Monday 14 October 2019

Now, with his transformation, he is able to be the master of his own destiny!

The Metamorphosis | Transformation as Liberation

Franz Kafka ❤️

One of Franz Kafka’s best known works, the novella The Metamorphosis is witness to yet another kind of liberation, of a different order altogether! And yes! Gregor Samsa could possibly be the alter ego habitation of his creator Kafka! Anybody’s guess, should I say!

Who on earth could ever forget those immortal opening lines to the novella,

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.


The novella begins with this transformation of the pavapetta salesman Gregor Samsa into a gigantic insect. To Gregor Samsa, then, this transmutation was a much-needed, long delayed, often longed for liberty of sorts, as he badly madly needed a break from his daily drudge of a routine as a salesman, of which he loathed to the core!

Samsa, although he happens to be the sole breadwinner of the family, has got such high-end fantasies on him, to escape his habituated existence that’s been thrust on him by circumstances!

Hence the moment he finds himself transformed into a giant insect, he’s convinced that he’d be able to get himself relieved of all his monotonous humdrum responsibilities that bog him down every other day of his life, and instead, he could now breathe the air of freedom with such gay abandon! 

Moreover, this transformation also helps him get abler and stronger as an individual, an individual who could now, with the liberty and freedom at his disposal, meditate, contemplate and reflect on everything around him from a dispassionate, disinterested perspective of sorts!

Now he feels he's got that ample-o-ample time on him to love himself, appreciate himself, and devote the sacrosanct ‘me-time’ entirely to himself, thus tending to himself in the process!

On the other hand, before this transformation was effected in him, Gregor Samsa could not find any time for himself at all!

This could be gauged from the fact that even Samsa’s father had once admitted on this count to the head clerk, on having nudged and goaded his son to spend time on himself, to appreciate his personal space and celebrate himself; but unfortunately, Gregor couldn’t afford time on himself at all, as he was either busy planning out on his routine work schedule for his upcoming daily grind, or else, he was busy spending time with his family!

As such Gregor Samsa was lost for his own little private space, a room of his own! But now, with his transformation, that doubles up as his liberation, he is able to be the master of his own destiny!

Symbolic overtones and critical interpretations galore on this count! But it would be meet on my part, gentle reader, to rather leave it to thee, to read, to interpret and to gauge, all for yourselves this 1915 novella in all its grandeur!

To be continued…

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