Tuesday, October 11, 2011

What are some key points and motifs I should be looking for while reading The Metamorphosis?

To add on to the last answer, taking the first answerer's point a little further, I would like one to judge the way Kafka uses the Ovidian motif. Is it a parodic use or a pastiche of sorts. Put in a non-theoretic way, is it trying to mock the Ovidian structure or just reproducing it in a 'blank' way so as to repeat it?


Other important issues and themes to keep in mind are--


1. The theory of Absurdism--man as living in a world where meaning has cancelled itself via replication and proliferation. Man's life has become pointless. Gregor's changeover is sudden, arbitrary and absurdist.


2. The fracture of the family-relationships


3. Man's rationality being sardonically replaced by mere animal instinctiveness.


4. The theme of alienation and solitude


5. The biblical sub-text of the Fall of Man that runs through the story is something to take note of. For instance, keep in mind the scene where the family members throw an apple on Gregor's insect-body and it sticks to it. It is a tragic farce that reminds us of the spiritual variety of anguish that Kafka's frustrated divine quest implies.

No comments:

Post a Comment