Kafka's Triple Metamorphoses:
A Criticism of Humanity in Modern Society
Meng Zhou
In Metamorphosis, Kafka tells an absurd story about a family’s tragedy after Gregor Samsa, the financial mainstay, becomes a giant vermin. The story follows two main plot lines: the psychological transformation of Gregor, and the transformation of attitudes and behaviors of Gregor’s family. The keynote of the story is depressive and gloomy, fulfilled by the preposterous narrative. The sudden transformation of Gregor into a vermin, the dramatic collusions between Gregor and his family, and some of the artistic details are all parts of the illusion-like narrative. However, despite the logical impossibility and the abnormality of the narrative development, the story is rather realistic. It truthfully describes the reality of humanity through the three levels of metamorphoses: the physical and psychological metamorphosis of Gregor, the economic metamorphosis of the family, and the humanistic metamorphosis of the family members, which constructs the criticism of the individual existence, the status of humanity and the foundation of modern social system.
The story begins with one sentence that clearly states the basic elements, namely time, place, character and occurrence: “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettled dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin (Kafka 3).” At the beginning, the physical transformation did not bother Gregor much. Although he realized it was not a dream, the first concern jumped out from his mind was the job. He worried whether he could catch up the train and get the business done, even though he had to “[close] his eyes so as not to have to see his squirming legs, and [stop] only when he began to feel a slight, dull pain in his side. (3)” As the only person with regular income, he was responsible for feeding the family and paying his parents’ debt. In the whole morning, Gregor hesitated between the idea of going work on time and getting more rest; the only thing that did not occur in his mind was to seek actual help regarding his totally inhuman body.
Following the movement of the story, Gregor’s physical transformation led to a series of continuous psychological changes. He was confused and depressed in the morning of discovering his metamorphosis. He recollected his human life as a good son and a good employee, and convinced himself that he must save his job by struggling to get off the bed in a struggling way and going to the train station as soon as possible. Even after the manager’s flight, Gregor still wanted to stop him and explain that he would “get dressed right away” and go to work. And he still tried to be a nice, submissive son when his mother cried out and his father “started brandishing the cane and the newspaper to drive [him] back into his room. (14)” At this moment, all in Gregor’s mind was the worries to his family – what would the family become without his job?
Gregor lived as a vermin in his room since that morning. He still held some “vague hopes” and tried to “rearrange his life”. He knew he must lay low and limit his activities in his room. Nevertheless, the priority was always his family – he concluded that he would “help them bear the inconvenience which he simply had to cause them in his present condition” by “being patient and showing his family every possible consideration. (17)” He worried about the economic condition of the family – his sister was only seventeen, and his parents’ debt was not fully repaid. He remembered his dream: to send his sister to the Conservatory to study violin – even though this plan was not able to be implemented anymore. He “felt hot with shame and grief” when he heard “the conversation turned to the necessity of earning money. (21)” He still carried on the sense of responsibility for his family. However, it would not matter to the family anyhow since he was totally a liability.
After Gregor was injured by his father, he was eventually abhorred by every family member. His sister was tired of taking care of him; she fed him with whatever food was left from previous meals, stopped cleaning his room, and discussed with their parents about how to “get rid of it” (she did not call him Gregor anymore). (37)” Upon the situation, Gregor did not try to resist or to show any objection; instead, “his conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister’s” (39). He died in a peaceful way with his thoughts “back on his family with deep emotion and love. (39)”
Facing the family’s changes of attitude, Gregor went through a downward development of psychological status associating his aggravated physical condition. He was upset and depressed at the beginning of his physical metamorphosis; he complained about his job and worried about the future of his family. Then he became desperate after he was hurt by an apple thrown by his father: he rarely ate anything, became more isolated, and tried to be invisible. And after he heard the discussion about how to get rid of him, especially the words from his sister, he accepted the fact that he was nothing more than a liability to his family, and peacefully faced his death. Through the process, Gregor’s personality was clearly identified. He was a typical small figure who had an obscure job, carried all responsibilities and cared about his family. The only thing he thought about was not to cause troubles to his family. Once he realized the essential conflict was between his existence and the family’s future, he, without any struggle, accepted death like he deserved it. His characteristics transformed from a decision-maker into a self-insignificant nonhuman being, led by his physical changes and worsened health condition. For Gregor, the death could be a relief that liberated him from his vermin body, his guilt and shame to his family and his worthlessness and inability.
