The Metamorphosis - Revision history

Glucas: Removed some inappropriate items; put a link to Kafka bio

2006-04-27T03:30:04Z

Removed some inappropriate items; put a link to Kafka bio

RArmstead: /* Works Cited */

2006-04-26T14:27:36Z

Works Cited

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	"Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' ". Ed. Archer, Lincoln. 25 October 2004. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/home/d/ BBC]. 17 April 2006.		"Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' ". Ed. Archer, Lincoln. 25 October 2004. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/home/d/ BBC]. 17 April 2006.
	<http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3023065>.		<http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3023065>.

	~~Rowe, Michael. "Metamorphosis: Defending the Human." Literature In Medicine. Baltimore: Fall 2002. vol 21, 264-281~~

	Lichtenstein, Jesse. "SparkNote on The Metamorphosis". 16 April 2006. 17 Apr. 2006. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/metamorph/characters.html>		Lichtenstein, Jesse. "SparkNote on The Metamorphosis". 16 April 2006. 17 Apr. 2006. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/metamorph/characters.html>

	Pfeiffer, Johannes. "'The Metamorphosis.'" In Gray, 53-60.		Pfeiffer, Johannes. "'The Metamorphosis.'" In Gray, 53-60.

			Rowe, Michael. "Metamorphosis: Defending the Human." Literature In Medicine. Baltimore: Fall 2002. vol 21, 264-281

	Sokel, Walter. “From Marx to Myth: The structure and function of Self Alienation in Kafka’s Metamorphosis.” Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis: Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.		Sokel, Walter. “From Marx to Myth: The structure and function of Self Alienation in Kafka’s Metamorphosis.” Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis: Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.

	[[Category:World Literature]]		[[Category:World Literature]]

RArmstead: /* Works Cited */

2006-04-26T14:26:34Z

Works Cited

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	Pfeiffer, Johannes. "'The Metamorphosis.'" In Gray, 53-60.		Pfeiffer, Johannes. "'The Metamorphosis.'" In Gray, 53-60.

			Sokel, Walter. “From Marx to Myth: The structure and function of Self Alienation in Kafka’s Metamorphosis.” Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis: Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.

	[[Category:World Literature]]		[[Category:World Literature]]

RArmstead: /* Major Themes */

2006-04-26T14:25:29Z

Major Themes

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	Both Kafka and Gregory are trapped by their daily reality and dreams of freedom, just as both are destined to die a lonely and tortured death through their metamorphosis. Kafka, who always thought in images that have a powerful impact, was first and foremost a poet. “Kafka’s dreamworlds will reveal themselves as realities only to those who dare gaze into the terrifying depths of our age. The dream is only denser reality” (Baumer 11).		Both Kafka and Gregory are trapped by their daily reality and dreams of freedom, just as both are destined to die a lonely and tortured death through their metamorphosis. Kafka, who always thought in images that have a powerful impact, was first and foremost a poet. “Kafka’s dreamworlds will reveal themselves as realities only to those who dare gaze into the terrifying depths of our age. The dream is only denser reality” (Baumer 11).

			===Marxism===

			Karl Marx distinguishes human labor from that of animal productivity by the fact that “doing one’s work for its own sake affords the worker joy” (Sokel 106). Gregor is working in order to support his family and pay his parents’ debt. His employment is “totally determined by needs external to itself and Gregor” which is against the philosophy of Marxism that requires there to be some joy and creativeness in the labor that one does.

			Marxism sees the worker’s labor being exploited by the capitalist employer. “Gregor’s relationship with his father thus represents this exact paradigm” as a majority of Gregor’s earnings go to his parents’ debt and the needs of the household (Sokel 108). Only a small amount is retained by Gregor himself. It is this servitude in which the fruit of Gregor’s labor belongs to someone else and the is a “loss of self” (Sokel 108).

			The three lodgers represent another level of capitalism. They “assume the dominant place in the household merely by virtue of their paying power” which allows them free reign within the household with all the members eager to cater to them (Sokel 112). This only “brings to ahead what had been the family’s enslavement to the capitalist world through the father’s original guilt” (Sokel 113).

			Gregor’s metamorphosis renders his physical body no longer human rendering him no longer able to aid his family in sustaining their physical needs. He becomes alone and isolated even taking on the likes and hobbies of the insect in which he is transformed into. This is what Marx referred to as the “total dehumanization of man which he saw as the ultimate fate of man under capitalism” (Sokel 110). Gregor’s transformation

	==Characters==		==Characters==

Canderson: /* Works Cited */

2006-04-26T02:31:55Z

Works Cited

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	Lichtenstein, Jesse. "SparkNote on The Metamorphosis". 16 April 2006. 17 Apr. 2006. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/metamorph/characters.html>		Lichtenstein, Jesse. "SparkNote on The Metamorphosis". 16 April 2006. 17 Apr. 2006. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/metamorph/characters.html>

			Pfeiffer, Johannes. "'The Metamorphosis.'" In Gray, 53-60.


