Denial In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

In “The Metamorphosis”, Gregor refuses to face the reality of his situation, instead choosing to remain in denial about his family life and to an extent, his metamorphosis into a bug, resulting in his eventual death. He maintains an illusion for himself of a loving family, essentially living life in a daze, a constant daydream of a better reality that gets him through the day. This allows him to rationalize working a job he hates, paying off his fathers debt, his father stealing money from him, his boss not appreciating him, and not having a social life. Gregor’s reality is that he is lonely and unloved, but since he could not deal with this as a human, he was forced to work out his issues as a bug.
As a man Gregor was unable to muster up the …show more content…
He recognized that he was not fully appreciated; yet he still chose to remain in denial about his father’s ability to work and the extent to which he himself is happy with the arrangement. Gregor continues to adhere to the arrangement denying him-self happiness in order to make his family happy. “For Freud, denial was a defense against external realities that threaten the ego” (Carey 1) Accepting the reality of his family life would be too much for Gregor’s ego, so denying it and believing that he is indeed loved and appreciated allows him to carry on with the truth bottled up deep …show more content…
He felt as if he were being shown the way to that unknown nourishment he craved.” Perhaps, as with his new taste in food, Gregor could be more drawn to his sister’s rotten violin playing than something more appealing to the human ear. More likely, Gregor is referring to human connection as being the “nourishment he craved.” Since his transformation, Gregor has been confined to himself. Unable to voice himself to anyone, leave his “captivity” in his room, or have any real contact with his family, Gregor is lonely. “Loneliness, which Emily Dickinson described as “the Horror not to be surveyed,” is a quiet devastation. But in Britain, it is increasingly being viewed as something more: a serious public health issue.”( Hafner 1) It is after his sister causes a scene, openly voicing her wishes for what she refuses to even acknowledge as being Gregor to leave that Gregor loses the will to live. She was the one person in his family that he had felt most connected to. Her rejection confirmed that he was in fact alone. The toll loneliness took on him put his already injured and starving body over the edge. The Metamorphosis tells the lonely delusions of Gregor Samsa, A traveling salesman turned giant insect that lived solely to serve his family. A man/bug that denied his own happiness in hopes of pleasing his family, but no matter how much he gave, they kept taking until there was nothing