As the result of Gregor’s physical metamorphosis, the Samsa family went through an economic metamorphosis, which was Gregor’s main source of guilt and shame. After Gregor’s dismissal, the family lost the regular income. Although they had some savings from the father’s failed business, they could not maintain the original life. They had to fire their servants and rent their empty rooms, and sent their young daughter to work. Under the financial pressure, Gregor was useless, no matter how much he had done before. The economic metamorphosis, along with the physical metamorphosis of Gregor, caused the third level of metamorphosis – the metamorphosis of humanity.
For the parents, there was contradiction in mind regarding how to treat the vermin: they knew it was their son, but they were afraid of it because after all it was a nonhuman. Their faith was gradually lowered by the miscommunication. They could not understand Gregor and they were not sure if the vermin could understand them. The fearfulness was exasperated by the economic downturn of the family. At first they tried to know Gregor’s condition through Grete. However, after Mrs. Samsa was frightened by the vermin in his room, they intentionally ignored its existence as long as it remained in the room. The intention of Gregor for listening to his sister’s performance exacerbated the anger of the parents; the action was viewed as to “drive the roomers away” and “occupy the whole apartment” (38), which triggered their wish to Gregor’s death.
The misconnection of Gregor to his family is logically foreseeable due to the transformation of the roles of each family member. Among all characters, the critical one who played the role as the communication channel between Gregor and the parents was Grete. She was the dominant character to the humanistic metamorphosis. She was the only one who treated Gregor as a family even though he appeared as an insect. She voluntarily took the responsibility to bring Gregor food and regularly check on him (she could have ignored his existence like others). She fed Gregor twice every day: “once in the morning, when his parents and the maid were still asleep, and a second time in the afternoon after everyone had had dinner. (18)” She also cleaned his room during the first month after Gregor’s metamorphosis. However, she was frightened once because Gregor failed to hide properly before her appearance; after this incidence her job was more difficult to do – she had to overcome the fear of being bit by an insect. She emptied the room, thought that the vermin might need more space – in her subconscious, Gregor was fully dehumanized. She was still the one who loved Gregor the most, but she could not tell if Gregor could recognize her and retain the mind of the human.
Grete was the most affected person of Gregor’s metamorphosis. Instead of studying violin in the Conservatory, suddenly she became the mainstay of the family in replacement of Gregor. She used to live as an upper-class lady, “wearing pretty clothes, sleeping late, helping in the house, enjoying a few modest amusements, and above all playing the violin (21)”. However, she “had taken a job as a salesgirl” and “was learning shorthand and French in the evenings in order to attain a better position sometime in the future. (30)” Gradually, she stopped caring about Gregor, the identity of her brother was deteriorated to merely an annoying giant vermin in the house, staring at them and spreading the fear. She brought scraps to Gregor and stopped cleaning the room. Because she was the only bridge between Gregor and the family, Gregor was totally disconnected after her change of attitude took place. “Who in this overworked and exhausted family had time to worry about Gregor any more than was absolutely necessary? (31)” The answer would be nobody, especially not Grete, since she had already taken over the responsibilities to the family which originally belonged to Gregor.
Along with the decrease of attention the family paid on Gregor, his isolation was worsened, and any action would intensify the relationship between the family and Gregor. The humanity of the family was also degraded due to the dehumanization of Gregor in the Samsas’ minds. After Gregor frightened the tenants when Grete was playing violin, the family’s abhorrence toward him became maximized. Grete finally realized that she had denied the vermin to be her brother for a very long time; she said: “I won’t pronounce the name of my brother in front of this monster. (37)”. The minimization of humanity was shown at the very end of the story. The family was very glad and relieved for Gregor’s death and decided to leave the apartment and take a one-day trip in the city. By separating Gregor’s identity from the dead vermin, they felt neither grief nor remorse about the idea of getting rid of their former family member who used to be a good son, a good brother, their only source of income and the decision-maker of the family. The metamorphosis of humanity, especially mirrored by the changes of Grete, was the most realistic component of the story. It was the consequence of the physical metamorphosis of Gregor and the economic metamorphosis of the Samsa family, and it was also the direct cause to Gregor’s death.
