks her daughter Grete to call for a
doctor and a locksmith. Finally Gregor manages to open his door. His appearance startles
the chief clerk, and although Gregor tries to reason with him, claiming he will get dressed
and be on his way to work, the clerk retreats from the giant insect, as does Gregor's
frightened mother. Gregor's father then appears and drives Gregor back into his room.
Time passes, and Gregor's family members grow more accustomed to living with Gregor in
this strange form, though only Grete has the courage to enter her brother's room in the
ensuing days. When Gregor leaves his room weeks later, his mother becomes distraught,
and her husband forces Gregor to his room under a hail of thrown apples. Gravely injured
and largely unable to move, Gregor suffers a lonely convalescence that lasts for more than
a month. In the interim Gregor's mother devotes herself to sewing while his sister takes a
job as a salesgirl. Increasingly, Gregor is neglected by his family. They hire a charwoman to
attend to the heavier work around the house, tasks that used to be performed by Gregor.
Odds and ends are placed in his room for storage, primarily to make space for three male
lodgers the Samsas have taken in to supplement

their income. One evening as Grete plays the violin for these men, Gregor is attracted by
the music and crawls unnoticed into the living room. Later, one of the boarders observes
him. Citing the revolting condition of the household, the lodgers threaten to give notice and
depart. Grete realizes that they must get rid of this giant bug, which she seems to no longer
view as her brother. The following morning, the charwoman enters Gregor's room and finds
him dead. When the lodgers appear and demand breakfast, Mr. Samsa orders them to
leave. Meanwhile, the giggling charwoman returns and explains that she has disposed of
Gregor's body. The story closes as Gregor's parents, newly optimistic for the future and
without a thought of their deceased son, comment on their daughter's vivacity and beauty,
realizing she has grown into a woman.
Major Themes
Thematic analysis of The Metamorphosis has tended to focus on the psychoanalytic and
symbolic, or allegorical, nature of the story. While evaluations of the narrative vary, many
commentators view the theme of alienation from humanity at the center of the story and
interpret Gregor's transformation as a kind of wish-fulfillment or as an extended metaphor.
Critics who perceive the metamorphosis as a form of wish-fulfillment on Gregor's part find in
the text clues indicating that he deeply resented having to support his family. Desiring to be
in turn nurtured by them, he becomes a parasite in entomological fact. The complete
dependence of Gregor's family and employer on him, then, is seen as an ironic foil to the
reality of Gregor's anatomical transformation into a parasite. Many critics who approach the
story in this way believe the primary emphasis of The Metamorphosis is not upon Gregor,
but on his family, as they abandon their dependence on him and learn to be self-sufficient.
One interpretation of the story holds that the title applies equally to Gregor's sister Grete:

she passes from girlhood to young womanhood during the course of the narrative. Another
view of Gregor's transformation is that it is an extended metaphor, carried from abstract
concept to concrete reality: trapped in a meaningless job and isolated from the human
beings around him, Gregor is thought of as an insect by himself and by others, so he
becomes one.
Critical Reception
Kafka's letters to his fiance Felice Bauer, and his diary entries concerning The
Metamorphosis, indicate that although he was generally satisfied with the tale, he felt the
ending was seriously flawed. For this he blamed a business trip that had interrupted him
just before he completed the story. However, critics have noted that The Metamorphosis is
one of the few works for which Kafka actively sought publication. Since Kafka's death,
critical interest in the novella has been considerable. In addition to the attention critics have
placed on thematic analysis of The Metamorphosis, several have observed its sustained
realism, which contrasts with the initially fantastic occurrence of Gregor's transformation
into an insect. Many critics have also offered psychoanalytical interpretations of The
Metamorphosis, seeing in the work a dramatization of particularly modern neuroses. For its
technical excellence, as well as for the nightmarish and fascinating nature of the
metamorphosis itself, Kafka's story has elicited a vast amount of interest, and its various
problematic features continue to challenge its readers. Stanley Corngold has noted that "no
single reading of Kafka escapes blindness," but that each new reading of his work
encourages the study of the vast body of criticism devoted to it.