Introduction
The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka is a story of a young traveling salesman Gregor Samosa who one day wakes up to find himself metamorphosed into vermin. The story narrates the agonies that Gregor faces and the upheavals that the family undergoes. The metamorphosed Gregor has changed his physical shape but his mind is still of himself. The paper discusses the cause and effect of important events in the story, such as the effects on Gregor, his sister, mother and father. (Kafka, 1916).
Summary of the plot of Nabokov
Nabokov (2007) has provided a good synopsis of the plot. One morning, Gregor, the main character in the story wakes up to find himself transformed into an insect with numerous legs. He finds himself on his back and he cannot move and set himself upright. The cause that Kafka refers to is the great upheaval and horrendous transformation that he has undergone. When Gregor is struggling in his room, trying to understand what has happened, he finds that his manager is banging on the front door asking why Gregor has not turned up for work The family members including his father, mother and sister are all frantic as to why Gregor is not responding and all this activity has added to the stress that Gregor is facing.
Multiple causes are in force right in the first few paragraphs: the horrendous transformation that Gregor has undergone, the panic and anxiety that the family members feel when Gregor is not responding to urgent summons to open the door of his room and the pressure exerted by the manager who is getting angry. All these causes have had the effect of petrifying the transformed Gregor and he cannot speak, cannot get up and so cannot even open the door.
Fitzgerald (18 April 2007) has pointed out that Kafka attempted to shock readers by presenting a wholly different story that bordered on the postmodern theories. According to the author, Kafka has attempted to pack as many voices and thoughts in the first few paragraphs so that the reader is twisted between understanding the cause and the effect of the malady that befell Gregor.
When Gregor wakes up, he could feel all the familiar sights and sounds such as the room window, the rain drops that beat the window sill and he initially thought that it was a dream. He felt that if he slept for a little longer, he would wake up and this nightmare would go away. But the change was complete and his state was just like a beetle or a cockroach has trouble getting back on its legs after it has been overturned.
“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, 1916)
Gregor had been working very hard as a traveling salesman, trying to pay off the debts that his father owned to his creditors. He is also the sole earning member of his family. The societal pressures are the causes that have transformed Gregor into a mental wreck and he feels insignificant in the face of the odds, to be precise, he feels that he is vermin, the lowest order among living things. These are the deeper causes that Kafka speaks of. So, when he feels that if he sleeps for some more time, the causes and effects would go away. But they do not go away and Gregor is now physically and mentally vermin (Nabokov, 2007).
Other characters such as Greta, the sister of Gregor, Gregor’s father and mother are moved by the transformation that Gregor has undergone. It must be understood that the cause was the transformation that Gregor has undergone.
The effects on each of the characters is different
There is Greta, sister of Gregor who was a helpless girl before the transformation of Gregor. She was content to work in the house and stay at home. However, after Gregor’s transformation, she has undergone a change herself. Initially she looked after the feeding and other tasks for Gregor but with passage of time, she starts hating her job and neglects Gregor. She has even found a job as a sales clerk. The effect of the transformation is evident since she knows that Gregor is now just a burden and of no use to her (Fitzgerald, 2007).
Gregor’s father had suffered huge business losses and had given up working. He looked up at Gregor to feed the family. After the transformation, the father started working again and soon realized that he was independent and could earn a living. So, the effect on the father was that it brought him out of depression and dependence and made him capable of working again. In the later part of the story, due to some misunderstanding, the father starts throwing apples at Gregor and one strikes him hard and remains embedded in his body where it rots and Gregor cannot take it out. The blow from the apple proves fatal to Gregor and he succumbs from the wound.
“Gregor’s serious wound, from which he suffered for over a month—since no one ventured to remove the apple, it remained in his flesh as a visible reminder” (Kafka, 1916)
Gregor’s mother is depicted as psychologically very weak. She has been suffering from the loss in business of her husband and is very depressed. She loves her son very much and the transformation has had a very severe effect on her and she cannot come to terms with the fact that her dear son has been transformed into vermin.
After Gregor dies, the corpse is summarily disposed off and the family seems to be relieved that the worst is over. They have more confidence among themselves as they realize that they are now free. The cause is the demise of the transformed Gregor. The effect is that they go out to the city, spend some time enjoying the sights and decide on their future plan of action. The result of the transformation is that the family decides to move to another place, Greta has grown up to be voluptuous and beautiful women and there are plans to get her married off
So, the overall effects of the transformation of Gregor on the family is that they have become independent and much more vivacious than before, they have started earning and managed to drag themselves out of their misery. The family initially depended on Gregor for their living but after the transformation, his sister and father have managed to find jobs, the have become independent and they have managed to pull themselves out of the depression.
References
Fitzgerald Connor. 2007. Analysis of the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Web.
Kafka Franz. 1916. The Metamorphosis. (Trans. Ian Johnston, 2007). Web.
Nabokov Vladimir. 2007. Vladimir Nabokov’s Lecture on “The Metamorphosis. Web.