Victoria 1

An Uplifting Tragedy

Throughout Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s mentality regarding his

behavior and inner thoughts suffer a drastic change that would negatively affect him. When

Gregor transforms to be more bug-like and less human-like; not only does he feel more alienated

from his family, but humanity itself becomes alien as well. Kafka illustrates how Gregor

continuously loses human qualities throughout the text, and suffers from neglect. It was not just

Gregor that went through a metamorphosis however, his mother, father, and Grete did as well. In

fact, one could argue that Grete went through more of a significant metamorphosis than Gregor

did, despite his physical changes representing a vermin. His mother and father also change, as

Gregor’s whole family experiences change, all of which are more positive in comparison to

Gregor’s changes.

Gregor transforms both physically and mentally, but the mental transformation has a

more significant impact. He falls into a trance of discovering his new self and somewhat

embraces this uniqueness of being the only insect-human on earth. The majority of Gregor’s

inner thoughts suggests that he becomes more like an insect. For example, Gregor “especially

liked hanging from the ceiling . . . a faint swinging sensation went through the body; and in the

almost happy absent-mindedness which Gregor felt up there, it could happen to his own surprise

that he let go” (Kafka 41). Gregor can somewhat can enjoy his overall harmful transformation,

because it would lead him astray and morph him in to a total insect where he loses all sight of

human responsibilities. He loses himself during such a simple occurrence of hanging on the

ceiling, which exposes how his mind becomes more simplistic and that he appeals to similar

things that an insect would. It is possible that Gregor is becoming accustomed finding happiness

in his new body without humanity, as the happiness that Gregor feels in this instance is never
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brought to him by any of his family members throughout the novel. His mentality changes from

finding joy through financially supporting his parents and sister, to finding joy in hanging off of

a ceiling using his new bug-like abilities, which demonstrates how he has transformed into an

insect mentally after his physical change. Another example of Gregor’s newfound state of mind

is displayed as the audience observes how he deals with personal dilemmas. Gregor found

himself “overwhelmed with self-reproach and worry, he began to creep and crawl over

everything” (Kafka 48). Gregor uses his bug-like qualities in an attempt to cope with his real-life

issues, as opposed to using what’s left of his humanity to solve his problems. With his new way

of thinking, he believes that acting like a bug while panicking and crawling around with his large

quantity of limbs will solve something; but all it does is demonstrate to the audience how his

transformed bug-like mind gradually overcomes him. Gregor’s mentality has transformed

alongside his new body, and he unintentionally embraces his new verminous mind when finding

joy and responding to stress.

Gregor beings to lose relations with his family, as he simultaneously begins to lose his

humanity and human-like traits. His family starts to neglect and lose sympathy for him as they

see signs of hm becoming less human-like. Gregor’s deprivation of human relationships deeply

effects how he continues to live and process thoughts. It seems as if the longer Gregor is living

as this vermin, the more he will forget about his past human experiences. One can only question

whether or not Gregor “really [wanted] the warm room, so cozily appointed with heirlooms,

transformed into a lair, where he might, of course, be able to creep, unimpeded, in any direction,

though forgetting his human past swiftly and totally” (Kafka 44). Gregor forgets more about his

humanity as he becomes more compelled to embrace the bug side of him; he is being overtaken .

Kafka foreshadows Gregor taking pleasure in verminous actions, and straying away from
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humanity as he states how Gregor would “[forget] his human past.” The audience then sees

Gregor receiving neglect and bitterness from his family, due to him losing humanity. This is

evident as his father almost beats him to death, his sister ignores and neglects his needs, and his

mother is in constant fear of him. Gregor’s father and mother took him for granted, expecting

him to support the family financially with his occupation, and are no longer grateful for his

sacrifices. Since Gregor cannot care for the family due to taking on the qualities of an insect, his

family deems that he is a useless hinderance. Even when Gregor’s mother attempted to get closer

to her son, she eventually “caught sight of the enormous brown splotch on the flowered

wallpaper, and, before she became truly aware that what she was looking at was Gregor,

screamed out in a high pitched raw voice ‘Oh God, oh God’ and fell with outstretched arms”

(Kafka 47). Upon discovering what Gregor’s new appearance, Gregor’s mother is in such a

tremendous state of revulsion that she involuntarily faints on the floor. The mother then declines

to put any more effort into helping Gregor due completely to his physical appearance, whereas

the father is disappointed in Gregor for being unable to provide. The different ways in which he

is a disappointment to his own family exploits this family’s astonishing lack of love and support.

Gregor’s father pushes him away both physically and mentally by avoiding conversation with

Gregor and taking on the role as an uncaring alpha male, as well as harming him with projectiles.

