Metamorphosis of Franz Kafka
Metamorfoza Franz Kafka
“Metamorphosis”, without a doubt Kafka’s most remarkable story, is also his most cruel text. There we find themes similar to those of the Verdict (the hatred of the father for the son and the hatred of the son for the father, the horror of family life, the mediocrity of a closed bourgeoisie), but here everything is pushed to the edge; stunting does not simply lead to loneliness and pettiness, but goes down to beastliness. Gregor Samsa is not only detached from craft and family, but is now a stranger to his own body as well. The “Verdict” was written in full on the night of September 22, 1912, between ten o’clock in the evening and seven in the morning. Such a hasty inspiration will never happen again in Kafka’s life. Thus, he will always preserve the memory of this wonderful moment of creation. The “verdict” is the only act he will never question. In “Hamalli”, we do not find the themes of anxiety, the themes that we usually associate with Kafka’s name, and which at that time already appear in “Verdict” and “Metamorphosis”, it is a humorous story, which seems to erase the tragedy . Rarely has Kafka surrendered so happily to the pleasure of fiction. He himself has acknowledged the influence of Dickens; there we also find some ways inspired by cinema, to which Kafka was quite attentive at the time. “Personal” motives, themes of self-punishment are completely absent in this story.
