The Symbols and the Ideas in The Metamorphosis - Essay Example

The symbols and the ideas In ‘The Metamorphosis’ Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’, is a story of a young man, who, one day by turning into a bug, realizes how cruel the world is. He comes to know brittleness of the feeling like love and affection. It is a story of a man who loses his importance among the family and the acquaintances as soon as he lose the ability to work and to earn. With his transformation into a bug, he gets to know the fact that every feeling and every relationship is based on some sort of gain. Franz Kafka has used many interesting symbols in the story to convey the idea about how a human being can change with the change in his circumstances. Symbols are the means through which people from the world of art, whether writers, poets or painters, try to convey their ideas [1] . So symbols can be anything like the characters, color, object, action or figure. Franz Kafka has used some very interesting symbols in the story ‘The Metamorphosis’ to show the ruthlessness of the world and the relationships that we hold so dear. We will discuss the symbols he has used in his story and take a look at the idea that he wanted to convey through it . Bug : The story starts with Gregor, the main character in the story, mysteriously turning into a bug and finding it difficult to get our of the bed. Gregor describes his body as hard and inflexible. The bug is used as a symbol to convey the idea of how mechanical and rigid Gregor’s life has become. His life has lost free will and has lost even the flexibility to exercise will on his own body (Kafka 11). Gregor tries to move and to get up but he cannot and he feels pain and awkwardness. This symbolizes the idea that he has gotten so used to the hardships of life and has stuck in it in such a way that if he tries to get out of it, it will cause him nothing but pain and misery. Using an ugly animal like bug in the story, Franz Kafka has tried to compare it to the extent of ugliness that Gregor is feeling in his subconscious mind. After all, the transformation of Gregor’s body into a bug is nothing but a representation of how he feels about himself subconsciously. Legs: When Gregor transforms into a bug, he also get a bunch of small, weak, wiggling legs. The legs are the symbol of his weakness. The legs that he gets are weak and wobbly. There is not strength in it. Even though they are numerous and not just two, they are quite useless as they cannot do the job for which they exist (Kafka 14). . Whenever Gregor tries to run away from his father to save his life, the legs walk very slow and are unable to bear the weight of Gregor’s body. This shows that Gregor is weak and somewhere lacks the strength of coming out of the miserable situation that he is in. And not just that, but his legs all move in different direction. This again shows the confusion of mind as to which direction to take to get out of the miserable situation he gets into. The body of the bug is hard and rigid and the legs are small and weak. This combination shows that young Gregor is victim of the responsibility and expectations that are thrown on his young shoulders. The bug is the symbol of Gregor’s helplessness in expressing himself, his misery and his frustrations. Head : When Gregor turns into a bug one morning, he is unable to move his body to make himself stand on his legs. The body becomes hard and rigid. However, the only part that remains flexible is his head. When trying to get up once or twice, he realizes that instead of his body moving, his head is getting jerked and there are chances of the head getting injured (Kafka 15). . So he becomes very careful and alert and tries getting up without causing any harm to his head. The head is the symbol of sanity. Gregor is a salesman who works very hard and sincerely to earn the living for himself and his family. His aim is to earn enough money so that he can pay off his father’s debt and leave the job with which he is frustrated and unhappy. He has to stick to the job and has to work under a selfish and ruthless boss just because he is not in a position to leave the job. He works day in and day out, without taking any leave, traveling like crazy, living a life on the tick of the watch and always doing his best to keep his ruthless boss happy. All these things make his mind go crazy but somehow he tries to maintain his sanity with a hope that someday he will earn enough so that he can kick his job and his boss and do whatever he feels like doing. So when Greogor turns into bug, the only flexible part of his whole body is his head. This symbolizes that even though his robotic work life has made him rigid, he still has a flexibility and the control over his own mind. Hence the head symbolizes the mind and the sanity that Gregor takes care not to hurt. Although there are many chances of him going mad, he still takes care that by dreaming and hoping, he will keep his sanity alive and will not let the frustrations and the futility of life drive him mad. This idea is shown through Gregor’s decision not to use his head to get up even after realizing that the only way he can move his body is by giving a jerk to his head. He refuses to lose his head to support his body. Window: The window in Gregor’s room is a symbol of hope and future. Whenever Gregor looks outside the window, he sees a gloomy and grayish light generating a feeling of sadness and depression (Kafka 11). Also, the window gives a view of a hospital which is a sign of sickness, worry and sadness and where worry and tensions reside. The interesting thing about this symbol is that as the story progresses and as the end of Gregor’s life comes close, the atmosphere of the window is shown changing. When Gregor is injured and dies, the window shows a very bright and sunny light (Kafka 49). He describes that the world becomes brighter outside the window at the time of his death. This shows that Gregor realizes that death is the only way to have a bright and happy future. And maybe, world will be a happy place without him. He as if loses hope and starts feeling himself worthless and the cause of the misery for his family. In his last moments, the window, which