By Justin
Hunte
Gregor Samsa, the protagonist of
Kafka’s Metamorphosis, awakens one
morning transformed into a large insect. The troubled commercial traveler never
figures out how or why he undergoes this unusual metamorphosis, especially
since everything around him remains unchanged—his bedroom maintains its
original décor and he can still gaze at his prized portrait of a lady sporting
fur apparel. On the other hand, his new dome-shaped belly and numerous sticky
legs hinder him from physically rolling out of his bed. When first reading The
Metamorphosis, it is easy to get caught up on the outward characteristics
that burden Gregor, but a close reading will also identify the enormous debt
that weighs down the pockets of Gregor and his family. Unfortunately, even a
close reading will still leave us asking one major question—what or who
initiates Gregor's metamorphosis?
For starters, in German, the equivalent term
for “guilt” or feeling guilty is Schulden; Shulden also closely
relates to the noun Schuld which can mean “debt.” In Genealogy of
Morals, Nietzsche builds upon this etymological approach and reveals
a historically legal relationship facilitated by a creditor and debtor. He
concludes that this primitive relationship, based on repayment, developed our
early forms of administering punishment for guilt. Mutually, Kafka's work tends
to struggle with modern issues of traffic and exchange that can often end in
tragedy. Take a quick read of “The Judgment” or “The Trial” to witness how
proven or unproven guilt can usher in hardship, isolation, and death. Both
plots ultimately dramatize Nietzsche's construction of the creditor and debtor
relationship.
Kafka
may not have had Nietzsche's notion of guilt in mind, but that should not
prevent us from taking a brief detour to one resounding quote from Nietzsche
(although I would suggest reading On The Genealogy of Morals in
its entirety):
“To inspire trust in his promise
to repay, to provide a guarantee of the seriousness and sanctity of his
promise, to impress repayment as a duty, an obligation upon his own conscience,
the debtor made a contract with the creditor and pledged that if he should fail
to repay he would substitute something else that he 'possessed,' something he had
control over; for example, his body, his wife, his freedom, or even his life…”
(Second Essay: Section 5: 64).
Gregor's mind constantly shifts
between his physical transformation and his determination to catch the next
morning train to work. An “obligation” to repay his father's debt to the chief
weighs heavily on Gregor's conscience; the son simply wishes he “didn't have to
hold my hand because of my parents I'd have given notice long ago, I'd have
gone to the chief and told him exactly what I think of him. That would knock
him endways from his desk!” Gregor's creditor fails to trust him; the chief
immediately sends his clerk over to Gregor's home in order investigate his
tardiness. The clerk reminds Gregor of his capitalist ethic, “we men of
business—fortunately or unfortunately—very often simply have to ignore slight
indisposition, since business must be attended to.” Business obligations will
always trump personal excuses or even the slightest “indisposition”; the chief
impresses Gregor to “inspire trust” by holding true to their economic contract.
On top of that, the chief hints to the possibility that Gregor barricades
himself in his room in order to disappear with the cash payments that were
recently entrusted with him.
On
one level, Gregor losses possession of his body; his sudden metamorphosis turns
him into an enormous and hideous insect. A Marxist reading of the plot would
suggest that Gregor had already lost his human qualities once he had become a
slave to his labor. Therefore, the cause of Gregor's transformation would be
the social alienation created by his profession. Surely, Gregor felt out of
place in cheap hotels and isolated from the privacy of his bedroom. On the
other hand, a vulgar Marxist interpretation discards an essential Nietzschean
component to The Metamorphosis. Gregor must work to earn money, but he
also has to subject himself to the dominance of his chief. The chief orders his
porters and clerks to keep tabs on Samsa and exercises many other forms of
solicitation to remind Gregor of his debt.
The
precise cause for Gregor's metamorphosis may never be fully answered, but the
economic agreement between him and his chief definitely raises some eyebrows.
Unfortunately, it would be somewhat ludicrous to conclude that the chief magically
transforms Samsa into the beetle. Alternatively, we do know how social
obligations dictate our daily routines and transform the way we choose to
interact with others. We sometimes crawl under the recesses of our bed-sheets
or hide behind closed doors to avoid the pressures of society. In the case of
Gregor, his creditor-debtor relationship forces him to constantly work away
from home, adhere to a rigid schedule, and sacrifice any other remnants of
control he has over his life. More importantly, this contractual relationship
causes Gregor to substitute his life for the sake of preserving his family.
Ironically, Samsa enjoys the privacy of his own room once his human body
exchanges with that of a beetle; only at that crucial moment of transformation,
Gregor feels some breathing room away from his obligation to the chief. For the
price of his body, Gregor prompts his creditor's clerk to flee his house as “if
some supernatural power were waiting there to deliver him.”
Justin
Hunte is a junior English major, heavily concerned with critical theory. He
has a shameless obsession with the Frankfurt School, German idealism, and the
failures of the European Enlightenment.
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