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    Franz Kafka is-WPS Office

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    MuHammAD ShArjeeL
    Franz Kafka's 1922 novella The Metamorphosis explores themes of alienation, absurdity, and authoritarianism through the story of Gregor Samsa waking up transformed into a large insect. Kafka's own strained relationship with his overbearing father, who Kafka felt like an insect around, influenced the story. The novella examines Gregor's failed attempts to adjust to his new condition and how his family is repulsed by and burdensome toward the creature he has become.

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    Franz Kafka is-WPS Office

    Uploaded by

    MuHammAD ShArjeeL
    74 views3 pages
    Franz Kafka's 1922 novella The Metamorphosis explores themes of alienation, absurdity, and authoritarianism through the story of Gregor Samsa waking up transformed into a large insect. Kafka's own strained relationship with his overbearing father, who Kafka felt like an insect around, influenced the story. The novella examines Gregor's failed attempts to adjust to his new condition and how his family is repulsed by and burdensome toward the creature he has become.

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    Franz Kafka's 1922 novella The Metamorphosis explores themes of alienation, absurdity, and authoritarianism through the story of Gregor Samsa waking up transformed into a large insect. Kafka's own strained relationship with his overbearing father, who Kafka felt like an insect around, influenced the story. The novella examines Gregor's failed attempts to adjust to his new condition and how his family is repulsed by and burdensome toward the creature he has become.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    74 views3 pages

    Franz Kafka is-WPS Office

    Uploaded by

    MuHammAD ShArjeeL
    Franz Kafka's 1922 novella The Metamorphosis explores themes of alienation, absurdity, and authoritarianism through the story of Gregor Samsa waking up transformed into a large insect. Kafka's own strained relationship with his overbearing father, who Kafka felt like an insect around, influenced the story. The novella examines Gregor's failed attempts to adjust to his new condition and how his family is repulsed by and burdensome toward the creature he has become.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Franz Kafka is considered to be an icon of 20th century literature.

    The book “ Metamorphosis” is one of his masterpieces.

    Before delving into the deeper meaning of the novel, one must know about Kafka's childhood
    background that shaped his ideas, thoughts, beliefs and convictions. Much of a writer's ideology come
    from the environment he breathes in.

    Franz Kafka was born into a middle class, German speaking family in Prague.

    His father was an ambitious and bullying storekeeper. He had a gigantic build and a brash character.
    Much opposed to Kafaka's character, his father was overbearing and authoritarian.

    His mother was a wealthy brewer's daughter who married beneath her social rank.

    Kafaka's relationship with his father remained strained throughout Kafka's life, and his father's
    authoritarian personality left its mark on much of Kafka's writing.

    The Metamorphosis is an autobiographical piece of writing, and it's been found that parts of the story
    reflect Kafka's own life. It's well known that Kafka felt like an insect in his father's authoritative presence
    and even developed a stammer while speaking to him.

    The actual conditions of his life, especially his family life, are certainly a model for the family interactions
    of the novel.

    A brief description of the story

    One morning, Gregor samsa, a travelling salesman, wakes up from troubled dreams and discovers that
    he has been transformed into a bug ( more precisely a horrible vermin).
    The rest of the novel deals with Gregor's attempts to adjust to his new condition as he deals with being
    burdensome to his parents and sister, who are repulsed by the horrible creature Gregor has become.

    Kafka's writing style

    The style of the book epitomises Kafka's writing.

    It was common for Kafka to present an impossible situation, such as a man's transformation into an
    insect, and develop a story from there with perfect realism & intense attention to detail.

    The style seems to consider the story a reality, cutting off any possibility of its having a dream, and yet
    the story itself is of an impossible occurance.

    So the reader is bound to look for deeper meanings within the story.

    Deeper meanings of “ The Metamorphosis”

    The novel deals with the concepts of -

    1. Alienation - He emphasises on “the alienating experience of modern life”. In a way we're all alienated.
    We're different having different fears, insecurities, goals and ambitions. The soul is alone and it must
    seek happiness within itself. Don't seek or expect comfort in others. Learn to be joyous alone.

    2. Absurdity( existentialism ) - This is known as absurdity of existence. In philosophy absurdity refers to


    the human tendency to seek inherent values and meaning of life , but the the human inability to find
    any. In this context absurd doesn't mean “logically impossible” , but rather “ humanly impossible” . Our
    tendency and inability seem to contradict each other. That's the root of his philosophy.

    3. Authoritarianism - The cruelity and incomprehensibility of authoritarian power has been loathed by
    Kafka in almost all his works. He argues that the people in power always tend to suppress those who
    aren't. This very much happened at his own home, where his authoritative father made rules for Kafka.
    He had to obey his father blindly without questioning his orders.
    4. Disillusionment - It is a feeling of disappointment, much like depression, which arises from the
    realisation that something is not what it was expected or believed to be, possibly accompanied by
    philosophical angst from having one's beliefs challenged. And this feeling is rightly portrayed in this
    novel.

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