Essay on The Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis Term Papers
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Gregor s metamorphosis is a metaphoric journey through the basic points in Freudian psychoanalytical thought. Freud includes three levels of consciousness in his works, the super-ego, ego, and the id. The ego is concerned with reality, id with the subconscious, and the super-ego is a link between the ego and the id.
The Metamorphosis is a story by Franz Kafka about a man named Gregor Samsa who one day wakes up to find himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin . The mutation occurs the night before in his unsettling dreams and appears to be solely physical because Gregor maintains all of his human mental capacities.
One level of consciousness, the super-ego, is the link between the other levels of consciousness. It contains human emotions. Gregor lacks several aspects of life that are essential to people s emotional stability. One presence he is deficient in is love. Throughout The Metamorphosis, evidence of Gregor s love by his family, or lack there of, is constantly present in the story.
Gregor may be in separation emotionally from his family before his metamorphosis even takes place. Walter H. Sokel says in his work Die Erziehung zur Tragik that Gregor s locked door indicates that Gregor was previously removed from the Samsa circle of family union. He also states that the physical aspects of Gregor s room, such as the confined feeling that the furniture creates, is a microcosm of Gregor s life. The furniture traps Gregor in his room, just as the Samsas have trapped Gregor for financial stability (Sokel, 169).
The only source where Gregor receives love after his metamorphosis is from his sister. One example which expresses Gregor s craving for love appears directly after he wakes up. Kafka writes, In fact, Gregor felt fine, with the exception of his drowsiness, which was really unnecessary after sleeping so late, and he even had a ravenous appetite (Kafka, 5). Alexander Taylor explains in his work The Waking: Theme of Kafka s Metmorphosis that the hunger which Kafka is feeling is really not a hunger for food, but for love (Talor, 273). There are several instances in which Kafka reveals Gregor s hunger in The Metamorphosis. Gregor s sister, Grete, temporarily extinguishes Gregor s hunger for love when she feeds him. The food that Grete feeds Gregor is a metaphor for the love that she is giving him.
Another aspect of human relationships that Gregor lacks is understanding. Nobody really knows who his true self really is. William H. Sokel shares in his Die Erziehung zur Tragik that Gregor s metamorphosis reveals many of Gregor s subconscious thoughts (Sokel, 173). Lack of understanding between him and his family is evident in his thoughts regarding his new speech. Kafka writes, It was true that they no longer understood his words, though they had seemed clear enough to him, clearer than before, probably because his ear had grown accustomed to them (Kafka, 13). The phrase clearer than before shows that Gregor only begins to understand himself after his metamorphosis is complete.
Martin Greenberg mentions in his Kafka s Metamorphosis and Modern Spirituality that Gregor s job doesn t allow him to have real human relationships (Greenberg, 274). As a travelling salesman, Gregor must work very hard and with only artificial human contact. For instance, when I go back to the hotel before lunch to write up the business I ve done, these men are just having breakfast (Kafka, 4).
A feeling that Gregor experiences is a need to escape. In The Waking: The Theme of Kafka s Metamorphosis , Alexander Talor says there are several indications in the opening thoughts of the story that Gregor doesn t enjoy his job and is forced to do it to support his family (Talor, 273). Gregor says:
what a grueling job I ve picked! Day in, day out-on the road. The upset of doing business is much worse than the actual business in the home office, and, besides, I ve got the torture of travelling, worrying about changing trains, eating miserable food at all hours, constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last or get more intimate. To the devil with it all (Kafka, 4)!
Heinz Politzer says in his work Franz Kafka: Parable and Paradox that Gregor is a slave of his family until his metamorphosis frees him (Politzer, 276). There is one statement in The Metamorphosis that blatantly represents Gregor as a material object instead of a human being. Kafka explains to the reader, He was a tool of the boss, without brains or backbone (Kafka, 5).
Another level of consciousness, the ego, takes the reality principle into account. It allows the id urges to take place when an adequate circumstance comes into play. There is constant representation of Gregor s ego through his relationships with his family members. Perhaps the most obvious example is his involvement with his father. The underlying conflict between Gregor and his father is in regard to a struggle for dominance. With Gregor taking a job and supporting the Samsa family comes a title of leadership that Gregor s father once possessed. Walter H. Sokel points out in his Die Erziehung zur Tragik that to his father, Gregor is an obvious threat to his manhood and masculinity (Sokel, 178). Sokel goes on to assert that as a product of Gregor s metamorphosis, his father becomes master of the house again (Sokel, 170).
Gregor s Oedipal Complex is a greatly dominant aspect in his family life. Webster indicates in his Franz Kafka s Metamorphosis as Death and Resurrection Fantasy that Gregor has sexual dispositions towards both his mother and sister (Webster, 159). The portrayal of Gregor s incestuous feelings for his mother is indicated both by Gregor s affiliation with his family and by his conflict with his father. In Die Erziehung zur Tragik , Sokel shows that the struggle between Gregor and his father indicates that Gregor has sexual feelings for his mother (Sokel, 180). Gregor s fondness towards his sister is more obvious. Sokel indicates that Gregor wants to take his sister away from his father and wants to even before the metamorphosis takes place (Sokel, 178). Kafka says:
Often during Gregor s short stays in the city the Conservatory would come up in his conversations with his sister, but always merely as a beautiful dream which was not supposed to come true, and his parents were not happy to hear even these innocent allusions; but Gregor had very concrete ideas on the subject and he intended solemnly to announce his plan on Christmas Eve (Kafka, 27).
It is possible that those innocent allusions may not just be referring to a proposition to send her to a Conservatory, but also a reference to his passion for Grete.
The relationship between Gregor and Grete is not only of sexual feelings, but of sibling love too. In fact, Grete is the only person in the family who treats Gregor...
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