The comparison between the concerns of Gregor and his family members illustrates how serious the humanistic metamorphosis was. Although Gregor became an insect, he cared about his family in every possible perspective: financial, emotional and future. His parents and sister, even though showed great kindness and toleration at the beginning, turned the attitudes to scorn and abhor him, which was exactly the opposite of what Gregor had in mind. It reveals the weakness of humanity in modern society: natural utilitarianism, which states that the value of a person is determined solely by his economic value to others. Gregor had been a respectful child in the family who supported the living of everyone in financial term. After the metamorphosis, he was useless to the family; he had dismissed from the job, with a frightening appearance and absolute inability of communication. In addition, it took a lot of time and energy to look after his life. From the utilitarian measure, he was the pure liability which produced only negative effects, which justified the eventual abhorrence and abandon.
The story is a hypothetical experiment, in which Kafka examines the justification of individual existence: would one still be considered family if he had only negative value in both physical and mental capacities? The result, sadly, is simply “no”. The metamorphosis of Gregor is the extreme case of serious illness – a family member who is too sick to work, and everyone has to adjust his or her life to take care of the patient – and the ending of Gregor can be the ending of any regular person once sick. Kafka blames the twisting of humanity, and implies the ultimate cause is the interest-driven ideology of the society. The connection among individuals is primarily economic; once the connection is broken, like Gregor’s dismissal, the relationship will turn to be extremely vulnerable, even among consanguinity.
From the perspective of a society, the transformation into vermin is a metaphor of dehumanization of individuals in a society. As a salesman, Gregor must stick to the schedule; he is always away to home for work, and even a delay of several hours would lead to the manager’s home visiting. It is the epitome of most people’s life in modern society, robot-like schedule, high-pressure job content, and little privacy. People are treated as machines – this is the only way to be accepted by the society. Once the machine feature is gone, one loses the acceptance of the society immediately. Kafka criticizes the machinery function of the society by creating a hypothetical society called the Samsa’s family: it abandoned the broken machine Gregor like garbage, and the rest celebrated his death and found hope on new working machine Grete. The emotional connection of the society is too weak to maintain humanity inside humans. On the surface level, Gregor was the one with metamorphosis, but in the deep foundation, the metamorphosis occurred on the other Samsas. In reality, as mirrored by the Samsa family, the whole society is exactly twisted by the similar metamorphoses appeared in every social unit, every relationship, and every single mind.
Albert Einstein once said: “We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.” Kafka’s Metamorphosis, on the contrary, catechizes the society: what if “we ourselves” are no longer human beings yet “we” are not aware of it, does the humanity contained inside us still mean anything? Samsa family became less and less human through the process of dehumanizing and abandoning Gregor, yet they did not realize that they had lost their human hearts; Gregor, even though lost his human body, retained his humanity until his last moment. The story, through the triple metamorphoses of Samsa family, reminds its readers the cold reality of the society, and admonishes them to prevent any similar metamorphoses of humanity to cause the horror of the moral crisis illustrated in the story.
Work Cited
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. Stanley Corngold. New York: Princeton UP, 1996. Print.
The story begins with one sentence that clearly states the basic elements, namely time, place, character and occurrence: “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettled dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin (Kafka 3).” At the beginning, the physical transformation did not bother Gregor much. Although he realized it was not a dream, the first concern jumped out from his mind was the job. He worried whether he could catch up the train and get the business done, even though he had to “[close] his eyes so as not to have to see his squirming legs, and [stop] only when he began to feel a slight, dull pain in his side. (3)” As the only person with regular income, he was responsible for feeding the family and paying his parents’ debt. In the whole morning, Gregor hesitated between the idea of going work on time and getting more rest; the only thing that did not occur in his mind was to seek actual help regarding his totally inhuman body.
Following the movement of the story, Gregor’s physical transformation led to a series of continuous psychological changes. He was confused and depressed in the morning of discovering his metamorphosis. He recollected his human life as a good son and a good employee, and convinced himself that he must save his job by struggling to get off the bed in a struggling way and going to the train station as soon as possible. Even after the manager’s flight, Gregor still wanted to stop him and explain that he would “get dressed right away” and go to work. And he still tried to be a nice, submissive son when his mother cried out and his father “started brandishing the cane and the newspaper to drive [him] back into his room. (14)” At this moment, all in Gregor’s mind was the worries to his family – what would the family become without his job?
Gregor lived as a vermin in his room since that morning. He still held some “vague hopes” and tried to “rearrange his life”. He knew he must lay low and limit his activities in his room. Nevertheless, the priority was always his family – he concluded that he would “help them bear the inconvenience which he simply had to cause them in his present condition” by “being patient and showing his family every possible consideration. (17)” He worried about the economic condition of the family – his sister was only seventeen, and his parents’ debt was not fully repaid. He remembered his dream: to send his sister to the Conservatory to study violin – even though this plan was not able to be implemented anymore. He “felt hot with shame and grief” when he heard “the conversation turned to the necessity of earning money. (21)” He still carried on the sense of responsibility for his family. However, it would not matter to the family anyhow since he was totally a liability.
