The Metamorphosis: Difference between revisions

← Older edit

The Metamorphosis (view source)

Revision as of 23:30, 26 April 2006

3,150 bytes added , 18 years ago

m

Removed some inappropriate items; put a link to Kafka bio

Glucas

Bureaucrats, Administrators

1,254

edits

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-==Summary==
+A [[novella]] by [[Franz Kafka]].
+==Précis==
 Gregory Samsa is a traveling salesman who financially supports his family. He wakes up in the morning to find out he has been transformed into a Dung Beetle. He is in shock after his reality sets in and tries to figure out how he is going to get to work. Although they try to assimilate the change, his family is horrified and keeps Gregory locked in his room. Gregory eventually dies, leaving his family free.
 ==Study Guide==
-*[[The Metamorphosis: Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]
-*[[The Metamorphosis: Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
-*[[The Metamorphosis: Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]
 ===Chapter 1 Summary===
@@ Line 15: / Line 14: @@
 After Gregor awakens he finds a bowl of sweet milk with slices of wheat bread.  He soon finds that this food does not please him and leaves it alone.  Later Grete brings in an assortment of food to find what he likes and discovers he can only eat the rotten stuff.  For the next few days the routine was that Gregor would hide up under a couch whenever Grete brought in his food.  Soon Gregor found enjoyment in crawling around on the ceiling and walls.  Grete learned of this and decided to take the furniture out of the room so he could crawl easier.  Grete and her mother began to take all the furniture out of the room and this made him upset.  While trying to protect one of his pictures from being taken Gregor's mother saw him and fainted.  This caused panic and Gregor left his room to follow Grete to get something to help their mother.  When Gregor's father came home he got into a fight with Gregor in which he threw some apples at him striking him in the back.
 ===Chapter 3 Summary===
 It has been a month since Gregory’s injury form the apple.  He now resembles an “elderly invalid” and has trouble with mobility.  Gregory’s parents and sister all have jobs now; his mother works as a seamstress, his father works at the bank and his sister works as a shop assistance.  A new maid has also been hired.  Gregory spends most of his days and nights sleeping and thinking about his family and his former job.  His sister Meg begins spending less time with him and his appetite has begun to deplete.  Three lodgers come to stay at his house.  While they are there, the door where Gregory can see out of stays shut so he can not see out.  One night, Meg plays the violin for the men.  The door that is usually shut was left open by the maid and Gregory peeps out.  The middle lodger spots him and is grossed out.  He gives notice to Gregory’s parents that they will be leaving and that they do not intend to pay for their stay because of the filthy conditions.  The next morning, the maid goes in to clean Gregory’s room and finds him dead.  She informs his family and they decide to move to a smaller, less expensive apartment.  The chapter ends with talk of finding Meg a husband.
@@ Line 31: / Line 27: @@
 ===Guilt===
 The theme of guilt is relevent to the story because it is a very powerful emotion. Gregory is upset that he can't go out and work because of what has happened to him. Even though the metamorphosis wasn't his fault, he still blams himself (Altshuler). Gregory also feels guilty because his family can't move on, literally and mentally. The thing that kept his family from moving on was "their feeling of utter dispair and the idea that they had been struck by a misfortune exceeding anything ever experienced within their entire circle of friends and relations" (1989). Gregory blams himself for this because if this tragedy hadn't happened, his family wouldn't feel the need that they had to move. Gregory also has a guilty feeling because he wants to see his mother, but he knows that he cannot because her reaction to seeing him would not be a good one. When Meg and her mother were moving furniture out of Gregory's room, the mother saw him on the wall. Her reaction was "in a shrill, strident voice, 'Oh God, oh God!' and with arms outstretched as if giving up altogether fell back on the couch and lay still" (1985). Gregory knew that his mother would not take well to seeing him like that, but he stayed on the wall just the same, to protect a painting.
-===Novella===
-Technically a theme, but more of a genre so to speak, that is unknown to most of us present day readers of Kafka is novella. "A novella is a short novel; a narrative work of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose prose] fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. A common length is about 50 to 100 pages. The extra length is generally used for more character development than is possible in a short story, but without the much greater character and plot development of a novel. Novellas often are characterized by satire or moral teaching" (Wikipedia).
-Satire: This is clearly evident as "[http://litmuse.maconstate.edu/litwiki/index.php/The_Metamorphosis#Summary The Metamorphosis] is obviously a story about alienation. Gregor's life is dictated by his dead-end job and family responsibilities to the extent that even when he travels to different towns, he prefers to stay in his hotel room studying train timetables rather than experience what the new location has to offer. That isolation is mirrored in his relationship with his family, for whom he is the bread-winner but from whom he locks himself away at night. This alienation becomes so pronounced that, one day, he discovers himself to be literally no longer human. Gregor's earlier sentiment is reciprocated when his family begins locking and bolting the door shut behind him in his room. Late in the story, he briefly considers what it means to be 'human'; if he can be so moved by his sister's music then surely he cannot be an animal. And ultimately, his acceptance that he must go shows an act of genuine humanity" (Archer).
