The Metamorphosis: The portrait of Franz Kafka's Life

The Metamorphosis is Kafka's longest story and one of his most frequently analyzed works. Tripartite in form, it traces the months from Gregor Samsa's unique metamorphosis to his death from dehydration, injury, and general neglect. Gregor's health declines as the health of his father, mother, and sister improves. His metamorphosis from the sole breadwinner to an utterly dependent and undesirable creature prompts the metamorphosis of his sluggish family into hardworking, happier people (Kafka, 12).

The point is often made that, although it is Gregor who takes on a grotesque form, the real ugliness in the story lies in his family's attitude toward and treatment of him, in their assumption that he is responsible for the debt incurred by his father. As the parents and sister selfishly exploit the best years of Gregor's youth, any possibility he might have of marrying and establishing a family of his own is reduced to his making a fretwork frame for a magazine picture of a woman. They have used him up (Kafka, 13).

Likewise, his employer shows no appreciation for Gregor's humanity and seems bent only on getting the maximum return from his employee. After five years without missing a day, Gregor needs only to miss one train to have the chief clerk threaten him with dismissal. They also use him up.

The integrity of Gregor's self is under attack from all sides. Not even his bedroom is a safe retreat. It has doors in all three inside walls, enabling his mother, his father, and his sister to question him simultaneously. No wonder, then, that Gregor revolts. He takes on a form that makes his further exploitation impossible (Kafka, 14).

Kafka explicitly forbade any artistic illustration of the bug for the book cover. That would have given too mundane a form to a transformation that signifies a revolt of the subconscious, a breakthrough after a long period of self-denial. Gregor entertains the idea that the same may happen to the chief clerk himself some day.

Significantly, the title of the story is not The Bug but The Metamorphosis. The emphasis is on the change itself, on exploring who one really is and what one really likes to do, on being guided by one's own urges, with no worry concerning where they will lead. Gregor discovers that he feels most comfortable squeezed under the sofa or hanging upside down ...