Grete's Transformation in The Metamorphosis by Kafka

Kafka wrote "The Metamorphosis" in 1912, taking three weeks to compose the

story. While he had expressed earlier satisfaction with the work, he later found it to be flawed, even calling the ending "unreadable." Whatever his own opinion may have been, the short story has become one of the most popularly read and analyzed works of twentieth-century literature. Isolation and alienation are at the heart of this surreal story of a man transformed overnight into a kind of beetle. In contrast to much of Kafka's fiction, "The Metamorphosis" has not a sense of incompleteness. It is formally structured

into three Roman-numbered parts, with each section having its own climax. A number of themes run through the story, but at the center are the family relationships affected by the great change in the story's protagonist, Gregor Samsa. Grete,Gregor’s sister, undergoes a transformation parallel to her brother’s.

The relationship between Gregor and his sister Grete is perhaps the most unique. It is Grete, after all, with whom the metamorphosed Gregor has any rapport, suggesting the Kafka intended to lend at least some significance to their relationship. Grete's significance is found in her changing relationship with her brother. It is Grete's changing actions, feelings, and speech toward her brother, coupled with her accession to womanhood that seems to parallel Gregor's own metamorphosis. This change represents her metamorphosis from adolescence into adulthood but at the same time it marks the final demise of Gregor. Thus, certain symmetry is to be found in "The Metamorphosis." While Gregor falls in the midst of despair, Grete ascends to a self-sufficient, sexual

woman.

It is Grete who initially tries conscientiously to d...

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... express lost human reality better than dreams do of animal satisfactions (Thiher 44). Grete Samsa's changing actions, feelings, and speech toward her brother, coupled with her accession to womanhood, parallel Gregor's own metamorphosis.

Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. “The Metamorphosis.” Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publications, 1988.

Nabokov, Vladimir. Lectures on Literature. Orlando: Harcourt Inc., 1980.

Ryan, Michael P. “Samsa and Samsara: Suffering, Death, and Rebirth in ‘The

Metamorphosis.’” The German Quarterly 72. No.2. 1999. Literature Resource

Center. Gale Group Databases. Davis Schwartz Memorial Lib., Brookville, NY.

5 Dec.2006. .

Thiher, Allen. Fiction Refracts Science: Modernist Writers From Proust to Borges.

Columbia University of Missouri Press, 2005.