ABSTRACT

Gregor Samsa is the central character of “The Metamorphosis” (“Die Verwandlung”), published in 1915 by the modernist Franz Kafka (1883-1924). Samsa awakes one morning having “found himself”—the passive construction is central to his monstrosity-“transformed in his bed into a horrible/monstrous insect-like figure” (115). This apparent metamorphosis forms the core of the subsequent narrative, as Gregor and his family readjust their bourgeois domesticity to deal with this monstrous son, first by confining Gregor to his bedroom, before finally rejecting him outright. The story ends with Gregor’s silent demise and the apparent return of his family to normalcy. Owing both to the narrative focalization through Gregor and to the family’s progressively negligent behavior towards him, his monstrosity increasingly renders him as a figure to be pitied more than abhorred.