Kafka's Humor

Kafka's Humor

In Franz Kafka's short fiction, "The Metamorphosis", the author was able to skillfully express deep emotions while keeping his readers interested throughout the story. Some may say that the story is sad and horrifying, yet Kafka creatively intertwined humor, which is many times quite ironic, into this seemingly sad story. This gives the reader the opportunity to view the situation from a different angle rather than just to focus on the horrific circumstances that Gregor Samsa, Kafka's protagonist, must go through in "The Metamorphosis." Margaret Church, a critic in contemporary studies explains, "with Kafka we are in the mind of Gregor and are forced to accept this world of Gregor and to recognize it as our own" (189). Kafka allows the reader to relate to Gregor, who is in the position of an outcast, and still be sympathetic towards him. Kafka also creates odd and ironic situations. Certain events that Kafka creates are rather comical because they reflect situations that we are familiar with. Ruth Tiefenbrun who has done research through psychological interpretations on Kafka's literary work says, "for Kafka everything he wrote had a unique, personal meaning"(6). I believe this story reflects Kafka's own life, which was rather dismal and may even seem almost horrifying from another person's point of view. It seems that this story reflects Kafka's troubled life, allowing the reader to see from his perspective through the unfortunate character, Gregor.

The story begins with Gregor waking up as an insect:

When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect. He was lying on his back, which was hard, as if planted in armor, and when he lifted ...

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... to see it as ironic and at times ridiculous. It might have been crucial for him to see life in this way since his situation was dismal and separated him from society in many ways. There is nothing hopeful or inspiring in his humor, however, it gives one an entirely different way off perceiving life as it is.

Work Cited

Church, Margaret. Time and Reality: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. Durham, N.C.:

Chapel Hill, 1963.

Gray, Ronald. Franz Kafka. Great Britain: Cambridge UP, 1973.

Greenberg, Martin. The Terror of Art: Kafka and Modern Literature. New York: Basic Books, 1968.

Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature: An Introduction to Fictions, Poetry and Drama. 9th ed. New York, Pearson, 2005.

Tiefenbrun, Ruth. Moment of Torment: An Interpretation of Franz Kafka's Short Stories.

United States of America: Southern Illinois UP, 1973.