Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Metamorphosis Essay
Metamorphosis Essay
Metamorphosis Essay
Nicole Davis
Mrs. Carter
04-20-09
The Metamorphosis is a novel written in 1912 by Franz Kafka. This novel was
originally written in German and translated into other languages. This novel is a perfect
parallel to Kafka’s life through the main character, Gregor Samsa. Just in the beginning
of this novel, there are already many comparisons between the lives of the men and how
Just one simple comparison between Gregor and Kafka are their last names and
the way Gregor feels when he wakes in the beginning of the novel. Gregor’s last named
is Samsa and Franz’s last name is Kafka. The similarities are; the a’s are in the same spot
in both names and both k’s in Kafka are replaced by s’s. That is a very minor comparison
between the two men, but can still lead to another clue that they both share the same
lives.
dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” (Kafka 3). He is
no longer in his comfortable human body, but transformed into a vermin. This disturbing
and uncomfortable situation describes how Kafka felt before he started writing the novel,
and how he compares himself (Kafka) to his father. Kafka wrote a letter to his Jewish
fiancé, Felice Bauer, describing how he felt right before he began to write The
Metamorphosis. He says in the letter “I was simply too miserable to get out of bed. It
Davis 2
also seemed to me that last night my novel got much worse, and I lay in the lowest
depths… I'll write you again today, even though I still have to run around a lot and shall
write down a short story that occurred to me during my misery in bed and oppresses me
with inmost intensity.” (Corngold 64). In this letter to Felice, Kafka informs her that he
had a miserable morning and that morning inspired him to write this novel.
In the beginning of the novel Gregor can’t get out of bed and he thought, “how
simple everything would be if he could get some help. Two strong persons—he thought
of his father and the maid…” (Kafka 7). Kafka’s father was a very strong and
intimidating man, but on the other hand, Kafka was sensitive and “weak”. Kafka was
constantly afraid of his father and he portrays this feeling in the novel as well. Gregor
questions himself, “should he really call for help? In spite of all his miseries, he could not
repress a smile at this thought.” (Kafka 7). Even Gregor himself is questioning whether
he really needs his father to be there, he smiles at the stupidity of even thinking he needed
his father’s help. Gregor and Kafka both dislike their fathers and don’t want them
involved in their lives or situations, even if they need their help. Gregor also mentions
that his father was strong and this also relates to Kafka’s father.
Also in the beginning of the novel, Kafka mentions a framed page of a magazine
with “a lady done up in a fur hat and a fur boa, sitting upright and raising up against the
viewer a heavy fur muff in which her whole forearm had disappeared.” (Kafka 3). This
decoration was a pornographic picture that, while his sister and mother were moving out
his furniture, he covered up the frame with his vermin-like body in order to save the
picture from being removed. “He squatted on this picture and would not give it up.”
(Kafka 26), this strong sexual obsession that Gregor has compares to Kafka’s
Davis 3
relationships with women. Kafka had trouble with love, but he had previously been
engaged twice before. Kafka did have an existing relationship with woman, but as with
the picture, it was not very close, as though there was a piece of glass between the couple.
He was never able to love completely and broke off most of his relationships due to his
lack of self-confidence.
Franz Kafka expressed and mirrored his life and feelings through the
transformation of Gregor Samsa. These two men both saw their lives through the same
Works Cited:
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Trans. and Ed. Corngold, Stanley. New York: Norton,