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Gloryann Cosans

Professor Jon Beadle

English 115

31 October 2018

Transforming Oneself and Others

In Kafka’s, “The Metamorphosis,” the main character is transformed into a giant bug.

Gregor, the main character, tries to retain his human qualities for as long as possible, including

the same relationships he has with family members. Ultimately, he is unable to retain and is even

stripped of his humanity through the treatment he receives from his family and the outside world.

Gregor transforms both mentally and emotionally, and this change ultimately affects his family.

In Kafka’s, “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor transforms mentally by losing his clear

consciousness in regards to the consideration of others. Even after becoming a giant bug at first,

he takes into consideration his family’s wishes. “The chief clerk’s arrival and the family’s

consternation drive Gregor to accelerate the attempt to force his new body, at the cost of hurting

it, to carry out his old intentions: get up … go to the door …turn the key and open” (Pezzini,

“From a Cockroach’s Point of View: The Metamorphosis of Perception in Kafka”). In the

beginning, Gregor still has the mindset that he has to do what he normally does for his family

because he is helping his family out but also because he knows it is the right thing to do. No

matter the cost of himself, Gregor did not accept what he was feeling and what he wanted to do,

but rather focused on what was needed of him and what he was expected to do. Another example

includes, “So, to spare her even this sight, one day he carried the sheet on his back to the couch –

the job took four hours – and arranged it in such a way that he was now completely covered up

and his sister could not see him even when she stooped,” (Kafka 29). Once Gregor recognizes
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that his sister is repulsed by him, he decides to do everything that he is still capable to do to

make her more comfortable with taking care of him. He still puts others into consideration and

puts his sister’s needs before his own. However, “Along the way, we find that Gregor loses his

battle, as he transitions from clear consciousness, self – awareness and human concerns to an

immersion into his bug-like body with less and less rational or conscious awareness” (Biderman

and Lewit 236). As the story progresses, Gregor ends up realizing that he is not treated as he

should be treated and he stops caring what his family thinks or what happens to him. He starts to

do the small things that he somewhat enjoys or starts to not shy away as much so he can get a

good look at what is going on. Instead of continuing to let his family alienate and isolate him, he

starts to push back and start to try to be free from the discrimination he is facing from the outside

world. Gregor now has the mindset that a bug would have, such as enjoying the simple things of

hanging from the ceiling and trying to scurry away and hide once there is a problem.

In “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor also transforms emotionally in how his emotions

change in regards to his family. Gregor usually keeps how he’s feeling inside and just focuses

on the tasks that need to be done. However, as he becomes more and more like a bug, it is

revealed that it is harder to keep his emotions in check. For example, “He was determined to

force himself on until he reached his sister, to pluck at her skirt, and to let her know in this way

that she should bring her violin into his room, for no one here appreciated her playing the way he

would appreciate it. He would never again let her out of his room – at least not for as long as he

lived …” (Kafka 46). In this point in the story, his sister has stopped caring for him and she was

his last tie to some form of human contact with the immediate family. He is overcome with

emotion from being isolated and alienated on top of the fact he keeps obtaining characteristics of

the bug he turned into that he starts to come to irrational thoughts. His thoughts are so irrational
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that he thinks the best way to still have his sister in his life is to kidnap her and take her to his

room where he wants to keep her there forever. He wanted to get to her no matter what and to

finally be able to feel somewhat normal again. This is more of an obsessive and impulsive

mindset compared to the rational and calming thoughts he had originally. This can compare to

how animals act on impulse, they don’t think about what they are doing, they follow their

emotions or feelings that they have. Gregor is following his emotions of loneliness and the love

for his sister when this thought crosses his mind. Even though this is a thought of obsession and

impulsivity, he is shown to truly love his sister, as he was going to send her to the conservatory,

but now he has unclear and jumbled thoughts, just like a bug would.

