Review: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Reading other reviews of The Metamorphosis, I am struck by how impressions of this book seems to reveal more about the reader than the author's intent. How do you approach subtext, metaphor, and unreliable narration? How do you interpret interpersonal tensions, familial relationships, and introspection?

In my reading, this is a book about a crisis of self, and of how this impacts a family. Gregor is a young man who is the sole income earner for his aging parents and younger sister, working a dreary and arduous job that brings him little social recognition. Famously, he wakes up one morning having been transformed into a bug.

Or rather, in my reading, one may as well describe what has happened as a metamorphosis into an insect. In an existential crisis, how else can he describe the way questioning his place in the world and his possible futures makes him completely change his sense of self?

This crisis could be brought on by anything: coming out of the closet, suicidal ideation, loss of faith. From a Doylist perspective, this monstrous metamorphosis is a convenient narrative device. To discuss any one of these challenges is to need to speak of their particulars. The absurd and unexplained transformation into a bug allows you to discuss their similarities.

Gregor's family responds at first in revulsion. His sister starts to treat him with sympathy, but never real closeness; she does not speak to him, does not recognize his humanity. For a while, his parents ignore him, hoping he will return to his old self. His family members deal with their own self identity crises, as they deal with their shame of him. Having relied on his income, they find themselves in financial difficulties, and resort to unglamorous work, selling their valuables, and taking in borders. Throughout, Gregor’s affection for his family is shown through his longing for the days they would gather around the dining table and his worries about their financial difficulties and health. But he is unable to be in company with them or to help them through their difficulties, because he is a bug.

In a climactic moment, Gregor’s mother’s attempt to bridge the chasm between her and Gregor hits a stumbling block, and is misinterpreted by Gregor’s father, who begins bombarding him with household items before being stopped by his mother.

No-one dared to remove the apple lodged in Gregor’s flesh, so it remained there as a visible reminder of his injury. He had suffered it there for more than a month, and his condition seemed serious enough to remind even his father that Gregor, despite his current sad and revolting form, was a family member who could not be treated as an enemy. On the contrary, as a family there was a duty to swallow any revulsion for him and to be patient, just to be patient.

The result is both a recognition of Gregor as family (albeit still not human recognition or emotional closeness), but also a fatal wound. Gregor ceases to eat, and slowly wastes away. A financial setback is the sister’s last straw, and she breaks down, asking her father to “try to get rid of it” — “it” being Gregor. Already near death, Gregor drags himself away to die. 

He thought back of his family with emotion and love. If it was possible, he felt that he must go away even more strongly than his sister.

It is a bleak story. For all his love for his family, his transformation prevents him from expressing it and prevents them from seeing him for who he is. In the end, he becomes only a burden to them, his passing nothing but relief. There is little suggestion that things could have gone another way, that such a metamorphosis could be handled better in the future.