The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka
FRANZ KAFKA
1883 1924
Born in Prague
German, Czech and
Jewish heritage
Father Hermann Kafka
Mother Julie Lowy
Eldest of six children
Kafka dies of tuberculosis.
His literary works are
considered some of the
finest of the 20th century.
 Kafkas Alienation
Felt he was an outsider
Jewish in Catholic Prague
Sickly
Lonely

Perceived human beings as being trapped by

authority in a hopeless world
Became frustrated at having to support his family
Had to work in a meaningless bureaucratic job
where he was just another pencil pusher
Took time away from his writing
Kafka at Home

Kafka lived at home with his family for virtually

his whole life.

He finally moved out a year before his death,

following Dora Diamont to Berlin to pursue her
hand in marriage. Her father rejected him
(ouch).
He quickly had to move home again due to his
deteriorating health, which he found
humiliating.
 Biography
Suffered from a number of ailments
Tuberculosis

clinical depression
social anxiety disorder
Migraines

Insomnia

other stress-related disorders.

His
tuberculosis worsened, requiring his
committal to a sanitarium in Vienna.
 Biography
At the sanitarium, his
tuberculosis worsened to
the point where he could
not eat due to the pain.
He is believed to have
died of starvation on
June 3, 1924.
His fate, ironically,
mirrors that of Gregor
and his protagonist in
The Hunger Artist.
 Yes, Kafka was afraid of his father. In a
letter of almost 100 pages, Kafka delineates
the following points; however, his father
never read the letter.
{You raised me} with vigor, noise
and a hot temper.
As a father you have been too
strong for meand for that I was
much too weak.
This feeling of being nothing that
often dominates me comes largely
from your influence. I am afraid of you.
You really only encourage me in
anything when you yourself are
involved in it.
I was weighed down by your mere
physical presenceI was skinny,
weakly, slight; you strong, tall,
broadI felt a miserable specimen.
 From your armchair you ruled the world.
Your opinion was correct, every other was mad.
For me you took on the enigmatic quality that all tyrants have
whose rights are based on their person and not on reason.
What was always incomprehensible to me was your total lack
of feeling for the suffering and shame you could inflict on me with
your words and judgments.
it is fundamentally impossible for you to talk calmly about a
subject you dont approve of or even one that was not suggested
by you; your imperious temperament does not permit it.
I became completely dumb, cringed away from you, hid from
you
Your extremely effective rhetorical methodswere abuse,
threats, irony, spiteful laughter and self-pity.
You have always reproached me (either alone or in front of
others since you have no feeling for the humiliation of the latter,
and your childrens affairs were always public).
 Between us there was no real struggle; I was soon finished
off; what remained was flight, embitterment, melancholy, and
inner struggle.
{You} turned in me to mistrust of myself and perpetual
anxiety about everything else.
You struck closer to home with your aversion to my writing.
Your method of upbringing {instilled in me} weakness, the
lack of self-confidence, the sense of guilt
It is the general pressure of anxiety, of weakness, of self-
contempt.
In my writing I have made some attempts at independence,
attempts at escapeI must choose the nothing.
And there is the combat of vermin, which not only sting but
suck your blood in order to sustain their own lifeand thats
what you are.

Do you note any parallels between these

quotes and Gregors relationship with his
father?
 The life
which is
unexamined
is not worth
living.
Socrates

Did Gregor Samsa

examine his life?
Historical Context
Metamorphosis was Literary Period
published in 1915. Modernism

History: WWI - Rejection of tradition

Beginnings of stream-of- - -Importance of

consciousness, and individual and working
interior monologue ( as man
seen in Gregor).
- - Economics of war and
rebuilding
Modern Alienation: Fragmentation

The city
Dehumanization

Modern means of production

division of labor
Sense of worthlessness
Acceleration of life and travel
Mechanization

Class stratification
Kafkas Words

Regarding Life:
I am separated from all things
by a hollow space, and I do not
even reach to its boundaries.

Regarding Metamorphosis:
It would have turned out much
better if I had not been
interrupted at the time by a
business trip.
 Franz Kafka depicts the separation and

alienation of modern man.

Kafka delineates a distorted worldone
of anxiety and bitterness.
This disturbing world is reflected in the
various novel covers shown below.
Grotesque or Black Humor

Characterized by the ludicrous or the incongruous

Characterized by distortion and is bizarre and
outlandish
Characterized by absurdity
An aspect of the Theatre of the Absurd
Uses sardonically humorous effects that deal with
anxiety, suffering or death
Tone is often one of resignation, anger or
bitterness.
Style
Translations of Kafkas
work can be difficult due to
an syntactical idiosyncrasy
of the German language;
the sentences will often
span paragraphs, even
pages, delivering the
impact at the end of the
sentence.
The first sentence of The
Metamorphosis is an
example of this difficulty.
In addition, he frequently
uses diction that, in the
original German, has
multiple meanings,
allowing for the layering of
meaning within a
sentence. These layers
can be lost in English.
Style
Has influenced many notable
authors and artists, including
Kafkas work is also Vladimir Nabokov
considered: Gabriel Marquez
Modernist
Jorge Borges
Absurdist Haruki Murakami
a precursor for the Jhonen Vasquez
style magical realism. David Lynch.

Kafkaesque: characterized by nightmarish

narration and characters who lack a clear
course of action, the ability to see beyond
immediate events, and the possibility of
escape.
 Form: Parable
a parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature
or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or
strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt
about its precise application to tease it into active
thought."(C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom,
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961, p. 5)

Neutral, detached point of view from which to

examine human behavior
Conveys truth in a less offensive, more
engaging form
Appeals to the understanding, the emotions,
and the imagination
Parable: The Complexity of Life
Themeaning of most parables is not so
obvious, or at least it shouldn't be.
Most parables contain some element
that is strange or unusual.
Parablesdo not define things precisely
but, rather, use comparisons.
Takesthe familiar and applies it to the
unfamiliar
Makes the unfamiliar more comprehensible
 Is
Gregor
a
beetle?
 Is Gregor
experiencin
g a mental
breakdown?
Main Themes to Consider

Economic effects on human

relationships
Family duty
Alienation
Freedom and Escapism
Personal identity
Guilt
Confinement
 Actor Tim Roth portrays
Gregor Samsa in the 1987
movie Metamorphosis.
Physically, he remains
human, but what is
transpiring in his
convoluted mind?
Tim Roth in the 1987
movie
Tim Roth
Tim Roth
Tim
Roth
 WHAT QUESTIONS DOES THIS
DISTURBING NOVELLA ADDRESS?
Is this only a psychological transformation of
the mind?
Is this an actual physical transformation?
Is this an inner struggle that has manifested
itself in both a
physical and psychological change?
 Gregor vacillates between two spheres: rationality and
irrationality.
Why does Gregor appear to take the transformation with
equanimity?
How would you react if you could not awaken from a
nightmare?
When we transform, do we lose our original identity?
In his morphing, what has Gregor escaped from?
Is the beetle Gregors innermost self? Is it time for this
self to confront Gregor?
Is the metamorphosis a rejection of all responsibility?
Is this a story of anxiety?
Is this story humorously disturbing?
How does guilt permeate the novella?
Is it pointless to attempt to analyze this novella?