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The Discussion of Gregor, a Character in “The Metamorphosis” Essay

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Introduction

Gregor, a character in The Metamorphosis, serves as a vehicle for Kafka’s argument that people are existential by nature. Existentialism includes the value of freedom of choice, the value of the individual, and the value of interpersonal connections. The decisions Gregor takes in his personal relationships and throughout his life shape who he is as a character. The culmination of Gregor’s tremendous selflessness, inability to acknowledge his own existence as a vermin, and allowing people to dehumanize him led to his demise.

Discussion

Given that Kafka writes on the state of the human condition, Kafka is an existentialist. His short story The Metamorphosis is a good example of existential writing since the protagonist has the fundamental urge that all people have to feel loved and to have meaningful tasks in life. In The Metamorphosis, Kafka applies absurdist philosophy. Absurdism is a philosophical subfield of existentialism, as was already noted. In reality, French existentialism, which contends that existence has no purpose and that humans are doomed to fail in their quest for meaning, is where the ludicrous first emerged. Existentialism contends that life is fundamentally and completely meaningless, in contrast to the fantastic, which believes that existence has a purpose but that meaning merely lies outside the purview of human conscience.

Conclusion

Furthering its claim that everything in the universe is relative and depends on people’s attempts to make sense of it, existentialism asserts that there is no such thing as absolute good or evil. The absurdist worldview is demonstrated in The Metamorphosis by the way the family’s morally repugnant behaviors seem to have no consequences at all. The Samsas are not held accountable for mistreating Gregor. Even Grete, who initially welcomed Gregor after his transformation, expresses her desperation to have him removed from the family’s life at the end of the story because she is unable to understand how Gregor has transformed into a vermin and lost his humanity.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "The Discussion of Gregor, a Character in "The Metamorphosis"." January 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-discussion-of-gregor-a-character-in-the-metamorphosis/.

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IvyPanda. "The Discussion of Gregor, a Character in "The Metamorphosis"." January 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-discussion-of-gregor-a-character-in-the-metamorphosis/.

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