Comedy and Tragedy in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"
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The subtle yet powerful combination of comedy and tragedy in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis was not an accident. Kafka combined these genres in order to convey the mixture of emotions that accurately mirrors the cruelty of life. The main character, Gregor Samsa, is used to illustrate the betrayal that can exist in a family unit as well as a place of employment. Together, Kafka is making a strong commentary on life in order to express his own feelings of desolation and cynicism regarding society and society’s microcosm, the family.
The only way to survive the inconsistencies and contradictions of life is the total acceptance of the combined comic and tragic elements of life that one must face daily. Kafka used The Metamorphosis as a vehicle to express his own frustrations with being a conflicted artist confronting society in the early twentieth century. Kurt Fickert who wrote Kafka’s Search for Truth in His Last Stories supports this contention when he said, “Establishing the mutuality of the concerns of artists and their counterparts, people of no particular sophistication, is the task Kafka assigned himself” (64). Kafka has thus created Gregor to represent the humility and sensitivity commonly found in the stereotypical artist. Kafka felt that the modern world did not tolerate the emotional, intelligent artist, and so in Gregor we see the slow punishment of the sensitive soul. The respected Russian author, Vladimir Nabokov, remarks on the importance of Gregor’s personality in his Lectures on Literature,
It should be noted how kind, how good our poor little monster is. His beetlehood, while distorting and degrading his body, seems to bring out in him all his human sweetness. His utter unselfishness, his constant preoccupation with the needs of others-this, against the backdrop of his hideous plight comes out in strong relief. Kafka’s art consists in accumulating on the one hand, Gregor’s insect features, all the sad detail of his insect disguise, and
The subtle yet powerful combination of comedy and tragedy in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis was not an accident. Kafka combined these genres in order to convey the mixture of emotions that accurately mirrors the cruelty of life. The main character, Gregor Samsa, is used to illustrate the betrayal that can exist in a family unit as well as a place of employment. Together, Kafka is making a strong commentary on life in order to express his own feelings of desolation and cynicism regarding society and society’s microcosm, the family.
The only way to survive the inconsistencies and contradictions of life is the total acceptance of the combined comic and tragic elements of life that one must face daily. Kafka used The Metamorphosis as a vehicle to express his own frustrations with being a conflicted artist confronting society in the early twentieth century. Kurt Fickert who wrote Kafka’s Search for Truth in His Last Stories supports this contention when he said, “Establishing the mutuality of the concerns of artists and their counterparts, people of no particular sophistication, is the task Kafka assigned himself” (64). Kafka has thus created Gregor to represent the humility and sensitivity commonly found in the stereotypical artist. Kafka felt that the modern world did not tolerate the emotional, intelligent artist, and so in Gregor we see the slow punishment of the sensitive soul. The respected Russian author, Vladimir Nabokov, remarks on the importance of Gregor’s personality in his Lectures on Literature,
It should be noted how kind, how good our poor little monster is. His beetlehood, while distorting and degrading his body, seems to bring out in him all his human sweetness. His utter unselfishness, his constant preoccupation with the needs of others-this, against the backdrop of his hideous plight comes out in strong relief. Kafka’s art consists in accumulating on the one hand, Gregor’s insect features, all the sad detail of his insect disguise, and
Cited: Carrouges, Michel. Kafka versus Kafka. Alabama: U of Alabama P, 1968. Fickert, Kurt. End of a Mission: Kafka’s Search for Truth in His Last Stories. South Caroline: Camden, 1993. Kafka, Franz. “The Metamorphosis.” Trans. John Siscoe. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson, 2005. 336-370. Lawson, Richard H. Franz Kafka. New York: Ungar, 1987 Nabokov, Vladimir, Lectures on Literature. New York: Harcourt, 1980.