Reflection on Kafka's Metamorphosis: How would the world be, if one day our brother would become an insect? Grete Suggests to us: hopefully not too different. (original) (raw)
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MAN'S SUFFERING IN KAFKA'S METAMORPHOSIS
REJLAL, 2022
The present document takes into account the human dilemma in modern society, this dilemma leads to desolation and dejection in the life of a person who is dedicated to feeding, protecting, and providing for his family. The situation in man's life comes when he fails to earn and provide and is considered useless. Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis was the only breadwinner for his sister, mother, and father. He worked as a travelling salesman, who was content with his earnings. Franz Kafka shows the very staunch reality of Gregor when he wakes one day as transformed into an insect, unable to move, eat and go outside, he fails to bring bread or earn for his family, which eventually leads them into poverty as well as shame due to his appearance. Gregor becomes useless and a liability to his family, which forced him to commit suicide. Kafka moulded a story that shows how our society works for a man who doesn't earn and provide. Gregor's life becomes much more miserable due to his family's attitude toward him.
Shame and Alienation in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
Poetika, 2017
This article explores Sartre’s concept of shame and alienation in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis through the portrayal of the protagonist. By focusing on the interpretation of the characteristics of Gregor Samsa through New Criticism approach, this article reveals that shame and alienation may occur when a person realizes that one is judged by others and sees oneself through the eyes of others. This way of looking at one’s identity is problematic because it creates complexity within the existence of the self. Through his fantastical transformation into an insect, Gregor cannot help but seeing himself from his family’s point of view. Instead of fighting for himself, he is made to believe that he deserves to be alienated. From the analysis of the protagonist, it is revealed that his being selfess and dutiful in a way trigger the shame and alienation that result in his submission to death. Keywords: alienation, Kafka, Sartre, shame
The Tragedy of Modern Individual in Society: A Kafkaesque View
“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” Franz Kafka opens his novella The Metamorphosis with this powerful phrase and presents implicitly the deepest problems of being an individual in modern life, from the perspective of an insect which is the protagonist of the tale. The most significant appearance of an person in the crowd is the fact of belonging to society including social forces, culture, historical heritage and technical developments makes someone a part of the herd. And society is something more than merely the sum of individuals who composed it. It has a different power on an individual more than a quantitative majority which then becomes a pressure. Gregor Samsa works as a salesman who sacrifices himself to his family’s livelihood. He is never recognized by his family and expected to support them without considering his personal needs. Kafka uses Gregor's family to show how inhumane society can be. He can not accept this transformation that happens suddenly without his demand, but his parents can do after a while. However he can’t look from the same point of view to his work, parents and life any longer with the isolation. The Metamorphosis tells the tragedy of an individual in society under the appearance of the relationship of family members. It shows the fact that we establish slave and master relations with each other in society. So it has to be interpreted as the rebellion and alienation of a human being who becomes free with the transformation. Gregor the insect is no longer a part of the herd nor the server of social roles. Metamorphosis is nothing but a symbol. Kafka uses it to attract people’s attention to the problem of alienation which happens unnoticeably every day to millions of people. The most important fact is the alienation doesn’t start after Gregor has turned into insect. Metamorphosis only shapes out the problems, which have existed before. Alienation from the society and other people is merely a part of the problem. But alienation of an individual from himself is the most serious problem. Gregor is an instance of people who lose their identity in the chase for money, popularity, and wish to correspond to the expectations of others that cause omission of the meaning of existence. So the “metamorphosis” is as a reaction against bourgeois society and being imprisoned by its social and economical demands.
Gregor Samsa’s Self Alienation in Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis: Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Humanitatis : Journal of Language and Literature
This research is focused on Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory, which is described in the main character in Franz Kafka's novel The Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa is the main character of The Metamorphosis. Gregor was a traveling salesman who was the Samsa family's sole son and earner. He mysteriously transforms into a massive bug, causing him to be estranged from his family. The author finds out why Gregor’s family members do not care about him and can't perceive him as a complicated human being with his own needs. As a result, Gregor has been estranged from his family and himself. The author argues that Gregor has another alienation from his physical reality after the transformation. His family views him as a terrifying, unpleasant monster, as seen by their fear of his existence and their decision to get rid of him. Gregor, who suffers from humiliation, views himself in the same light. He and his family unwittingly reject Gregor's potential as an individual, ma...
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis –Veracity of Life Consciousness, and Existence
International Journal of Trends in English Language and Literature, 2021
Franz Kafka in his novella 'The Metamorphosis' uses literary techniques like expressionism and Absurdism to investigate the meaning of consciousness and human existence between absurd ethics of socioeconomic settings. The protagonist of the story Gregor Samsa's transfiguration into a huge Bug, unveils his depressed mind, he struggles, accepts, and succumbs to the absurd transformation. Gregor becomes a symbol in Kafka's novella in which he shows the world where he leads an insecure, ignored, isolated, and criticized life solely bearing his oppression.
Ars Artium, Vol. 7, 2019
Franz Kafka died at a relatively young age of forty but in his young writing career, his works exemplify the strange nature of the human spirit. It is difficult to pin down Kafka; whether he is a realist writer or a fantasist. His The Metamorphosis takes the most fantastic assumption of transforming a human being into a giant bug and then taking the thematic and the textual discourse in the most ordinary, casual and realistic manner. The text doesn't fail to depict the futile, horrifying and labyrinthine world of the first half of the 20 th century. Mostly read as an allegorical text, The Metamorphosis in this paper, would be analyzed as not being just an allegory but also as a text that can be read as an anti-realist text. The protagonist, Gregor Samsa is actually the anti-hero of the text. He transforms overnight from being a family provider to being a family secret. The paper would highlight the various levels of "metamorphosis" that take place, not just of Gregor but also of his family members as they too change by the transformation of Gregor Samsa.
Incapacity of the Moment: An Analysis of Inability and Transformation in Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is too long to be a short story and again shorter for a novel. Like the form of novella, the story also dwindles between choices: whether to accept the transformed life or to keep on living the same life that Gregor can no longer stand a moment. The novella is a process – a transformation along with its many problems and the incapacity of actually going for what is needed the most. The need perhaps is very ambiguous, considering the need of Gregor’s family and the need of Gregor’s, something which he only realized but could not have the means to fulfil.
A Study of Kafka's the Metamorphosis in the Light of Freudian Psychological Theory
2013
The aim of this manuscript is to consider Kafka’s The Metamorphosis in the light of Freudian psychological theories. Specifically, The Metamorphosis will be seen as Kafka’s own autobiography. The Metamorphosis is the dramatization of Gregor’s inner world, the world which is depicted by Kafka is the world of unconscious. Freud defined the unconscious as a world in which our suppressed wills, feelings, horrors, drives and conflicts are hold. Why Gregor transferred in to a big insect? Why he was killed by his father? Why he knows himself responsible for family financial problem? This paper aims to answer all these questions.
This study of Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" reveals how the notion of transformation is of great importance to the foundation of modern literature. Transformation works as the key that opens the myriads doors presenting the opportunity to become well acquainted with the author's personality, his struggles, his experiences, and the tangled web of his self-conscious mind. This is done through examining his creationalso known as, the protagonist of the novella: Gregor Samsa; and how he is in fact influenced by these factors that are devouring Kafka himself. In turn, the transformation of Gregor Samsa into a verminous bug is rendered incomplete echoing that true metamorphosis begins on the inside.