Major Themes in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

 

One of the major themes in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is isolation. We find Gregor Samsa getting isolated from his family right after his transformation into an insect. His father and sister do not want to meet him out of fear as he looks ugly and awkward in his distorted shape.

Gregor Samsa’s mother wants to see him but her daughter does not allow her to meet Gregor Samsa. His family members who were the closest people in his life gradually start moving away from him though they continue to live in the same house.

This scenario portrays the heartbreaking reality that when people face irreparable fatalities, they lose their value to their nearest and dearest ones. Gregor Samsa can no longer earn money for his family which is why his importance to his family goes down. He becomes a burden on his family.

Even the people who wanted to rent the house left after catching a glimpse of Gregor Samsa which scares them. This is how Gregor Samsa causes trouble to his family including financial losses. Even when Gregor Samsa finally dies, there is no remarkable sadness in his family. Rather his family shows more interest to look for an eligible groom for their daughter.

Before his metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa is alienated from his job, his humanity, his family, and even his body, as we see from the fact that he barely notices his transformation. In fact, even his consideration for his family seems to be something alien to him, as he barely notices it when he loses this consideration at the end. After his metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa feels completely alienated from his room and environment and, as a symbol of this, can't even see his street out the window. The Metamorphosis, then, is a powerful indictment of the alienation brought on by the modern social order.

The harshness of reality destroys love, sympathy and all other humanitarian feelings. This message from The Metamorphosis cannot be avoided. People are too materialistic when it comes to money. Gregor Samsa was a very essential and a highly regarded man in his family as long as he earned money. But the professional strain of a salesman which deeply affected Gregor Samsa took away his human features and turned him into a vermin. It seemed like a nightmare to Gregor Samsa but it was the truth as far as the plot of the novella is concerned.

 The theme of family and the duties of family members to each other drive the interactions between Gregor Samsa and the others. His thoughts are almost entirely of the need to support his parents and sending his sister to the Conservatory. Though Gregor hates his job, he follows the call of duty to his family and goes far beyond simple duty. The family, on the other hand, takes care of Gregor Samsa after his metamorphosis only so far as duty seems to necessitate.

Gregor Samsa is kept locked in his room and brought food. In the end, his room is barely cleaned and his sister no longer cares about what food she brings him. Her actions are routine, as she only wants to do enough that she can claim she has fulfilled her duty. When she decides she has had enough, she insists that their duty to him has been fulfilled: "I don't think anyone could reproach us in the slightest (77)" she says as she suggests that they need to get rid of him. This line from The Metamorphosis implies how ruthless one’s own blood-related people can become when someone’s worth and capability are finished.

The weirdness of life is another striking dimension of The Metamorphosis. Gregor Samsa, for the sake of his parents and sister, takes up the job of a salesman which he finds very difficult but he still sticks with the job to provide monetary assistance to his family and to arrange enough money for his sister’s musical classes.

The novella bears no indication that Gregor Samsa did anything wrong which led to his horrible ill fate. But Gregor Samsa could not escape the hardships of his destiny. This is tough for readers to accept. At the same time Gregor Samsa’s transformation into a worm is no less absurd either.

It cannot be acknowledged at all that a human being in the world suddenly turns into a vermin but it exactly happens in The Metamorphosis. Through the abnormal plight of Gregor Samsa, author Franz Kafka wanted to show the readers the weirdness and unpredictability that haunt us, surround us and hit us like a bolt from the blue in most undesirable ways.


Ananda Rahman is a freelancer
and a columnist.