The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is the first novella
I have read for Kafka. Unfortunately, I read in English for my German skills
have not reached that level of sophistication. It is nonetheless an interesting
piece.
The book published by Bantam Classics
comprises an introduction, the novella, explanatory notes to the text, some
documents, some critical essays about Kafka, his writing and finally some
selected bibliography.
I must say that not only is the introduction
a bore; it also contains a spoiler that tells the reader how the story ends.
Although, The Metamorphosis is not your average story, still I would
have liked some tiny bit left for me as a reader to find out for myself whilst
reading.
The book is 201 pages, but the
novella itself is only 59 pages long, divided on three chapters. The story
begins with the climax, as critic Martin Greenberg points out. (The
Metamorphosis, p. 61) “When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from unsettling
dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” (The
Metamorphosis, p. 3)
The novella begins with the
metamorphosis and throughout there is no reference as to how this
transformation occurred or why it did. Despite that, it is an interesting
novel, and if it were not for the spoiler in the introduction, it might have
been even more interesting. The story begins with a fact and a state of
helplessness. Throughout, both the transformed Gregor and his family await
another miracle that would change Gregor back to his former self. They hope
that things would be back to the way they were; in other words a normal life.
Although the story is written in the
third person, the reader cannot help but notice that the dominant atmosphere is
that of Gregor. True, the story is about him and his ordeal, but nonetheless,
the other characters’ emotions are seen, often, through Gregor himself. The
story does not have the amount of action that I would have liked; it is not an
action-filled novella, but it is nonetheless not devoid of it. The little
things that happen to Gregor become actions in it. The reader cannot help but
sympathise with him, for although he wakes up to find himself transformed “into
a monstrous vermin”, Gregor constantly desires – or at least wishes to turn
back - to save his family from looming poverty and hardship. Gregor sacrifices
his life in order to work for the firm so that he can give his parents and
sister a comfortable life and pay off his father’s debts. Even as a vermin, he
still seeks to do the same – if he could.
Although Grete, Gregor’s sister, is
seen as taking up the lead in caring for Gregor at the beginning, towards the
end, I, as a reader, feel that she becomes cold and uncaring. She announces to
both her parents that it is pointless to say that this monster is her brother
and refuses to use Gregor’s name in addressing the creature. Furthermore, the
reader sees that Gregor does nothing but work and when he has a few days off,
he spends them at home. He has few friends and no one special that he would like
to marry. Therefore, when he is transformed, or if we can look at the
metamorphosis as an illness, his family begins to care for him but do not wish
to see him. They realise the calamity that their sole provider is indisposed
and will not be there to assist them or put food on their table. Only then does
each family member consider finding a job to support one another. For me, this
is selfishness on part of the family. One man, and not the father, works his
entire life in a job that he does not like to support a family of four. His
father has not worked in five years, since the collapse of the business, the
mother is often depicted as too weak to do anything, but nonetheless exerts
huge efforts to sew and do a few things around the house, and finally the
seventeen-year-old sister who is seen crying for no reason whatsoever at the
beginning of the novella, when Gregor would not open the door, takes the lead
in giving the transformed Gregor food, cleaning his room and finally in neglecting
him. Only when the family members realise that there will be no remedy for
Gregor, does each of them find a job to cope with life and to meet their daily
needs.
For me, the metamorphosis occurs on
several levels, primarily the physical transformation of Gregor; then, there is
Grete, who is viewed by her family, particularly her parents, as a child. In
the three chapters of the novella, we see Grete’s metamorphosis from a crying
child into a young woman who can juggle working as a salesgirl, studying a
foreign language to improve her career and taking care of both her parents, at
the same time. At the end of the novella, the whole family seems to have grown
up to take responsibility of taking care and supporting one another.
The novella ends on a fairly positive
note. The family goes out, the first time they had done in months, and are
happy to see what a beautiful young woman Grete has become.
Works cited:
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. New
York: Bantam Classics. 2004. Pages 3 and 61.
