The Metamorphosis
During our childhood, almost everyone might have watched “Ben 10” on Cartoon Network. It was absolute fun seeing those frivolous acts of Ben, especially when he gets stuck with some particular transformation. But have you ever wondered what are the consequences if you get transformed like that for some period of time? What if the transformation is permanent!!!
Franz Kafka in his epic classic novella “The Metamorphosis” (Die Verwandlung — German, Original title) makes an attempt to describe how it feels to be transformed.
The novella starts with Gregor, who startles out of his bed because of a bad dream. He understands that he was transformed into a vermin (a giant insect) and faces a lot of difficulties in understanding his new anatomy (i.e how to use his tiny legs, antenna, etc !!)
Because of his transformation, he loses his traveling salesman job (being the only job holder in his family) which marks the beginning of hardships for their family. While his parents stopped visiting his room, Grete, his younger sister (a novice violinist) starts giving food for him every day though she also doesn’t dare to watch him. Gregor felt that Grete still loves/accepts him (partly it is true though). In the meanwhile, he gets familiarised with his new abilities to climb walls, crawl on the roof, etc.
His sister observed this behavior and after a discussion with her mother decides to evacuate Gregor’s room so that he gets a lot of free space for crawling. While they are in the arduous work of shifting heavy tables, Gregor doesn’t want this to happen and so sticks to an object (like a spider sticking on its web). His unnoticed mother gets scared (she thinks a daunting creature came) and faints away. While in a hurry to save her mother, Grete unknowingly hurts Gregor (a glass bottle breaks while she was in a hurry and the splinter cuts his face). Around the same time, his father comes and gets a picture of what might have happened. Frustrated, he starts throwing random objects on Gregor until he goes to his room and in the process, he gets hurt by an apple. (It is as if we throw stones on street dogs). Gregor gets room arrested (very strict this time).
The monetary savings that they had till then start diminishing day by day. So the rest of the members start to do some work to meet their family expenses. As everyone turns to be busy, no one cares much about Gregor. Even Grete loses interest in her elder brother’s daily activities varying from cleaning his room to giving food. The family also rents a room for some guests to get some money. So, many household objects get shifted to Gregor’s room which he feels is an advantage (as he got hurt and it’s not good to move and now these objects are the obstacles). Slowly, the affection shown by his sister Grete also reduces because of the tiresome job she has to do.
One fine day the guests in the house hear some violin music and after learning it was Grete asks her to play in front of them. While she plays, they feel it very boredom and unappreciative. Around the same time, Gregor comes out from his room hearing the music and after observing their expressions felt that they don’t deserve his sister’s talent. While he was staring at his sister, one of the guests saw Gregor screamed and created havoc and asked an explanation for the stay of this creature. They laid many new conditions for continuing their stay which turned to be an additional burden for Gregor’s family.
Grete got short-tempered and shouted at Gregor. She says to her parents that Gregor should leave the house or die. Her harsh tone, hard feelings, resentful nature and the parents nodding for what she said made him even sadder. The next day morning, they found that Gregor was dead. Believing that he was succumbed due to the injuries, they left the place and moved to another smaller house in the countryside and as time progresses Grete turns out to be much more beautiful and ready for marriage.
I felt an immense poignant tone from the author towards Gregor. The author’s way of expressing the difficulties faced by Gregor because of his new transformation, the close relationship between Gregor and Grete (though it was only for ephemeral), the way he was treated by his family members over the time are very acute and heart-broken at times. There have been many interpretations of this classic work from various perspectives. Some of my thoughts are
- From the time period when it was published (1915), Franz Kafka gives an idea about various forms of discrimination (in a passive way, in our modern society)
- Just because of his appearance, Gregor lost everything i.e a good earning job, love from his family members. His dreams to take care of his family got collapsed and in fact, it is no wonder to say that he succumbed not just because of physical injuries but the emotional ones as well.
- The character arch transformation of Grete(his sister) is thought-provoking. Because whatever Gregor had done, it was with love for his little sister. He loved her so much that he couldn’t bear her resentment. This kind of behavior is prevalent in modern society as well which is a prime factor for depression, fights and in the worst case leading to suicide/murder.
- One can easily correlate Gregor to elders (old-aged parents) and the rest of the so-called-busy family members to ourselves (at least for most of us). The lack of care, emotion and moreover the resentful nature that many of us might shower on our elders (similar to Gregor) has been articulated by Kafka. Just have a thought about how painful it is for Gregor (our elders)!!
- I believe no one in the present society might have such hardships faced by Gregor (physical, mental and emotional). So, just think before worrying too much about the difficulties.
- Finally, the interpretation of the title!!! Does “The metamorphosis” depicts Gregor’s physical transformation or Grete’s (and the rest family) emotional transformation?
It might be fun or even unrealistic (though we feel happy) while watching “Ben 10” or “Eega” (A Telugu movie by S.S Rajamouli) but the century-old classic depicts the reality.
No doubt, it depicts many alienating elements of modern society. It depends on us (the reader to get the max crisp from the epic classic).
Do read the novella (just a 50 odd pages) because it gives a superficial understanding of various aspects, from psychological traits to the sociological behaviors/character arch transformation. But a gentle caution, it is not a cakewalk, not because of any jargon, complex sentences but it has lots of disturbing elements (transformation to an ant, emotional arches, etc!!)
Book suggestion credits: Kirubananth Sankar
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