Relationships In Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

Though Franz Kafka’s family life is often classified as troubled, he did have good relationships with his sisters throughout his life. Parallels of his relationship with his sisters and sibling relationships in his works have sometimes been drawn in relation to his 1914 novel, The Metamorphosis. The main character, Gregor, and his sister, Grete, have the only healthy relationship in the novel. Unlike Gregor’s relationship with his parents at the beginning of the novel, which is parasitic and one-sided on his part as their reliance on him as a provider and greed for his money take over their affection for him as a person, Grete and Gregor have mutual affection; they legitimately care for each other. However, this relationship decays throughout …show more content…
Grete’s first words of the novel stand in stark contrast to the father’s: “...and already his father was knocking on one side door, weakly but with his fist. ‘Gregor, Gregor,’ he called out. ‘What’s going on?’ And, after a short while, he urged him on again in a deeper voice: ‘Gregor! Gregor!’ At the other side door, however, his sister knocked lightly. ‘Gregor? Are you not well? Do you need anything?’” (Kafka 16). While the parents are only concerned with the fact that Gregor is not at work yet, even upset about it, Grete is concerned with why he is not at work, something she realizes is out of character for him. Even their mannerisms betray their motives; the father knocks “with his fist”, while Grete only “knocks lightly”. Throughout the novel, Grete is the only one who ventures into Gregor’s room to bring him food (Kafka 33-35) and clean up after him. On the other hand, Gregor cares very deeply for his sister. Before his transformation, Gregor says that because she was the only one who continued to treat Gregor with care, even as he took care of the entire family. “...only the sister still remained close to Gregor, and his secret plan was to send her, who differed from Gregor in that she loved music and knew how to play the violin movingly, to the conservatory next year, without any consideration for the …show more content…
As the family becomes more and more preoccupied with taking care of themselves, Grete has less and less time for Gregor. “But then, he was hardly in the mood to care for his family, filled as he was with blind rage over the negligent care of him...the sister hurriedly shoved any old food she wanted into the room with her foot before she ran in the mornings and middays to the shop...cleaning out the room, which she now always did in the evening, could hardly be done quicker” (Kafka 54). Gregor, now depressed, stops eating and barely sleeps. Most of his time is spent reminiscing about his past and the days before his transformation. After he watches Grete play for the tenants, the music the last part of his human life he, now wholly animal, can cling to, and his emergence from his room and the disgust of the tenants, Grete finally denounces Gregor. “Dearest parents... this can go no further. If you perhaps don’t recognize that, I recognize it. I will not pronounce the name of my brother in the presence of this monster, and will say merely this about it: we must be rid of it” (Kafka 61). She has entirely stopped seeing him as a member of the family, even going so far as to refer to Gregor as “it” rather than “him”. As Gregor heads back to his room, it is Grete who gleefully shuts the door behind him, shouting “Finally!” (Kafka 64). This is the last of