It can be argued that his father goes as far to strip Gregor’s masculinity, as well as dehumanizing

him in the process. His once-close sister, Grete, loses hope in Gregor and ends up viewing him as

more of a bug than a human. She fails to tend to his physical or mental needs and loses faith in

him, yet has an unhealthy and possessive attachment to him. This theme of physicality relating to

mentality is constantly used by Kafka to display the initial metaphor of Gregor becoming a

vermin, and how it has affected him. Kafka knows that one can never become a vermin in the
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non-fictional world, so his metaphor is comparing a vermin to a human who struggles with work,

sociality, and relationships. According to Carl Rhodes and Robert Westwood, “whole categories

of people have been disparaged and disregarded as faceless and undeserving of ethical

attention; rendered, like Gregor, as verminous” (Rhodes and Westwood). The writers insinuate

that regular humans who are “disparaged or disregarded,” will be treated like vermin who do

not deserve ethical attention, which confirms the metaphoric relationship between vermin and

man in The Metamorphosis. Overall, Gregor’s family had fully alienated and rejected him due to

his loss of human qualities, and after enough neglect, rejection, and loss of his humanity; he

ends up dead and alone.

Gregor’s family has experienced significant transformations as well, especially as his

sister Grete flourishes. Grete’s transformation blatantly has more of a positive outlook, as

opposed to Gregor’s tragic transformation. The death of Gregor is the origin of these positive

transformations that have occurred for the rest of his family. It is the unfortunate truth

that “Gregor’s death leads to domestic blossoming” (Champlin). Grete comes out of her cocoon

and blossoms into a fine woman looking for a spouse, but only after she was freed from toxically

obsessing and stressing over Gregor. Gregor had to die for this uplifting instance to occur, and

his parents benefit from his death as well. They came to the realization of having more money

after Gregor died, as he was no longer holding them back. It was apparent that the “greatest

improvement in their situation at this moment, of course, had to come from a change of

dwelling” (Kafka 77). His parents decide to migrate to this improved apartment in a better area,

which shows how their transformation alongside Gregor’s death results in yet another positive

outcome. The final act of Gregor’s family transforming has given them a new and improved life

which is new and more fulfilling, it was all derived from the death of Gregor and his money.
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One could argue that Gregor’s transformation was overall beneficial due to his new physical

bug-like attributes and not needing to worry about old responsibilities such as maintaining a

steady income for the household. Gregor found happiness when he was crawling around like an

insect, and amusement from hanging upside down. He was more able to avoid or ignore

problems as a vermin, and used his new abilities as a coping mechanism. Not only was Gregor

able to physically confront the problematic cleaning woman (Kafka 59), he also found joy in

crawling around his clutter in order to cope with his problems, which is astoundingly unhuman

like. It is possible that are more positives than negatives regarding Gregor’s transformation, due

to him not having to work under his bothersome boss as well. He does not need to wake early

and provide anymore, but this is actually a downside to his transformation away from humanity.

Gregor may have lost his job, but he still retains all of the pressure of having to provide for his

family. Gregor’s self-worth plummeted, and he fails to receive an income, which are two

incredible downsides to his transformation. Gregor would also not need his physical coping

mechanisms if he did not go through the disastrous effects of the transformation in the first place,

for the metamorphosis caused more pain and adversity for Gregor than positivity. Gregor’s

would have been better off if it were not for his transformation; it caused physical pain,

emotional pain, and confinement.

Gregor is suffering throughout the entire novel, and never quite deals with his problems.

Instead of writing a cliché novel focusing on overcoming life’s difficulties with a successful

protagonist, Kafka writes about how one will be overcame by problems and will not recover

from life’s difficulties; and others will benefit from the experience. Gregor is overcome by his

metamorphosis and is mentally suffering from verminous thoughts, alienation, neglect, and loss

of humanity. The insect-like thoughts poison him and cause him to act as a bug instead of acting
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as a human should, which is why he loses relationships with his family and receives neglect.

While the result of Gregor’s transformation is a tragedy, his family ends up gaining from his loss

and accepts his death with a sigh of relief. Grete grows into a stress-free woman who does not

unhealthily obsess or worry about Gregor any longer, and Gregor’s parents will settle down at a

better location with a larger amount of money. Grete and her parents positively transform by

growing and moving on from Gregor’s dire transformation; which resulted in his unfortunate

abandonment, lack of humanity, loss of relationships, and eventually loss of his life.

Work Cited

Champlin, Jeffrey. “Brother, Sister, Monster: Resonance and the Exposed Body in Antigone and

The Metamorphosis.” MLN, vol. 130 no. 5, 2015, pp. 1179-1197. Project MUSE,

doi:10.1353/mln.2015.0077
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Kafka, Franz. “The Metamorphosis” edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. Franz

Kafka's The Metamorphosis. New York :Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. Print.

Rhodes, C. & Westwood, R. J Bus Ethics (2016) 133: 235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-

014-2350-1