gregor samsa's insect transformation in franz kafka's the metamorphosis
TRANSCRIPT
GREGOR SAMSA’S INSECT TRANSFORMATION
IN FRANZ KAFKA’S THE METAMORPHOSIS
A THESIS
By:
MOHAMMAD MARTUNUS ZAHRIANSYAHST N. 120410656
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
AIRLANGGA UNIVERSITY
2009
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GREGOR SAMSA’S INSECT TRANSFORMATION
IN FRANZ KAFKA’S THE METAMORPHOSIS
A THESIS
Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the Sarjana degree of the English Department
Faculty of Humanities, Airlangga University Surabaya
By:
MOHAMMAD MARTUNUS ZAHRIANSYAHST N. 120410656
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
AIRLANGGA UNIVERSITY
2009
ii
To my late great father, my family, and
my beloved Ayu Saraswati
iii
Approved to be examined
Surabaya, 2009
Thesis Advisor
Diah Ariani Arimbi Ph.DNIP. 132 086 387
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
AIRLANGGA UNIVERSITY
2009
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This Thesis has been accepted and examined by the board of examiners of
English Department Faculty of Humanities, Airlangga University
The examiners are:
1.
Dra. Sudar Itafarida, M.Hum.
NIP 131 836 628
2.
Diah Ariani Arimbi Ph.D
NIP 132 086 387
3.
Edi Dwi Riyanto, SS, M.Hum.
NIP 132 255 153
4.
Drs. Amir Fatah, M.Hum.
NIP 131 570 815
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
After fighting against laziness and drought of ideas for one and a half
years, the victory is finally taken. For that, I would like to deliver my foremost
gratitude to Allah SWT, who truly knows the meaning of my life, and by Allah’s
guidance I can finally finish this whole thesis.
I would also like to deliver my highest appreciation and my salutation to
my thesis advisor, Diah Ariani Arimbi Ph.D, for her patience in guiding me
throughout one and a half years. I would also like to ask her a deep apology for
my ignorance and delays. I would also like to thank the board of lecturers in
English Department for sharing me their knowledge and experience throughout
my years studying in this Department.
My deepest gratitude goes to my late father, my beloved mother, and my
whole family for their patience and love. My next gratitude goes to all of my
bandmates in I.V., The Legalist, and Link. Also, thanks to my fellow classmates
of 2004 from the whole faculty. Thank you for these amazing years. Special
thanks for Ayu Saraswati for caring me throughout the last two and a half years.
Surabaya, 10 June 2009
The writer,
Mohammad Martunus Zahriansyah
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Inside Cover Page………….……………………………………………………………..i
Inside Title Page…………………………………………….……………………………ii
Dedication Page…………………………………………………………………………iii
Advisor’s Approval Page………………………………………………………………..iv
Board of Examiner’s Approval Page………………………………………….…………v
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………...vi
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………….vii
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….....ix
Epigraph………………………………………………………………………………….x
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study……………………………………………………………..1
1.2 Statement of the Problems…………………………………………………....………5
1.3 Objective of the Study………………………………………………………....……..5
1.4 Significance of the Study…………………………………………………….......…..5
1.5 Scope and Limitation…………………………………………………………….......5
1.6 Theoretical Background…………………………………………………………...…6
1.7 Method of the Study……………………………………………………………….....7
1.8 Definition of Key Terms.…………………………………………………...………..7
CHAPTER II LITERARY REVIEW
2.1 Reviews on Related Studies…….…………………………………………..………..9
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2.2 Theoretical Framework……………………………………………....…….……….10
2.2.1 The Absurd…………………………………………………...…………………...10
2.2.2 Solutions in Dealing with the Absurd…...………………………..……..….…….12
2.2.2.1 Suicide…………………………………………………..……………..….…….13
2.2.2.2 Leap of Faith…………………………………………...……………….………13
2.2.2.3 Acceptance without Resignation………………………………………………..14
CHAPTER III ANALYSIS
3.1 The Meaning of Gregor Samsa’s Insect Transformation……………………..…….16
3.1.1 A Slave of His Own Routine………………………………………………….......17
3.1.2 Gaining Consciousness of the Absurd……………………………………...…….23
3.2 The Way Gregor Samsa Perceives His Insect Transformation…….………………26
3.2.1 Conscious Dissatisfaction and Total Lack of Hope……..………………………..26
3.2.2 Acceptance Without Resignation………………………………………………....38
CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION……………………………………...…….……………44
WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………...46
SYNOPSIS……………………………………………………………………………...48
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ABSTRACT
The notion of the meaning of life has been one of the main concerns for
philosophers throughout the history of humanity. It is said that the meaning of life
can be found in the series of experience of a person’s life. Personal experiences
help a person to think about the person’s meaning in life and to find the person’s
self existence. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis gives a character whose life is
changed in a particular way because of his personal experience. He is transformed
into a gigantic insect.
The study will be focused on the meaning of the main character’s insect
transformation. After the meaning is revealed the writer will conduct the analysis
on the way the main character perceives his transformation concerning to the
notion of the meaning of life. In analyzing those issues, the writer uses the concept
of the Absurd proposed by a French-Algerian philosopher, Albert Camus. The
writer decides to choose Albert Camus’ concept of the Absurd because Albert
Camus believes that life is a series of experience and through it a person can make
his own meaning of life.
As the results of the study, the writer finds that the transformation is the
stage where the main character gains his consciousness of the Absurd. The
consciousness affects the way he perceives his life, which is living his life to the
fullest and fully engaged with his experiences. Thus, he finds his meaning of life.
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One can not live without
meaning
- Albert Camus -
x
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Every living person in this world tries to seek the meaning of live.
Questions have been asked dealing with this notion. Why am I here?, What is the
meaning of my existence? or What can I do to make my life meaningful? These
questions need to be answered. Meaning of life has been an important notion
because it deals with the life itself. Many philosophers try to seek the real and true
meaning of life. Since Aristotle to Jaspers, philosophers try to answer those
questions.
One of the things that is certain in this life is that every individual runs a
certain routine in life such as in career and love or any other kinds of social
relationship. Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a Denmark philosopher, saw that
most people were content to be absorbed into the everyday world of marriage,
career and respectability. Most people follow the normal practices of their society
(Robinson & Zarate 38).
These routines or practices do not answer those questions, but in a certain
point while doing the routines in daily life, an individual gets a certain feeling
related to those questions. Once again, that feeling does not help that individual to
answer the questions, but at least, in a certain way, it helps the individual to think
about the individual’s meaning in life and to find self existence.
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However, for some philosophers, there are no particular answers for those
questions. Moreover, according to Albert Camus (1913-1960), the meaning of life
lies in the experiences which a person has during his lifetime. Life, as Camus saw
it, was a series of experiences (Olen 438). Referring to this theory, the writer tries
to do his analysis dealing with the notion of the meaning of life by using a
particular example of experiences which a person has.
Gregor Samsa in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, in the writer’s point
of view, is one of the examples about the finding of human existence in life
written in a form of literary works. He is an ordinary person who works as a
travelling salesman. He lives in a flat with his parents and his younger sister. One
day he wakes up from his sleep just to find that he is transformed into a gigantic
insect. The transformation turns his life around. He is unable to go to work as he
usually does and he soon loses his job because his current condition does not
allow him to do so. Living in an insect form, Gregor is being mistreated by his
family. All his good deeds toward his family throughout the last five years,
working as a traveller salesman to pay his parents’ debts after his family business
falls down are ignored.
His family spends their days by thinking what should be done but they
actually never do anything about his situation, except for finding jobs and letting
three lodgers to rent one of the rooms in the flat because of the economical
problem they have to face since the back bone of the family has transformed into
something that will not allow him even to get out from his room, leaving Gregor
in his imprisonment in his own room for the rest of his life until his last day.
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The Metamorphosis, originally entitled Die Verwandlung, was written by
Franz Kafka in November and December 1912. Then his publisher, Kurt Wolff
Herlag, published it in 1915, the same year Franz Kafka won the Theodor Fontane
Prize. Many experts have done their own analysis on this work but until now it is
still one of the most discussed literary works. The interpretations seem to be
endless and endlessly possible.