After Gregor was injured by his father, he was eventually abhorred by every family member. His sister was tired of taking care of him; she fed him with whatever food was left from previous meals, stopped cleaning his room, and discussed with their parents about how to “get rid of it” (she did not call him Gregor anymore). (37)” Upon the situation, Gregor did not try to resist or to show any objection; instead, “his conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister’s” (39). He died in a peaceful way with his thoughts “back on his family with deep emotion and love. (39)”
Facing the family’s changes of attitude, Gregor went through a downward development of psychological status associating his aggravated physical condition. He was upset and depressed at the beginning of his physical metamorphosis; he complained about his job and worried about the future of his family. Then he became desperate after he was hurt by an apple thrown by his father: he rarely ate anything, became more isolated, and tried to be invisible. And after he heard the discussion about how to get rid of him, especially the words from his sister, he accepted the fact that he was nothing more than a liability to his family, and peacefully faced his death. Through the process, Gregor’s personality was clearly identified. He was a typical small figure who had an obscure job, carried all responsibilities and cared about his family. The only thing he thought about was not to cause troubles to his family. Once he realized the essential conflict was between his existence and the family’s future, he, without any struggle, accepted death like he deserved it. His characteristics transformed from a decision-maker into a self-insignificant nonhuman being, led by his physical changes and worsened health condition. For Gregor, the death could be a relief that liberated him from his vermin body, his guilt and shame to his family and his worthlessness and inability.
As the result of Gregor’s physical metamorphosis, the Samsa family went through an economic metamorphosis, which was Gregor’s main source of guilt and shame. After Gregor’s dismissal, the family lost the regular income. Although they had some savings from the father’s failed business, they could not maintain the original life. They had to fire their servants and rent their empty rooms, and sent their young daughter to work. Under the financial pressure, Gregor was useless, no matter how much he had done before. The economic metamorphosis, along with the physical metamorphosis of Gregor, caused the third level of metamorphosis – the metamorphosis of humanity.
For the parents, there was contradiction in mind regarding how to treat the vermin: they knew it was their son, but they were afraid of it because after all it was a nonhuman. Their faith was gradually lowered by the miscommunication. They could not understand Gregor and they were not sure if the vermin could understand them. The fearfulness was exasperated by the economic downturn of the family. At first they tried to know Gregor’s condition through Grete. However, after Mrs. Samsa was frightened by the vermin in his room, they intentionally ignored its existence as long as it remained in the room. The intention of Gregor for listening to his sister’s performance exacerbated the anger of the parents; the action was viewed as to “drive the roomers away” and “occupy the whole apartment” (38), which triggered their wish to Gregor’s death.
The misconnection of Gregor to his family is logically foreseeable due to the transformation of the roles of each family member. Among all characters, the critical one who played the role as the communication channel between Gregor and the parents was Grete. She was the dominant character to the humanistic metamorphosis. She was the only one who treated Gregor as a family even though he appeared as an insect. She voluntarily took the responsibility to bring Gregor food and regularly check on him (she could have ignored his existence like others). She fed Gregor twice every day: “once in the morning, when his parents and the maid were still asleep, and a second time in the afternoon after everyone had had dinner. (18)” She also cleaned his room during the first month after Gregor’s metamorphosis. However, she was frightened once because Gregor failed to hide properly before her appearance; after this incidence her job was more difficult to do – she had to overcome the fear of being bit by an insect. She emptied the room, thought that the vermin might need more space – in her subconscious, Gregor was fully dehumanized. She was still the one who loved Gregor the most, but she could not tell if Gregor could recognize her and retain the mind of the human.
Grete was the most affected person of Gregor’s metamorphosis. Instead of studying violin in the Conservatory, suddenly she became the mainstay of the family in replacement of Gregor. She used to live as an upper-class lady, “wearing pretty clothes, sleeping late, helping in the house, enjoying a few modest amusements, and above all playing the violin (21)”. However, she “had taken a job as a salesgirl” and “was learning shorthand and French in the evenings in order to attain a better position sometime in the future. (30)” Gradually, she stopped caring about Gregor, the identity of her brother was deteriorated to merely an annoying giant vermin in the house, staring at them and spreading the fear. She brought scraps to Gregor and stopped cleaning the room. Because she was the only bridge between Gregor and the family, Gregor was totally disconnected after her change of attitude took place. “Who in this overworked and exhausted family had time to worry about Gregor any more than was absolutely necessary? (31)” The answer would be nobody, especially not Grete, since she had already taken over the responsibilities to the family which originally belonged to Gregor.
