The
Metamorphosis: A Strange, Strange Book
The
metamorphosis very possibly was written by Kafka as an outlet for his feelings
of isolation and helplessness. In it, the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, awakens one
morning to find himself spontaneously "transformed in his bed into a
monstrous vermin." The story continues from there in a most realistic
fashion: his family rejects him, and he stays cooped up in his room until he
dies. Although interpretations of the story differ, my opinion is that Kafka
wrote this story as a protestation, whether consciously or unconsciously, of his
own inner needs not being met. Franz Kafka suffered from severe mental
disorientation. This man suffered severe tragedies as a child: as the first
child of Hermann and Julie Kafka, he lived to see two brothers born and die
before he was six years old. Although they were eventually replaced by three new
sisters, Kafka began his life with tragedies which most people do not experience
until they are much older. Kafka lacked parental guidance, as he and his sisters
were brought up mostly by governess. He was a Jew, and lived in
Kafka achieves a very proper, yet sardonic tone by employing a variety of
literary devices. Again, Kafka does not bare his soul to an unfeeling world, but
does manage to hide his real opinions in the structure of the story. The
Metamorphosis comprises a simple analogy between a man, possibly Kafka, trying
with all his might to be what his family and society expect him to be but unable
to because of his inescapable mental isolation, and a well-meaning,
misunderstood cockroach. Suprisingly, however, the actual word "cockroach"
is never used. Most of the time the family mentions Gregor by name, as if
refusing to accept the presence of any difference in him, or perhaps refusing to
accept the "real" Gregor. The fact that "cockroach" is never
actually employed leads the reader to wonder if the word is "taboo,"
and if the author is trying to say through this euphemism that Gregor himself
won’t acknowledge that he’s different. If Gregor won’t acknowledge that he
has become a cockroach, and if being a cockroach is symbolic of Kafka’s own
view of himself, then the reader cannot help but wonder if Kafka is not mentally
ill to some degree.
Kafka’s syntax accentuates the complete non-bombasticism of the work, while at
the same time providing a stark background for the very disturbing action.
Kafka’s efficient style of writing allows for no loose or periodic sentences,
nor does he waste time on loquacious descriptions. However, despite this almost
stilted style, Kafka’s talent cannot help but shine through the chinks of the
unmoving wall of formality which he erected for himself. The reader knows, for
example, that Gregor is a cockroach, despite the fact that Kafka never used the
actual word. "He lay on his hard armorlike back... (and) saw his vaulted
brown belly divided into sections by stiff arches." Use of this sort of
imagery is very limited, but, interestingly, Kafka spends a disproportionate
amount of space describing his father as a demanding, almost military figure:
"...from under the bushy eyebrows his alert black eyes flashed
penetratingly; his previously disheveled white hair was combed flat, exactingly
parted and gleaming." Incidentally, his father only becomes this alarming
after the metamorphosis; perhaps Kafka implies that such men can only assume
their strength when they have someone weak to bully.
Kafka uses atmosphere to further emphasize the sardonic, coolly intellectual
tone. The cage-like atmosphere stresses the action, like a drama presented on a
blank stage. Almost the entire narrative takes place inside the four walls of
Gregor’s bedroom, with a window overlooking a nondescript street providing the
only relief from the severe simplicity of the room. As the story progresses
Gregor loses his ability to see even out of that.
Kafka ends each chapter with Gregor escaping from his prison-like room into the
freedom and love of the living room, but being quickly and immediately driven
back by his family. The third time he comes out of his bedroom he concludes that
he is not worthy to stay in there, and of his own accord turns around and
re-enters his cell. By a strange coincidence, at this point in the story he dies.
Perhaps Kafka is trying to say that when a person gives up on trying to reach
out to other people, no matter how desperately, he dies, whether physically or
not. This implication is made supremely melancholy by that fact that Kafka
himself felt isolated, and unable to reach out to others.
Kafka’s use of literary elements becomes so complex that the story is almost
transformed into a parody of itself. Kafka, due to the extremely stark style
that he uses, utilizes very little characterization. Most of the characters in
the book are very flat, and remain static. Gregor’s character, however,
contains a high degree of complexity. Again, Gregor tries with all his might to
be accepted by his family, but because of a fundamental difference, that of his
greater psychological depth, or complexity, compared to that of his family, he
finds this acceptance impossible, and eventually dies. Kafka represents this
problem with a very original technique, one that I label "beastification."
Ironically, as the story progresses and Gregor becomes more beast-like outwardly,
depicted by his loss of vision and his hanging from the ceiling, he becomes more
human-like inwardly. At the start of the book, Gregor considers himself a very
business-like man, concerned with the basic, day-to-day jumble of life, without
time to ponder over philosophical nonsense. In fact when he first wakes up and
finds himself transformed into a bug, he tells himself "What if I went back
to sleep for a while and forgot all this foolishness." However, later on
when the family clears his room of furniture, the one thing which he desperately
throws himself over to protect is a picture of a lady swathed in furs, which
evidently symbolizes love. As the story progresses, Gregor apparently becomes
more human, and less of a machine built for society. From this point of view
Gregor could be labeled the only dynamic character in the book. In the last
chapter, Gregor becomes so human that he displays a wonderful appreciation of
music. In third time and final scene in which he escapes from his room, he is
drawn by his sister’s violin. Kafka asks "Was he a beast if music could
move him so?" The reader is obviously supposed to answer that no, he is not
really a beast at all, his family is more beast-ish than he. However, it is
questionable whether Kafka himself understood this concept; his inferiority
complex in relation to his father and his hesitance to express himself openly
would suggest otherwise.
The Metamorphosis lends itself more to the psychology student instructed to
profile an author based on his work than to the literature student instructed to
cite and expand on different literary elements. It is obviously the work of a
very disturbed man, although the disturbance would probably be more of the
chronic type that slowly eats a man away than the type which causes, say, one to
hallucinate. To sum up The Metamorphosis, I would call it a very deceiving book.
On the surface, the simplistic plot, apparent lack of imagination with regard to
the syntax, and the largely flat characters tend to drive the reader away.
However, when one looks just a little deeper, Kafka’s whole world of fear and
isolation opens up before his eyes.