Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Jewish writer living in Prague in the early 20th century who felt like an outsider. He wrote The Metamorphosis in 1915, telling the story of Gregor Samsa who wakes up transformed into a large insect. Gregor's transformation represents alienation and meaninglessness in modern life. Through his new condition, Gregor begins an inward journey of self-discovery and accepting responsibility for his own life, ultimately finding meaning before his death. The story uses parable and symbolism to examine human psychology and behavior in a detached, thought-provoking way.

1. The Metamorphosis (1915)
Franz Kafka

2. Biographical, Historical, and
Conceptual Contexts

3. Franz Kafka
• Born in 1883 into a middle-class, German-speaking Jewish
family in Prague
• Studied law
• Worked at an insurance company in order to support his parents
• Developed an inferiority complex partly due to his difficult,
neurotic relationship with his tyrannical father
• Had very little time to devote to his writing
• Contracted tuberculosis in 1917 and was supported by his sister
and parents
• Feared being perceived as both physically and mentally
repulsive
• Developed an intense relationship with Czech journalist and
writer Milena Jesenska and later became Dora Diamant’s lover
• Suffered from clinical depression, social anxiety, and several
other illnesses triggered by stress
• Died in 1924 from starvation when his tuberculosis worsened
and could not swallowed

4. Kafka’s Alienation
• Felt he was an outsider
– Jewish in Catholic Prague
– Sickly
– Lonely
• Perceived human beings as
being trapped by authority in
a hopeless world
• Became frustrated at having
to support his family
• Had to work in a meaningless
bureaucratic job where he was
just another pencil pusher
– Took time away from his writing Franz Kafka

5. Modern Alienation: Fragmentation
• The city
– Dehumanization
• Modern means of production—division of
labor
– Sense of worthlessness
• Acceleration of life and travel
– Mechanization
• Class stratification

6. Prague
• Part of the Germanic Austro-
Hungarian Empire
• Catholic city where Czech
was spoken
– Segregated its Jewish
population into a German-
speaking ghetto
• Founded on seven hills and
dominated by “The Castle,”
looming high over the city as
a symbol of authority
• Highly dense city, with
narrow, labyrinth-like streets
– Associated with the traditions
of magic and mysticism
The Jewish Ghetto

7. Expressionist Literature
• Seeks to reproduce not objective reality but the
subjective reality which people, objects, and events
arouse in us
– Depicts a psychological or spiritual reality through
distortion and/or exaggeration
– Presents the distorted, exaggerated situation as if it
were completely real
• Emphasizes visionary experience
– Pierces the surface of things to reveal essences
– Explores how to transcend the material world
• Replaces concrete particulars with allegorical forms

8. Meaning of The Metamorphosis

9. Gregor Samsa represents a specific type of
behavior—the fear of being alive with all
of its risks/rewards and the embrace of an
inauthentic code of behavior—which, in
the end, is transformed into the acceptance
of life with all of its vicissitudes.

10. The Inward Passage:
The Real Metamorphosis
• This is a novel about Gregor Samsa who learns about who he
really is through an overwhelming psychological experience
that turns him inward.
• His first step in this journey is disobedience:
– Refuses to go to work
– Refuses to follow the rules of etiquette
• In his new condition, Gregor begins his soul searching:
– Accepts that he has conformed to his family’s and employer’s demands
– Realizes the inauthenticity and meaninglessness of his life
• Once he sheds his previous self, Gregor begins to delve into
his own unconscious and confront the truth of his life.
• Gregor evolves from psychological immaturity to the courage
of self responsibility.
• For the very first time in his life, Gregor becomes blissful and
becomes a mature person.
• Gregor dies with this realization, a transformed human being

11. Thematic Contexts

12. Mythic: Ovid
• Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a collection of Greek and
Roman myths written in narrative poetic form.
– Each of the stories that Ovid presents contains some sort of
transformation or metamorphosis.
• Probably written between 2 and 8 CE
• The work emphasizes tales of transformation in
which a person or lesser deity is permanently
transformed into an animal or plant.
• Kafka’s story, however, explores the life and destiny
of Gregor Samsa while Ovid only depicts the act of
the metamorphosis itself

13. Biological: Metamorphosis
• Takes place in distinct
stages:
– larval stage
– then enter an inactive
state called pupa or
chrysalis
– finally emerge as adults
• Gregor’s transformation
parallels this
metamorphosis.

14. Psychological: Depression
• Illness that can challenge the ability to perform even routine
daily activities, characterized by the following:
– Loss of interest or pleasure
– Sustained fatigue without physical exertion
– Lack of energy and motivation
– Feelings of guilt or hopelessness
– Self-centeredness
• Psychosis, a more extreme case of depression, is characterized
by the loss of contact with reality:
– Having visions
– Hearing voices
– Feeling sensations that have no basis in fact
• Gregor’s behavior parallels all of these descriptors.

15. Form of The Metamorphosis

16. The Form of The Metamorphosis:
Parable
• Uses this literary form as a neutral, detached
point of view from which to examine human
behavior
• Conveys truth in a less offensive, more
engaging form than a direct assertion
• Appeals to the understanding, the emotions,
and the imagination—to the whole person

17. Definition of Parable
• At its simplest, a parable is a metaphor or
simile drawn from nature or common life,
arresting the hearer by its vividness or
strangeness, and leaving the mind in
sufficient doubt about its precise application
to tease it into active thought." (C. H. Dodd,
The Parables of the Kingdom, New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961, p. 5)

18. Parable: The Complexity of Life
• The meaning of most parables is not so
obvious, or at least it shouldn't be.
• Most parables contain some element that is
strange or unusual.
• Parables do not define things precisely but,
rather, use comparisons.
– Takes the familiar and applies it to the unfamiliar
– Makes the unfamiliar more comprehensible

19. Central Symbol of the
Beetle/Vermin
• A subjective fantasy that best describes
Gregor’s self-loathing:
– Worthlessness
– Uselessness
– Meaninglessness
– Awkwardness
– Ugliness

20. Difficulties in Reading Kafka:
Paradox and Ambiguity
• Not a systematic philosopher or religious man
• Is so convincing in his matter-of-factness and
use of details to the point of negating the
absurdity of a situation
• Does not use metaphors yet his stories are
parables
• Uses distortion to reveal truths
• Suggests various levels of meanings
• Is quirky