The Metamorphosis- Gregor's Sarcasm and Irony - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages He despised his boss, but in spite of that he imagined staying in his job for a long time, in order that he may pay the debts that his parents had incurred towards the boss. In a way he was working for his parents and for his sister, and is that not the mark of a good man, to be self-sacrificial? Yet viewed another way, one can make a case for reading the text from the perspective of how sarcasm and irony can be a means to understand what is happening in the story, given the fantastic nature of the change that happened to Gregor, and given the way Gregor seemed to have reacted to the whole change not so much with a sense of shock and horror but more with a kind of surreal acceptance. The same goes for his family. The rest of the paper examines these lines of thinking as they relate to understanding Gregor from the lens of irony and sarcasm (Kafka).
An argument can be made for instance to view Gregor’s thoughts about his job in the light of its sarcastic and ironic overtones. He hates his job, but has to keep it because his parents owe his boss a lot of money. Sure he is the breadwinner, but does not that come with Gregor resenting his work, and secretly resenting the life that he is living? When he says, for instance, that he has maybe five or six years left before he can fully pay his parents’ debts, does not that sound like he is being sarcastic? From experience, if you hate your job, even a day can seem like an eternity. Six years on the other hand, is sheer torture, in comparison to which maybe turning into an insect is more acceptable? Is this why he turned into an insect in the first place, as a kind of wish fulfillment and a way out of his dreary existence? Taking a step back, is not there something ironic and sarcastic in the way Gregor reacted to the fact that he had turned into an insect? One moment, he was shivering at the sight of his body, his legs, the white spots where he itched, and the next ...Download file to see next pagesRead More