The Metamorphosis 637the confines of his previous life and allows Gregor to
achieve salvation in death.
Sumeeta Patnaik
Family in The Metamorphosis
The transformation of Gregor Samsa into a mon-
strous vermin is the catalyst that opens and closes
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. Gregor awakens
from unsettling dreams to find himself transformed
into a monstrous insect. This nightmare transfor-
mation condemns him to be forsaken by his family.
Gregor is his family’s main breadwinner and his
transformation makes him unable to work, forcing
his family to pick up the financial slack. Gregor’s
family, his father, mother, and sister, come to resent
him and see Gregor as a burden. It is through their
neglect that Gregor eventually dies, unable to free
himself from the burden of his familial responsibil-
ity. Upon his death, the Samsa family is ironically
freed from the same burden that condemned Gregor
to his nightmare existence. Family is a central theme
in The Metamorphosis, with each family member
contributing to the eventual demise of their central
caregiver, Gregor; it is his sister, Grete, who gets a
chance to have the life that Gregor was not allowed
to lead.
Awakening to his newly transformed state,
Gregor’s devotion to his family is shown immedi-
ately as he attempts to get ready for work despite
his changed appearance. Gregor works as a travel-
ing salesman, a job he despises but maintains, to
save his family the embarrassment of having to
deal with the financial burden brought on by his
father’s failed business. During his attempts to go
to work, Gregor muses upon his dislike for his job
and working for a boss whose paranoia over his
employees’ performance causes him to send his
head clerk to Gregor’s home with veiled threats
of being fired. This occurs, despite the fact that
Gregor has never missed a day of work and was
not late even on the day of his transformation.
Gregor does not want his family, particularly his
younger sister, Grete, to be subjected to this kind
of work environment. Despite his best efforts, his
transformation forces them to enter the workplace.
In doing so, his family members are transformed
from their dependence on Gregor to the financial
independence they had previously been resistant to
obtaining.
As his family works toward financial indepen-
dence, their feelings toward Gregor change from
sadness to outright hostility to relief at his death.
Family members deal with Gregor’s transforma-
tion differently, thus highlighting their true feelings
toward Gregor prior to his metamorphosis. Gregor’s
father, Herr Samsa, claimed to be an invalid after
his business failed, and relied on his son to step in
and become the family provider. After his transmu-
tation, Gregor recalls his father’s previous attitude
toward his son as loving, with his father embracing
him each time he returned from a business trip.
Yet, Gregor realized that his altered appearance
immediately changed his father’s attitude toward
him and that Herr Samsa regarded Gregor as a
burden that was only to be tolerated. Gregor’s
delicate mother, Frau Samsa, is initially horrified
by her son’s changed appearance, yet she attempts
several times to care for him, even fighting with her
daughter to keep Gregor’s room the same in case
he should return to his former self. However, Frau
Samsa yields to her husband and daughter’s wishes
that Gregor disappear and the family be rid of the
burden of caring for him.
Finally, Gregor’s sister, Grete, is his greatest
champion, until she wants to be rid of the burden
of caring for him. After Gregor’s initial metamor-
phosis, Grete is the family member who takes care
of him. She brings him food, cleans his room, and
shelters him from their angry parents. Yet her devo-
tion extends only to a certain point; like Gregor,
she desires a life free from burden. In the end, she
betrays him by demanding his removal from the
apartment and their lives. Upon hearing his sister’s
words, Gregor’s resentment toward his family fades
and he dies peacefully, thus freeing his family of
their great burden.
Gregor’s desire for a new life is quelled by his
family’s financial debt. In an effort to pay off these
debts, Gregor works for his father’s creditor as a
traveling salesman, but he is, in effect, an indentured
servant to his family’s debts and their needs. After
Gregor’s metamorphosis, his family assumes the
financial burden and surprisingly discovers that they
are not only capable of contributing to the family’s