Criticism By Kafka And Eliot's The Metamorphosis?

The initial conclusion one can draw from the critique of modern culture by both Kafka and Eliot in their portrayals of modern man is that it is them placed in these settings and their literature is simply an outlet for said critique. The modernist sentiments expressed in their works were, in part, universally held opinions amongst literary contemporaries of theirs and as such were not only a veritable representation of them coming to grips with the reality of the world around them, but also of course how they particularly dealt with issues on an individual basis.
Issues of spirituality, crises of identity and the ability to overcome the very trappings of the harsh times they existed in were at the forefront of their works. Kafka employed a …show more content…
“Kafka acknowledged the oedipal tension in various facets of his family life and conveyed this apprehension in his fiction”. (Puchner, 1878) During Gregor’s time in captivity in his room, he overhears his father speaking to his mother and sister about the collapse of his business 5 years prior, which was what put Gregor into the position of having to be the family breadwinner. As he intently listens to his father explaining what happened, he thinks back to that time when he had to step up at his own place of employment and “…his only concern had been to do everything in his power to let the family forget, as quickly as possible, the mercantile catastrophe that had plunged all of them into a state of utter hopelessness”. (Kafka, 1894) Further exacerbating this was that while initially Gregor’s parents were happy that he had seemingly saved them all from financial ruin, their sentiments soon began to dwindle over …show more content…
In comparison, Eliot lent a decidedly more neurotic sense of self-doubt and deprecation to the character of Prufrock in his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. “Time to turn back and descend the stair, with a bald spot in the middle of my hair-(they will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”) Prufrock furthermore contemplates his circumstances as he ostensibly ponders aloud “Do I dare disturb the universe? For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse”. Eliot, or rather Prufrock, was always searching for meaning to not only his plight, but the very essence of his existence. “For I have known them all already, known them all-have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” (Eliot,