The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

 Gregor’s metamorphosis as a critique on social structures

Franz Kafka was a 20th-century writer from Prague, known for his unique style that mixes reality with strange and dream-like events. His novella The Metamorphosis (1915) is one of his most famous works. In this story, Kafka uses the sudden change of the main character, Gregor Samsa, into a giant insect to explore human suffering, loneliness, and society’s cruelty.

In The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s transformation is used to criticize social structures like family responsibility, work pressure, and the lack of human compassion. Kafka shows how society values people only for their usefulness.

At the beginning, Gregor works as a traveling salesman because he has to pay his parents’ debts. He never thinks of his own happiness, but only about his duty. When he wakes up as an insect, he immediately worries about missing the train for work, not about his strange body. This shows how strongly society forces people to put work before life.

After the metamorphosis, Gregor cannot earn money anymore. His family, who once depended on him, slowly turns against him. At first, his sister Grete brings him food, but later even she feels burdened and refuses to help. His father even attacks him with apples, one of which gets stuck in his back and causes great pain. This event shows how family love disappears when a person loses their “use” in society.

In the end, Gregor dies alone in his room. His family feels relief, not sadness. They start planning a better future for themselves. Through this ending, Kafka criticizes how social and family systems treat people like machines. When someone cannot work, they are rejected and forgotten.

Thus, Kafka uses Gregor’s transformation as a symbol to show the cruelty of social structures where money, work, and usefulness are valued more than love and humanity.

  Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as a work of Expressionism

               Expressionism was a movement in art and literature in the early 20th century that showed inner feelings instead of outer reality. Writers and artists used exaggeration, distortion, and strange images to reveal fear, anxiety, and alienation in modern life. Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915) is a strong example of Expressionism because it presents Gregor Samsa’s private suffering and society’s cruelty through his transformation into an insect. Gregor’s change into a bug is not explained naturally but symbolically. It shows his feelings of being trapped in a meaningless job and exploited by his family.

 Expressionist writers like Georg Kaiser (From Morn to Midnight) and Ernst Toller (Man and the Masses) also used distorted situations to reveal inner pain and social injustice. Kafka, like them, shows that truth is not in outer appearance but in hidden emotional reality. Kafka’s other works also show Expressionism. In The Trial, Josef K. is trapped in a mysterious legal system, symbolizing alienation. In The Castle, the main character struggles with endless authority. Like The Metamorphosis, these novels use dark, dream-like images to reveal modern fear and hopelessness. Kafka’s drawings, simple and distorted, also reflect Expressionist style, showing thin, anxious human figures.

Expressionist principles such as exaggeration, symbolism, nightmare atmosphere, and critique of modern society are all present in this novella. The dark room, locked doors, and Gregor’s slow physical decline all create emotional truth, not realistic detail. His family’s cold reaction and their relief after his death show how modern structures—family and work—destroy true human care.

Gregor’s sudden change into an insect is not explained scientifically. Instead, it works as a powerful image of his inner state. He feels trapped by his job, overburdened by his family duties, and cut off from happiness. Expressionism often uses distorted images to reflect emotional truth, and Gregor’s insect body reflects his feelings of being worthless and dehumanized.

The story also expresses deep fear, loneliness, and alienation. Gregor becomes isolated in his room, unable to communicate with his family. His father attacks him with apples, and his sister Grete finally says he is no longer human. His mother is weak and torn between love and fear, showing helplessness in modern life. Grete, at first caring, slowly changes into someone practical and hard-hearted, showing how family bonds collapse under social pressure. The office manager, who only cares about Gregor’s work, shows how society values people only for their productivity. Even the tenants, who complain about Gregor’s presence, show how strangers judge and reject what is different. Expressionists believed modern society destroyed real human connection, and Kafka shows this by presenting Gregor’s suffering in a nightmarish way.

Even the setting and atmosphere follow Expressionist ideas. The dark room, the locked door, and the family’s indifference all create a sense of anxiety. The exaggerated cruelty of the family—loving him when he worked, rejecting him when he could not—shows the harsh reality of modern life.

In the end, Gregor’s death is treated by the family as a relief. This shows Expressionist pessimism: the individual is crushed by social and economic pressures. Gregor’s story is less about an insect and more about the emotional truth of human suffering in an uncaring world.

Thus, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is Expressionist because it expresses alienation, fear, and dehumanization through Gregor’s insect form, distorted settings, and the cruel reactions of others. Like other Expressionist works, it tells us that the modern world values money and power more than humanity, and individuals suffer silently inside it.