The Metamorphosis by F. Kafka

Franz Kafka belongs to those writers of the twentieth century whose fiction express grief over the fracturing of human community. Though Kafka remains exceptional in that he enjoyed no public recognition during his living fourth dimension, his world-fame came to him only after his conclusion. His well-developed, modernist parables often do not have any fixed substance, yet they reflect the insecurities of an be on when faith in old-established beliefs has crumbled. Kafka masterfully combines within adept and only(a) framework the cognisable and mysterious, an exact portrayal of the factual world with a dreamlike and magic dissolution of it. By unifying those contrary elements he was able to pass on some new fusion style in prose fiction. The analysis of one of his works will allow seeing in what way Kafka attains that obscure quality of his expression of the experience of human loss, estrangement, and guilt an experience increasingly dominant in the modern age.Kafkas best -known story The Metamorphosis is the effusive example of Kafkaesque paradox which consists in clashing the realism of timeworn detail with not just improbable just absurd turns of events. The sexual world of Kafkas character seeps from imaginable to actual, Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis transmews into an sucking louse as the only way to manifest his insect-like relationship to the world, where he lives. It is no dream.The Metamorphosis is peculiar as a narrative in having its completion in the very archetypal clip As Gregor Samsa awoke one first light from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. (Kafka, 19) The rest of the story falls away from this high head word of astonishment in one long expiring sigh. This form of narrative, which contradicts all accomplished concepts of presenting the discourse, violates the rules just the same as the peoples faith in particular ancient beliefs had been violated in the twentieth century. As it is known, the tralatitious narrative bases on the drama of dnouement, the so-called solution of complications and the glide path to a conclusion.For Kafka such form is not acceptable because it is just barely the absence of dnouement and conclusions that is his subject matter. His story is about death, but death that is without dnouement, death that is merely a spiritually petering out. The first sentence of The Metamorphosis announces Gregor Samsas death and the rest of the story is his slow dying. However, in no case Kafkas protagonist is going to give up meekly. He struggles against the reality of look which, actually turned out to be a death for him in his case, it follows, his life is his death and there is no escape. For a moment, it is true, near the end of his long dying, while listening to his sis play the violin, he feels as if the way were opening before him to the foreigner nourishment he craved (Kafka, 76) but the nourishment remains unknown, he is locked into his room for the exit time and he expires.What Gregor awakens to on the morning of his metabolism is the uprightness of his life. His ordinary consciousness has lied to him about himself now he is confronted with the transference from his habitual self-understanding into the wickednessmare of truth. That dreadful dream, which he got into, reveals, in fact, reality, which he could not have understood before he is a vermin, a disgusting creature shut out from the human circle. (Kafka, 33) At this stop consonant it should be underlined that Kafka prefers to use a metaphor, so that Gregor Samsa is not like a vermin but he is vermin. Anything less than metaphor, such as a simile comparing Gregor to vermin, would diminish the reality of what Kafka is trying to represent. Gregor appears in a dream and it is only natural that a dreamer, while dreaming, agrees his dream for reality. However, his metabolic process is indeed no dream but a revelation of the truth. And this truth is comp osed of an array of facts.First of all he grasps the deteriorative effect of his furrow upon his soul, the job that materially supports him but cuts him off from the possibility of real human associationsOh God, he thought, what an exhausting job Ive picked on Traveling about daytime in, day out. Its much more irritating work than doing the actual business in the office, and on top of that theres the trouble of constant traveling, of worrying about chase after connections, the bad and irregular meals, the human associations that are no sooner smitten up than they are ended without ever becoming intimate. The devil rejoinder it all (Kafka, 20)He has been sacrificing himself by working at his meaningless, degrading job so as to pay off an old debt of his parents to his employer. Otherwise Id have wedded notice long ago, Id have gone to the chief and told him exactly