The Metamorphosis – Armand

5. Gregor emerges from his room one last time when he hears his sister playing her violin for the lodgers.  What is the significance of this scene? What meaning does music hold for Gregor here?

“It was as though he sensed a way to the unknown sustenance he longed for” (236).

While the whole story speaks of alienation, such as Gregor losing his connection with his family because of his appearance, this is probably one of the most significant scenes only because of the power of music. Not only does it have the power to soothe people into calming down, but it also, in my opinion, helps Gregor keep in touch with his humanity. It was as though a moment of saving grace for him, making him forget, at least for an instance, his obscure appearance and think about what could have been happening “if the calamity hadn’t struck” (236). Additionally, I think that Gregor also felt a sense of relation to her sister Grete’s violin music since, like him, her music wasn’t appreciated as much.

8. Look at the final paragraph of the story. How does it shape or alter our understanding of the text?

“While they were talking in these terms, almost at one and the same time Mr and Mrs noticed their increasingly lively daughter, … she had bloomed into an attractive and well-built girl” (241).

The final paragraph, I think, both shapes and alters what you think you’ve known so far for reading Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis, by definition, is a transformation of a thing into a completely different one by undergoing a certain process. This transformation is clear for Gregor as he was transformed into a giant bug. However, the metamorphosis theme also speaks for his sister, Grete, and his parents. It alters our understanding because it was as though they matured, or ‘transformed’ for that matter, into different people as they no longer look at Gregor for sustenance. It is, in my opinion, quite an ironic ending as they saw Gregor as the breadwinner of the family before he transformed, but just because he turned into a bug, they saw him as a nuisance and so they felt were relieved of the struggle. Conversely, it is their struggle, especially for Grete as she was always the one taking care of Gregor and giving him food, that shapes our understanding that, in relation to the title, it is our skirmishes or problems in life that ‘morphs’ us into better and newer versions of ourselves.