1. Price 1
Malachi W. Price
The Lumpenproletariat-insect in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa’s transformation from a man into an insect,
which gives the book its title, represents the way in which the exploitation of the proletariat by
the bourgeoisie can obscure the humanity behind proletariat labor. Gregor’s job, which
overworks him and removes social interaction from his life, thereby removes Gregor from
human existence. In Gregor’s case, he is transformed into “a monstrous insect,” the animated
form farthest from that of humanity, so that he represents the dehumanizing process of obscuring
labor-power figures by becoming something that is much less than human (Kafka 64). He
becomes a member of an even lower class, the lumpenproletariat, in this same process. Once
Gregor becomes the lumpenproletariat-insect, the abhorred burden to capitalist society, he gets
locked-in syndrome, as a powerless observer without means of communicating his needs or his
existence, and dies prematurely without the will or reason to live, fulfilling Marxist theories
about class conflict and the extension of the working-day in capitalist society.
Gregor is treated like an insect in his occupation and therefore, in an act of magical
realism and irony, he becomes one. In the beginning of the story, Gregor wakes up transformed
into the creature that the bourgeoisie—aptly represented by the chief clerk, Gregor’s boss—make
him out to be. To the bourgeoisie, Gregor—a prole—“was a mere tool, spineless and stupid.”
This quote is an apt description of insects, which don’t have backbones or notable intelligence,
and thus are “spineless and stupid” (Kafka 66). The word “tool” suggests that Gregor is only
useful in a mechanical way, as a cog in the machine, and not useful in a human way. Gregor
thinks through his unfortunate occupational circumstance thus:

2. Price 2
’O God,” he thought, ‘what an exhausting job I’ve chosen! On the move day in,
day out. The business worries are far worse than they are on the actual premises at
home, and on top of that I’m saddled with the strain of all this traveling, the
anxiety about train connections, the bad and irregular meals, the constant stream
of changing faces with no chance of any warmer, lasting friendship. The devil
take it all!’ (Kafka 65)
Gregor is treated without human dignity, as he faces constant exhaustion and poor living and
dietary conditions. Gregor’s dehumanization is also present in his lack of genuine human
interaction; the “changing faces” he meets only represent business interactions and never friendly
social ones, as there is “no chance of any warmer, lasting friendship.” The chief clerk does not
express much interest in Gregor’s health, or humanity, either; for after Gregor’s mother tells the
chief clerk that Gregor must be sick, the chief clerk responds: “let us hope it’s nothing serious.
Though I’m bound to say, on the other hand, that we businessmen are—fortunately or
unfortunately—as you will, often obliged for business reasons to shrug off some mild
disposition.” He feigns sympathy then immediately makes it a matter of business that Gregor is
tardy, unconcerned by the fact that Gregor’s condition might be less than healthy—for example,
that he might have the flu, or perhaps have been transformed into a monstrous insect (70). As
Marx would explain, this is what happens in a capitalist society: the bourgeoisie degrade the
proletariat’s personal worth into mere economic value, and this obscures their humanity (“From
the Communist Manifesto” 659).
Gregor only keeps his job in order to maintain his familial relationships, the only social
relationships he has in the story; and Gregor is right to assume he would lose these relationships
otherwise, because once Gregor stops working in the story he also loses social contact with his

3. Price 3
family. Reflecting on his oppressive job, Gregor thinks to himself, “If I didn’t have to hold back
for the sake of my parents I’d have handed in my notice long since, I’d have marched in and
given the chief a piece of my mind” (Kafka 65). As the only worker in his family, Gregor is the
sole breadwinner, and so he must submit to the oppressive capitalist system instead of standing
up against the oppression like his conscience tells him to. Gregor, despite his desire to do
otherwise, illogically commits to going to this job even in light of being transformed into an
insect, as demonstrated when he tries to catch the seven o’ clock train after waking up an insect
and tries to convince his boss that he wants to return to work; and this demonstrates how
thoroughly Gregor has internalized his role as a capitalist tool (66, 75).
In the solitary confinement situation that results from Gregor’s metamorphosis and
inability to work, Gregor becomes a prisoner, as depicted in the treatment and care—or lack
thereof—given to him and his room, which becomes a cell. Gregor’s confinement is referred to
as “imprisonment” in the narrator’s own words, and Gregor is served leftover and spoiled food
by his sister, which she does not serve directly to him, and instead sets down on the floor with a
cloth (Kafka 83, 81). By the time Gregor’s sister and mother remove the furniture from Gregor’s
room the emptiness and “bare walls” in the room create an image very similar to a prison cell
(89). This cell is also rarely cleaned properly to the point that the cell and Gregor become
covered in dust (98, 102). Every time Gregor tries to leave his cell and is spotted by his father—
the jail-guard-figure in this prison analogy—the father beats Gregor back into his room with
apples or newspapers (77, 94). Once Gregor becomes unemployed and imprisoned thus he
becomes less than a proletariat; he becomes a member of the lumpenproletariat, the lowest social
class, which consists of the unemployed, criminals, and other socioeconomic outcasts of the
capitalist system. The lumpenproletariat is the social class that watches the proletariat-