what I think of him. (Kafka, 21) But even now, with the truth of his self-betrayal pinning him on his backwards to his bed, he is unable to claim himself for himself and decide to quithe moldiness wait another five or six years erstwhile Ive saved enough money to pay back my parents debts to himthat should take another five or six yearsIll do it without fail. Ill cut myself completely loose then. For the moment, though, Id better get up, since my drawing string goes at five. (Kafka, 21)Another truth revealed through metamorphosis is the situation in the Samsa family on the surface, the official sentiments of the parents and the sister toward Gregor, and of Gregor toward them and toward himself underneath, the horror and disgust, and self-disgust family duty required the quelling of disgust and the exercise of patience, nothing but patience. (Kafka, 65) His metamorphosis is a plan on himself from the standpoint of his defeated humanity. Philip Rahv has very suggestively analyzed the subjective meaning of the insect symbol here by showing that quite frequently brothers and sisters are symbo lically represented in dreams as animals or insects and that, since in this story of family life one of the underlying themes is the displacement of Samsa in the family hierarchy by his sister, it should, on the psychological plane, be looked upon as, on Kafkas part, a construct of wish and guilt thoughts. (Rahv, pp. 61-62)Gregor breaks out of his room the first time hoping that his transformation will turn out to be non genius the bet on time, in the course of defending at least his hope of reverting to his human ultimo. His third eruption, in Part III, has quite a several(predicate) aim. The final section of the story discovers a Gregor who tries to dream again, after a long interval, of resuming his old place at the head of the family, but the figures from the past that now appear to himhis boss, the chief clerk, traveling salesmen, a chambermaid (a sweet and fleeting memory), and so on mintnot help him, they were one and all unapproachable and he was glad when they vanished. (Kafka, 69) Defeated, he finally gives up all hope of returning to the human community. Now his existence slopes steeply toward death. His room is now the place in which all the households flyblown old decayed things are thrown, along with Gregor, a dirty old decayed thing and he has just stopped eating.At first he had thought he was unable to eat out of necrose over the state of his room (72). But then he notice that he got increasing enjoyment from crawling about the filth and junk. On the last evening of his life, watching from his room the lodgers whom his family have taken in putting away a good supper, he comes to a critical realization Im peckish enough, said Gregor sadly to himself, but not for that mixed bag of food. How these lodgers are stuffing themselves, and here am I dying of starvation(Kafka, 74) In giving up at last all hope of reentering the human circle, Gregor finally understands the truth about his life which is to say he accepts the knowledge of his deat h, for the truth about his life is his death-in-life by his banishment from the human community. But having finally accepted the truth, he begins to sense a possibility that exists for him only in his outcast state. He is hungry enough, he realizes, but not for the worlds stuff, not for that kind of food. (Kafka, 74)When Gregor breaks out of his room the third and last time, he is no long-life trying to deceive himself about himself and get back to his old life with its illusions about belonging to the human community. What draws him out of his room the last night of his life is his sisters violin playing. Although he had never cared for melody in his human state, now the notes of the violin attract him surprisingly. Indifferent to the others, at last he has the courage to think about himself. The filthy starved underground creature advances onto the spotless floor of the living room where his sister is playing for the three lodgers. Here Kafka makes use of the idea that music ex presses the inexpressible, that it points to a hidden sphere of spiritual power and meaning.Creating in The Metamorphosis a character who is real and unreal, replete with meaning and empty of self, Kafka encourages his readers to fill in the void that exists at the center of the insect-Gregors self. Thus, as a reader, one can come to conclusion that Gregors metamorphosis is a symbol of his monomania from the human state, of his awakening to the full horror of his dull, spiritless existence, and of the desperate self-disgust of his unconscious life.ReferenceKafka, Franz (1952) Selected Short Stories of Franz Kafka. Translators Edwin Muir, Willa Muir New York Modern Library, 1952Rahv, Philip. (1939). Franz Kafka the Hero as lone(prenominal) Man. The Kenyon Review, I (1)