Along with the decrease of attention the family paid on Gregor, his isolation was worsened, and any action would intensify the relationship between the family and Gregor. The humanity of the family was also degraded due to the dehumanization of Gregor in the Samsas’ minds. After Gregor frightened the tenants when Grete was playing violin, the family’s abhorrence toward him became maximized. Grete finally realized that she had denied the vermin to be her brother for a very long time; she said: “I won’t pronounce the name of my brother in front of this monster. (37)”. The minimization of humanity was shown at the very end of the story. The family was very glad and relieved for Gregor’s death and decided to leave the apartment and take a one-day trip in the city. By separating Gregor’s identity from the dead vermin, they felt neither grief nor remorse about the idea of getting rid of their former family member who used to be a good son, a good brother, their only source of income and the decision-maker of the family. The metamorphosis of humanity, especially mirrored by the changes of Grete, was the most realistic component of the story. It was the consequence of the physical metamorphosis of Gregor and the economic metamorphosis of the Samsa family, and it was also the direct cause to Gregor’s death.
The comparison between the concerns of Gregor and his family members illustrates how serious the humanistic metamorphosis was. Although Gregor became an insect, he cared about his family in every possible perspective: financial, emotional and future. His parents and sister, even though showed great kindness and toleration at the beginning, turned the attitudes to scorn and abhor him, which was exactly the opposite of what Gregor had in mind. It reveals the weakness of humanity in modern society: natural utilitarianism, which states that the value of a person is determined solely by his economic value to others. Gregor had been a respectful child in the family who supported the living of everyone in financial term. After the metamorphosis, he was useless to the family; he had dismissed from the job, with a frightening appearance and absolute inability of communication. In addition, it took a lot of time and energy to look after his life. From the utilitarian measure, he was the pure liability which produced only negative effects, which justified the eventual abhorrence and abandon.
The story is a hypothetical experiment, in which Kafka examines the justification of individual existence: would one still be considered family if he had only negative value in both physical and mental capacities? The result, sadly, is simply “no”. The metamorphosis of Gregor is the extreme case of serious illness – a family member who is too sick to work, and everyone has to adjust his or her life to take care of the patient – and the ending of Gregor can be the ending of any regular person once sick. Kafka blames the twisting of humanity, and implies the ultimate cause is the interest-driven ideology of the society. The connection among individuals is primarily economic; once the connection is broken, like Gregor’s dismissal, the relationship will turn to be extremely vulnerable, even among consanguinity.
From the perspective of a society, the transformation into vermin is a metaphor of dehumanization of individuals in a society. As a salesman, Gregor must stick to the schedule; he is always away to home for work, and even a delay of several hours would lead to the manager’s home visiting. It is the epitome of most people’s life in modern society, robot-like schedule, high-pressure job content, and little privacy. People are treated as machines – this is the only way to be accepted by the society. Once the machine feature is gone, one loses the acceptance of the society immediately. Kafka criticizes the machinery function of the society by creating a hypothetical society called the Samsa’s family: it abandoned the broken machine Gregor like garbage, and the rest celebrated his death and found hope on new working machine Grete. The emotional connection of the society is too weak to maintain humanity inside humans. On the surface level, Gregor was the one with metamorphosis, but in the deep foundation, the metamorphosis occurred on the other Samsas. In reality, as mirrored by the Samsa family, the whole society is exactly twisted by the similar metamorphoses appeared in every social unit, every relationship, and every single mind.
Albert Einstein once said: “We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.” Kafka’s Metamorphosis, on the contrary, catechizes the society: what if “we ourselves” are no longer human beings yet “we” are not aware of it, does the humanity contained inside us still mean anything? Samsa family became less and less human through the process of dehumanizing and abandoning Gregor, yet they did not realize that they had lost their human hearts; Gregor, even though lost his human body, retained his humanity until his last moment. The story, through the triple metamorphoses of Samsa family, reminds its readers the cold reality of the society, and admonishes them to prevent any similar metamorphoses of humanity to cause the horror of the moral crisis illustrated in the story.
Work Cited
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. Stanley Corngold. New York: Princeton UP, 1996. Print.