Who Is Gregor Samsa's Irony In The Metamorphosis
Why Gregor Samsa Had to Die
Irony as a literary element is present in just about every work of fiction, however, one is hard pressed to find a work of literature where the irony is as profound as it is in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The irony in The Metamorphosis runs rampant from the first sentence and doesn’t cease until the very end. Kafka crafts a sadistic tale about a man who although had an unconditionally loving heart, never learned to love himself. The most morose aspect of the story was that Gregor Samsa undoubtedly had to die. The most significant portrayals of irony that led to Gregor Samsa’s death in The Metamorphosis are shown in Gregor’s transformation, his father’s awakening and subsequent assumption of the patriarchic role in the family, Gregor’s own messiah complex, and his sister’s blossoming into womanhood.
The novella starts early morning when Gregor wakes up only to find …show more content…
When Gregor is rendered helpless, it is Grete who begins cleaning after him, feeding him, and interacting with him when the rest of the family seems to want nothing to do with him. It didn’t take too long however for Grete to start resenting her brother for requiring so much of her attention. She once enjoyed aiding her brother but she found to view the task as a chore. As Gregor regressed further into his delusional mental state, he began having incestual feelings towards Grete. Gregor had been deprived of women nearly his entire life and in his deranged mind near his suicide he imagined letting those feeling out by kissing his sister on the neck (Kafka 47). He proclaimed his love for her yet she never came to him. As Grete grew older and matured she became repulsed by Gregor and in the end, his love for his sister and her obvious disgust for him caused him to commit suicide. Gregor died so that she would be able to move on from her sickening home life and blossom into
Irony as a literary element is present in just about every work of fiction, however, one is hard pressed to find a work of literature where the irony is as profound as it is in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The irony in The Metamorphosis runs rampant from the first sentence and doesn’t cease until the very end. Kafka crafts a sadistic tale about a man who although had an unconditionally loving heart, never learned to love himself. The most morose aspect of the story was that Gregor Samsa undoubtedly had to die. The most significant portrayals of irony that led to Gregor Samsa’s death in The Metamorphosis are shown in Gregor’s transformation, his father’s awakening and subsequent assumption of the patriarchic role in the family, Gregor’s own messiah complex, and his sister’s blossoming into womanhood.
The novella starts early morning when Gregor wakes up only to find …show more content…
When Gregor is rendered helpless, it is Grete who begins cleaning after him, feeding him, and interacting with him when the rest of the family seems to want nothing to do with him. It didn’t take too long however for Grete to start resenting her brother for requiring so much of her attention. She once enjoyed aiding her brother but she found to view the task as a chore. As Gregor regressed further into his delusional mental state, he began having incestual feelings towards Grete. Gregor had been deprived of women nearly his entire life and in his deranged mind near his suicide he imagined letting those feeling out by kissing his sister on the neck (Kafka 47). He proclaimed his love for her yet she never came to him. As Grete grew older and matured she became repulsed by Gregor and in the end, his love for his sister and her obvious disgust for him caused him to commit suicide. Gregor died so that she would be able to move on from her sickening home life and blossom into