	[[Category:World Literature]]		[[Category:World Literature]]

Canderson: /* Father */

2006-04-26T02:24:25Z

Father

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	===Father===		===Father===
	Gregor's father more less plays the role of dictator in the story and this is due to his hostilities and interpersonal power dynamics in the family, This is evident with passages such as, "His father looked hostile and clenched a fist as if to force Gregory back into his room;" (1973). ~~Some would describe~~ his father ~~as "~~A ~~slouching, defeated~~ man ~~whose~~ business failure has seemingly sapped his vitality, ~~Gregor's father~~ finds new confidence and better posture once the economic necessity engendered by Gregor's misfortune forces him to work again. ~~His fruit-flinging fit~~ of ~~rage is~~ the ~~catalyst for~~ Gregor~~'s declining health~~ and ~~eventual demise~~ (~~Lichtenstein~~)~~. Even though Gregor is~~ the ~~bread-winner and provider~~ of the ~~family~~, the ~~Samsas are still a patriarch type~~ of ~~family~~.		Gregor's father more less plays the role of dictator in the story and this is due to his hostilities and interpersonal power dynamics in the family, This is evident with passages such as, "His father looked hostile and clenched a fist as if to force Gregory back into his room;" (1973). With Gregor single handedly maintaining the well being of the family his father is obviously a defeated man who is in a very unhealthy state. A man in which critic Jesse Lichtenstein suggests that recent business failure has seemingly sapped his vitality, and that he finds new confidence and better posture once the economic necessity engendered by Gregor's misfortune forces him to work again (Lichtenstein). In fact, with the story being arranged in three sections, two of the three end in chaos with violence inflicted upon Gregor from his father. As suggested by writer Johannes Pfeiffer, “the first brought about by the arrival of the chief clerk, ends with the father using his stick and newspaper to drive the monster his son has become back into his room (1975); the second, set in motion by the clearing out of the furniture, ends with the brutal bombardment of the son with apples” (1987) (Pfeiffer 53). This just goes to show that Gregor’s father wasn’t the most desirable father to have.

	===Grete===		===Grete===

Tforehand: /* Grete */

2006-04-26T01:22:28Z

Grete

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	===Grete===		===Grete===
	The sister of Gregory Samsa who feeds him and takes care of him.		The sister of Gregory Samsa who feeds him and takes care of him. This however will change. She stops believing that Gregory is the bug and tells her family that it is time to move on with their lives.

	===The lodgers===		===The lodgers===

Mrish: Removed links

2006-04-25T22:13:45Z

Removed links

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	==Study Guide==		==Study Guide==
	*[[The Metamorphosis: Chapter 1\|Chapter 1]]
	*[[The Metamorphosis: Chapter 2\|Chapter 2]]
	*[[The Metamorphosis: Chapter 3\|Chapter 3]]

	===Chapter 1 Summary===		===Chapter 1 Summary===

Kbryant: /* Works Cited */

2006-04-25T22:09:59Z

Works Cited

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	Bloom, Harold. “The Metamorphosis”. ''Modern Critical Interpretations''. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.		Bloom, Harold. “The Metamorphosis”. ''Modern Critical Interpretations''. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.

	Coulehan, Jack. "The Metamorphosis". Bantam (New York)1997.		Coulehan, Jack. "The Metamorphosis". Bantam (New York)1997. <http://mchip00.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/kafka98-des-.html>

	Hughes, Katherine. "Seperate and Alone: Alienation as a Central Theme in Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Kafka's Metamorphosis." 9 November 2002. 17 April 2006. <http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/metamorphosis/essay1.html>		Hughes, Katherine. "Seperate and Alone: Alienation as a Central Theme in Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Kafka's Metamorphosis." 9 November 2002. 17 April 2006. <http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/metamorphosis/essay1.html>

Kbryant: /* Literary Interpertation */

2006-04-25T22:08:07Z

Literary Interpertation

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	==Literary Interpertation==		==Literary Interpertation==
			Gregory ultimately becomes what his job is, a bug. He pesters and bugs his clients, just like a bug does to anyone else. It can also be psychoanalytically interpreted as the prevention of “the imminent rebellion of the son against the father. Gregory had become strong as a result of his father's failure. He crippled his father's self-esteem and took over the father's position in the family. After the catastrophe, the same sequence takes place in reverse: son becomes weak, and father kills him” (Coulehan).

	==Study Questions==		==Study Questions==