Franz Kafka was born in July 3, 1883 in Prague – Alstandt, the home of
one of the biggest Jewish communities in Europe. He is the first son of Hermann
and Julie (née Löwy) Kafka. He is well known because of his peculiar thoughts
about love, life, and death. During his young age, Franz Kafka is a quiet and
withdrawn person. However, he likes to write plays for his sisters to put on in
their spare time and he is a voracious reader. In his teenage period (1898) he
begins to write serious writings, but these early works are destroyed. Later he
begins to write more seriously until on the night of 22-23 September 1912, he
writes Das Urteil (The Judgment). He considers it as his first mature work and
reads it proudly to his family and his friends. He died in June 3, 1924 of
tuberculosis.
Franz Kafka has become an icon of sorts, emblematic of modern times. He
is considered as one of the best modern authors until now. His popularity
increases exponentially after the publication of his stories in the 1920s and 1930s,
especially in the English translations done by the Muirs (Leni 1). He is now an
institution, his own adjective. The term Kafkaesque which is usually used to
describe anything which makes no sense, comes from his name. The Prague
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Mayor, Pavel Bern regarded Franz Kafka as one of the greatest writer of the 20 th
century. The monument of Franz Kafka was erected by the Franz Kafka Society,
which was founded shortly after the collapse of communism in 1989 to promote
the legacy of Kafka and other Jewish and German writers from Prague (Leni 1).
The insect transformation which happened to Gregor Samsa in the story is
the major line of the story. It changes his whole life. Unlike other stories, Franz
Kafka put the major conflict of the story at the first sentence of the story. He
never explains about the cause of this transformation. This transformation
symbolizes something. Gregor’s insect transformation and the mistreatments
given by his family show social phenomenon which can be happening around us.
All the good deeds seem to be vanished when a person transforms into something
that even knowledge can not seem to explain. This kind of phenomenon seems so
far yet it is so close because most of us never really notice it. There is a possibility
that this thing is happening to one of us in the very time, even though logically a
human can not transformed into a gigantic insect.
The writer takes the study related to the notion of the meaning of life by
identifying the meaning of Gregor Samsa’s insect transformation in the story and
how he perceives it. Although logically a human can not be transformed to
another form as an insect, it shows that a person can also transformed and it
affects the way the person looks back his life and the world surrounding him.
Therefore, the writer wants to identify the meaning behind Gregor Samsa’s
transformation and how Gregor Samsa perceives this transformation.
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1.2 The Statement of the Problems
The study of The Meaning of Gregor Samsa’s Insect Transformation in
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis tries to find out the followings:
1. What does Gregor Samsa’s insect transformation mean?
2. How does Gregor Samsa perceive this transformation?
1.3 The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study can be formulated as the followings:
1. To explain what the insect transformation means.
2. To explore the way Gregor Samsa perceives such transformation.
1.4 The Significance of the Study
The study of The Meaning of Gregor Samsa’s Insect Transformation in
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis has two significances. The fist significance is
to bring a deeper understanding upon the meaning of the insect transformation in
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The second significance is to bring a broader
understanding of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis in particular especially for
the students of English Department Airlangga University who are interested in
taking literature as their major subject.
1.5 Scope and Limitation
The object of the analysis is a literary work written by Franz Kafka
entitled The Metamorphosis. The analysis is based on the main plot of the story.
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In particular, this study mainly deals with the meaning of Gregor Samsa’s
transformation and the way he perceives it. The study focuses on Gregor Samsa’s
experiences, thoughts, and point of view after experiencing the insect
transformation. Then the aspects mentioned above will be discussed further to
find the meaning of the insect transformation and to show the way Gregor Samsa
perceives the transformation.
1.6 Theoretical Background
This study, in order to find the meaning of the insect transformation and
the way Gregor Samsa perceives it, uses the concept of the Absurd as its base
theory. The concept of the Absurd was proposed by Albert Camus in the 1940s
through his philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus. In this essay, he proposes
his own concept of the Absurd.
It is the lack of fit between the universe and our own aspirations that
Camus calls the absurd (Olen 434). He argues that the Absurd is basically the
confrontation between our demands as humans for the meaning of life and the
unreasonable silence of the world. The Absurd lies neither in the world nor
humans, but in both presences.
Humans think that they are free before they realize the absurdity of the
world they living in. But the fact is that they are slaves of their own routines and
expectations which give them a false value for their life. The notion of the Absurd
is closely related to the notion of the meaning of life. According to Camus, the
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meaning of life is the experience itself. For him, Absurd is the true state of
existence (Olen 434).
1.7 Method of the Study
The method in this study is library research and online research, while the
main source the writer used is the story itself. This study uses the method of the
data collection from the story by having a closer reading in the interpretations of
the insect transformation, and also the main character’s experiences, thoughts, and
point of view after experiencing the transformation in the story. The writer will
also gather data and inputs that are related to the story. Reviews and critics about
the story will also be a helpful source on the analysis.
The other information is also gathered by browsing some sites of the
internet that are related to the topic of the study. The descriptive analysis is also
applied as a method of this study. A focused analysis on symbols of certain events
and dialogues are also a valuable source that will be given a special place.
1.8 Definition of Key Terms
- Absurd : the term usually used to describe something which is
unexplainable or irrational. However, in this case, the term
means the confrontation between humans’ demands for the
clarity and the meaning of life with the unreasonable
silence of the world. The definition comes from Albert
Camus’ theory of the Absurd.
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- Insect : one of beings in this planet which has the largest
population and also species. Some people consider it as
parasites because it has been a pain in our neck for
centuries.
- Transformation : dramatic and often extreme change which happens to
almost every thing. The changes include form and also
characteristics.
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CHAPTER II
LITERARY REVIEW
2.1 Reviews on Related Studies
A lot of critics and writings have been made concerning The
Metamorphosis. The interpretations toward the story seem to be possibly endless
and endlessly possible. Karen Bernardo, in her commentary towards The
Metamorphosis, states that the story offers tremendous irony in the fact that our
human lives are so transitory and our fortunes so subject to the whims of fate, and
yet most people act as if they will live forever with ultimate control over the
progress of their existence (Bernardo 1). She also claims that Gregor Samsa’s
transformation, which of course symbolizes any sort of physical abnormality, calls
into question all the assumptions of our daily lives, that success and appearance
and social position matter. A productive life is characterized by a steadily
improving standard of living and a socially-acceptable appearance (Bernardo 1).
Another interpretation comes from Anang Kurniawan. He states that,
through The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka is giving a description about modern
human slavery by materialism forces. Franz Kafka is also delivering critics toward
the world of modern capitalism and materialism. The misfortune which happens
to Gregor Samsa is a humanity tragedy, which only sees and measures a person by
the person’s productivity in making money (Kurniawan 1).
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2.2 Theoretical Framework
Albert Camus proposes his own concept of the Absurd through his
phenomenal philosophical essay entitled The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). The word
Absurd comes from a Latin word, surdis. The word has two definitions. The first
definition is irrational or insensible. In math the term surd is used to define an
irrational number. Apparently Camus concentrates on the other meaning of the
Latin word which is deaf or silent.
However, Camus is not the first who discovers the Absurd. Nietzsche,
Kierkegaard, Husserl and Jaspers are already familiar with the concept. The Myth
of Sisyphus does not analyze those early philosophers. It tries to describe the
pillars of the western thoughts through them. Camus describes his own concept of
the Absurd related to the meaning of life in this essay. The fundamental object of
The Myth of Sisyphus is this: it is legitimate and necessary to wonder whether life
has a meaning (2).
2.2.1 The Absurd
According to Camus, the fundamental fact of human existence is absurdity
(Olen 434). He uses Sisyphus as one of the examples of his absurd heroes.
Sisyphus is one of the characters in the Greek mythology. He is condemned by the
gods, because of his scorn for the gods, his hatred of death and his passion of life,
to roll a huge rock from the bottom of a mountain all the way to the top. Once the
huge rock is on top of the mountain, the rock will of course roll back down by its
own weight to the bottom. Sisyphus has to do this routine for his eternal life.
