The Unloving Society in The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

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In The Metamorphosis, through the characterization of Gregor Samsa, Franz Kafka can question the existence of unconditional love. Throughout the post-modernist era, writers argued against society’s ideas and customs, and Kafka decided to narrow it down to focus on was the lack of love among people in this time. Kafka begins by making his argument evident through a through description of Gregor’s room, which is depicted as an isolated area in the house for Gregor. He later on goes to describe Gregor’s personality as one who is dedicated to his family and gives little time to himself and his own social life. Also, Kafka’s choice of what creature Gregor is transformed into, a large bug, helps establish the idea of the Gregor’s unimportance to his family and the idea that Gregor’s disability now makes him a pest rather than one who the family should care for more. By combining the setting of the room, with Gregor martyr like personality and his pest like existence according to his family and society, Kafka can justify his idea of the non-existence of unconditional love today in society.

Through the description of the setting of the room, Kafka illustrates Gregor’s sense of alienation from others. From the very beginning, Kafka depicts a “regular human bedroom, if a little small, lay quiet between four familiar walls” (Kafka 7). Through this thorough description, establishes that Gregor lives a very quiet and alienated life, solely dedicated to his family and responsibilities with his boss and job. By showing his alienation from society and dedication to being at home, Kafka depicts Gregor as the only character in the story to unconditionally love someone, which is his family. This contrast between the amount of characters who truly ...

... middle of paper ...

...n a person in need and who cannot work needs the support of others, is nothing more than a useless bug in everyone else’s’ eyes.

Overall, Kafka’s usage of elements such as characterization and setting, help justify his skepticism of whether unconditional love really exists or not. Through the representation of alienation of Gregor, and Gregor’s portrayal of being a martyr to an unloving family and an overall unloving society, he reveals the evils in our society. Kafka forces these ideas by using his metaphor of the transformation of Gregor into a bug to show the family’s lack of love and compassion to an unwanted creature. Through Kafka’s combination of these various literary elements, he can pose the question to the reader; does unconditional love truly exist today?

Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. Stanley Corngold. New York: Bantam, 1972.

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