Kafkaesque Thought

Franz Kafka, etching by Jan Hladík, 1978

Franz Kafka is an icon of 20th century literature. The Metamorphosis, a novella written in 1912, is considered as his seminal work of fiction. There is an 'outsider' in his origin. Born to German speaking parents in Prague on July 3, 1883, his family was Jewish. The conditions of his family determined his outlook, ideals and thoughts. In sharp contrast to Hermann Kafka his father a heavily built and overbearing shopkeeper Franz was sparingly built with mild disposition and an intellectual bent of mind. In a way he was a rebel in comparison to his father. As he grew up the thoughts developed accordingly. He saw a coercer in institutions that exercise authority. 

To begin with he looked on existence or life since its fate is to perish as absurdity. He found the ways of life beholden to many misfortunes as caprices of tyrannical designs. The veneer of modernity was to his mind something that cloaked alienation and drift. Authority held the right to tyrannize and manifested in cruelty - Kafka was a perennial rebel against it. 

The Metamorphosis was Kafka's testament of indictment of modern life. Gregor Samsa a travelling salesman is the protagonist of Kafka's nihilistic thoughts on unjust realities of life and the tyranny of misfortune. One cold morning Samsa got up to find himself metamorphosed into a mind boggling verminous creature of weirdest possible proportion; many limbs a bulbous midsection!  His family of father, mother and a sister were befuddled by Gregor's transformation into a repulsive creature. They knew not how would they handle him, how would they face the constricting situation and how would he end! Perhaps even Kafka did not know how to bring the metamorphosis to an end! Indeed he described the ending 'unreadable'.

In spite of the weird central thought of Metamorphosis Kafka's narration of Gregor and his family members is lucid and comprehensible. This is engrossing since Kafka finds the ways of the world incomprehensible. The height of surreal imagination is Gregor's metamorphosis. The readers who find rapport with Kafkaesque thought a logical understanding of Samsa's verminous shape follows. It can be a total alienation of Gregor from the rigours of living or withdrawal into a shell-shocked existence.  

It is obvious that the badly strapped Samsa family depended on Gregor for subsistence. The senior had a job five years ago and had developed into a fat tired old man of indolent habit. Gregor's mother suffers from asthma incapable of going out for a regular job. Their daughter Grete a 17 year old pretty lady is fashionable as any other of her age. And she plays the violin. A typical middle class family in hard times; A room has been let out to three gentlemen There are two other part time helping hands - a cleaning and a charwoman. It was a closely knit inconspicuous family where the junior Samsa scampered for his salesman's job early in the morning. The senior Samsa is settled in his daily habit of reading the morning and the evening newspaper. Mrs. Samsa Gregor's mother continued in her sedentary habit of sewing. Grete the daughter looked after the apartment helping her folks with breakfast and dinner. 

Then one cold morning when Gregor got up to go to office he found that he was unable to move his body and that his midsection has turned into a hideous shape and that he has so many limbs. The unbelievable has happened; Gregor has been transformed into a repulsive insect! Grete first found him in his metamorphosed shape. She tried to help him but her effortsfailed. Gregor finding the hopelessness of his condition dragged himself under the couch. He was hungry and got up on the dinner table but with his unwieldy body he could not help himself, so he dipped his head into the milk bowl!  He was dragging himself all around his room climbing up and sliding down walls. Apparently it was an incongruous turn of event but Kafka's message is perhaps the predicament of life's realities. The family was caught in the circumstances of hiding Gregor's ugly condition!

The chief clerk of the office was in the apartment, it was difficult to fend him off. Besides he was fond of beautiful girls. The tragedy of the Samsa family was gripping. Grete was trying her best to help her brother and to prevent even her parents from seeing her assuring them that he had his dinner. But Gregor was hiding under the couch pulling the sheet down. Grete was trying to clear the room of all furniture. Mother's love for her child is the foremost of all human emotions. Mrs. Samsa was dissuaded by Mr. Samsa and Grete from visiting Gregor. Even Kafka's nihilistic thought becomes deeply touching when Gregor's mother cries out: "Let me go and see Gregor, he is my unfortunate son! The tragedy is so benumbing in its effect when Grete tells her mother, "You can come in, he can't be seen." Metaphorically, misfortune is a pitiless tormentor. The charwoman finds Gregor out taunts him calling him "you old dung-beetle." The tenants leave in contempt finding Gregor. 

Life in fact is an everyday trial for who could read destiny. The elder Mr. Samsa, Gregor's father was descending into poor health grieving over his son's horrible condition. He had to be helped by the two women. He exclaims in despair:" What a life! This is what peace I get in old age! "Indeed life is incomprehensible; with every blow of fate transformation (Metamorphosis) becomes facts of weirdest kind!