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Camus points out in his retelling of the story of Sisyphus, that one can not think of
anything more absurd than a lifetime filled with futile labour. (Solomon 1)
Camus claims to be interested in the moment when Sisyphus has to go
back to the bottom of the mountain to roll the huge rock back to the top. In this
moment of pause, he claims, is the moment when Sisyphus actually gains his
consciousness. This consciousness of fate, he claims, leads to Sisyphus’
acceptance of his fate or in this case, his condemnation or punishment.
The author can not imagine a greater torture for Sisyphus than “the
hope of succeeding”. Knowing that his effort is pointless is
precisely his strength. Sisyphus is without the merest hope, and yet
he becomes the Absurd man the moment he accepts this and “says
yes to his task”, when he himself chooses to continue the torture
which has been imposed on him. (Mairowitz & Korkos 74)
According to Camus, before a person realizes the absurdity of the world,
the person actually thinks that he is free, but the person is actually becoming slave
of his own routines or activities which give the person false goals and values in
his life. Once a person gains a consciousness of the Absurd, which is according to
Camus, the confrontation between the logical demand of a person for the clarity
and the meaning of life with the unreasonable silence of the world, the
consciousness will actually leads to find and gain an acceptance towards the
absurd. According to Camus, everything begins with consciousness and nothing is
worth anything except through it (15).
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The unreasonable silence of the world makes the efforts and achievements
made by a person to be simply pointless. In the end it will leads to nothing but
death shows the absurdity of life. No matter how hard a person tries, the world
just does not care. It will keep moving on as the way it is.
Once a person accepts that the efforts and routines are actually pointless,
the person will soon realizes that this acknowledgement is the person’s strength.
Weariness comes at the end of the acts of a mechanical life, but at
the same time it inaugurates the impulse of consciousness. It
awakens consciousness and provokes what follows. What follows
is the gradual return into the chain or it is the definitive awakening.
(Camus 15)
Once the person decides to move on in doing the pointless efforts and routine,
Camus claims that he becomes the master of his own fate. The absence of any
controlling force in the universe thus becomes a positive factor (Mairowitz &
Korkos 74). For Camus, the beauty that people encounter in life makes it worth
living. People may create meaning in their own lives, which may not be the
objective meaning of life but still provides something for which to strive. It is now
becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no
meaning (66).
2.2.2 Solutions in Dealing with the Absurd
In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus offers three possible solutions in order to
deal with the absurd, which are:
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Suicide
Leap of faith
Acceptance without resignation
2.2.2.1 Suicide
The first solution is to commit suicide. Suicide offers the most basic 'way
out' of absurdity, the immediate termination of the self and self's place in the
universe (Beckett & Ionesco 1). Camus claims that if a person feels that life is not
worthy enough to life in, then the easiest solution to end the feeling is simply to
end the life itself. By committing suicide, a person not only admits that life is not
worth living but also that he is not worthy enough for the life itself. It is essential
to die unreconciled and not of one’s own free will (69).
In a sense, and as in melodrama, killing yourself amounts to confessing. It
is confessing that life is too much for you or that you do not understand it (Camus
6). Committing suicide implies that the person who does it admits that the routines
in life are almost meaningless, daily activities do not make any sense, and there is
no meaning in suffering. Thus, he considers this solution is not a proper solution
to deal with the Absurd. Suicide, like the leap, is acceptance at its extreme (Camus
66).
2.2.2.2 Leap of Faith
The second is to have a leap of faith. It means that a person can involves
God to deal with the Absurd. The term God works in a mysterious ways is
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commonly used by a person who chooses to have a leap of faith. Camus considers
the leap of faith as intellectual laziness, a refuge in chosen falsehoods (Beckett &
Ionesco 1). It is the epitome of deceiving the self. It is a retreat from truth and the
freedom of man.
For Camus, leap of faith is also not a proper solution because the person
involves a controlling force in dealing with the Absurd. Unlike Pascal, Camus did
not think that God or religious faith can provide what we need to resolve this
problem (Roth & Sontag 435). The person actually accepts the Absurd because
the person thinks that it is God’s will. In other words, he accepts the Absurd not
by his own choice or free will. The positive factor of dealing with the Absurd is
not the presence of God, but the absence of God or just as Camus calls it as an aid
of eternal values (Camus v).
2.2.2.3 Acceptance without Resignation
The last solution is acceptance without resignation. In Camus’ point of
view, this is the most proper solution among the three solutions offered.
According to Camus, a person's freedom, and the opportunity to give life
meaning, lies in the acknowledgment and acceptance of absurdity. He believes
that life is nonsense. The awareness of the absurdity of life gives the opportunity
to perceive life in a new point of view.
The freedom of a person is, thus, established in the person's natural ability
and opportunity to create his own meaning and purpose, to decide himself. The
person is free from the rules and starts to learn how to life the live in which he is
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forced to life in. The person becomes the most precious unit of the existence, as
the person represents a set of unique ideals that can be characterized as an entire
universe by itself (Absurdism 1).
Humans must live with the Absurd. They must deal with the absurdity of
life. According to Camus, it is an honour for a person and it is supposed to be his
pleasure to accept this passion to get a sense of clarity among the irrational things
in life. The logical solution in dealing with the Absurd situation is to live with the
awareness of the hopeless confrontation between the mind and the world.
According to Supaat A. Lathief in Sastra: Eksistensialisme – Mistisme Religius,
even if they know that they are fighting without any certain hopes, the characters
which Camus bring find that life is more intense and sublime as they are fighting
for freedom and justice (20).
To live is to give life to the Absurd. To give life to it means to look at it.
The consequence of living the Absurd is not an activity of creating systems
around god or history anymore, but to learn to look back at what has been
experienced, to accept that every truth may vary and have some values, thus there
is an absolute freedom. Although the Absurd world can not guarantee a future, it
can free the existential human being to become what he wishes (Gould 711-712).
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CHAPTER III
ANALYSIS
3.1 The Meaning of Gregor Samsa’s Insect Transformation
The Metamorphosis is divided in three parts. The first part explains about
the moment when the transformation occurs and his family first reaction towards
his transformation. The second part explains about how things go in the flat after
the transformation. The last part of the story contents the climax of the story
where the family finally has enough with Gregor’s condition and Gregor finally
dies in his room.
Gregor Samsa transforms into a gigantic insect as he awoke from his
sleep. On his bed he can see that his entire body has transformed. The author does
not even state implicitly about what kind of insect which Gregor has transformed.
However the author does mention the physical characteristics of the new Gregor.
He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when
he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly
divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt
could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off
completely. (Kafka 75)
From the information about the physical characteristics provided by the author,
some experts conclude that Gregor transforms into a beetle. However, most
experts conclude that Gregor transforms into a cockroach. One of those experts is
Robert C. Solomon Ph. D. from the University of Texas, Austin. In his lecture,
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Franz Kafka, he points out that Gregor Samsa is transformed into a cockroach (1).
The writer agrees that Gregor transforms into a giant cockroach because in the
writer’s point of view the physical characteristics described in the text are similar
to cockroach’s physical characteristics.
The author does not give any explanations or clues about how or why this
transformation occurs. Without any warning or explanation, Gregor Samsa is now
an insect and the readers just have to deal with it. Some experts consider the insect
form which Gregor has transformed into as an image of the author’s experiences
in his life. This thing is also mentioned in the author’s biography.
…after being treated by his father as if he belonged to an inferior
species, and abused with animal imagery, Kafka arrived at the
image of the insect as a means of expressing the alienation from his
body he had so often felt. (Hayman 150)
It is obvious that the insect form is an image which the author used as a symbol of
his life experience. Of course a symbol always transcends the one who makes use
of it and makes him say in reality more than he is aware of expressing (Camus
162). In this study the writer focuses on the meaning of the transformation instead
of the form of the transformation.
