Реферат: The Metamorphosis Essay Research Paper The MetamorphosisKafka

The Metamorphosis Essay, Research Paper

The Metamorphosis

Kafka wrote “The Metamorphosis” in 1912, taking three weeks to compose

the story. While he had expressed earlier satisfaction with the work, he later

found it to be flawed, even calling the ending “unreadable.” But whatever his

own opinion may have been, the short story has become one of the most popularly

read and analyzed works of twentieth-century literature. Isolation and

alienation are at the heart of this surreal story of a man transformed overnight

into a kind of beetle. In contrast to much of Kafka’s fiction, “The

Metamorphosis” has not a sense of incompleteness. It is formally structured

into three Roman-numbered parts, with each section having its own climax. A

number of themes run through the story, but at the center are the familial

relationships fundamentally affected by the great change in the story’s

protagonist, Gregor Samsa (Lawson 27).

While the father-son relationship in the story appears to be a central

theme, the relationship between Gregor and his sister Grete is perhaps the most

unique. It is Grete, after all, with whom the metamorphosed Gregor has any

rapport, suggesting the Kafka intended to lend at least some significance to

their relationship. Grete’s significance is found in her changing relationship

with her brother. It is Grete’s changing actions, feelings, and speech toward

her brother, coupled with her accession to womanhood, that seem to parallel

Gregor’s own metamorphosis. This change represents her metamorphosis form

adolescence into adulthood but at the same time it marks the final demise of

Gregor. Thus a certain symmetry is to be found in “The Metamorphosis”: while

Gregor falls in the midst of despair, Grete ascends to a self-sufficient, sexual

woman.

It is Grete who initially tries conscientiously to do whatever she can

for Gregor. She attempts to find out what he eats, to make him feel comfortable,

and to anticipate his desires. Grete, in an act of goodwill and love toward

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