-Moral Teaching: Try interpreting the story without Gregor's transformation. "In this interpretation, the other characters in the story would not see a man-sized beetle. Instead, they see a man so alienated from reality that he chooses to reject it totally. He is still a man, the same man they saw the previous day, but now he is crawling awkwardly on the floor and squeaking rather than speaking. He would prefer the shame of living as an insect to the hopelessness of living as a man. He would rather live in squalor and eat scraps from the rubbish than deal with the mind-numbing sameness of his life and accept responsibility for changing it. The abhorrence the family displays upon seeing him would still be the same - perhaps it would be even greater if they still just saw a man. They would be forced to accept the situation in the same way; still hoping [http://litmuse.maconstate.edu/litwiki/index.php/The_Metamorphosis#Gregory_Samsa Gregor] will put himself right before finally admitting the man they knew will never return. As nightmarish as the scenario presented in the book is, maybe the only thing worse than inexplicably transforming into a giant bug overnight is wishing you had" (Archer).
 ===Reversal of Roles===
 At the begining Gregory is the one who supports his family.  He is bringing home the money while his father sits in his chair and sleeps.  This may have "crippled the father's self-esteem because he took over the father's position in the family" (Coulehan).  After Gregory's transformation, the roles reversed and the father re-assumes his positon as the provider forthe family.  Gregory now becomes weak and his father kills him.
 ===Loss of Humanity===
+The theme of humanity is shown in the story by how it is taken away from Gregor.  His humanity is slowly taken away from him throughout the story not just by his transformation into a bug.  Gregor’s first link to humanity that is taken away was that of him being the bread winner for the family.  “Gregors humanity, to the extent that his parents and sister acknowledge it, is inextricably tied to his function as economic provider.” (Rowe).  Later in the story more is pulled away when Grete begins taking objects out of his room.  This made Gregory reminisce about his human life.  “They were clearing his room out, taking everything that was dear to him” (1985).  Here the last things that ever tied him to having a human existence were removed. When a person is inflicted with a severe illness it is easy for those around that person to be horrified by that person’s appearance (Rowe). The ill patient can not defend his or herself so the people around do not think about how the patient feels (Rowe). This causes the patient to lose their humanity (Rowe). Gregor is inflicted with a unique illness but the outcome is the same. The most famous occurrence of a patient losing their humanity is that of Terry Schiavo. Everybody had their own opinion of Shiavo’s fate. Schiavo could not defend herself or give her opinion of her fate. That situation was turned into a political circus and ultimately stripped Schiavo of her humanity. Rowe states that <i>The Metamorphosis</i> warns against this treatment of people with illnesses.
-The theme of humanity is shown in the story by how it is taken away from Gregor.  His humanity is slowly taken away from him throughout the story not just by his transformation into a bug.  Gregor’s first link to humanity that is taken away was that of him being the bread winner for the family.  “Gregors humanity, to the extent that his parents and sister acknowledge it, is inextricably tied to his function as economic provider.” (Rowe).  Later in the story more is pulled away when Grete begins taking objects out of his room.  This made Gregory reminisce about his human life.  “They were clearing his room out, taking everything that was dear to him…”(p.1985).  Here the last things that ever tied him to having a human existence were removed. When a person is inflicted with a severe illness it is easy for those around that person to be horrified by that person’s appearance (Rowe). The ill patient can not defend his or herself so the people around do not think about how the patient feels (Rowe). This causes the patient to lose their humanity (Rowe). Gregor is inflicted with a unique illness but the outcome is the same. The most famous occurrence of a patient losing their humanity is that of Terry Schiavo. Everybody had their own opinion of Shiavo’s fate. Schiavo could not defend herself or give her opinion of her fate. That situation was turned into a political circus and ultimately stripped Schiavo of her humanity. Rowe states that <i>The Metamorphosis</i> warns against this treatment of people with illnesses.
 ===Materialistic===
 Modern Society is leading us down a path to care more about the material things rather than the things that truly matter.  Gregory Samsa, the one person who cared more about his family than money, worked long hours at a job that he disliked not because of his love for the job, but so that his family could have a good life.  His family on the other hand was enjoying a work free life.  Mankind gets so caught up in the bureaucracy of society that we sometimes forget what what matters most.  We get jobs so that we can buy the materialistic things we desire.  This need for money and material things can change our mindset and forget what is truly important in our lives.  In, The Metamorphosis, Gregory turns into some sort of insect, while this is something that is very dramatic and would be very hard to deal with, Kafka is trying to show how Gregory’s family rejects him, not only because of his appearance but because he can no longer go to work, no longer will his family be able live off the income he generates, no more material things without a little hard work.  After the metamorphosis Gregory will no longer be able to fit into society, therefore his family begins to shun him.  Not one of his family members ever tries to find out what happened and what could be done to fix it.  One by one Gregory’s family members grow further away from him, forgetting all of the selfless deeds he did for all of them.
