The Metamorphosis Character Analysis

In the first part of the book, Gregor wakes up and has evolved into a huge bug, or so he thinks. Doubting his ability to get out of bed, he looks for answers for the cause, but can not find any. Then, his mom comes to his room and is only concerned at the fact he is late for work and does not ask if he is all right. As said on page 5, by Gregor’s mother, “Gregor—it’s a quarter to seven. Didn’t you want to catch the train?” This is the only thing she asks her son Gregor when he wakes up unusually late. Expectedly Gregor was looking for a careful remark but this shows us that his mom is only concerned about the money Gregor makes instead of his well-being. In accordance, Gregor is starting to feel ashamed of this condition he must deal with, “Just don’t stay in bed being useless” (Kafka, 7). This shows us, Gregor feels useless because he cannot work for his family and help them at all. He made a ginormous effort to get out of his bed to work and yet is family is only worried about him losing his job instead of his well being. As we see, his family doesn’t love him genuinely and do not love Gregor like they should, being his family.

When individuals are rejected by family and society, they tend to feel abandoned and unloved. In Franz Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s transformation into a “monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1) results in him being psychologically and even physically abused by his family. Rejection from his mother, sister, and father leave Gregor feeling unwanted and feeling as if he is a terrible burden on the family and their well being.

Gregor maintains submissive personality and does not defend himself. Gregor’s physical change into a bug is the only aspect of him that changes. Gregor continuously allows himself to be abused. Upon Gregor’s transformation, he is unable to go to work. Therefore, the chief clerk visits Gregor to force him to come to work. Gregor remained locked in his room and would not leave for work. So, the clerk became extremely impatient. The frustrated clerk divulges into a cruel and demoralizing speech. He maliciously accuses Gregor of hiding because of unethical involvement in cash receipts. Later, Gregor’s family and the clerk become restless and want to see Gregor. The door to Gregor’s room is unlocked to open and reveal Gregor in his insect form. Gregor’s family and the clerk react with horror. The clerk and Gregor’s mother run away from him in fear. Gregor’s father grabs a stick and a newspaper and dashes toward Gregor, herding Gregor back into his bedroom with prods and fierce language. Gregor injures himself badly while trying to fit back through the doorway. Gregor’s door is slammed shut behind him and he his left alone, frightened and injured, in his room. The events subsequent to Gregor’s transformation exhibit his passive nature. Clearly such passivity was not useful to Gregor.

Gregor was betrayed by society turning its back on him due to the transformation from human to a human-sized bug. After the metamorphosis, Gregor was pondering the idea of what people would think of him in his new form. He had high hopes that society would still accept him. "A man might find for a moment that he was unable to work, but that's exactly the right time to remember his past accomplishments and to consider that later on, when the obstacle has been removed, he's

In the beginning of the novella, Gregor undergoes a transformation. Many readers view his transformation as he turns into a bug because of the way Kafka describes Gregor. Kafka may have been undergoing a transformation of his own. Kafka dealt with many issues growing up such as self doubt, issues with his father, and eventually, health issues. Like Kafka, Gregor deals with issues with his father and within himself and begins to feel less and less like himself as the novella continues. He awakes from his sleep to ask himself, “What’s happened to me (Kafka, 3)?” With the conflicts Gregor has with his family, especially his father, he begins to feel unwanted and unappreciated. Gregor also feels that he is becoming less sensitive when that used to be one of his main traits as a human (Kafka, 24). Seeing that Gregor is losing his sensitivity, that shows that he is truly losing himself since he is losing one of his main traits. Feeling less like himself, Gregor becomes more distant with his close

The deterioration of Gregor's life was in part due to the ostracism associated with his being turned into a bug. Once his family found out what happened, they banished him to his room, and his parents could not even bear to look at him. Prior to his metamorphosis, Gregor was an integral part of the family. He provided the money by which the family survived. Yet as soon as he changed, he was labeled an outcast, who was useless to the family, and therefore not paid any attention. He felt this ostracism, and it made him not want to continue on in life, he gave up because he felt unloved.

His family shuns him and will not look at him. In time, his family abuses him and keeps him in filth and debris, which is not only in his room, but clinging to his carapace. They also forget to feed him, or just kick scraps into his room. By showing how much Gregor's identity is affected by his treatment from family and others' treatment of him, the story shows how identity is socially constructed, rather than being an inborn trait. The devolution of Gregor's room from a human bedroom to a storage closet reflects how his connection to human society deteriorates as the story progresses.

