Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is one of the most outstanding literature pieces written in the twentieth century. It has attracted significant attention among readers and researchers due to its unprecedented imagery, emotionally-charged story, and relevance to challenging existential experiences resonating with readers. There is no doubt that Kafka’s novella can be analyzed from various critical perspectives, adding to the interpretation of a heart-breaking plot about a human’s transformation into an insect. Considering the idea of change explicitly present in the plot, it appears interesting to analyze how implicit psychological changes in characters are displayed. The analysis of Kafka’s Metamorphosis based on Psychoanalysis highlights the main themes of the Superego-Id changes in the main character’s psyche, the repressed desires mirrored in the character’s behaviors, and the Oedipal complex present in Gregor’s father.
Psychoanalysis theory is based on the research of Sigmund Freud, who was one of the first psychologists whose view on the human psyche’s structure remains topical in modern science. Psychoanalytic theory suggests that there are three fundamental aspects of the psyche, including the Id, Ego, and Superego (Yadav 47). It is responsible for the gratification of human desires connected to instincts, such as the need for food and sex. Superego appears as opposed to Id, relies on social norms and rules, and can even provoke a sense of guilt in a person when they act according to Id violating Superego at the same time (Yadav 47). Hence, Ego serves as a balancing aspect between Id and Superego responsible for delayed forms of gratification, and it prioritizes the reality in which a personality exists (Yadav 47). Therefore, the human psyche experiences a constant confrontation between three structures, and psychological tension depends on one’s ability to satisfy specific desires in the given circumstances with the consideration of morality norms.
In the beginning, Gregor Samsa, the main character of Metamorphosis, appears as a personality whose behavior is impacted mainly by Superego. After realizing that his body has changed to a vermin’s, he reflects on his life, predominantly mentioning his work as a “commercial traveler” exhausted with overwhelming obligations and an inhumane schedule (Kafka Chapter 1). The reader learns that Gregor is the primary breadwinner for his family, including his parents and sister, Grete. Thus, Gregor displays his belonging to the system and his complete obedience to it, which is evidence of Superego dominance in his psyche (Yadav 48). After Gregor receives the vermin’s body, his Superego continues to display itself on various occasions, for instance, when he hides from the eyesight of his family. He assumes that his look may make his mother “ill,” and he hides behind the sofa when Grete enters his room (Kafka Chapter 2). Gregor loves his mother and sister, and one might assume he would like to see them, which would refer to Id’s desires. However, the idea of showing them his “ugly” appearance is unbearable for Gregor and is accompanied by a sense of guilt, which is peculiar to the Superego.
Interestingly, unlike the main character, Gregor’s family appears to be driven mainly by the Id and Ego aspects of their psyches. It seems that Gregor’s family had some sense of respect toward him since he earned money and provided for them. They aligned their desires for decent living with the reality of not having jobs themselves and, therefore, the need to rely on Gregor. The main character outlines he was responsible “to pay off [his] parents’ debt,” which would take five to six years (Kafka Chapter 1). As a result, he is displayed as bonded to the system (because he cannot tell his boss what he truly thinks) and to his family (he cannot reject paying off their debt). Things start to change since his physical transformation, and a reader may witness the change in the family’s behaviors. In the beginning, Gregor is worried about the idea that his parents and sister are thinking of finding jobs because his father is “elderly,” his mother has asthma, and Grete is “just a child of seventeen” (Kafka Chapter 2). Eventually, they decide to rent some of their rooms to lodgers, and after that, their attitude towards Gregor changes significantly. They are to be “structured to function on their superego” and neglect their family feelings (Yadav 49). It is noticeable when Grete, who was kind and loving to Gregor, starts naming him “it” and suggests that the family should “get rid of it” (Kafka Chapter 3). Unlike Gregor, who was exhausted by the system and his Superego dominance but managed to take care of his family, they neglect their family emotions and are under Ego and Id rule.
The opposite change occurs in Gregor’s psyche, leading him from Superego-driven behavior to Id dominance, followed by the exploration of his unconscious desires. According to psychoanalysis, desires that are born in Id are filtered by Superego and Ego (Gould 150). If Superego finds a desire socially acceptable, it travels to the Ego part so that a person becomes conscious of their need and can use adequate instruments to achieve it. In case that Superego finds a desire violating social norms and Ego thinks that social consequences could be “dangerous” to a person, the desire is moved to the unconscious (Gould 150). In such a way, a person’s needs are repressed, and one is commonly unaware of it. However, the energy produced by desire remains in one’s psyche and creates inner tension, which sometimes leads to over-reactive and compulsive behaviors.
