Discuss the theme of dream and reality in The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka - Essay Example

Samsa also finds an apartment for the family to live in. "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from a troubled dream he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-like brown belly divided into corrugated segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, flickered and shimmered helplessly before his eyes.

There is a wonderful rhythmic sound to this dreamy narrative passage. Gregor is half-asleep and gradually realizes that the transformation is indeed real and no nightmare. It also occurs to him that he still retains his human memories and human cognitive capacity, which means that the transformation is incomplete (Grünbein). "Ach Gott, he thought, what an exhausting job Ive picked on! Traveling about day in, day out. Many more anxieties on the road than in the office, the plague of worrying about train connections, the bad and irregular meals, casual acquaintances never to be seen again, never to become intimate friends.

The hell with it all!” The metamorphosis, though shocking and striking, is yet grounded in reality. For example, when we go to bed everyday in new surroundings, we are expect to feel a moment of surprise on waking up - a sudden sense of unreality, and this experience must occur repeatedly over in the life of a traveling salesman. It is the sort of thing that makes any sense of continuity in life impossible, as the sense of reality depends upon continuity, upon duration. Also, awakening as a gigantic insect is similar in effect to awakening as Julius Caesar or Benjamin Franklin (Preece 23).

Kafka brings about a sardonic tone to the narrative by using a broad range of literary devices. The