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Absurdity in Kafkas The Metamorphosis

This title is in the reference of the novella The Metamorphosis (Die
Verwandlung) by Franz Kafka (first published in 1915).
Absurdity is defined as something odd and irrational especially when that something
is taken into the contrast of reality of life. Absurdity in literature is a part of the movement
called absurdism and is not to be taken seriously. Absurdity in life of the characters in
absurdist literature lacks the natural meaning of life.
One day Gregor Samsa woke up to find himself turned into a monstrous insect. And
thus begins the story of the Samsa family. Wrapped in a very descriptive narration of Gregor
Samsa as an insect and his family adjusting to their new lives, Kafka wove a tale that seem
absurd and surrealistic in nature but is soberly realistic. It is the tragedy of Gregor Samsa in
which everyone else lives happily ever after.
The structure of this novella is a very unique than the standard structure of exposition,
complication, climax, and unravelling as Kafka begins with the climax in the first sentence
and everything after that is unravelling. The first sentence by Kafka leads the reader into
thinking that this is a fantasy, fairy tale, or science fiction, but after that first sentence, the
narrator treats Gregors transformation into an insect in the most literal way possible, forcing
the reader to give the story a more or less Realist reading. One of the most bizarre thing to see
in this novella is that the Gregors family is more annoyed than surprised or horrified at his
sudden transformation.
Kafka also makes it difficult for readers to give the story an allegorical or metaphoric
reading or to read it as parable by the reality of his narration. Any critical reader, after reading

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the first line will immediately try to interpret the story in a metaphoric way and conclude that
perhaps modern man has become an insect.

Literary review
The story has been read as part of the movement called Expressionism which tries to
describe the way we experience the world, not what it looks like in a representational way. In
an Expressionist way, perhaps Kafka is showing what it feels like to be human in the 20th
century. Marxist critics have read the story as a metaphor for human beings who are alienated
and deformed by mechanical work processes. Gregors metamorphosiswhether deliberate
or notallows him to escape from an inhuman way of life. Some critics interpret this novella
and simply read that Gregors awful work situation has already turned him into an insect; the
metamorphosis merely makes outward what was already true on the inside.
As the relationship between Kafka and his father is not on good terms, freudian and
psychoanalytic critics see the story as primarily about the relationship between father and
son.
Norman N Holland in his essay Kafkas Metamorphosis in Modern Fiction Studies
wrote that Kafka mixes unrealism into realism. And he described the genre of the novella as
allegory, surrealism and symbolism.
Robbie Batson in his essay Reality through Symbolism wrote that the unusual story
makes the genre itself unusual.

Research Problem

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Like a caterpillars transformation into a butterfly is a positive transformation and a

mortals transformation into corpse is a negative transformation, then, what is the nature of
Gregor and his familys transformation in Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis.

Research Objective
To analyse the transformation of Gregor Samsa and his family in Franz Kafkas The
Metamorphosis

Work Cited
The Teaching Company lecture series The History of World Literature- lecture no.
38

Kafkas The Metamorphosis.

www.kafka.org
www.enotes.com
litmed.med.nyu.edu