Gender Roles In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

“The Metamorphosis” is a short story written by Franz Kafka. The story shows how one’s work shapes their identity. In “The Metamorphosis”, Franz Kafka demonstrates how work can shape one’s identity by showing how Gregor Samsa’s job changed him into a cockroach. “The Metamorphosis” is a story about a man named Gregor Samsa. Gregor Samsa lives with his family, who is in debt, in a small, middle-class home on a low-income salary.

In the story, “The Metamorphosis” by, Franz Kafka a boy named Gregor Samsa turns into a bug. At first he thinks it is just a dream but then he comes to the understanding that it is not a dream, and he is stuck in between the four walls of his bedroom. He tried to roll onto his side but he would just end up right back on his back. Gregor takes on three roles; freedom, responsibility, and love through out the story “The Metamorphosis. Gregor wants freedom.

The Repercussions of Cruelty Cruel actions lead to cruel endings. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist in Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, is turned into a bug from the mental and emotional abuse by the hands of his own family. The cruelty in the Samsa household is apparent from the beginning of the storyline. Their neglect and lack of compassion for Gregor's condition immediately sets the dark and miserable mood of the novella. Gregor’s whole existence has been about caring for his family and making sacrifices for their well being.

Gregor’s initial reaction to his transformation shows his preoccupation with work. His confusion over his radical transformation does not last long, quickly becoming concerned with work and disregarding that he woke up physically transformed into a monstrous vermin. Immediately after realizing he had transformed, Gregor explains, “Well, I haven’t given up hope completely; once I’ve gotten the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to [the boss] that will probably take another five to six years… But for the time being I’d better get up, since my train leaves at five” (4). The quick transition of Gregor’s thoughts from the initial shock to his economic duties reveals his ironic nonchalant attitude towards his nonsensical transformation and

1. Almost from the very beginning of Gregor’s metamorphosis, Mr. Samsa has been unwilling to accept Gregor as his son. Furthermore, Gregor’s transformation into an offensive form of an insect, constantly reminds Mr. Samsa of the grotesque, feeble, and pathetic aberration that he has fathered. Consequently, now that Gregor has genuinely revealed himself in all his audacious behavior, his cruel father is driven to destroy him. In his eyes, Gregor has become everything loathsome to him—scrawny, parasitic, and futile—not the kind of son this once successful and ambitious storekeeper could be proud of.

1. Before Gregor’s metamorphosis his family treats with moderate respect, for they make sure he is always following his schedule and is never late for work. Gregor before his metamorphosis is seen as an asset to his family, for he provides another source of income for them, a better opportunity to life comfortably. However, along with this sense of comfort his family also treats him rather distant from a son, and a brother.

Friedrich Nietzsche once said: “Man is the cruelest animal.” In regards to The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s family is less human than Gregor – even if he is in the body of a bug. In chapter 1, it is explained that Gregor worked long and hard in order to support his family while they did not enter the workforce for five years. In return, when Gregor wakes up as a bug, no one in his family throw themselves to find a way to ‘bring Gregor back’. Although he is a bug, he possesses human thoughts and behaves in a respectful manner when his sister enters his room every day.

In Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, a traveling salesman named Gregor awakes and finds that his body has undergone a transformation into a cockroach. Because Gregor provided for his family financially, he sees that his family is struggling to pay their bills and are transitioning into poverty. Over time, Gregor is familiarized with his body and takes to crawling on the walls and ceiling of his room. Grete, Gregor’s sister, is more sympathetic towards Gregor than her father and mother are and decides to move some of the furniture into his room so that he has more surfaces to climb on. However, her and her mother eventually remove the furniture, this greatly saddens Gregor.

For a moment he had forgotten all about the general manager.” This is not the only case in which Gregor chooses his family over work. He also makes a reference to this when he states, “For the time being, all such worries were assuredly unnecessary. Gregor was still here, and abandoning his family was the farthest thing from his thoughts.” He is willing to sacrifice anything in order to make his family happy, including himself.

Franz Kafka, heavily influenced by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, devises the character Gregor Samsa in order to portray a detailed experience of an individual’s metamorphosis. Kafka’s narration style differs greatly from Ovid’s, in that, the narration begins with a first person perspective and changes to a third person narration, which remains consistent to the end of the novel. Unlike the stories within the Metamorphoses, there is a clear contrast in the portrayal of Gregor’s transformation. Ovid and Kafka’s depiction of a metamorphosis incorporates the concept of identity in the individual’s transition, however Kafka emphasizes the family dynamic and the hostility Gregor feels. Gregor’s family’s inability to look past Gregor’s exterior appearance

In The Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka cruelty is what stemmed Gregor’s change into a large bug and subconsciously motivated him to end his life. Gregor’s new form was a depiction of how he already felt in his household, trapped, voiceless, and small. As Gregor’s metamorphosis developed so did the characters cruelty which affected both the perpetrators and the victims. The Samasa family’s cruelty was demonstrated both physically and mentally by Gregor’s father driving him back into his room, throwing apples at him and by Grete’s use of the word “it”.

Each family member experiences a metamorphosis, because each of them started to despise Gregor and thought that he was ridiculous. But in irony all of them also became savages and just waited for gregor to die to start a new lifestyle with his sister, so they were more disgusting and absurd than Gregor turning into a bug. “ [Mr. and Mrs. Samsa] thought that it would soon be time, too, to find her a good husband. And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and good intentions”, these were some of thoughts of the mother and father after the death of Gregor, this shows how little they cared for their son. They were ready to start a new life which symbolizes the metamorphosis the family is going through.

“One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.” This is the beginning of the end for Gregor Samsa. The metamorphosis had the ultimate effect in store for him: death. Aside from Gregor’s physical death, he also experiences the realization of the death of something more: his individuality. The effect the metamorphosis had on Gregor Samsa is the death of him physically and the realization that his individuality had perished; as well as all of the physical, mental, and social effects that accompanied the metamorphosis.

Gregor also has become an unwanted responsibility. Not many people would wake up and want to take care of an insect out of the blue. With Gregor in the house, at least one person need to stay in the house to watch him. One of the maids after learning the

As the main character, Gregor Samsa, transforms from human state to that of a beetle, there are many aspects that are left unexplained and seemingly unstable. For example, in the novel, Gregor’s transformation into a beetle is left unexplained by Kafka. Kafka opens up the novel by stating, “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1). There is no scientific or physical evidence as to why this transformation occurred, but it can be ascertained that it is a psychological transformation.