3.1.1 A Slave of his Own Routine
Gregor Samsa is an ordinary worker. He works as a travelling salesman,
and from the information provided by the text, he has been working as a travelling
salesman for five years. He works very hard to pay his parents’ debts to his chief
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after the family business is ruin, which takes about five to six more years of his
employment and he works himself to the bone to earn his family a good living
since he is the sole income source for the Samsa family.
As a worker and as the sole income source for the family, Gregor is a
workaholic that he hardly gives himself a chance to have leisure times because he,
as the backbone of the family, has to earn a living for the whole family and pay all
of his parents’ debts at the same time. In one part of the story he mentions about
how other travelling salesmen live like harem women. When he comes back to the
hotel one morning to write up orders from his customers, he finds the others
salesmen just sit and eat their breakfast.
According to Camus, before a person sees the absurdity of this world, the
person thinks that he/she is free, but, on the contrary, he is a slave of his own
routines and expectations which give him false values in his life. For some people,
life can be defined as a set mechanism of movement.
It happens that the stage sets collapse. Rising, streetcar, four hours
of work, meal, sleep, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, and, Saturday, according to the same rhythm –
this path is easily followed most of the time. (Camus 15)
As we all know that being a worker, a person has some routines to do.
Even if the person is not a worker, he still has some routines to do. Gregor, as a
worker and also as an ordinary person, is trapped in his own routines. One small
example in Gregor’s case as an ordinary person is his routine of sleeping on his
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right side. After Gregor wakes up from his sleep and transformed into an insect,
he wants to have some more sleep.
What about sleeping a little longer and forgetting all this nonsense,
he thought, but it could not be done, for he was accustomed to
sleep on his right side and in his present condition he could not
turn himself over. (Kafka 75)
At the time he really needs some rests, he does not even have the ability to get
some sleep just because his small routine. His routine does not allow him to have
a rest. It forces him to stay awake and there is nothing that Gregor can do to fight
back no matter how hard he tries.
At the day when Gregor is transformed, he is supposed to catch a train at
five o’clock in the morning. But he wakes up at almost a quarter to seven. In spite
of the bizarre thing which happens to him, the thing that comes to his mind is how
he is going to get to work. Without thinking about what exactly is happening to
him or why this thing is happening and what he supposed to do to get out from his
condition, he forces his mind to think about a way for him to get out of the bed
and catch the next train instead of thinking and finding any solution regarding to
his condition.
But then he said to himself: ‘Before it strikes a quarter past seven I
must be quite out of this bed, without fail. Anyhow, by that time
someone will have to come from the office to ask for me, since it
opens before seven.’ (Kafka 80)
19
In this condition, Gregor still thinks about his responsibility as the
backbone of the family and as a worker as well because his employer can not
tolerate any excuses when it is related to business. When Gregor’s chief clerk is
waiting for Gregor to come out from his room in front of the room door to have
some explanations about why Gregor is absent for work, Gregor forces himself in
his new form to get off of the bed and open the door. On his way to open the door,
Gregor thinks about two possibilities about what is going to happen when the
other members of the family and the chief see his new form.
If they were horrified then the responsibility was no longer his and
he could stay quiet. But if they took it calmly, then he had no
reason either to be upset, and could really get to the station for the
eight o’clock train if he hurried. (Kafka 84)
Even in his previous condition, as a normal human being, he spends most
of his time at his flat doing some activities and thinking about the next task of his
job. When the chief clerk arrived at his flat to find an answer about Gregor’s
absence at the work place, Gregor’s mother try to ensures the chief clerk that
Gregor is ill and he thinks nothing but his job.
The boy thinks about nothing but his work. It makes me almost
cross the way he never goes out in the evening; he’s been here the
last eight days and has stayed at home every single evening. He
just sits there quietly at the table reading a newspaper or looking
through railway timetables. The only amusement he gets is doing
fretwork. (Kafka 82)
20
It is clear to see that Gregor has drowned himself way too deep in his job that he
hardly gives himself a time even for himself. He chooses to stay at his flat and
doing some preparations for the job rather than be outside to have some leisure
times for himself.
When he finally succeeds in opening the door of his room and he has the
chance to speak with his chief clerk, Gregor tries to give explanation about his
condition to the chief clerk. At this point Gregor still thinks about his job by
saying that no matter what happens to him, he will attend his job.
I’ll put my clothes on at once, pack up my samples, and start off.
Will you only let me go? You see sir, I’m not obstinate, and I’m
willing to work; travelling is a hard life, but I couldn’t live without
it. (Kafka 87)
Gregor clearly states that he really needs his job. He still thinks about his
responsibility to his family. He is afraid of losing his job, even more, he is afraid
of not being able to fulfil his duty as the backbone of the family. He thinks that
the chief clerk must be persuaded to stand for him in the firm because he thinks
that his family depends on it. Knowing that he can not fulfil his duty anymore, he
falls in a great shame and grief.
In his room, Gregor hardly sleeps at all by night or by day. He was often
haunted by the idea that the next time the door opened he would take the family
affairs in hand again just as he used to do (Kafka 113). Gregor tries his best to be
involved with the family in facing this problem, because Gregor still thinks that he
has the same responsibility as he has when he is working for the family.
21
From what the writer has mention above, there is a sense in which that
Gregor has become a slave of his own routines, as a worker and also as a person.
In his human form, he thinks mostly about his job and paying all his parents’
debts so he can be free from his job and repressing chief. He also thinks about
sending his sister, Grete to Conservatorium. These are his main goals of his life.
In order to achieve those goals, he works himself to the bone for the last five
years.
In his insect form, he still thinks that he carries the same responsibilities as
he does in his human form. There is a sense in which that, for Gregor, the
transformation occurred to him is just an intervention for him to go to work. He is
more afraid of that he is not going to be able to go to work to fulfil his duty than
being afraid that he will never get back to his previous form as a normal human
being. Instead of explaining what is happening to him to the chief clerk, he
persuades the chief clerk to stand for him in the firm. He tries to convince the
chief clerk that, even in his present condition, he still can catch the next train and
go to work. Gregor is truly let himself to be kept as a slave by his own job.
Gregor dedicated himself and focuses on his goals way too well that he
does not realize that those goals, in the end, amount to nothing, just like Sisyphus
who is condemned by the gods to do a pointless task. The difference is that
Sisyphus does not have any particular goals in doing his punishment. But even if
Gregor has some goals to achieve, those goals are still false goals because even if
he succeeds in achieving his goals, they will still amount to nothing, because, in
the end, only death awaits and it seems like the other members of the family
22
ignore what Gregor has done for the whole family. Gregor’s chief even accuses
Gregor that he has misused the cash payment which has been entrusted to him in
spite of all his hard work for the company.
3.1.2 Gaining Consciousness of the Absurd
After Gregor realizes that all of his efforts and hard works are actually
pointless, remembering that later on that the other members of the family do not
have any courage just to get close to him at the moment when Gregor really needs
his family to support him, there is a sense in which that he gains the consciousness
towards the absurd. Gregor starts to realize and feel the confrontation between his
logical demands as a human, even if he is not physically human, and the
unreasonable silence of the world. The absurd brought to light by consciousness
(Camus 66).
Gregor does not seek for any answers about what is happening to him,
because it appears to him that it does not matter anyway. The world just does not
care and it will keep moving on as the way it is. His family, after a shocking
rendezvous with the insect formed Gregor in the morning when the transformation
occurs, starts to gather themselves and decide to move on. Just few weeks after
that his father and his sister finally get a job to earn the family a living.
It is clear enough for Gregor to see that life does not stop right there to
give sympathy towards Gregor’s condition, even his own family. The rest of the
family realizes that life keeps going and they have to stand up to survive. Gregor’s
problem does not seem to be much of their concern. Their main concern is how
23
they will keep on track in life’s pace for now their sole income source does not
have the ability to give them a good living anymore.
Even if he is proud of his achievement, when he sits in his room, he felt
great pride in the fact that he had been able to provide such a life for his parents
and sister in such a fine flat (Kafka 93), but still that pride does not give him
anything. From the point of view of the universe as a whole human history and
human concerns are supremely unimportant (Olen 435).
