The general opinion is that it is Franz Kafka with his novel "The Process" inaugurated the repressive regimes of the totalitarian ideologies of fascism and communism that would mark the 20th century. Therefore, it seems almost incredible that the writer intended this novel as a humorous work. Reading fragments of the text in a circle of close friends, the fact that Jozef K. was arrested one morning without a specific reason caused the most laughter. Although he never found out what was written in the indictment, he was sentenced to death and slaughtered like a dog in a quarry.
Did Kafka's friends have fun laughing at the fate of his other tragic character from the short story "The Transfiguration" who woke up one morning in bed as an insect? There is no answer to this question, because there is no testimony for it as in the previous case. I believe that the writer's devotees would be more surprised by that idea than the fate of the traveling salesman Gregor Samsa would make them laugh harmlessly. It is interesting that these two cases of tragic characters begin to unfold "one morning". Because it is awakening, as he says Garodi flowers on the occasion of Kafka, "the first crack in the closed world of alienation" that arose as a result of the question "what is the ultimate purpose of my life". What gives it meaning? What am I?
Unlike the novel "The Process", Kafka's short story "The Metamorphosis" has, if I may say so, a more painful dimension not only because of the bizarre metamorphosis of the human into the animal, but also because of the transformation of the relationships of the described characters, because of the psychological nuances of their characters, which makes them specific actors of a family drama. Psychoanalysis, referring to the writer's pathography and his no doubt extremely complicated personality, could find a lot of interesting elements for the explanation of the plot.
This work by Kafka is considered a great allegory about the alienation and dehumanization of the individual not only in society but also in the circle of the closest ones, i.e. in the family. However, along with alienation and dehumanization, the story speaks equally of nothingness and callousness. Gregor Samsa is not only an alienated being but also a being of nothingness. After a short-term shock when the members of the Samsa family, father, mother and sister Greta saw Gregor transformed into an insect, they necessarily had to accept the new situation. Kafka's bravura as a writer is reflected in the simple manner of narration, as if it were an objective report that precisely records all the details of the event from a necessary distance. Thus, the surreal effect was brought to perfection.
The suggestive bizarreness of Kafka's story is especially reflected in the fact that the transformed Gregor still feels and thinks like a human being. He does not despair about the new look of his body. As a conscientious business traveler, his only concern was not to be late for the train that morning. In this way, the parallelism of two realities in the life of one family is established. The absence of complete communication occurs when Gregor loses his articulate human voice. Only visual communication with loved ones remains. In the gloomy decor of Gregor's reality, Kafka's imagination can be confusing. Thus, one detail functions as an illogicality in the logic of the unreal. When the father, annoyed by his son's unexpected appearance, inflicts a heavy blow on Gregor's body, he retreats to the room bleeding. But insect anatomy does not have a circulatory system. In this way, if it is not the writer's additional surreal invention to enhance the impression of the described scene, Kafka contradicts the description of bodily substances. Because in the first part of the story, when Gregor tries with difficulty to unlock the door to the room with his jaws, he injured the tissue and "a brown liquid came out of his mouth, spilled on the key and fell on the floor". But this deliberate or accidental illogicality increases the horror effect of the hero's intimate drama.
Condemned to solitude with an apple in his back that his father threw at him, which rotted spreading the infection through his body, Gregor foreshadows the imminent end. The touching humanity in Samsa's tragedy is confirmed by his awareness of the problems and burden that his condition has created for families. That is why he wishes for his own end.
With his exhausted and starved body reduced to an empty and diseased chitinous shell, Gregor experiences hours of profound nothingness. Nothingness is the last feeling in which the reality of his alienated being exists. The maid will throw his lifeless body in the trash. What preceded Gregor's death is another dimension of psychological transformation that relates to his loved ones. Gregor's sister, who showed the most empathy towards her brother's misfortune, who showed a deep understanding of his condition, will be the first in the family to resolutely ask to get rid of, as she said, "that monster". Kindness turns into its opposite. Animal instinct dominates Greta's being. He feels an existential threat to the family from his transformed brother. In it, the instinct of self-preservation is aggressively unleashed, regardless of blood kinship or moral scruples. For Greta, her brother's death was desirable for the family's salvation and their material security. Sporadic mourning was replaced by indifference. There was no reverence for Gregor's sacrifice. In the transformations of "Transformation", even the strict father changed. He became a caring and active pater familias.
After Gregor's death, the father crossed himself and said: "Now we can thank God". The Samsa family begins a new life in their "regained peace". They are riding a tram on a sunny day and thinking about the future. The father and mother are especially worried about the safe life of their daughter, who has "bloomed into a beautiful and lush girl". When the tram stopped, as the story ends, Greta stood up and "stretched her young body". The capriciousness of the genetic legacy of Kafka's literary gray and gloomy vitality should not be underestimated. Maybe Greta wakes up transformed into an insect one morning after a restless sleep.
The fantasy of the dark "Transformation" has become the transfigured reality of bestial humanism.
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