As the story goes on, it is revealed to the reader that Gregor is a burden to the family. In

the beginning of the story, Gregor is the main source of income for the household. He goes out to

work reluctantly but keeps his job because he knows the family counts on him. However, when

he becomes a giant bug; the roles are reversed. His sister ends up taking care of him and gets a

job while their father gets a job as well. As Grete takes care of him by making sure his room isn’t

that dirty and making sure Gregor has enough to eat, it becomes tiring. “But even if his sister, fed

up with taking care of Gregor as she used to, it was not necessary at all for his mother to take her

place and still Gregor did not have to be neglected” (Kafka 42). Gregor doesn’t think it’s fair for

his mother to take care of him but he is still being neglected. His family now sees Gregor as the

burden they have to put up with. They alienate and isolate him so they don’t have to see or deal

with him, including getting a maid to deal with him so they don’t have to interact with him at all.

It is brought up that having Gregor around is getting to be too much so Grete suggests they kill

him or take him away. Gregor at one point was going to send her to conservatory and now she is

working at the store and helping out around the house. His father is constantly wearing his work
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uniform and works very hard. Gregor went from the one everyone depended on, to he depends

on everyone else in the family. Gregor realizes that he is considered a burden to his family so he

ends up dying, feeling alone and neglected. “While they were talking in this vein, it occurred

almost simultaneously to Mr. and Mrs. Samsa, as they watched their daughter getting livelier and

livelier, that lately, in spite of all the troubles which had turned her cheeks pale, she had

blossomed into a good-looking, shapely girl” (Kafka 55). This quote shows the stress that Grete

put up with while Gregor was still alive and how it affected the family as well. It shows the

family were preoccupied and stressed because of Gregor’s state and what it meant for them but

since he is now dead, it makes life less stressful. The family is going to buy a smaller house so

they don’t stress about the bills and they even notice that Grete is feeling relieved. They all have

a weight lifted off their shoulders compared to a time when they depended on Gregor. The

family feels as though they now can breathe and can be like how they were before Gregor’s

transformation. Even though Gregor was the source of income and essentially took care of the

family for a while, the family got tired of it and got tired of having to go out and get jobs

themselves. They had to learn and become less dependent on Gregor and isolated and alienated

him in the process.

Sometimes, it can be argued that Gregor died when he became a bug, therefore he cannot

have human thoughts or emotions. “… a different body will be correlated with a difference (or

rather an absence) of interiority, which turns it into an otherness which calls into question and

puts the order of the household, the very identity of its inhabitants, at risk,” (Pezzini,

“From a Cockroach’s Point of View: The Metamorphosis of Perception in Kafka). In the case of

this quote, Gregor is not Gregor anymore. He is something else in which the family feels they

need to hide. This point of view also states that because Gregor is in a completely different body,
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that means that he, himself, internally is different as well. Gregor can’t have the body of a bug

but still have human like characteristics, such as his old thoughts and being able to recognize his

family.

However, the book is written from Gregor’s side of things and we can see that he is

thinking as of he was his old self but as he progressively transforms, he goes from having those

human characteristics to those of a bug’s characteristics. We can see the change in from when he

still feels like a part of the family and that he will be taken care of to when his thoughts become

scattered and irrational like a bug’s. It is possible because even though he can’t speak normally,

we are given the insight of his thoughts and he would certainly not have them if he was dead

when he transformed. Also, those emotions he felt towards his family are still there. He still

loves his sister and he can recognize when it is not reciprocated or when he is neglected. Yes his

emotions become a bit compulsive towards his sister towards the end, but still after he

transformed he was able to recognize the love he had for his sister and that he needed to go to

work to not let everyone down.

In Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” the main character Gregor goes through

transformations besides the physical ones. He was once the “Man of the House” and brought

income to the family where he becomes the one who is dependent. Gregor also changes in his

emotions and thoughts in which his thoughts become more scrambled and he loses check of his

emotions. He is seen as a burden to his family and for all of these he is alienated and isolated in

his room where he is eventually left to die to ease the problems of the family. Therefore,

everyone goes through their own transformations and it is how the family respond and reacts to

Gregor’s metamorphosis that transpires his downfall.

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Works Cited

Kafka, Franz, and Stanley Corngold. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Bantam Books, 1972.

Pezzini, I. (2018). From a Cockroach’s Point of View: The Metamorphosis of Perception in

Kafka. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue Internationale De

Sémiotique Juridique, 31(3), 421-440.

THE ABSURDITY OF HUMAN EXISTENCE:: ‘THE METAMORPHOSIS’ AND THE FLY.

(2016). In Mediamorphosis: Kafka and the Moving Image (p. 236). New York: Wallflower

Press.