In Persons and Their World: An Introduction to Philosophy, Jeffrey Olen
stated that our actions here on earth are as futile and pointless as the eternal task
assigned to Sisyphus (434). It is when a person realizes this fact, the person seeks
to understand. The person tries to unify the various elements of the world. We
seek a unified whole, in which everything has a purpose. But the universe is not
like that (Olen 434).
As a person tries to seek the purpose of his actions, routines, and
achievement, instead of having the answer, the person sees the absurdity of this
life. Gregor sees this absurdity in probably the hardest way, being transformed
into a gigantic insect. He sees that all of his efforts throughout the last five years
of being a travelling salesman, working himself to the bone, tumble before his
own very eyes, knowing that there are no any appreciations from his family and
his employer. He finally sees that his actions, routines, and achievements are
pointless, and there is nothing that he can do about it, because he realizes it is just
the way it is. Even if in his new form he is able to get back to his job and do his
daily routines, in the end, it still amounts to nothing, because the world will not
24
provide any guarantee or any answers about what will happen to him or his family
in the future. In this stage, Gregor learns about what Camus says as the total lack
of hope (which is not the same as despair), a permanent rejection (which is not the
same as renunciation), and a conscious dissatisfaction (which is not the same as
juvenile anxiety) (Mairowitz & Korkos 71).
Gregor Samsa’s insect transformation seems to have similarity to, as
Camus calls it, Sisyphus’ moment of pause. In Sisyphus’ case, according to
Camus, occurs when Sisyphus is on his way back own to the bottom of the hill to
roll the huge stone back to the top. At this moment Camus describes how his steps
are focused and determined. At this moment, Sisyphus gains his consciousness.
Sisyphus now sees the futility of his eternal task.
In Gregor’s case, his insect transformation is the same stage which
Sisyphus has. In his insect form, Gregor comes to realize the futility of his efforts
and achievements being the only worker in the family, earning his family a good
living. At the first moment when he realizes that he is now a gigantic insect, he
realizes that he has an exhausting job and repressing family. Most of his moment
being a gigantic insect, he spends it to have a kind of meditation, thinking about
what he has done so far and also his plans and goals in the future. The more he
thinks of it, the more futile it becomes to him. Spending the rest of his life inside
of his room, neglected by his own family, he gains consciousness towards the
absurd.
The insect transformation which happens to Gregor is the stage where
Gregor finally aware of the absurdity of his life. Through this transformation,
25
Gregor gains his consciousness, which is, according to Camus, a good thing
because consciousness is a good start for a person in order to deal with the absurd.
Knowing that things do not always go as the way Gregor wants them to be,
Gregor is now aware of the absurdity of his life, and as Camus stated that what
makes life absurd is the consciousness and awareness of the person who live it.
Just like in Sisyphus story, Camus points out that Sisyphus story is tragic because
Sisyphus is fully aware of the futility of his task. Gregor’s story is tragic as well
because he is conscious about the absurd and the pointlessness of his efforts and
achievements he has made in his life.
3.2 The Way Gregor Samsa Perceives his Insect Transformation.
In any part of the story, it seems like there is no hope for Gregor to get
back to his previous form. In fact, it seems that he never wish to get back to his
normal human being form. His family seems to have the same thought as Gregor
does. They think that there is nothing that they can do toward Gregor’s condition.
They choose to move on with their live. Their main concern is the family’s
economical state. Who could find time, in this overworked and tired-out family, to
bother about Gregor more than was absolutely needful (Kafka 112)?
3.2.1 Conscious Dissatisfaction and Total Lack of Hope
Since Gregor is unable to get to work and earn money for his family, the
family decides that to take over his role. They realize that even with the
misfortune that happens to them, they have to move on with their life. Each
26
member of the family starts to seek for a job. The father gets a job as a bank clerk,
the mother sews for a garment company, and the sister, following Gregor’s trace,
works as a salesgirl.
Now that each member of the family has the same responsibility to earn a
living, Gregor is neglected even more. His sister who claims herself to be the sole
caretaker of Gregor hardly gives attention to Gregor anymore. Because of her
work, she hardly takes thought to bring Gregor what might especially please him
to eat. She cleans Gregor’s room in the evening, but the room is still filled with
dust and streaks of dirt.
To earn some extra money, they have one of the rooms in the flat for rent.
Three lodgers soon come to their flat and live with them. At this point, Gregor is
being neglected even more by his family. His room is filled by anything which is
not needed by the family, and his sister, exhausted by her job, has grown tired of
looking after Gregor as she usually does. At the last part of the novel, his sister
gathers the rest member of the family and convinces them that the family has to
get rid of Gregor.
‘We must try to get rid of it,’ his sister now said explicitly
to her father, since her mother was coughing too much to
hear a word, ‘it will be the death of both of you, I can see
that coming. When one has to work as hard as we do, all of
us, one can’t stand this continual torment at home on top of
it. At least I can’t stand it any longer.’ (Kafka 122)
27
Gregor is not considered as a human being any longer. Later on her
statement, his sister refers him as a creature. From her statement, she clearly states
that she has about enough of Gregor. She considers that Gregor existence can
bring death to the parents. She even refers Gregor as a torment. Later she says that
the insect Gregor is not even Gregor at all, because she is certain that if the
gigantic insect is Gregor then he will have the initiative to leave the family for all
the troubles that he has caused for the whole family.
In spite of all that Gregor has done for her, she finally reaches her end
point. The statement clearly shows that Grete has given up her hope for Gregor
and she persuades her parents to do the same thing as she does, which in the end
seems to be getting its point for the parents agrees with her.
There is a sense in which that Grete has gained in her thought an
undisputed authority when it comes to decision making related to Gregor’s
problem. She claims herself to be sole caretaker of Gregor. Since the
transformation occurs, it is true that Grete is the only member of the family who
can manage herself in taking care of Gregor, of course the fact is she never can get
used to the situation that Gregor is a gigantic insect whose appearance frightens
her the first time she catch a sight of him.
…she was so startled that without being able to help it she
slammed the door shut again. But as if regretting her behaviour she
opened the door again immediately and came in on tiptoe, as if she
were visiting an invalid or even a stranger. (Kafka 94)
28
The morning the transformation occurs, as the chief clerk arrives in front
of Gregor’s door, Grete, in her room beside Gregor’s room, begins to sob. She
sobs as she hears that Gregor has not opened the door for the chief clerk yet.
There is a sense in which that she cries not because of Gregor’s condition, but
rather because she worries about Gregor losing his job. Grete sees it coming and
realizes that the family’s fate is at stake because the whole family depends to
Gregor’s job.
It is true that Grete is the only member of the family to whom Gregor
could get intimate to. Gregor has a big hope for her and Grete considers him as a
hero of the family because Gregor is able to take the family away from the
economical misfortunes since the family business has ruined. But as the story
goes, it seems that Grete and the whole family do not depend on Gregor but rather
to his job. And so in the last part of the story, she is the first one who has the
initiative to get rid of Gregor. There is a sense in which that Grete thinks that the
family does not need Gregor anymore since the whole family is able to earn they
own living by their own hard work and Gregor is only a useless burden for them.
Thus, she turns her back from Gregor and considers him as a burden of the family.
After his business is ruined, Gregor’s father does not work anymore
because Gregor has everything covered that Gregor’s father does not have to be
worried about family’s expanses. He has grown fat for the last five years because
he does not have to work anymore and spends most of his time idling in the flat
reading newspapers. After the transformation, Gregor’s father decides that it is the
right time for him to do something. He actually saves a little sum of money which
29
Gregor gives him and some amount of investments which have survived the
wreck of the family business. Gregor’s father is actually the first person in the
family who has the initiative that the whole family should be working together in
order to keep survive.
Gregor’s father is the only one who can remain calm after seeing Gregor
in his insect form for the very first time. Yet he is so upset after realizing that the
chief clerk runs away frightened of Gregor’s appearance. Instead of giving
sympathy to his son’s condition, he is more upset of knowing that Gregor’s
condition and the incident in front of Gregor’s room will definitely cost Gregor
his job. He expresses his disappointment by driving Gregor back into his room
violently and it cost Gregor one of his insect legs to be crushed by his father.