While the weeks and months passed Grete and his mother and father struggled to give little any compassion or concern for Gregor as their finances plummeted to the ground. Prior to his metamorphosis Gregor was physically alienated from any semblance of a social life due to his job and financial obligation to his family afterward the transformation and he was deemed a burden to his family that he had provided for countless months he was psychologically isolated from them as well. Notably while Gregor had finally been emancipated from his dreaded job as a salesman, he had become a parasitic to his family without being labeled as a provider they slowly began to turn against him only worsening his mental state and exile.

In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka conveys the series of emotional and psychological repercussions of a physical transformation that befalls the protagonist, a young salesman called Gregor Samsa. As the story progresses, Gregor finds himself unfairly stigmatized, cruelly rejected because of his clear inability to financially support his family, and consequently increasingly isolated. Through extensive use of symbolism, Kafka is able to relate the surreal and absurd, seemingly arbitrary events of this short story to a general critique of society-particularly on the alienating effects that conformity generates. On a broader level, the combined themes-which include the themes of conformity, freedom, and alienation--found throughout The

‘The Metamorphosis’ by Franz Kafka, the composer of the novel, explores the relations between an outsider and an insider, and Gregor Samsa’s relationship with his family, gradually following up on how Gregor decided to become an insect that he was physically being seen as, although he had been psychologically/ mentally been feeling like an “insect” for a while now. Gregor allowed himself to transition into an insect, as he chose he would let his family affect his personal happiness. Subsequently, he made the choice to become accustomed to the routine of the life he was living, to exclude and suppress himself from all persons and things, and to become fully focused on his job and his duties, despite the fact that he despised it so much. Gregor wanted to believe that he was in full control of his own life and emotions, when he only allowed his family to affect him thoughts and progression, similarly just like Kafka’s did as well as confiding to become an insect

Throughout the novella, Gregor’s deeply rooted sense of guilt transitions from having the power to drive his actions to merely plaguing his thoughts. Immediately after his transformation, Gregor reveals that he has to “deal with the problems of traveling, the worries about train connections, irregular bad food, temporary and constantly changing human relationships…” (Kafka 4), in his daily work. Although he appears to hate his job, Gregor does not quit, as he has both intrinsic motivation to provide and extrinsic pressure from his family to keep them afloat. Rather than reflecting on his feelings and emotional baggage attached to his job, Gregor focuses on grievances set in reality, and allows this to occupy his conscious mind. After Gregor’s transformation, his

Before his transformation, Gregor used to be an important voice in the family because he provided for them. After the transformation, Gregor is no longer depended on as he once used to be. This leads him to feel as if he is a burden to his family. This explains his loss of desire to eat and his lack of motivation. When talking to her parents about Gregor, Grete illustrates their dilemma:

No one can understand what Gregor is saying and suspect something is seriously wrong with him. Gregor manages to unlock and open the door with his mouth since he has no hands. He runs out and begs the office manager to forgive his late start. The office manager is horrified by gregor's appearance and bolts from the apartment. Gregor tries to chase after him but gets stuck in the doorway. His father shoves him back in and closes the door as he is horrified by gregor's new form. His family and him and get into a routine for the next few weeks to months. Gregor gets to know some of the new capabilities of his body like climbing on the walls and ceiling. Grete, gregor's sister, feeds him bread and milk. Sadly Gregor's new body and taste does not care for the milk or bread so Grete decided to feed him rotting food scraps which he happens to like. Grete also cleans gregor's room twice a day for him. When Grete discovers that Gregor like to crawl around the room she and her father move some of the furniture out of the room to give gregor more room to roam. Gregor's mother has not seen him since the first day he turned into a bug. Gregor's mother faints upon the sight of

To begin with, Gregor already isn’t too happy with his dad because he is out of work and leaves Gregor as the only one supporting the family. After Gregor’s transformation, Mr. Samsa takes charge of the family. He gets a job and the family takes in a group of boarders for extra money. Mr. Samsa orders Gregor to stay in his room so that the boarders don’t discover that Gregor is now an insect, and he constantly throws insults at Gregor which emotionally hurts him.

Once Gregor came out to his family and revealed his secret, tension arose in the house. Gregor’s family did a marvelous job avoiding Gregor due to his physical appearance. Because they physically saw him as a bug, the family no longer saw him as family or even Gregor. For instance, the author states “... as his unsuspecting sister swept up with a broom, not just the remnants, but even the foods which Gregor had not touched at all, as if these were also now useless…” (Page 154, Paragraph 50) shows how people view him as something odd.