is the symbol of future and the world, becomes bright and sunny. Picture cutting of a woman: Most of the people, especially young people, have a habit of cutting the photos of their heroes and idols and keep it as a collection. The cuttings give them pleasure and motivation to be like their heroes and helps them to dream to be a hero themselves. The paper cutting of a woman wearing a fur coat that he keeps in his room, shows Gregor’s desire to become rich and wealthy (Kafka 11). It symbolizes a desire to become wealthy and enjoy all the physical pleasures that life has to offer. The woman in the photo is sitting straight and is wearing a fur coat which also symbolizes social status, wealth and success. It shows Greor’s desire to be wealthy and have a strong position in society. Doors: Gregor’s room has two doors. They both are locked from inside so that no one can enter it unless he allows them to. The doors are symbol of the wish to shut off the whole world from self. His room gives him a space and a feeling of freedom and also has a touch of individuality. He keeps his personal things and furniture here so that even if he is getting crushed under the burden of his father’s debt, his room gives him a feeling of hope and calmness. And as if by shutting the doors, he is trying to protect his hopes and dreams. When Gregor wakes up in the morning, he finds that he has become a bug and has missed the morning train. He realizes that as the doors are shut from inside, no one could come in and wake him up. When his mother and his sister tries to wake him up, he tries to answer vaguely (Kafka 13). He feels it safe that the doors are shut. Its through the doors that his father, mother and his sister tries to come to his room, symbolizing as if they have a desire to intrude into his private world rather than just letting him be alone. With the shutting of the doors he is as if trying to forget and distance himself from the worldly responsibilities and expectations of his parents and family. Furniture: Human being has a tendency to getting attached to his belongings. Sometimes, he gets so attached to the things that he owns, that he starts getting identified by it. The furniture in Gregor’s room symbolizes the displacement of his own identity. Gregor, after becoming a bug, is not able to detach himself from his belongings. His attachment to his room and the furniture remains intact. This becomes evident when his mother and his sister try to move his furniture to the other room. Finding that his furniture is getting moved from his room, he feels as if they no longer want him in this house. He feels as if they are trying to throw him out of his house. He knows that the furniture holds no purpose for him anymore. In fact, his sister takes a decision to move the furniture so that he can move freely in the room (Kafka 33). However, he starts doubting her motives and becomes very sad and angry at this decision. By removal of the furniture from his room, he feels that his importance is being removed and he no longer enjoys the love, respect and the importance that he enjoyed before. He feels depressed with this threat to his identity and getting angry, he tries to prevent the moving of the furniture by frightening his mother by coming in front of her. He identifies himself with the furniture and with the displacement of his furniture, he realizes that he no longer is wanted in this house and is no longer loved. Stale food : After getting converted in the bug, Gregor experiences many changes in his body. Most interestingly, he realizes that he no longer enjoys the food and drink that he enjoyed previosly. Not just that but he cannot even stand the presence of the food that he loved having previously. His taste changes a lot and he starts liking the left-over kind of stale and dry food. Obviously, it is a low quality food and quite unhealthy too. But that is what his tongue prefers (Kafka 27). This change in taste and the new development of liking low quality food symbolizes man’s nature of getting accustomed to any situation he is put under. The surrounding and the situation in life can influence him so much that he does not mind getting to a lower level of living as he gets used to it. Very few people have the strength to maintain their dignity and grace no matter what situation or the financial condition they are put through. But Gregor’s sudden liking for stale and bad quality food shows his tendency of getting influenced by the situation around him and giving up in face of adverse circumstances. The head clerk: Head clerk who comes to investigate why Gregor has not come to the office is a symbol of the society (Kafka 21). . The clerk is well aware of the sincerity and regularity of Gregor towards his work. He knows that Gregor is not a person who would lie. He knows that Gregor will never miss the office without any authentic reason. But even after knowing the honesty and the integrity of Gregor, the office clerk calls him unethical and blames him of lying. He says that he will report this to the boss and the boss will decide how to punish this behavior of Gregor’s. The office clerk is a symbol of society. Society is harsh and tough towards its people. It expects a lot from them but does not give anything in return. Only manipulative and dishonest people can survive and succeed in the society. Honest and innocent people like Gregor suffer humiliation and punishment. They are treated badly and are taken advantage of because of their weakness. The office clerk, instead of showing concern or care about Gregor’s health, threatens him of bad consequences if he does not report to the office. And when he finds that Gregor has turned into a bug, instead of helping him, he runs away as fast as he can. This shows that when people are in need of help, they never get help but are left to help themselves. Through al these symbols, Franz Kafka has conveyed the idea of how a mind of human being works and how people change with the changes in circumstances. References [1] Definition of symbols, April 26, 2009 From < http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/themes.html > Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, Dover Publications. New York. 1996 Read More