Main themes of Kafka's Metamorphosis

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In the lesson that concerns us here about a PROFESSOR we are going to discover the main themes of Metamorphosis by Kafka. It has always been interpreted among scholars of this Czech writer that this work had a lot of the author in it, with certain almost autobiographical touches. For this reason, many specialists separate it in two senses, one Social, referring to the author's vision towards the society that surrounds him, and another existential, more focused on a pessimistic conception.

Be that as it may, some consider that there is even more than 100 performances of this little story that touches on a number of quite important topics. For this reason, many scholars see in it a very complex aspect of the author's personality, a man of weak health who sees himself as locked up by an authoritarian father, cared for by his sister (the same thing happened to him when she fell ill with tuberculosis), a man who lives in a flimsy, repulsive-looking body, who suffers the contempt of the the rest.

Index

1. Authority: one of the themes of Kafka's Metamorphosis
2. Loneliness, another of the themes of La Metamorphosis
3. Other themes from Kafka's Metamorphosis

Although there are many main themes inMetamorphosis by Kafka, perhaps one of the most important that he deals with is authority and contempt of society towards others. In fact, the author had a socialist ideology that led him to worry about the treatment of the working classes.

In this work we find a main character who is humbled under the yoke of an authoritarian power, who given his position on the social scale, is totally subdued and degraded.

We find an authoritarian social system that does not know clemency and that is found in various characters, from the manager of the warehouse to the boss of Gregorio, the protagonist, and that of his own father. In fact, while he is locked up, they hardly miss him, so he ends up sunk in his own thoughts and saddened while he falls ill.

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Let's look at other main themes of Metamorphosis by Kafka, as the author creates a complex environment from which many readings can be drawn.

Another aspect that is touched on profusely in the Czech author's masterpiece is loneliness in society. It's funny how living among other people, many individuals can feel lonely and abandoned. The same is what happens to the main character, abandoned to his fate in a room where he does not receive visitors, has no friends, has no one to talk to. In fact, even before the metamorphosis, he had no friends, only acquaintances from work and little else.

But it is observed in the work that not only Gregorio suffers loneliness when he transforms or before. The family, needy and without money, has no one to turn to either. So we observe that the characters in the novel suffer from terrible social and even family isolation, since there is not very fluid communication between them either.

We can also find in the work a strong presence of selfishness. The characters are not at all grateful, and it is even noted that Gregorio's family, the protagonist, had money saved that was hidden from him, despite the fact that this is the only source of income. And even the tenants use the ugliness of the transformed Gregorio to avoid paying his pension, even though his situation is not particularly scandalous to them.

Also, in a existential senseWe find other important themes in Franz Kafka's work.

• One of them is sentence, since Kafka considers that man is born condemned, with a certain indolent touch, almost as if his destiny was already written, hence the fact of becoming an insect is not especially striking.
• There is also a lot of guilt, since Gregorio has a strong sense of her, being a submissive man who considers himself forced and condemned, innocent or not, of everything that happens to him.
• We also find some shame, since this is the real feeling of Gregorio, since his metamorphosis does not concern him except for what others think of him, and this is the key point of his torment, not so much what he thinks as what others consider, especially his family.
• We also find other themes with a certain presence, such as death, isolation, complacency or lack of solidarity.

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