4. Price 4
bourgeoisie conflict from the sidelines of history (“Introduction” 14, “Lu”). This is apparent in
the way that Gregor’s character only contributes to the plot in the story by being a nuisance and a
liability to the other characters, and like a lumpenproletariat he can only watch from the sidelines
as the story unfolds outside of his control.
Gregor’s loss of self and social control is depicted in his inability to use language, and
this results in his loss of identity. When his mother knocks on Gregor’s door the first morning of
his transformation and calls to him, he responds and hears his voice slowly become less human,
resembling animal sounds more than intelligible human speech:
Gregor gave a start when he heard his voice coming in an answer; it was
unmistakably his own voice of old, but mixed in it, as if from below, was an
irrepressible, painful squeaking; and this only left the sound of the words clear for
a moment, before distorting them so much that one could not tell if one had heard
them properly. (Kafka 68)
By the time Gregor’s boss arrives and Gregor speaks to him, his ability to communicate has gone
completely. After he pleads to the chief clerk that he will come to work, the chief clerk asks
Gregor’s parents, “Did you understand a single word of that?” (72) The narrator soon after
reflects on Gregor’s loss of language: “It was true that the words he uttered were evidently no
longer intelligible” (73). From here on Gregor’s loss of language acts as a barrier between him
and his family, as he can no longer verbally express his discontent with his horrible living
conditions or come to an arrangement with his distraught family about his ordeal. While arguing
with Gregor’s sister about whether Gregor is still a sentient, comprehensive being, the father says
“’If he could understand what we said,’ repeated the old man, and by closing his eyes absorbed
his daughter’s conviction that this was impossible, ‘then perhaps we might be able to come to

5. Price 5
some arrangement with him. But as things are—‘” (105). His trailing off at the end is a sign of
his lack of faith in Gregor’s sentience. Gregor’s sister further convinces her parents that Gregor
is long gone, herself convinced that even saying Gregor’s name in front of the creature is
blasphemy, as she states clearly: “I refuse to utter my brother’s name in the presence of this
monster” (104). Clearly Gregor’s family has committed to the idea that he is dead and the
creature he has become is not communicable or identifiable with him, and this gives Gregor
locked-in syndrome—a condition in which a patient has full consciousness but no physical
means to communicate—as Gregor no longer has social power or control over his own life. This
locked-in syndrome is typical of lumpenproletariat, who are mere observers of the plot of
history, on the outside looking in.
Gregory’s lack of a social role causes him to internalize his inadequacy, and this leads to
his despairing death. The voice of hegemony in society, as voiced by Gregor’s family, considers
Gregor to be worthless in his jobless and incapacitated state; after all, Gregor no longer has
labor-power-value. Marx says, “the bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental
veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation” (Communist Manifesto 659).
So, without a job or means of having any particular value, Gregor’s family no longer cares about
him, because he cannot fulfill his end of the familial-money-relationship. Gregor overhears from
his cell his family’s constant complaints that they cannot leave the flat because they cannot move
him, and he observes that they all take up jobs in order to support him and themselves in his
absence (Kafka 95-7). Gregor internalizes his lack of social importance and feels guilty that his
family must work so hard, and this reasons him into believing that he does not deserve to live. It
is not explicitly a suicide, but Kafka’s language depicts Gregor’s death as more or less a
deliberate one. When he dies his head sinks “of its own accord” (107). Here—with the word

6. Price 6
“accord”—there is language of will and deliberation. He willed his death by altogether giving up
for lack of reason to live. Because Gregor in his insect-lumpenproletariat form becomes a
burden, his family greets his death cheerfully. The end of the story, after Gregor dies, is a
description of the family’s leisurely outing, on a tramcar filled with “warm sunshine,” a
reflection of the family’s mood, and they consider their plans for their future now that they need
not bear the burden of Gregor (110). The tone in this final passage is warm, but it ironically
exposes the fault of the capitalist system in that the system can even decay the human sentiment
of society all the way down to its familial roots, to the point that the death of a loved one, due to
the economic relief it may provide, becomes a positive event.
Gregor’s premature death fulfills the Marxist theoretical cause-effect relationship
between the extension of the workday and the resulting shortened lifespan of the proletariat
worker. As Marx explains:
Capital cares nothing for the length of life of labour-power. All that concerns it is
simply and solely the maximum of labour-power that can be rendered fluent in a
workingday…[the capitalistic mode of production] extends the labourer’s time of
production during a given period by shortening his actual lifetime. (From Chapter
10. The Working-Day 672)
Gregor’s “exhausting job” in which he is “on the move day in, day out” clearly signifies the
capitalist extended workday. This dehumanizing job turns Gregor into an insect-
lumpenproletariat, and therefore is the cause of his eventual death, which results from his
inhumane circumstances. The bourgeoisie extended Gregor’s workday with only profit in mind,
and it therefore effectively turns Gregor into a disposable labor-power, and nothing more.

7. Price 7
Gregor’s death is a metonymy for the tragedy of the lower classes in the capitalist system.
The horror of the story lies not only in Gregor’s grotesque new form but also in how he obtained
this form, by living in a capitalist society in which fulfilling social relations are supplanted with
dehumanizing, disempowering and harmful ones.

8. Price 8
Works Cited
"Introduction to Theory and Criticism." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed.
Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. 13-15. Print.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Trans. Malcolm Pasley. New York, NY:
Penguin, 2000. Print.
"Lumpenproletariat." Marxists. Marxists Internet Archive, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
Marx, Karl. "From Chapter 10. The Working-Day." The Norton Anthology of Theory and
Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. 671-4. Print.
––––––––––. "From The Communist Manifesto." The Norton Anthology of Theory and
Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. 657-60. Print.
––––––––––. "From The German Ideology." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed.
Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. 655-6. Print.