In the second part of the story, another incident occurs. Gregor’s mother
fainted and Gregor’s father thinks that Gregor has harmed her. He violently
throws some apples at Gregor until one of the apples stuck in Gregor’s back
causing a serious wound in Gregor’s insect back and the apple remains there until
Gregor dies alone in his room. In the last part of the story, like Grete, Gregor’s
father gives up his hope by agreeing Grete’s statement.
The violent treatment Gregor’s father does to Gregor and the affirmative
opinion towards Grete’s suggestion show Gregor’s father’s lack of hope towards
Gregor. Gregor’s father takes a logical move by deciding that the family must
move on with their life and makes a change with it for they are accustomed of
Gregor does everything for them. On one hand it is a good thing for the family to
do, but on the other hand, it shows their lack of hope towards Gregor.
30
Gregor has also given up his hope towards himself, and above all, his
family. He realizes that his family is neglecting him no matter how hard he tries to
adjust in with his family even in his present condition so that his family will not
be irritated by his existence. He tries not to frighten his mother or his sister by his
form and tries to be involved to the family as they are facing the problem which
brought by Gregor’s transformation. But no matter how hard he tries, the family
pays him with ignorance towards his efforts. Gregor’s appearance still frightens
his sister and his mother, his father still treats him with a violent behaviour, and
above all, his family still considers him as a misfortune.
In spite of all what Gregor has done for the family, Gregor can not run
away from the fact that he is still neglected by his family. Even in his human
form, when he is till working as a travelling salesman, there are no appreciations
from his family for what he gives to the family.
…Gregor had earned so much money that he was able to meet the
expenses of the whole household and did so. They had simply got
used to it, both the family and Gregor; the money was gratefully
accepted and gladly given, but there was no special uprush of
warm feeling. (Kafka 98)
The flat in which they live in for the last five years is always been a pride
for Gregor. Gregor is able to take the whole family to the flat, which he specially
chooses for the family, by his own efforts. But still this thing never comes to the
family consideration when it comes in taking care of Gregor. In fact, other
members of the family are actually planning to move from the flat because the flat
31
is too big for them in their present condition. What keeps them from moving is
their sense of hopelessness.
At the day Gregor dies alone in his room, the rest of the family gather in
front of his room watching his corpse. They express a gratitude for it. They cry
together but not because they are sad of losing one of their members of the family,
but rather, they cry happy tears. They feel so much relieved because of Gregor’s
death. They feel like the burden of the family has been lifted off from their
shoulder. Gregor’s father decides that it is time that the family moves out from the
flat and carries on with life.
Gregor’s death and his family reaction towards it show the absurdity of
life. Gregor’s death shows that all of his efforts and achievements amount to
nothing, because in the end only death awaits. His family reacts as if they are
finally free and they can continue their life in a better way. Instead of mourning
about the death of one of the family members, Gregor’s parents’ main concerns
are to have a new life and find a husband for Gregor’s sister. It shows that the
universe, especially his family, does not stop at the moment Gregor dies to give
him sympathy. Life just keeps on going as the way it is. Gregor’s life and death
are truly insignificant from the point of view of the universe as a whole.
In his lecture Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, Robert C. Solomon Ph. D.
from the University of Texas, Austin, points out,
What Sisyphus gives us is a picture of a life where we have all of
our aspirations and ambitions, our joys and achievements, but
32
ultimately in the end, it amounts to nothing. That is the Absurd.
(Solomon 1)
Gregor realizes that all of his efforts and achievements for the family are actually
pointless. The way his family mistreat him disregarding all that he has done for
the family and his employer who accuses him doing a kind of corruption in the
firm give rise to the realization towards Gregor. All of this time he expects that all
of his efforts and achievements will amount to something good for him in his life.
But on the contrary, he sees that the universe does not fulfil his expectations. This
is what makes his goals and expectations become false. He expects that all his
goals will be achieved and by his efforts he can get a kind of appreciation from his
family, but what he gets are mistreatments from his family and false accusation
from his employer.
In his imprisonment, Gregor sees the reality. He sees the Absurd. He
comes to realize the confrontation between his demands and the indifferent
universe. This gives rise to his sense of dissatisfaction. It is simply a matter of
trying to understand why life is as it is, why things happen as they happen. The
truth is that that is just what his understanding will not allow him, because the
universe is absurd not just in the sense that it does not satisfy his moral demands,
in this case, his demands of appreciations toward his efforts and achievements, but
it does not satisfy his demands of understanding either. Understanding the
universe will never, ultimately, give us satisfaction because the truth is that the
Absurd is with us (Solomon 1).
33
A small example of Gregor’s sense of dissatisfaction is in the morning
when the transformation occurs. His transformation, to begin with, already shows
the absurdity of his life. At first, he considers that the insect transformation is only
one of his morning delusions and he looks forward eagerly to see it gradually falls
away, but later on he realizes that it is not just another morning delusion. He is
truly transformed into a gigantic insect and he has no ability to fight against this
horrible reality.
He comes to realize that no matter how hard he tries to find an explanation
about what is happening to him, he can not find any answers. On the other hand,
he blames his job. He tries to understand his insect transformation, but in the end
it leaves him with a sense of dissatisfaction. As he tries to understand why the
insect transformation happen as it happen, his understanding does not allow him
to do so. His transformation is absurd because he can not get any sense of
satisfactions for his demand of understanding the insect transformation which is
happening to him.
One of the major examples of the dissatisfaction which Gregor felt is when
he realizes that his family is neglecting him. He was only filled with rage at the
way they were neglecting him (Kafka 113). Another example is when he feels an
unfair treatment by his family. From his room he can see that the three lodgers,
who rent one of the rooms in his family flat, eating their meals which are cooked
by his mother and his sister. At that time, Gregor is starving because he hardly
eats anything. He hardly eats anything because his sister hardly has any intention
to bring Gregor some foods which he likes, yet Gregor sees the fact that his
34
mother and sister try so hard to cook some foods which satisfy the three lodgers.
Thus, in his room, he wonders to himself, how those three lodgers are stuffing
themselves and there he is, alone in his room, dying in starvation.
Gregor’s father is also showing an unfair treatment as well. When
Gregor’s father comes into the living room, in which the three lodgers eat their
meals, he gives one prolonged bow with his cap in hand. At the time when Gregor
is in his normal form as a human being, every time Gregor sets out on a business
journey, his father only lies in his bed. Every time Gregor comes back from his
business journey, his father is just lying in a long chair in a dressing gown. He can
not really rise to his feet to welcome Gregor and only lifts his arms to greet
Gregor.
This is unfair because his family prefer to serve those three lodgers better
than to serve Gregor. If the family consideration is the amount of money those
three lodgers pay for the room they rent, it is still unfair because for the past five
years Gregor has done the same thing for the family, even better. Furthermore,
Gregor is one of the members of the family who pays a great deal of contributions
toward the family and those three lodgers are just strangers coming out of
nowhere. Those three lodgers suddenly take over the family attentions and
treatments which Gregor truly deserves.
When Gregor hears his sister plays the violin, he is hypnotized and crawls
out of his room to approach her. At this point, Gregor is blinded by his thought
that he will announce to everybody in the living room, in which his sister plays
the violin to entertain the three lodgers, that he will send his sister to the
35
Conservatorium. He is blinded by his thought that his sister will be touched that
she will burst to tears. But on the contrary, his appearance to the three lodgers
causes another incident.
The family is afraid that if the three lodgers see Gregor they will be afraid
and decide to leave the flat. Because of the incident, Gregor’s sister stops playing
the violin and helps Gregor’s father to calm the three lodgers deliver them into
their room. Gregor does not get to meet his expectations. On the contrary, his
appearance marks the family’s end point in dealing with Gregor’s condition. Later
in his room, he hears a shocking statement uttered by his sister that the family
must get rid of Gregor and furthermore, he hears that his sister is no longer
considers him as her brother. Gregor is once again disappointed by his own
demands.
Absurdity comes in a feeling that can strike a person anytime and
anywhere. All of a sudden the person feels like a stranger even to himself. This
feeling arises as a function of an encounter between the world and the demands a
person makes as a rational being. Absurdity occurs from the confrontation
between human need and the unreasonable silence of the world (Camus 21). The
absurd is not the elimination of meaning, on the other hand it will not exist
without a person’s plans and purposes. The problem is that the meaning which a
person takes for granted can crumble almost before the person knows it. Knowing
that there is nothing that a person can do because the universe will not change the
way it deals with human logical needs, leads to a total lack of hope. But as Camus
claims, it is not the same with despair.
36
What Camus is trying to say is that even if the absurd leads to a total lack
of hope, it is still not the end of everything. In the writer’s point of view, Camus is
trying to say that the total lack of hope is suppose to be lived not to make a person
to end his life by suicide. But on the other hand the absence of hope frees the
Absurd man from any illusions about the future and he can now live out his
adventure within the confines of his own lifetime (Mairowitz & Korkos 72).
Some of Gregor’s goals in his life are actually fulfilled. After the
transformation and the incident with the chief clerk Gregor does not have to do his
tiring job anymore. He does not to be worried about the trouble of constant
travelling, train connections, bed and irregular meals, and casual acquaintances
that are always new and never become intimate friends. Those are the thinks he
complains about whenever it comes in dealing with his job as a travelling
salesman. Above all, he does not have to be worried about his parents’ debts,
which is the reason why he is doing his job. He surely can not attend his job, even
if he tries as hard as he can to do so, and the fact that his family is able to stands
for themselves without Gregor’s help.
However this fact of Gregor’s freedom can not avoid him from feeling the
sense of conscious dissatisfaction. The truth is that the freedom he gets, in the end
amounts to nothing. This sense of dissatisfaction leads to the total lack of hope. In
spite of the dissatisfaction which Gregor’s felt, he can not do anything about it. He
has no ability to change the universe and make it to fulfil his demands. Gregor has
given up his hope towards himself and his family but he does not despair.
37
Gregor chooses to continue his life. Even if he feels the lack of hope, he
manages not to feel desperate. On the other hand, his absence of hope helps him to
be free from any illusions about the future. The consciousness towards the
absurdity allows a person to see it in a new perspective. At the time the person
realizes that his condition is hopeless and has no future, the person becomes free.
Because Gregor is now free from his illusions of the future, there is nothing left to
live for him except for the life itself. That is what the adventure which Camus
means.
3.2.2 Acceptance without Resignation
Knowing that all of his efforts and achievements are pointless, and all of
his demands and expectations are not being fulfilled as he expects them to be,
Gregor is now left to the options in dealing with the absurd. The writer has
mentioned in the previous chapter that Camus provided three solutions in order to
deal with the Absurd, and from those three solutions offered, Gregor Chooses the
last and the most appropriate solution in dealing with the Absurd. He accepts his
fate of being transformed into a gigantic insect and he accepts the fact that all the
Absurdity he sees in his life.
The transformation seems to be more like a little disturbance than a
horrifying problem for him. The way he perceives his transformation is quite
shocking because instead of being panic or desperate, Gregor is quite calm in
dealing with his transformation. At the time he was struggling to get out of his
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bed, he keeps reminding himself to stay calm because he thinks that it is the most
suitable action to take than a desperate resolves.
There is a sense in which that his priority at his present condition is his
family attention and nurture. Knowing that his appearance frightens his sister
whenever she comes into his room to give him some foods or to clean up his
room, he struggles for four hours to arrange a sheet on the couch to cover his body
so that his sister does not have to be worried of being frightened by Gregor’s
appearance. Before he blows his last breath Gregor thinks about his family with
tendereness and love. The decision that he must disappear was the one that he held
to even more strongly than his sister, if it was possible (Kafka 124).
After the incident with his chief clerk in front of his room, Gregor to
decide that he must stay low in his room at the present so that his family can
adjust to his condition.
He stayed there all night, spending the time partly in a light
slumber, from which his hunger kept waking him up with a start,
and partly in worrying and sketching vague hopes, which all led to
the same conclusion, the he must lie low for the present and, by
exercising patience and the utmost consideration, help the family to
bear the inconvenience he was bound to cause them in his present
condition. (Kafka 94)
There a sense in which that Gregor has truly accepts his transformation that he
never considers it as a huge problem. He thinks about the sake of his family
instead of his own tragic condition.
39
Gregor accepts his insect transformation and the consequences which the
transformation brings as well. After having a full control of his new form, he
enjoys doing things which a real insect does. The next morning after the incident
in front of his room occurs, his sister comes into his room and put some fresh
foods for him to eat. At first, Gregor is eager to eat them since he has not eaten
anything at all after the transformation, but soon the eagerness gradually vanished.
It is because he does not like the milk which is served among other foods in front
of him. In his normal form as a human being, milk is one of his favourite treats,
but because of his transformation not only change his physical appearance, it also
changes his behaviour that he hates the milk and, above all, fresh foods. Gregor
now enjoys eating leftovers.
Besides his eating behaviour, the transformation changes his daily
behaviour. Instead of sleeping on his bed, he prefers to sleep under the couch in
his room. The couch is his favourite place among all the spaces he has in his
room. He can stay under the couch all day. He also starts to enjoy crawling around
his square room.
…for mere recreation he had formed the habit of crawling
crisscross over the walls and ceiling. He especially enjoyed
hanging suspended from the ceiling; it was much better than lying
on the floor; one could breath more freely; one’s body swung and
rocked lightly; and in the almost blissful absorption induced by this
suspension it could happen to his own surprise that he let go and
fell plump on the floor. (Kafka 102)
40
But even if Gregor’s physical appearances and his behaviours are changed,
he is still the same Gregor in the mind. When her sister realizes Gregor’s new
habit of crawling in his room, she has this initiative to move some furniture in his
room just to give more space to move. At the time his mother and his sister work
together to move one of the furniture in his room, he feels like he is somehow
threatened. He wants his room to be the way it used to be for all the memory he
has with his room and all the furniture in it. Thus, his sticks his body on a picture
hanged on the wall of his room to prevent his mother and his sister to move more
of his belongings from his room. This action then causes another incident because
his mother soon collapses once again after seeing Gregor on the wall. When
Gregor father’s arrives from his work, he misunderstands what Grete is trying to
say about what actually is going on, and soon Gregor’s father bombards him with
apples.
Gregor’s does not have to go to work because of his transformation and it
gives him all the time he has for himself. He finally has his leisure time which he
hardly has when he is still working as a travelling salesman. In his imprisonment
Gregor has the chance to reflect on his life and finally sees the absurdity of his
life. The writer has mentioned earlier in this chapter, at this moment Gregor goes
through with his consciousness which leads him to his sense of dissatisfaction,
which leads him to his total lack of hope. But then he chooses to continue his life
as a gigantic insect until his last breath.
There is a sense in which that Gregor, after realizing his hopeless and
futureless condition, he becomes free. Gregor is free from any common rules or
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duties and starts to learn how to live his life, which is the only thing he has.
Camus states in The Myth of Sisyphus that life will be lived all the better if it has
no meaning (40). Gregor’s life has no meaning because he realizes that all of his
efforts throughout the last five years, in which he dedicates his life to it, is
actually pointless. However, Robert C. Solomon states in his lecture, that Camus
says, the only thing that matters, the only thing that is truly meaningful is personal
experience (Solomon 1).
Gregor is truly engaged with his personal experience of being a gigantic
insect. Thus, he gains a full control of his fate and gives his life a meaning.
There is a sense in which, in so far as we can simply get into what
we do, make ourselves simply love every moment of it, love the
process even if it might be painful, to that extend, we live our life
to the fullest and we are happy. (Solomon 1)
The message from Sisyphus, which also can be applied in Gregor’s case, is that
when a person is wholly engaged with his life, then he tastes the experience which
he has, that is the meaning of life. It is only in so far as he is fully engaged in his
life that his life makes sense
Another notion follows with the acceptance with the absurdity, which is
resentment. In Sisyphus’s case, Camus explains that when Sisyphus chooses to
continue to move on doing his pointless task, at the same time he revolts.
Camus asks us to reflect on Sisyphus when he reaches the top. He
knows the rock will roll down, and it does. But as Sisyphus heads
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down to retrieve it, he does not despair. He surmounts his fate by
scorning it, stronger than the rock. (Roth & Sontag 437)
By continuing doing his pointless task, Sisyphus, as Camus stated, shakes his fist
towards the gods. He defies his condemnation, but instead of putting the huge
stone down and stop rolling it, he continues to do it. The basic idea is that what
keeps Sisyphus feels that his life is meaningful is that he shakes his fist to the
gods as he is doing his pointless task with, as Camus claims, scorn and defiance.
Defiance of the absurd maximizes life’s intensity in a way that would not be
possible if some transcendent God guaranteed life’s significance (Roth & Sontag
436).
To put the conclusion, rather bluntly, Camus builds on the insight that the
most authentically human response to absurdity is to protest against it. But the
protest which he meant is not to choose, for example to avoid the absurd, but
Camus thinks we should let it remain in order to defy it. By accepting his fate no
matter how hard and painful it is, Gregor is making his way in dealing with the
absurdity of his life and at the same time he revolts against it. He revolts the
absurdity not by avoiding it but rather to embrace it. As he does it he revolts in the
sense that he refuses to accept the absurdity which has been posted upon him. In
other words, it is a way of giving meaning to his life, but in reaction of rejection
of something else, which is the Absurd.
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CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
Through The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka gives a character who is forced
to reflect on his life in probably the hardest way. Gregor Samsa, the main
character of the story, has been transformed into a gigantic insect. The
transformation turns his and his family’s life around.
As the result of the analysis the writer comes up with two main points of
conclusion of the study. The first conclusion concerns to the meaning of Gregor
Samsa’s insect transformation, and the second conclusion concerns to the way
Gregor Samsa perceives his insect transformation.
The first conclusion defines the meaning of Gregor Samsa’s insect
transformation as a stage in which Gregor gains his consciousness of the absurdity
of his life. Through his transformation, the writer finds that through his five years
of employment as a travelling salesman Gregor has become a slave of his own
routine. This slavery is not only caused by his tiring job and some of his prudent
habits, but also because Gregor dedicates his life way to well in what he is doing
because he has some goals which he has to achieve, which are getting out from his
job and repressing employer, paying all his parents’ debts to his employer, and
sending his sister to the Conservatorium. Later he learns that all of his goals are
false because in the end they all amount to nothing.
Furthermore, he comes to realize that all of his efforts and achievements
for the family are truly pointless. This point leads to the second point of the
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conclusion which is concerns of the way Gregor perceives his transformation.
Gregor soon realizes the confrontation of his demands with the indifferent
universe. He expects that all of his achievement for the family and what he has
done for the firm will at least can give a kind of appreciation from the family and
his employer. On the contrary, his family gives him mistreatments and sometimes
violence. As for his expectation toward his employer, instead of appreciating all
his hard works, the employer accuses of doing corruption.
This awareness and dissatisfaction lead Gregor to his total lack of hope.
He sees that there is nothing he can do about what is happening to him and he
only has his own life to live. Gregor soon accepts the absurdity of his life by
continuing to live as a gigantic insect. Gregor enjoys his new habits as an insect
and he finally has the time for himself which he hardly gives to himself when he
works as a travelling salesman. In this time of meditation that he fully engaged in
his life and with his own will, he gives a meaning to it. By continuing his life,
Gregor accepts the absurdity of his life but at the same time he revolts against it.
Here, the revolt against the absurdity does not mean to avoid it but rather to
embrace it, because life will only make sense if a person is wholly engaged in it
and tastes the experience he has.
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WORKS CITED
Beckett, Sammuel, and Eugene Ionesco. Absurdism From Culture. Online.
Internet. http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Absurdism. 13 October
2008.
Bernardo, Karen. Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. Online. Internet.
http://www.storybites.com/kafkametamorph2.htm. 14 January 2009.
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. Devon: Penguin Books Ltd., 1975
Gould, James A., ed. Classical Philosophical Questions. 5th Edition. Colombus:
Bell and Howell Company, 1985.
Hayman, Ronald. K: A Biography of Franz Kafka. London: Phoenix Press, 2001.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Collected Stories. London: David Campbell
Publishers Ltd., 1993.
Kurniawan, Anang. On Kafka: The Metamorphosis. Online. Internet.
http://duniabahasa.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/on-kafka-the-
metamorphosis/. 14 January 2009.
Lathief, Supaat A. Sastra: Eksistensialisme – Mistisme Religius. Lamongan:
Pustaka Ilalang, 2008.
Leni. Franz Kafka Biography. Online. Internet.
http://www.kafka-franz.com/kafka-biography.htm. 13 October 2008.
Mairowitz, David Zane, and Alain Korkos. Camus for Beginners. Cambridge:
Icon books Ltd., 1998.
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New World Encyclopedia Page. Absurdism. Online. Internet.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Absurdism. 13 October
2008.
Olen, Jeffrey. Persons and Their World: An Introduction to Philosophy. New
York: Random House Inc., 1983.
Robinson, Dave, and Oscar Zarate. Introducing Kierkegaard. Cambridge: Icon
Books Ltd., 2006.
Roth, John K., and Frederick Sontag. The Questions of Philosophy. Belmont:
Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1988.
Solomon, Robert C. Franz Kafka. Online. Internet.
http://www.youtube.com/p/31EA17177583B455&hl=en&fs=1. 13
October 2008.
Solomon, Robert C. Lecture Four: Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus. Online.
Internet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udk0vRXGLIA. 13 October
2008.
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SYNOPSIS
The Metamorphosis opens as Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, awakes
to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect. Gregor soon begins to worry
that he will miss his train and be late for work. He also complains about his job,
employment to which he had resigned himself to pay off his parents' debts. From
outside of the room, Gregor's mother calls to him. Gregor, unfamiliar with his new
form, struggles to get out of bed. Later, the chief clerk of his office arrives in front
of the locked door to Gregor's room, inquiring why his employee has missed the
early train. Speaking through the door, Gregor claims that he is slightly ill but will
soon be on his way to attend his job.
Meanwhile, Gregor's mother asks her daughter Grete to call for a doctor
and a locksmith. Finally Gregor manages to open his door. His appearance
frightens the chief clerk, and although Gregor tries to explain to him, claiming he
will get dressed and be on his way to work, the clerk runs away from the gigantic
insect, as does Gregor's frightened mother collapses. Gregor's father then appears
and violently drives Gregor back into his room.
Time passes, and Gregor's family members grow more accustomed to
living with Gregor in this strange form, though only Grete has the courage to enter
her brother's room. When Gregor leaves his room weeks later, his mother
becomes shocked, and her husband forces Gregor to his room under a hail of
thrown apples. Injured and unable to move, Gregor suffers a lonely imprisonment
in his room. Gregor's mother spends her day by sewing while his sister takes a job
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as a salesgirl. Gregor is neglected by his family. They hire a charwoman to attend
to the heavier work around the house, tasks that used to be performed by Gregor.
Unusable things are placed in his room for storage, to make space for three male
lodgers the Samsas have taken in to supplement their income.
One evening as Grete plays the violin for these men, Gregor is attracted by
the music and crawls into the living room. Later, one of the lodgers observes him.
The lodgers threaten to give notice and leave the flat. Grete realizes that they must
get rid of this creature, which she seems to no longer see as her brother. The
following morning, the charwoman enters Gregor's room and finds him dead.
When the lodgers appear and demand breakfast, Gregor’s father orders them to
leave. Meanwhile, charwoman returns and explains that she has disposed of
Gregor's body. The story closes as Gregor's parents, optimistic for the future and
without a thought of their deceased son, comment on their daughter's vivacity and
beauty, realizing she has grown into a woman.
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