In Gregor, repressed desires and emotions come to the surface when he becomes a vermin. At first, he thinks of his work and boss negatively, living this way through emotions that he does not allow himself in everyday life (Kafka Chapter 1). Since he does not go to work, he spends much time on his own, which actualizes his inner self. At the same time, he tries to control his desires; for instance, despite his love for his family and the longing for interaction with them, he hides from them. Such behavior demonstrates the idea of alienation – a psychological response to traumatic experiences that one cannot cope with (Amir 155). It appears that Gregor alienates himself from others because he deeply fears non-acceptance. Alienation occurs in the case of a “conflict between [individual’s] social role or setting,” which corresponds to Gregor’s situation as he is no longer aligned with the role he used to have (Asriningtyas and Mustofa 261). The distance he creates adds to the distance between him as an insect and his family as humans, increasing the repression of his true desires, eventually leading to their display of hardly-controlled Gregor’s behavior.
The most peculiar example of repressed feelings coming to the surface is Gregor’s obsession with the portrait of a lady in furs. This picture is mentioned at the beginning of Metamorphosis and then appears when Gregor fiercely fights for it against Grete, who wants to take it from the wall (Kafka Chapter 2). From the psychoanalytic perspective, it was a desire to have a relationship with a woman because the image serves as a metaphor for a real woman he could not have (Asriningtyas and Mustofa 270). Unfortunately, Gregor does not have any solution to satisfy his repressed desire, and, as a result, he behaves aggressively and is ready to “make a leap for Grete’s face” (Kafka Chapter 2). Such action might be seen as rebellious against the system because Gregor’s family was a part of the system he obeyed. Protecting the picture then demonstrates the dominance of Id in Gregor’s psyche, suggesting that psychological transformation followed the physical change.
Another peculiar highlight from psychoanalysis refers to the Oedipal complex displayed in the character of Gregor’s father. Interestingly, the Oedipal complex usually refers to a psychological conflict in a son who aspires to usurp his mother’s love at a particular stage of development and starts to perceive his father as a competitor (Islam et al. 306). On the one hand, Gregor himself displays some traits of the Oedipal complex because, in their family, he took the leading role that initially belonged to his father. On the other hand, the aggression of Mr. Samsa towards Gregor demonstrates that he had suppressed feelings towards his son in the triangle of Gregor and his parents (Islam et al. 306). When one day, Mr. Samsa returns home from work and learns that Mrs. Samsa fainted, he does not clarify the details but only explodes in anger and wants to kill his son (Kafka Chapter 2). The story continues as the mother appears between them and asks Mr. Samsa not to kill Gregor. However, Mr. Samsa splashes out his emotions by throwing apples at Gregor, which causes severe wounds and eventually leads to the main character’s death (Kafka Chapter 2). At the end of the novella, Mr. Samsa obtains a job and has a manager to report to, similar to Gregor’s situation when he was a traveler. Accordingly, he takes the role of the leader of their family, and it seems that “Gregor’s descent is absolutely balanced by his father’s rise” (Islam et al. 308). In the final scene, Mrs. Samsa and Grete obey Mr. Samsa’s order to finish their writing and follow him, so they have time together in the countryside (Kafka Chapter 3). Kafka portrays the affection parents have for their daughter and their oblivion of Gregor, which appears as if the obstacle (or the competitor, from the father’s point of view) has been removed.
Conclusively, the psychoanalytic lens highlights the collision between Superego and Id dominants in the characters of Metamorphosis, along with the display of repressed feelings and the impact of the Oedipal complex on family relationships. Franz Kafka depicts the physical transformation of a human to an insect, and this event catalyzes the psychological conversion from Superego to Id dominance in the main character and vice versa in his family. Moreover, the story contains scenes that reveal the topic of repressed feelings and emotions, including the consequences of the Oedipal complex for relationships between a father and a son. Eventually, psychoanalysis enables the discovery of implicit motives and feelings behind the behaviors of the novella’s characters and serves for a deeper understanding of Kafka’s work.
Works Cited
Amir, Danah. Bearing Witness to the Witness: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Four Modes of Traumatic Testimony. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019.
Asriningtyas, Devicha Lidya, and Ali Mustofa. “Gregor Samsa’s Self Alienation in Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis: Lacanian Psychoanalysis.” Humanitatis: Journal of Language and Literature, vol. 8, no. 2, 2022, pp. 261–276.
Gould, Caron Steinberg. “Psychoanalysis, Imagination, and Imaginative Resistance: A Genesis of the Post-Freudian World.” Imagination and Art: Explorations in Contemporary Theory, by Keith A. Moser and Ananta Charana Sukla, Brill Rodopi, 2020, pp. 139–155.
Islam, Saddam, et al. “Gregor’s Father: A Confirmation of the Oedipal Complex.” Global Language Review, VI, no. II, 2021, pp. 304–309.
Kafka, Franz, and Joyce Crick. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Yadav, Parth Chandrakant. “Gregor Samsa’s Psyco-Metamorphosis: franz Kafka’s Critique of Systemic Subjugation of Modern Man ”. Multidisciplinary Research Trends, edited by Mohd Shaikhul Ashraf et al., vol. 3, Red Shine, 2022, pp. 46–51.