The metamorphosis by Franz kafka , Summary of The metamorphosis, character analysis , themes of The metamorphosis, symbols, meaning of The metamorphosis novella

1. The Metamorphosis
By Franz Kafka
“A book must be an axe for the frozen sea
inside us”
-Franz Kafka

2. Presenters :
Zahida Ibrahim
Nazik Hikmat
Helin Hameed
Reyan Abduljabbar
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Supervisor:Mr.Dara

3. What is metamorphosis
Definition:
• Meaning of metamorphosis : a change of the
form or nature of a thing or person into a
completely different one.
-(usually used in Biology describing the
transformation of insects)
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4. 4
About the Author :
• born to a German speaking, Jewish family in Prague
• Spoke and wrote in German
• No literary attention until after his death
• graduated with law degree
• had a difficult relationship with his father
• worked as clerk for insurance company
• saw himself as weakly timid, hesitant person
sickly, depressed most of his life died of tuberculosis
• Many of Kafka's novels are nightmarish but symbolize
mankind's anxiety and alienation in a strange, hostile and
dehumanized world
Franz Kafka 1883-1924

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What is Metamorphosis ?
Metamorphosis is a novella written in 1912
Published in 1915
Translated to English in 1930s
Original title ( german ) : Die Verwandlung
Language: german
Genre : Fantasy fiction
Magical Realism,
Modernism
Absurdist fiction

6. This story is one that encompasses the
philosophy of existentialism.
Existentialism is the belief that human
beings have the inherent ability to think
and act based on their free choice as
individuals. However, some people may
be limited on the choices that they can
make because of their situations.
Existentialism in The Metamorphosis
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7. “
"I cannot make you understand.
I cannot make anyone
understand what is happening
inside me. I cannot even explain
it to myself."
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-Franz Kafka, The
Metamorphosis

8. The Metamorphosis revolves around the ideas
of
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1. Free will 4. Absurdity
2. Responsibility 5 . Alienation
3. Search for meaning
of life

9. ◈ Gregor wakes up and realizes that he was a "monstrous vermin" though
he at first thought it was a dream, but it wasn't; and he slept through his
alarm and is late for work. This makes him worry about his job as a
salesman . He works because he's trying to pay off his family's debts
◈His parents and Grete, his sister , notice he's still home and wonders why
he is not going to work; become suspicious and knock at his door. However,
he is unable to talk nor open the door.
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12. ◈ Chief Clerk, who is his boss, arrives and reprimands him
for his behavior, threatening to dismiss him
◈ He struggles to open the door. Gregor answers them
and pleads for his family from behind his room door;
no one can understand what he's saying; they believe
he's just sick
◈When he finally succeeds opining the door . Everyone is
shocked by his new appearance, and Chief Clerk takes to
his heels. While attempting to return to his room, Gregor
squeezes himself through the doorway and sustains an
injury.
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14. ◈ Crete brings Gregor fresh food, but he
finds it unappealing. The next morning,
Gregor’s sister serves him rotting food
which he eats heartily.
◈ He then overhears his parents discussing
plans to go back to work since he can no
longer sustain the family. This gets him
severely disappointed
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15. ◈ Two months pass and Gregor’s mother decides to
take out Gregor’s old furniture to give him more
crawling space.
◈ However, Gregor does not want to lose his
furniture and crawls on the wall fixating himself
on his “lady with the muff print.” His mother faints
out of shock. Gregor starts panicking in the dining
room when his father suddenly comes and pelts
him with apples injuring him with one of them.
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17. ◈ After one month, his family decides to earn more by
taking on three lodgers. This makes Gregor feel even
more neglected. One night Grete decides to entertain the
lodgers with her violin, but they still feel bored. Gregor
takes this opportunity to strengthen his bond with his
sister by crawling out of his room.
◈ However, the lodgers are not happy to see him. They
decide to leave without paying for their stay immediately.
Grete then informs their parents of the “cockroach” that
has destroyed their lives. Gregor disappointedly returns
to his room and dies out of depression.
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18. ◈ Upon discovering his death,
Gregor’s parents decide to take
leave and go to the countryside.
They happily make plans on
how to start a new life. After
that, they embark on plans to
find Grete a husband.
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19. Characters :
◈ Gregor Samsa: Gregor is the main character of the story a
young traveling salesman working tirelessly to support his
parents and sister, one morning he wakes up late for work and
discover that he’s no longer human instead he is a huge insect
and he lives rest of his life reflecting on his former existence
trying to avoid his overbeating father and crawling the walls of
his bedroom . His family tires of him and his dad injures him
badly when he hurls an apple at his formerly human son injured
and alienated Greogor eventually dies in a state of empty and
peaceful rumination. 19

