Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Metamorphosis franz kafka analysis
Metamorphosis franz kafka analysis
Kafka's metamorphosis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Metamorphosis franz kafka analysis
I. Introduction
Starting from the late 19th to early 20th century, modernist writing has become widely spread as a way for people to express ideas and feelings that are written in a more isolationist form. The modernist literary movement was driven by the desire to transform writing from the classic views of the time period and begin to express the newly developed emotions that were going on at the time. Both The Guest by Albert Camus and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, are two modernist texts that strongly exhibit the feelings of emotional isolation and alienation throughout each book. In each story, the protagonist undergoes a sense of desolation, and although both characters experience the same sense of remoteness, each are isolated in different ways.
II. Contrasting Similarities and Differences
A. Both protagonists are in a setting of isolation
1. Gregor
a. Gregor does not feel accepted by society so when his family thinks he’s been hurt and want to help him, he sees it as a new found acceptance back into society/humanity
b. Quote about Gregors “acceptance.”“They were now believing that there was something wrong with him and they were ready to help...He felt that he was once more drawn into the circle of humanity and hoped for magnificent and surprising achievements.” (19)
c. Gregor feels that he has gain acceptance into humanity once again because his family had thought there was something wrong with him
i. He is only accepted if they are concerned for him, otherwise he is an outsider
2. Daru
a. Daru feels that neither him or his guest really belong anywhere
b. Quote about Darus place. “No one in this desert, neither he nor his guest, mattered. And yet, outside this desert neither of them, Daru knew, cou...
... middle of paper ...
...he Metamorphosis are similar in the ways that each character feels isolated emotionally as well as physically. Both protagonists felt a sense of solitude when it came to their location, Gregor’s apartment and the desert Daru resides in, and and although Daru was comforted by his desolation in the beginning of the story, later on he had realized how alone he was and truly felt isolated. Emotionally, Gregor was cut off from his family. While Gregor had become a burden for his family to take care of and had been locked in his room and left to die, Daru’s mental isolation had been inflicted due to his realization that no one understood him or his morals, and that he could not be accepted into society because of this. Both stories play on the idea of alienation within a society and the emotional tolls each character experiences because of it, leading to their downfall.
future of Gregor and his family depended on it (p.84). For so long he wanted
Gregor, who works tirelessly to keep his family comfortable, is willing to sacrifice everything, including his life for his loved ones. Unfortunately, this noble quality is taken advantage of by his family, who are unwilling to match the sacrifices he made. When applied to society, this unappreciative family can be likened to the increasingly faced past, industrialized, capitalist world. Those who are willing to sacrifice are often taken advantage of by the greedy and selfish. In Gregor Samsa’s case, he gave up all he had for those who viewed him through a lens of
... indifference and loss of love finally kills him. Gregor is our heart-breaking narrator of the story whose never-ending tenderness and love makes you ache to hold on to your own sense of human decency and moral characteristics and cling to the purity in life.
...s well. Gregor never asked for anything but you would think that because of everything he sacrificed his family would look at him in a different way. Their lack of interest in him played a crucial part in his transformation as well. “This metamorphosis serves as a reminder of the complacency of Gregor as an assumption of self-punishment for the unrequited love of his family." (Naz 7)
" It hardly surprised him. that he was showing so little consideration for the others. consideration had been his greatest pride. " Everyone in the Samsa family experiences changes brought on by Gregor's a metamorphosis of the.
First and foremost Gregor was betrayed by his own parents who failed to care for him after his transformation. The initial reaction of the parents, especially his father, set the tone for the whole novel. Instead of trying to resolve the issue with a reasonable solution, his father physically abuses him, “when from behind, his father gave him a hard
This simple acceptance highlights, in my opinion, the oppression that society and bourgeois life make on Gregor. His work as a traveling salesman, repetitive and tiring, is the source of sustenance for the whole family, a circumstance which
The predicament of Gregor goes far beyond the standards of the specific society he is in however. His problem is universal and, although in different societies it may have been h...
“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself” (Kafka). The period from the late 19th century to early 20th century saw the emergence of authors focused on denouncing the meaning of life. This group of authors would soon compose the Lost Generation, individuals who lost their childhood to war efforts. Inspiring writers of the Lost Generation, Franz Kafka, wrote the short story Metamorphosis. The piece, published in 1915, mirrors the absurdity of life during and following the Great War. Kafka achieves this absurdity through the juxtaposition of a dubious event amid the mundane tasks of reality. Similarly, the works of T.S. Eliot foreshadowed the disillusionment that would span an entire generation. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Eliot writes of the loneliness experienced by J. Alfred Prufrock in his search for companionship. An aging, bald man, Prufock, conveys his story in a dramatic monologue. He lives a
Gregors families react in a different way, instead of looking for help they feel ashamed and
Gregor’s self esteem went down, when his family was afraid of him. He didn’t know how to move, and he was afraid to for anyone to see him. “The thing he wanted to do was to get up in peace without being disturbed,to get dressed, and most of all to have his breakfast.” Although if I turned into a bug I wouldn’t want anyone to see
Gregor’s life slowly turned from hopeful and optimistic to hopeless and negative. His metamorphosis made
Hence, after his unexpected transformation, the family’s financial situation, as well as the parents and sister themselves, change drastically; what were once three people who used to depend on Gregor for every single penny now find themselves all working to sustain themselves. By the same token, it can be seen that Gregor, in a way, depends heavily on the family himself; this dependence can be seen in his need to be their caretaker, an identity he then loses in his transformation. In the time that follows Gregor’s identity loss, he deteriorates, and eventually dies, due to his inability to form an identity shaped to benefit his now self-sufficient family. It is thus by this sort of “identity dependence” aspect of Gregor that ultimately leads to his downfall as caretaker and his family’s ascension into self-sufficiency. This notion is better expressed in Inez Martinez’s article on unconsciousness and survival in The Metamorphosis, who says, “Gregor is a portrait of a human so invincibly unconscious that even if an unconscious identity is revealed to him through a literalized transformation, he continues to garner his sense of who he is from without rather than from within.” A safe assumption, then, may be that Gregor has been experiencing an existential crisis in the entirety of
Franz Kafka, an exceptional writer of the 20th century, is the creator of many controversial pieces of literature, which still cause a great deal of debate between scholars in this modern day and age. His collection of works feature many elaborate themes such as labyrinths of bureaucracy, physical and psychological brutality, parent-child conflict and mystical transformations. Yet it is his theme of the limits of sympathy in his 1915 novella, The Metamorphosis, which is arguably his best work. It is Kafka’s extensive use of symbolism that not only vividly illustrates this argument, but also allows readers to understand and appreciate the work as a whole. Kafka thus uses Gregorꞌs monstrous appearance, the removal of his furniture and the shifting attitudes of Grete to portray this critical idea: even sympathy between a given individual and their family has its restrictions.
We as readers will never know the true reason behind Kafka’s Metamorphosis, but it is a masterpiece. It relates surprisingly well to today’s society, even though it was written between 1912 and 1915. The topic of metamorphosis is really universal, we as humans are constantly changing, growing and evolving. Works Cited Aldiss, Brian W. “Franz Kafka: Overview.” St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers.