European Journal of Scientific Research

ISSN 1450-216X / 1450-202X Vol. 158 No 3 February, 2021, pp.177 - 180

http://www. europeanjournalofscientificresearch.com

The Aspect of the ‘Otherness’ in Franz

Kafka’s the Metamorphosis

Khaled Saleh Ibnian

Ph.D. Candidate / Atilim University
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 00962799747407

Abstract
The Metamorphosis, written in 1915, can be examined in the context of various sets
of ideas, and so many aspects and themes in the novella can be studied. Because of this,
this study is confined to focusing on the aspect of ‘otherness’ characterized in the character
of Gregor Samsa and how he becomes alienated and outsider person in his family. Other
aspects might be looked at in case they prove the main argument.

Keywords: Otherness, Kafka, Gregor Samsa, Marx, alienation, The Metamorphosis

1. Introduction
Franz Kafka (1883 –1924) is regarded as one of the most influential European writers of the twentieth
century. He was a German born in Prague, at a time when the city was part of the Austro- Hungarian
Empire, a nation outwardly elegant and tranquil but internally fragmented. Its cities were overcrowded
and simmering with political turmoil, problems that were to see the collapse of the empire following
World War I, when Prague became part of a newly created nation, Czechoslovakia (Durst and Johnson,
2003). Although Kafka never knew exile, he seems an isolated figure, triply alienated as German-
speaking Jew surrounded by ethnic Czechs, as Jew within the non-Jewish German community, and as
atheist in his own immediate Jewish circle (Powell, 1999).
Helmuth Kiesel has mentioned the introduction to Kafka’s “The metamorphosis” and
Other Writings that the life and work of Franz Kafka are deeply informed by the beginnings of
modernity with its social and cultural upheavals and contradictions. He lived in a time when
industrialization and urbanization reached a peak; nationalism threw the political order of central
Europe into question and eventually tore it apart; when the triumph of the natural sciences brought
about a more rational view of the world; and when a new science of perception and a new psychology
radically redrafted the image of man (vii).

2. Otherness and the Metamorphosis

Kafka is considered to be one of the most outstanding literary authors important to existentialism. In
his works, he created surreal and alienated characters who struggle with hopelessness and absurdity.
The French existentialist and absurdist Albert Camus describes Kafka's sum total life work as
“absurd in principle” (qtd.in. Akhter, 2015, p. 11). Broadly speaking, Kafka's writing produces “a
world uniquely his own, yet universally understandable, that is to say, an absurd world in which human
beings are helplessly trapped in cruel machine-like structures of society” (Cogswell ,2008).
The Aspect of the ‘Otherness’ in Franz Kafka’s the Metamorphosis 178

It is worth noting that the term ‘otherness’ may indicate different things, and it is always
defined differently by different scholars, so throughout this paper the working definition of this term
shall be as such:
When dividing reality up into separate components, one component represents a norm and other
components divergences from this norm. Thus to characterize a person, group, or institution as ‘other’
is to place them outside the system of normality with the implication that how they are treated is
irrelevant to humanity because they are ‘other’ and not human. (qtd.in. Menteşe, 2009, p. 144)
The process of alienation operates on different levels. To begin with, the economic alienation of
the individual plays a significant role in the story. Undeniably, Gregor leads the life he leads primarily
because of economic needs: someone has to work, so it has to be Gregor since his father cannot, his
sister is still young and his mother is ill. It does not matter whether his job corresponds to what Gregor
aspires to do or to be; rather, from the family’s viewpoint, what matters is whether this job pays
enough to cover their needs.
It seems of a great significance here to refer back to Karl Marx’s ideas. In his article “The
Estranged Labour,” Marx discusses four aspects of alienation. The most important of them that are
fundamentally related to The Metamorphosis are the alienation from one's species being or essential
human nature and the alienation from other human beings as a result of the character of one's work life.
These kinds of alienation basically happen because the worker relates to the product of his work as an
object, “alien and even hostile to himself” (Greenblatt, 2006). Because the worker does not own the
fruits of his labor, he becomes more estranged. Everything he makes contributes to a world far outside
of him to which he does not belong. He shrinks in comparison to this world of objects that he helps
create but does not possess.
Marx adds that the work that the worker performs does not belong to the worker himself but is
a means of survival that the worker is forced to perform for someone else. As such, his working
activity does not spring spontaneously from within as a natural act of creativity but rather “exists
outside of him and signifies a loss of his self” (653). Consequently, the more the “worker produces,
the less he has to consume; the more values he creates, the more valueless, the more unworthy he
becomes” (654). In other words, the worker does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel
content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and
ruins his mind (655). Therefore, it is not the satisfaction of a need; it is merely a means to satisfy needs
external to it (655). Because of this, Marx states that the worker therefore only feels himself freely
active when “practicing animal functions such as eating, drinking, procreating, or at most in his
dwelling and in dressing-up” and in his work he “no longer feels himself anything but an animal”
(655).
When it comes to Gregor, it is valid to claim that his case might be even worse than what Marx
states. That is to say, Gregor, in a way or another, is looked at as a human resource, not a human
being, and actually there are so many evidences to prove how he becomes totally alienated from
himself and from other people whether they are the members of his family or his friends or his
employers. For example, the reaction of his manager, the chief clerk, who comes to Gregor’s house
upon realizing he is not at work, is telling of how organizations treat their workers, at first, Gregor is
accused of faking an illness to get out of a workday. Although Gregor “in fifteen years of service had
never been ill” (Kafka, 2002, p. 12), and so never been late, the chief clerk shouts at him: “you
suddenly seem to be showing off with peculiar whims” (20). Then, Gregor is suspected of having
abused his position and stolen cash payments, the chief clerk says: “This morning, your employer did
suggest a possible reason for your failure to appear, it is true- it had to do with the money that was
recently entrusted to you …” (20). In fact, Gregor cares very much about his family: he is supportive of
his sister's talent for music, and is sensitive enough to appreciate the music she plays to the extent that
“it was [Gregor’s] secret plan to send her to the conservatory next year even though it would cause
great expense that would have to be made up for in some other way” (43). Moreover, Gregor does not
condemn his father for letting him carry the duty of providing for the whole family, and does not rebel
against his father's authority, but rather “[he] had later earned so much that he was in a position to bear
179 Khaled Saleh Ibnian

the costs of the whole family…and he was glad to provide it, although there was no longer much warm
affection given in return” (43). Gregor also cares for his mother, and does not want to scare or worry
her to the degree that he thinks that he “might have made her ill” (52). Regardless of his alienation
from society and particularly after his transformation, Gregor is alienated from his own desires as a
human being. Gregor already had no voice to be heard, no friends to have a chat with and most
dangerously no considerate parents to spend an evening with. In many occasions in the novella, we are
introduced to the suffering he experiences every day, but unfortunately we can never find any sentence
in which he speaks his suffering out to his parents or at least expresses his feelings towards his tiring
work. In one occasion, Gregor says: “Oh, God, what a strenuous career it is that I have chosen!
Travelling day in and day out…and on the top of that there is the curse of travelling…it can all go to
hell” (10). In addition to this, after his transformation, his complete inability to communicate with his
family becomes more obvious and more painful for Gregor. Interestingly, except for his physical
appearance, Gregor feels the same and thinks the same. He wants to get up; he feels guilty he cannot
fulfil his duty although he totally realizes that he is being looked at as the ‘other’.
Whilst the sense of alienation is perceived subjectively, the attitude of rejection is, for itself,
expressed socially. Meaning that, when Gregor turns into the ‘other’, his supposedly closed ones
struggle to recognize him. His physical appearance is of course entirely different, and he cannot even
speak out to reassure them that this creature is him. The shock at the metamorphosis and the struggle to
come to terms with the change are understandable, both from Gregor’s and from his family's part. The
ultimate rejection of Gregor by those who should care for him the most is less understandable, or at
least less morally acceptable. The rejection is likely facilitated by the fact that Gregor can no longer
prove he remains himself by telling his family ‘it’ is him and he is there.
Although his sister and mother at first recognize that ‘it’ must be him, slowly lose interest in
caring for ‘it’. Grete towards the end of the novella makes this clear, she says: “We can’t carry on like
this, maybe you can’t say it, but I can. I don’t want to call this monster my brother, all I can say is: we
have to try and get rid of it. We have done all that humanly possible to look after it and be patient; I
don’t think anyone could accuse us of doing anything wrong” (75). Not only that, but she also
considers him a threating factor for the future of the family, declaring: “it will be the death of both of
you, I can see it coming. We can’t all work as hard as we have to and then come home to be tortured
like this , we can’t endure it , I can’t endure it anymore”(76). Most interestingly, the father is extremely
amazed while hearing such sentences; he totally approves whatsoever his daughter says.
The image of the total ‘otherness’ has reached its peak once the family members allow them-
selves to disengage from any moral responsibility towards what happens to ‘it’. This moral distance is
in itself dehumanizing. In other words, the father repeats the sentence “if he could just understand us”
(76), and also Grete starts questioning “how can that be Gregor? It is not possible for human beings to
live with an animal like that …we wouldn’t have a brother anymore” (76). It is obvious that the family
distances itself from holding any kind of responsibility towards him that he is now a very heavy burden
on their shoulders after having carried the burden of the whole family prior to his transformation.
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that when the charwoman tells the family “to look at this, it’s
dead, just lying there, stone dead” (79), the father says: “let’s give thanks to God” (80). Grete’s
reaction is quite strange if it is compared to her desire of getting rid of it. She immediately declares:
“just look how thin he was. He didn’t eat anything for so long. The food came out again just the same
as when it went in” (80). Out of Grete’s reaction, it might be reasonable to claim that Gregor is even
more estranged, alienated and being looked at as an outsider and the other before his death more than
after his death.

Conclusion
Generally speaking, The Metamorphosis displays a story of a family supported by one man, Gregor
Samsa, working outside the home, alienated from his work, intimidated by his employers and he
becomes to be outsider and the ‘other’. The process of alienation operates on different levels.
The Aspect of the ‘Otherness’ in Franz Kafka’s the Metamorphosis 180

Technically, the narrator describes the story from the viewpoint of Gregor, but seemingly offers an
objective or factual description of what happens. We read what Gregor sees, what he thinks, what he
feels, what he says or wants to say and what he hears. And we do read what his family does once he
has died. The tone is morally neutral, thus deliberately allowing the reader to make up their own mind
as to the meaning and moral of the story.

Works Cited
[1] Akhter, Rukhsana. Existentialism and Present Educational Scenario. Herstellung: Anchor
Academic Publishing, 2015. Web. 1-4-2016.
[2] Batum Menteşe, Oya. “An Analysis of ‘Otherness’ in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and
Lawrence Durrell’s Bitter Lemons of Cyprus.” Bir Düşün Yolculuğu II : Babilden Sonra.
Ankara: Bilgesel Yayıncıliıc, 2009. Print.
[3] Cogswell, David. Existentialism for Beginners. Danbury:……………. , 2008.web.1-4-2016.
[4] Durst, Claudia and Johnson Vernon. The Social Impact of the Novel. London: Greenwood,
2003. Print.
[5] Hobbs, Jerry. R. Literature and Cognition. The United States: Leland Stanford Junior
University press, 1999. Print.
[6] Kiesel, Helmuth. Kafka’s “The metamorphosis” and Other Writings. New York:
Continuum, 2002. Print.
[7] Marx, Karl. “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” The Norton Anthology of
[8] English Literature. Ed, Stephen Greenblatt , et al.8th ed.Vol.1. New York: W • W •
[9] Norton & Company, 2006. 652-670. Print.
[10] Powell, John. Dictionary of Literary Influences: The Twentieth Century, 1914-2000. London:
Greenwood, 1999. Print.