Metamorphosis: Isolation and Dehumanization in Kafka's Story
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Space and Confinement in *The Metamorphosis*
Space is very limited in The Metamorphosis. All the action happens in the home of the Samsa family. The layout is significant, but more than the floor plan, the most important aspect is Gregor's room. Connected to this topic is the importance of the number three.
In the house, we find three rooms, and in the center of these is Gregor's. In addition to Gregor's room, there are three doors, one to each room, and only one window facing the street. Almost the entire story takes place in Gregor's room; his life is inextricably linked to it. The window, which could be an escape route, provides more light than the stark hospital street outside.
The fact that Gregor's room is in the middle gives us the idea of a triptych, confirming that he is the main character in the story. Gregor is locked in his room, marginalized, almost forgotten, in complete solitude. The only movement in it is his own, and the furniture that his sister and mother move at will, to the point of using the room as storage, reducing poor Gregor's existence to that of a useless object.
The Significance of Doors
The doors of the house, and especially of Gregor's room, open and close constantly, giving the reader a sense of distress, discomfort, and constant anxiety. This discomfort is also felt by Gregor, who is marginalized in his room. At first, although he is not allowed out, he can listen to conversations when the door is open. Later, as he is dehumanized, they close the door and do not want to know anything about him, only entering to move furniture, feed him, and clean the room.
The Power of Three
As mentioned before, the number three is very important. The story has three parts; there are three bedrooms. There are three doors in Gregor's room. The family has three servants; they consist of three members besides Gregor. Three tenants enter, and ultimately, three letters are written. This reinforces the aforementioned triptych effect, and how everything revolves around Gregor, establishing him as the sole protagonist of the story.
Nabokov's Perspective on Gregor's Transformation
Here, I will paraphrase Vladimir Nabokov, a prominent Russian literary figure, who said:
"Because it is disturbing and eye-catching, this change (metamorphosis) is not as strange as it might seem at first sight [...] on privacy - and the feeling of strangeness, of so-called reality is something, after all, that constantly characterizes the artist, the genius, the discoverer. The Samsa family around the fantastic insect is nothing more than the mediocrity that surrounds the genius."
Shortly after saying this, he added, trying to determine Gregor's appearance:
"However, what exactly is the bug that poor Gregor, the gray traveler, is transformed into so unexpectedly? Certainly, it belongs to the type that has jointed legs (Arthropoda), to which insects, spiders, centipedes, and crustaceans belong. If the countless feet that are mentioned at the beginning mean more than six, Gregor would not be an insect from a zoological standpoint. But I suggest that any man who wakes up on his back and sees that he has six legs moving in the air may feel that is enough to say innumerable. Assume, therefore, that Gregor has six legs, like an insect."
Identifying Gregor's Insect Form
"The next question is: What insect? [...] He has a convex belly, large and segmented, and a rounded, hard back, suggesting cases for wings. In beetles, these cases hide thin wings that can be deployed and transport them along several kilometers of clumsy flight. Curiously, Gregor-beetle's wings are never discovered beneath the hard shell on his back. [...] On the other hand, he has strong jaws. He uses these to turn the key in the lock, standing on his hind legs, the rear pair (a pair of small and strong legs), which gives us the length of his body, which is about 90 centimeters. Throughout the story, he gradually becomes accustomed to using his new appendages (feet, antennae). The darkling beetle, convex, the size of a dog, is very wide. I can imagine him more or less like this."