Gregor Samsa In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

It is incredible how similar both mentally and physically the life of a human and the life of a cockroach can be. In Franz Kafka’s novel The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa was a way for Kafka to show people what his life was like, and how he felt unneeded and isolated, like an insect. Gregor was a fictional parallel to the author himself. The two men suffered from depression, lived with abusive fathers, stayed inside most of the time and became physically weak, and worked a lot to please their families but ended up doing it in vain. Both Gregor and Kafka also needed the help of other people because of their own health. Gregor Samsa was Franz Kafka’s way to explain the struggles that he and many other people have gone through, which are still very
Before Gregor became an insect, he had a job as a traveling salesman, so he could not commit to any relationships or develop any strong friendships. The Kafka family was Jewish-German during a time that Judaism was loathed, so in school Kafka was sometimes looked down on. Much like Gregor, he got a job, which he despised, as an insurance agent to help his family out. Gregor never had time to fall in love because his job did not allow him to, much like Kafka, who was engaged twice to his lover Felice Bauer. Felice and Kafka finally called it off because his job forced him to travel and never be at home ("Franz Kafka’s Personal Life Reflected in the Metamorphosis."). Kafka was close to his two younger brothers, but they died in infancy when he was only 6, so Kafka was left the only son in a family of three daughters (Biography). Because of the constant stress of their jobs, Kafka and Gregor both suffered from insomnia. The two men also showed signs of deteriorating health. In several diary entries, Franz Kafka mentioned that he “suffered from migraines, boils, depression, anxiety, and insomnia” (Felisati and Sperati). And in The Metamorphosis, Gregor “woke from uneasy dreams,” began to lose his eyesight, and was hurt immensely when his father pegged an apple at him that brought a “startling, incredible pain” on his back (Kafka
It began with their jobs: Gregor was grateful for but despised his work as a salesman because it took away his personal life, and Kafka hated his job because it left no time for him to write. In 1913, after Kafka developed insomnia, he was diagnosed with clinical depression and a tendency to self-destruct at the Riva Del Garda in a clinic. The quote, “…but most of all, you will need other people,” is very relevant to their lives (Tworkowski). People need other people to confide in, to fall in love with, but because of their jobs, Gregor and Kafka could not get close to anyone. If someone truly feels like they are alone in the world, it very possible that they will develop depression life Kafka and Gregor did. Kafka’s depression rapidly became worse and worse, to the point where he was plotting painful ways to kill himself and writing them down in his diary. He even told a doctor, “kill me or else you are a murderer,” and begged the doctor to poison him (Ital). Just like Kafka, Gregor became more and more hateful towards himself throughout the story. The openness of the door actually symbolized the mood of Gregor versus the mood of his family. In the beginning, when he was content with being a cockroach and his family tried to treat him well, the door was left slightly ajar. By the end of the story, though, when his family despises him, the