The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka acts as a prolonged symbol of humans’ alienation in the present society. In this script, Gregor is the main actor, whose experiences reflect Kafka’s modern society’s detachment and separation from human interaction. The concepts of isolation and alienation are central to The Metamorphosis (Kafka et al., 2015). From the perspective of his family, Gregor’s physical state is transformed into some kind of a creature, depriving him of his humankind. Furthermore, his failure to connect with the outside world separates him even more (Kafka et al., 2015). This review will first go through Franz Kafka’s history, his relationship with Judaism, and his works, after which it will discuss Gregor’s life as demonstrated in The Metamorphosis.
In the Hungarian Empire, Prague was mainly composed of Catholics who spoke Czech. During his childhood, Kafka dismissed Judaism, but as he grew older, his passion for the religion grew, which was uncommon in contrast to other Catholic adherents in the area (Kafka et al., 2015). His backstory is extraordinary, but it is identical to Gregor’s in certain respects. Kafka saw his father’s failure to comprehend his body structure as a real problem and wrote several letters cruelly criticizing his father’s upbringing. Similar to Gregor in The Metamorphosis, Kafka and his family’s bond was not especially pleasant. His analysis of The Metamorphosis has had the most significant influence on his background. The feelings and situations that occur to Gregory likely are what Kafka expected to happen to himself because his relationship with his family was rather grim.
To present The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka takes on the fruitful task of displaying his masterpiece. He has demonstrated his crispness in his careful composition, gladly volunteering to have written a piece of work that has drawn numerous perpetual repercussions, causing devoted readers and writers to be puzzled. Provided that The Metamorphosis has suggested various explanations for its existence. Behind the manuscript’s authenticity, reading it firsthand depicts the expedition of Gregor Samsa, a journeying sales representative who soon realizes he has been transformed into a crawling creature (Kafka et al., 2015). The epic then progresses, revealing a spectacular and one of the weirdest storylines of an individual who has a similar interaction with his family and soon cherishes the authenticity of what life presents to him.
Moreover, Gregor remains largely impractical throughout the plot, while the rest of the family undergoes drastic transformations from reliant and uncompromising to independent and defiant, and then back to dependent and optimistic. By focusing on the family’s transition rather than Gregor’s, readers will see Kafka’s well-known tale in a mythological way. Most critics agree that The Metamorphosis depicts the human experience as one of mortality, separation, and instinct (Kafka et al., 2015). By focusing on the family, indeed, Kafka often expresses human nature as regeneration, perseverance, and renaissance.
Kafka’s old neighborhood, the desolate city of Prague, best suits the blame heaped on influential men. As a Jew who spoke German, he was never welcomed in that town, a predominantly Catholic and anti-Semitic city in the Czech Republic. In his texts, he declared that Prague was rather un-homelike, a land to recall, full of gloom, negligibility, shame, temptation, and misuse of authority. Kafka was compared to the town or the ‘little mother with hooks’ (Kafka et al., 2015). Even though he was a competent law student, he never practiced it. He worked as a public servant for an insurance company, a constricting job that his father constantly mocked, and even though he dated in many instances, he is never married.
One of Gregor’s first thoughts after waking up is about his career. Some researchers argue that Gregor’s reform is an unintended consequence (Kafka et al., 2015). His extraordinary frustration with his operation as a heading-out sales representative caused his shift, an unintentionally fabricated justification to escape his responsibilities. Before mentioning The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka was aware of Freud’s ventures and proposed them in his writings. The story’s psychoanalytical texts bear weight, but they tend to be about locating the changed homeland. The perfect reading of The Metamorphosis allows readers to compare Gregor and the modified beings in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This connection with a slew of tales about eccentric deities and their bizarre transformations highlights the exclusion of roots in Gregor’s transition. Existentialism may be covered by the lack of a “transformer” and significant excerpts (Kafka et al., 2015). Gregor, an independent thinker, converts himself into his reliable self amid an absurd and meaningless world of art. Gregor’s fate was sealed when he rejected his decision, which eventually landed him in his rightful place.
The patrons lose interest in the middle of the story when Gregor’s sister, Grete, performs the violin; regardless, Gregor is captivated by his sister’s musical sounds. His reaction to Grete playing the violin foreshadows the current story’s scenario on elegance and art in two ways. Notably, the story implies that beauty and art (the violin performance) can be experienced by any living being, whether a human or the creeping creature that Gregor turned into. For instance, when it comes to attractiveness and artistry, the violin tone and appearance make no difference (Kafka et al., 2015). Moreover, it can also mean that Gregory is pleased with the instrument’s sound. Notably, he had always required his sister to continue with her music and even helped take her to music school to study music.
Reference
Kafka, F., Bernofsky, S., & Anderson, M. (2015). The metamorphosis: A Norton critical edition. Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.