 ===Modern Spirituality===
+Franz Kafka’s ''The Metamorphosis'' goes against what most writers would consider normal writing layout. His style is peculiar in that he places the climax at the beginning of the narrative-instead of at the end. By choosing to write in this fashion, Kafka steers his readers away from the traditional Aristotelian form of narrative (complication and denouncement) and instead creates his own form. ''The Metamorphosis'' is a brilliant novella that replaces the denouncement and conclusions one would normally expect with a form created from itself.
-Franz Kafka’s ''The Metamorphosis'' goes against what most writers would consider normal writing layout. His style is peculiar in that he places the climax at the beginning of the narrative-instead of at the end. By choosing to write in this fashion, Kafka steers his readers away from the traditional Aristotelian form of narrative (complication and denouncement) and instead creates his own form. ''The Metamorphosis'' is a brilliant novella that replaces the denouncement and conclusions one would normally expect with a form created from itself.
 The first line of the novella proclaims Gregory’s death and the rest of the story a description of his slow dying: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect” (Bloom 19). Gregory’s metamorphosis is the truth of his life, and his consciousness has lied to him about himself.
+===The Reality of Dreams===
+Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” was written as perhaps a reflection of his own inner turmoil. His insecurities began with his appearance. As an adult, he never quite grew into his strikingly tall, slender frame: huge eyes framed with thick, dark brows: prominent nose above a melancholy mouth: or his narrow forehead fringed with straight black hair. In fact, his unique looks were a subject of interest to psychologists who felt that his features seemed to fit Kretschmer’s model of the asthenic-schizoid type, which is characterized by a furry crown of hair extending down the forehead: His portrait became sort of a caricature for the model (Baumer 2). Such a categorization made him feel even odder than he already felt. This resulted in his pulling away from the outside world and subsequently plunged him into a loneliness that plagued his entire life.
+Kafka developed a mental illness that grew out of his forced isolation. He spent so much time by himself as a child that he could not fathom everyday life. He lacked the ability to interpret everyday demands and compromises such as those required of a job. Even simple exchanges between two people were a mystery to him. Looking for a way to escape his reality, he began living as though he were in a dream because in his dreams, he could be the person he wished he was. Franz Baumer describes Kafka as:
+This charming person who, almost like a saint, like St. Francis, talked to fish, who pronounced himself a dream so as not to have his gross, material appearance disturb the state of sleep he considered far more real, who was always sympathetic in his relations to the world and people, who never lost his smile and could often be very witty, who possessed a strong sense of responsibility and dedication to his job (3).
+It was soon after this realization that he wrote “The Metamorphosis,” which is how he views the life he must escape. He was noted as saying: “The taste for describing my dreamlike inner existence has pushed everything into the background where it has atrophied in a terrifying way and does not cease to atrophy. Nothing else can satisfy me” (Baumer 3). By morphing Gregory into a bug, instead of a happy child, he is giving the reader an image of how he sees himself.
+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==
 ===Gregory Samsa===
-A traveling salesman responsible for providing for his family. His metamorphosis into a insect leaves a stuggle between his human mind and insect needs.
+A traveling salesman responsible for providing for his family. His metamorphosis into a insect leaves a stuggle between his human mind and insect needs. The metamorphosis also strengthens his family at the end.
 ===Mother===
@@ Line 65: / Line 70: @@
 ===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===
-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===
+Rent out a room in the Samsa's flat.
 ==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==
@@ Line 89: / Line 96: @@
 ==Works Cited==
 Altshuler, Roman. "GradeSaver: ClassicNote: The Metamorphosis - Major Themes." www.gradesaver.com. 17 April 2006. GradeSaver. 17 April 2006 <http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/metamorphosis/themes.html>.
+Baumer, Franz. ''Franz Kafka''. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1971.
 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>
 Fleissner, Robert F. "Is Gregor Samsa a Bed Bug? Kafka and Dickens Revisited." ''Studies in Short Fiction''. Vol. 22, Issue 2 (1985): p 225.
-"Novella". Wikipedia. 11 April 2006. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 17 April 2006.
-<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novella>.
 "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>.
+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.
 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>
+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]]