The Metamorphosis of Humanity
The story of The
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a giant metaphor to what human beings
really are, and the ills of humanity and society. Gregor Samsa wakes up one
morning and sees himself as a bug, and then realizes he really is a giant bug.
From here and on, he is seen as only a pest and a monster, rather than a
person, only because he is of different form. His parents and sister, Grete,
don't know the bug is Gregor because he can't communicate with them in his
disgusting form. Gregor, when he was in human form and was treated like one,
was still used by his family. Gregor was a traveling salesman, which made him
never able to connect with his family or make friends. From the start, he was
deeply alone, with no true relationships, and thus was in a state of sadness.
Kafka shows Gregor's loneliness in many ways and to such a level, that Gregor
feels more like a human being than he did before. "He felt himself
included once again in the circle of humanity and was expecting from both the
doctor and the locksmith, without differentiating between them with any real
precision, splendid and surprising results" (Kafka 6). The fact that
Gregor feels more included and attended to than ever when his parents finally
worry about him being in the bedroom for so long, and try to get a doctor and
locksmith to open his door and see if he's okay, is saddening. They're paying
more attention to Gregor than they ever do, only because they are worrying. His
parents are probably wondering if he's okay so they can keep living off of his
money for their riches, not at all wanting to converse with their own son. Once
his family gets in and finds out he's a bug, they are frightened and all at
once don't care that Gregor is in trouble and stuck in the form of a bug, but
only that he is now a bug and not a human being, so therefore he's not their son/brother
anymore and should be treated like a pest. "...'things
cannot go on any longer in this way. Maybe if you don’t understand that, well,
I do. I will not utter my brother’s name in front of this monster, and thus I
say only that we must try to get rid of it. We have tried what is humanly
possible to take care of it and to be patient. I believe that no one can
criticize us in the slightest.' 'She is right in a thousand ways,' said the
father to himself'" (Kafka 23). Instead of helping Gregor and being
compassionate with him even though his form has changed, they totally disregard
that and automatically assume he is no longer Gregor, but a different form and soul, and thus treat him worse than
before; like a monster. His father being the most ignorant and the mother the
least, the parents and Grete all just don't understand that the bug is Gregor,
and that he is not trying to scare them or intrude, but rather be close to them
like he would as a human being. He is still a human being inside, but he is
trapped by a fearful exoskeleton on the outside. Before this whole
transformation, Gregor was the member of the family who had to do everything to
keep his family with a home, and not allow himself to live his own life and pay
for his own expenses. His family relies on him, even though out of choice,
Gregor would rather only rely on himself, and let his parents live their own
lives as well, not live off of him. From this forced way of living, Gregor has
become a man who is considered for everyone because he has had to live a life
of consideration for his family and not himself. "He scarcely wondered
about the fact that recently he had had so little consideration for the others.
Earlier this consideration had been something he was proud of" (Kafka 22).
Gregor was used to this style of life, and came out to be good at the forced
consideration for others. He thought of this as one of his skills, in which it
was, but not something to be really proud of considering his circumstances. He
realizes how much he is feared, hated, and the lack of compassion and treatment
from his family, that he figures out how much time and energy he has wasted on
these people by allowing them to live the way they want, when they won't even
give him the care and respect that he deserves back. This is all because he is
now a 'different creature', but Gregor realizes that he's been treated this
way, to a certain extent, his whole adult life. He has so little consideration
for people once he's been a bug for a couple months because he no consideration
to give anymore, as he is in his own hell.
The
way Gregor's room connects with his emotional and physical state is pretty
great, and many events in the story happen in his room, as well as many
descriptions are about his room. His states and the room's state are linked
most of the time, and everything that's put into the room or taken out, Gregor
responds to, and everything that Gregor feels has a metaphorical response from
the room. The first element is the color of what he is able to see, which is
seen through Gregor's window, and it always connects with Gregor. "The
hospital across the street, the all-too-frequent sight of which he had
previously cursed, was not visible at all anymore, and if he had not been very
well aware that he lived in the quiet but completely urban Charlotte Street, he
could have believed that from his window he was peering out at a featureless
wasteland, in which the grey heaven and the grey earth had merged and were
indistinguishable" (Kafka 13). The color of grey is used to describe what
he not only is believes to see, but what he feels. He knows the image of what
there is to see outside his window, so when he sort of makes out something in
the distance, he imagines it as it would be in full clarity because he knows
what it really looks like. Instead this color of grey outside fills the light,
blocking out buildings that he normally sees. The analogy he uses to describe that
everything is a mesh of grey, like the heaven and earth have meshed into one
grey life, shows his sadness. Heaven and earth should be easily recognizable
and different from one another, but to describe the image outside that it's
like they're one is saddening. The color grey also represents a moody state of
nothingness in a way, whereas clear represents visibility and freedom of soul.
Another element is the weather, and how it connects with Gregor's emotion.
There are many examples of weather metaphors as well, but the most recognizable
one is rain. "Gregor’s glance then turned to the window. The dreary
weather—the rain drops were falling audibly down on the metal window ledge—made
him quite melancholy"(Kafka 1). This sentence itself describes Gregor's
feelings with the weather, and how they're one. Rain symbolizes sadness, and
Gregor definitely feels this way when he wakes up as a bug. There are other
scenes with rain, or dreary weather, and others with clear weather. In this
whole story, besides moments of pleasure from food and attention, he is never
happier than he is from the day before the next morning when he wakes up as a
bug. The weather is definitely a key element of describing these emotions. The
other important element of Gregor's room is how it gradually dies as he does,
and changes whenever he does. "...he had to tell himself
unequivocally that he would not be able to endure all this much longer. They
were cleaning out his room, taking away from him everything he cherished;"
(Kafka 16). This is one of the many examples of scenes when the room changes,
and Gregor responds, or vise versa. When his mother and Grete are moving things
out of his room, Gregor feels a sadness that all the things he was actually
familiar with are also leaving him, as his family has already left him. He
cherishes the few things he can connect with left, which are his personal
belongings and room furniture. He can't take it and goes to retrieve the
picture of the random woman from the magazine that he loves and has his lonely
connection with. This is one big scene where the room empties and depresses, as
he does. There are so many elements to talk about in the story, and so many
that explain what Kafka was really trying to convey through Gregor and his
story.
No comments:
Post a Comment