Written by Franz Kafka (1883–1924), The Metamorphsis, classic novel explores the harsh and excruciating themes of seclusion, alienation, solitude, psychology, and the tragic truth of humanity with the symbolism of metaphorical aspects of literature.
The story begins when the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, one early morning, awakens to find he has transformed into a vermin. Normally, it would have been a shocking experience; a human transfiguring into an insect is not a normal event; in fact, it is a rare and unusual event.
But for our protagonist, it is not a shocking factor. Rather than a surprising and bewildering experience, for him, it turns out to be a distressing experience. The weather was dreary and rainy, which foreshadows the desolation of his life. But after all these events, all his concern is being late for his occupation.
The character Gregor Samsa
Gregor is fatigued; he yearns to sleep, but now, due to his distorted body, which makes it intolerable, he is unable to rest like he desires. Due to his present state, no matter how much he attempted to fix his posture, all his efforts were futile, and he ended up coming back to the same uneasy position; and after several attempts, he stopped due to the sting of a dull ache that he had never felt before.
This whole scenario gives us the vision of Gregor’s psychological state. Despite such a drastic metamorphosis of his physical body, all he is concerned about is his occupation and family. He fears being late to work will lead him to be dismissed and he would not be able to provide for his family anymore.
This shows how much Gregor prioritised his family that he had completely effaced himself. Furthermore, this also implies how, despite the physical transformation coming much later, his mentality had started to deteriorate way earlier, that he ended up forgetting his own self, and his own identity for the sake of providing as a breadwinner for his family.
The scene where he struggles to sleep due to the cumbersome body of a vermin and while trying to fix it, ends up giving him more agony, showcases that when a person is too exhausted to deal with the pressure and monotony of their surroundings, they want to rest and escape it but no matter how much they try, all effort goes in vain.
To actually get a proper rest, bringing change in the habit is essential, but in the process of change, torment takes place as well, and in the end, the painful experience tends to prevail, leading to the same lonely, weary person he was who can not afford to rest no matter how much he desires to.
Due to his regular life where he had already lost his individual self and was just working for others regardless of his own sentiments, he has metamorphosed into an insect and that transformation gave him immense torment and no matter what efforts are put to fix it, the escape seems unattainable.
The transformation
Gregor talks about his miserable and frustrated life as a traveling salesman employee and how he is so discontented but he is doing all the strenuous work for the sake of his family, to give them a comfortable life and to pay off their debt.
But were his sacrifices actually esteemed? Were his efforts for his family genuinely recognised?
It often happens in real life as well.
How many times have we, as individuals, sacrificed our physical and mental well-being, not bothered to look at ourselves, and just focused on working for the sake of others, led to getting trapped in the abyss of seclusion and loneliness?
And no matter how much you need to, you neglect your own dilemma for the sake of fixing the outer world, and perhaps, that world does not even acknowledge what you do for it.
When his metamorphosis is revealed, his employer, who came to visit and ask why he did not come for work, flees out of dread. His family, in utter shock, initially shows concern; his mother and sister, the women, cry helplessly. His father, still in a state of denial, drives him back forcefully into his room, injuring Gregor, and he is ruthlessly shoved inside the room, showing us how with his physical metamorphosis, the family also started perceiving him as a mere insect whose agony could not be seen.
It has been days since the event. Gregor lives in his room secluded; his sister, Grete, provides him with decayed leftovers and cleans his room out of “having to do it” instead of a genuine concern and thought of doing it. Due to the fear of his family, whenever someone enters his room, Gregor conceals himself under the couch in order not to be seen.
The tragic metamorphosis
He did not want his family to feel any sense of discomfort due to his tragic metamorphosis. He also sits near the door, listens to his family conversations, as now since the ultimate breadwinner of the family is not capable of providing anymore, his family needs to labour for survival, which gives a sense of revulsion and disappointment to Gregor for himself, for not being able to provide for them and viewing his old parents toil at that age.
As days progress, Gregor also becomes accustomed to his insect body and now he starts climbing on the walls and crawling around in his insect body, which leads his sister and mother to decide to remove the furniture in his room to provide him space to crawl around.
Gregor sticks himself on the wall, protecting a photo frame of a woman in fur to avoid it being taken away, perhaps due to the fear that if everything in his room is taken away then it might result in his own humanity being stripped from him.
The scene leads to his mother, viewing his insect form on the wall, fainting out of terror, and later as his father enters the scene, assuming that his son harmed the mother, starts mercilessly throwing apples at him.
As Gregor tries to scoot back into his room, during the process, an apple gets lodged in his back flesh, leading to an infection in his body, making him permanently injured and agonising to move. This whole scenario shows us the grim reality of humanity: that once when we are not able to provide value to society, once we turn immobile and can not give anything to society, then even our own ones would not hesitate to hurl the painful stones of abandonment at us. That is the ultimate truth humanity holds: selfishness.
One day, a few tenants, who lived in rent, visited the house, and that day, his sister, Grete, played violin for the guests to make the overall environment a bit lively and melodious. Despite the immense effort of his sister, no one there appreciated or showed any interest in her performance. Gregor looked at the whole scenario from afar; he knew how passionate his sister was for music; during Christmas, he wanted to surprise her with a scholarship letter for her from a renowned music school.
He despised to see how no one was appreciating his sister’s performance and he wanted her to feel the value of her passion. So slowly, with his debilitated body, he crawled near her, in hopes of showing appreciation, but rather ends up frightening the tenants away and then gets warned by them that they will leave the place without paying anything due to the family concealing the reality of Gregor from them, and now the whole family falls into an uneasy silence.
And then his sister finally speaks the most brutal words which he could have imagined hearing from her. Grete cries helplessly and asks her family, “I don’t want to call this monster my brother, we can’t endure it anymore and we need to get rid of it.” Grete, who was supposed to be the kindest to him, ends up being the cruelest. His father helplessly says, “If he could understand us,” when in fact he actually did understand them, but sadly it iss them who failed to understand him.
His sister further claimed that he wanted to drive them away from the house and harm them, when in fact he just wanted to be regarded as a human despite his physical metamorphosis into a bug; he did not want to terrify anyone, but sadly, for his family, he was a horrifying insect creature who could no longer be human. In this moment, Gregor did not lose his humanity; his family did by disregarding his human values. Now once he was not useful for them anymore, once he was not providing for them anymore, he became a burden, a pathetic creature.
That night, after being acknowledged as a burden, after enduring all the physical abuse from them, after feeling the sense of nothingness, Gregor perishes. Once his death is revealed, no one shows any grief. The grief of his death was not there; rather, all of them were relieved.
For his family, it was not the son who passed away; it was a useless and burdensome monster who finally was gone away from their life. Later after his death, they also relocate out of the apartment to somewhere more of a countryside, much healthier and happier, indicating Gregor had long gone away when he metamorphosed into a vermin, and the death of him was a mere liberation and escape for his family.