20. Grete Samsa: she is Gregor’s ,Grete treats her brother with
kindness and compassion when she realizes he is a bug she feeds him
and attempts to figure out his needs but she later comes to resent his
inability to work and provide for their family imploring her family to
do something about her brother who she refers to as it grated does
not know that while working as a salesman Gregor was saving up to
pay for her violin lessons.
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21. Mr. Samsa : He is the father of Gregor and Grete and husband
of Mrs. Samsa who retired from a failed business, Mr. Samsa rarely
leaves the flat and relies on his son to provide for the family , from
get-go he has no patience for his son’s predicament losing his temper
and injuring Gregor in fish rage. when forced to return to work
however Mr. Samsa vigour seems to return and he feels sense of
relief once Gregor dies and his family can move on.
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22. ◈ Mrs. Samsa: she is Gregor’s as frail and aging mother ,
Mrs. Samsa stays in the background but expresses her emotions
when she comes to know about her son’s transformation.
Although she loves her son, she doesn’t visit his room, she
thinks that his sudden transformation may someday reverse.
However, as a mother she has expressed her worry over this
sudden transormation of her son, she becomes pliable when she
comes to know that the situation has changed, she adapts herself
to the new circumstances and sees that Grete marriage would
solve the famoily problem.
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23. The Metamorphosis Themes
1.Transformati
on
2.Alienatio
n
4.Free
Will
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3.Responsi
bil
-ity

24. 1.Transformation
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The first and most important theme in The Metamorphosis is
transformation. There is the primary transformation in the novel,
that of Gregor, a human man, into a large insect. As the novel
progresses, Gregor struggles to hang onto his humanity, it slips
from him as he turns to the things that bring him pleasure in his
new form. He finds sanctuary in dark places, joy in crawling on
the ceilings and the walls, and is only able to stomach rotten food.

25. 2.Alienation
Gregor is alienated because he becomes physically isolated in his
room as a large bug. He has no loving interaction with his family
and can no longer go to work or go to the outside world with his
new physicality. However, even before his transformation, he felt
alienated. Before his transformation, he had little connection with
his parents and sister, who became a familial and financial
obligation. He also had no desire to go to work or interact with his
boss.
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26. 3.Responsibility
When Gregor first discovers that he’s no longer in his human
body, his first thought is for his family. He worries
immediately that he’s not going to be able to get to work on
time and is going to lose his job. The first pages of the novel
are devoted to Gregor’s struggle to force his new body to do
what his old one could easily. He cares about the
responsibility he has to his family, to pay off his father’s debts
and support his sister and mother.
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27. 4.Free Will
Happy humans are able to feel a sense of freedom, including free
will and free choice. From Chapter 1, Gregor does not show much
free will. He suffers from his lack of freedom in his daily life and
complains about the food he has no free choice over.. His feeling
of being "stuck" is exaggerated when he wakes up semi-immobile
in a bug body. He finally loses his will to live; arguably, the only
free choice he makes is to passively die. He stops trying to eat and
retreats further into isolation so that death will come to him
sooner rather than later
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28. The Metamorphosis Symbols
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◈ 1- Vermin
◈ 2- The Print of the Lady in the Muff
◈ 3- Father’s Uniform
◈ 4- The Apple

29. ◈ Vermin :
The German word Kafka uses, ungerziefer, refers to the
vermin or the nasty creepy-crawly thing Gregor becomes.
On one level Gregor's vermin form seems to represent the
dehumanizing and degrading aspects of his life and work
in modern society. As a traveling salesman Gregor rarely
has time to sleep and eat properly or develop close
relationships with colleagues or customers. Work
consumes him; the vermin he becomes is a manifestation
of the pure misery he feels working day in and out for
others, with no motivation or ability to carve out his own
path.
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30. ◈ The Print of the Lady in the Muff :
Shortly before his metamorphosis, Gregor framed an
advertisement of a lady wearing furs and holding out a
large fur muff on her arm. When he wakes up on the
fateful morning as an insect, this image is one of the first
things he notices. Later, when his mother and sister
work to remove his furniture from his room to give him
more space to crawl, an action that makes him upset
and angry because it reminds him of his lost humanity
and his past life, he rushes to protect the print above
any other possession 30

31. ◈ Father’s Uniform :
After the metamorphosis, Gregor can no longer support
his family financially, which used to be his main focus in
life and a source of pride. Gregor's father, mother and
sister Grete must return to work, and the father gets a
job as a banker's assistant, which requires a sharp-
looking uniform. At first, Gregor's father looks youthful
and trim in the uniform, but then the uniform begins to
look decrepit and overused, and the father never takes it
off, demonstrating both his age and exhaustion, and
hinting at the lazy life he used to lead when Gregor
provided for the family. The uniform is a complex symbol 31

32. ◈ The Apple :
Apples are, by tradition, the forbidden fruit of the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Bible. By eating this
fruit, Adam and Eve gain knowledge, but in doing so, they
also commit a sin and are expelled from the Garden of
Eden. In The Metamorphosis, similarly, apples are a
symbol of a new understanding that leads to misery. After
Gregor's appearance causes his mother to faint, his father
fills his pockets with apples and pelts Gregor with them.
One lodges in Gregor's back and begins to rot, causing the
area to become inflamed. Along with Gregor's loss of
interest in food and his sister's final rejection of him, the
injury contributes to Gregor's death.
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33. What is the Meaning of the Novella ?
the novella is generally about the meaninglessness of life. The
protagonist, Gregor, is merely a worker whose professional
and personal relationships are about his utility, not his identity
or wellbeing. When he mysteriously transforms into an insect,
no one cares about Gregor himself, only that he is no longer
useful. Even his favorite family member, his sister, grows tired
of taking care of him and is happy when he dies. Ultimately,
the novella suggests that many people live lives without
meaning and without pleasure, deluding themselves into
believing that they matter in the world.
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34. THANKS!