While the young businessman Georg Bendemann is condemned to death in Kafka’s metaphorical world, the young commercial traveler Gregor Samsa in “Die Verwandlung” ( “The Metamorphosis”) must live out the last months of his life in the same world changed as a giant bug, which resembles a cockroach. Compared with “Die Verwandlung,” the little prose…
Tag: Franz Kafka
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – Analysis – Symbols
Probably the two most memorable images in ”The Metamorphosis” occur in its first section: first the picture of Gregor Samsa transformed into an insect, lying on his back in bed and unable to get up, with all his little legs fluttering helplessly in the air; and second the picture of Gregor the giant insect stuck…
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – Setting
Socio-Economic Background For most of Kafka’s lifetime, his home town of Prague was a Czech city within a German-speaking empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Only at the end of World War I did that Empire disappear, leading to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. But in 1912, when Kafka was writing ‘ The Metamorphosis,” the Czechs…
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – Symbols – Literary Devices
Point of View The story is told in the third person but is for the most part limited to Gregor’s point of view. Only his thoughts and feelings are presented, and most of the events are seen through his eyes. The point seems to be to present a picture of Gregor and the world as…
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – Themes
Alienation at Work One of the themes of the story is the unpleasantness of work. Gregor Samsa hates his job as a travelling salesman, but must continue doing it to pay off his parents’ debts. There is no suggestion that he gets any job satisfaction; all he talks about is how exhausting the job is,…
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – Characters
Charwoman Hired by the Samsas to replace their live-in servant, the charwoman is a tough old woman who, unlike the other characters, is neither horrified nor frightened by Gregor’ s insect form. She even refers to Gregor affectionately as “the old dung beetle” and less affectionately threatens him with a chair. She is the one…
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – Summary
Part I As the story opens, Gregor Samsa has already turned into a gigantic insect. He notices this, but does not seem to find it horrifying or even that unusual, merely an inconvenience or perhaps a delusion. He worries mainly that he has overslept and will be late for work. He also thinks to himself…
Dream and Reality in The Metamorphosis
The Samsa family around the fantastic insect is nothing else than mediocrity surrounding genius. Gregor Samsa (pronounced Zamza), the protagonist, has for his parents Flaubertian philistines. They are generally interested in the material side of life and have poor tastes in other regards. About five years back, father Samsa loses all his money, which forces…