Why did Kafka deem in appropriate to turn poor old Gregor Samsa into a cockroach? Unsurprisingly, this is not the only question that Kafka leaves the reader with at the end of this short story. Much confusion remains, but this simply adds to the intended alienation of the text.
Gregor wakes up one morning to find that he has transformed into a bug overnight. What would be expected of a normal human reaction to such an event would surely be shock and dismay, whereas Gregor simply worries about getting into trouble for missing a day at work. His metamorphosis is immediately accepted, and it is this aspect in particular that leads me to believe that on some level, Gregor expected it, or at least believed he deserved some form of punishment (for what we’ll never truly know). The Clerk directly knocking on Gregor’s bedroom door also highlights the fact that Gregor cannot escape his responsibilities, and/or his guilt.
Gregor’s physical transformation in The Metamorphosis isn’t really what’s important; it can be looked at in terms of what it represents. Becoming an insect is symbolic, because it demonstrates Gregor as the breadwinner of the family. Insects are always working and scurrying around, and therefore, Kafka’s choice of bug was successfully reflective of the human that Gregor is supposed to be.
However, Kafka doesn’t dwell on Gregor’s transformation, which is both comic and infuriating for the reader; Gregor’s story is told in the opposite way to what would usually be expected. The story is told entirely in third person, and the narrator lacks mobility. An omniscient narrator leads to the interpretation that we should take the story quite literally, and this creates a surreal and outlandish text. The tone is mundane, and doesn’t allow the reader to understand, primarily, how Gregor is really feeling. For the entirety of the story, the narrator merely observes what Gregor is doing (vegetating alone in his room), and this forces the reader to empathise with him, through the mutual feeling of alienation.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the story is the ending. The plot creates so many unanswered questions throughout, but Kafka refuses to acknowledge the uncertainties, and instead ties up these loose ends into a neat little bow; Gregor just dies. He wastes away, his family don’t care, and that’s it. The end.
Hollie Pickering 