Gregor Samsa as an Antihero, Essay Example

In Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, the story tells of events surrounding the Samsa family, and especially the transformation of Gregor Samsa into a rather large bug.  Throughout the bulk of the story, Kafka describes the metamorphosis that Samsa had undergone through his transformation, but also the metamorphosis of the family as they attempted to deal with the unusual stress of having a son or brother that was no longer human.  While Gregor is clearly the main character throughout the story, Kafka describes this character with characteristics that define a hero and an anti-hero.  While he was very much a hero in many of his actions in human-form, he became an anti-hero to his family and the individuals around him in his difficult physical transformation.  Ultimately, the transformation from human to insect becomes complete and Gregor can no longer communicate with his family or the cleaning ladies that work for them.  Instead, he is forced to become the victim of discrimination and borderline hatred by his family for their resulting circumstances, which leads to his untimely death.  Nevertheless, the Gregor Samsa character serves as both hero and anti-hero throughout the story and each characteristic have a direct impact on the Samsa family.

A hero is most often referred to as the savior or protector of right and wrong within a society.  Gregor Samsa showed multiple examples of heroism throughout the plot in his own recollection of his own actions as he remembered what he did in his long lost human form.  The reader discovers through Gregor’s thoughts that he had become the sole provider for the family after the father’s business had folded and ceased to provide any real income.  “He felt a great pride that he had been able to provide such a life for his parents and his sister in such a beautiful apartment.”  Gregor was under the understanding in his human form that the family did not hav any savings left over from the business, which he discovered otherwise later after the metamorphosis.  It was this understanding that led to him working so hard to help provide for his sister to go to school.  He wanted to do what he could to help his sister have a good life; thus he worked hard to provide a quality education, and the finances that were necessary.

These human acts were not the only heroic actions that the reader sees of Gregor Samsa throughout the short story.  After the transformation had occurred, many negative events take place that cause much difficulty for the family.  No finances are coming in and the family is forced to break out of their typical lifestyle that they had become accustomed and began to change their behaviors just to survive.  Their limited actions to provide for themselves were completely eliminated in the story towards the climactic event of Gregor’s death.  The family broke free of their behaviors and positively changed so that they each earned a job and contributed to the family’s income.  No longer were they able to stay limited to waiting for Gregor to provide for them; instead, they worked to improve their own situations in whatever way they could.  Finally, Gregor Samsa’s ultimate death served as the final heroic action.  His metamorphosis had similarly worked to constrict the growth of the family and forced them to constantly take care of him, which caused great psychological problems for each of them.  After Gregor’s death, the family receives freedom from these restrictions and is finally able to go out and live the live they always wanted to in a brand new apartment.  His death almost serves as a collective exhale from all of the pain and suffering that the characters had experienced from the metamorphosis throughout the story.

Just as Gregor Samsa could sometimes be viewed as a hero, Kafka also created him as an anti-hero.  First of all, he appears to be an anti-hero is his apparent powerlessness in his own ability to enact positive change in the life of his family or any other character he encounters after the metamorphosis is complete.  After he becomes a bug, Gregor is no longer able to work to provide money for his family, or to help send his sister to school.  In fact, his sister stops going to school altogether to begin working to help provide for the rest of the family members.  In addition, Gregor is unable to take care of himself or even move around very well throughout the story, even from the beginning where he is unable to get out of bed without hurting himself.  This inability to act or Gregor’s powerlessness forces the audience to view him as an anti-hero because it forces the family to endure much pain in taking care of him.  In fact, his sister, Grete, begins to feed him every single day until it becomes too difficult for her to continue doing so.  As the months continued to wear on the family, her treatment of Gregor continued to get worse and worse.  Eventually, he became the victim within the story because she no longer cleaned the room and the feedings became rarer and less appeasing for his appetite.  His father even attacked him by throwing apples at his hide and shoving him through a small doorway, which was a large source of physical pain for Gregor.  Yet, Gregor was powerless to fight back against the mistreatment or stand up for himself in any way.

Gregor is also viewed as an anti-hero throughout the story because he does not know how to resist the negative treatment that his family inflicts upon him.  Gregor ultimately stopped eating altogether due to this treatment, and in the scene where his sister was playing the violin, it is revealed that the room was so dirty that his entire back was covered in dirt.  From a previous conflict with the father, Gregor had a rotten apple stuck in his hide that also caused him great pain and made it difficult to move around.  As Kafka described, “Gregor’s serious wound, from which he suffered for over a month —since no one ventured to remove the apple, it remained in his flesh as a visible reminder” caused much inflammation and pain.  Furthermore, the metamorphosis impacted his speaking ability, but had not completely eliminated it at this time.  He could still speak but it no longer sounded like a human but rather sounded like the noises coming from an animal.  Even though he was being treated so badly by his family and other characters within the story, Gregor was unable to communicate his thoughts or feelings to them in a manner that they could understand.  This forced him to continue to be victimized throughout the story and also serve as an anti-hero of the plot.  These characteristics of Gregor and the events that took place that forced him to become the victim clearly show that he is an anti-hero within the story, but still the fear that his new bodily form inflicted upon the family caused even greater damage to the situation.

Lastly, Gregor Samsa spends much of his months after the metamorphosis being unable or unwilling to move around very often.  Much of this was caused because the family was very scared of his physical appearance as a bug.  His sister even claimed that anything that was human within him was no longer present and asks the family, “but how can it be Gregor?  If it were Gregor, he would have long ago realized that a communal life among human beings is not possible with such a creature and would have gone away voluntarily.”  To hide his hideous appearance from the family, Gregor spends most of his time underneath a small couch with a sheet covering him.  He is unable to do anything to resist against the pain that his family puts him through, the difficult living circumstances that he experiences, especially the filth of the room, and he is unable to communicate to the family to let them know that he is still able to think and feel.  Instead, Gregor Samsa is an anti-hero because he thinks but does not have the ability or the courage to act.  The reader experiences the life of Gregor Samsa through the plot, which takes place mostly from his own thoughts and reactions to the events around him.  The only actions that he performs are to stay hidden from the family, crawl around the room every so often, but also to creep out just enough to hear his sister play the violin in the climax.  Through his inaction as an anti-hero, Gregor continues to cause his family much pain and discomfort.  However, it becomes clear, as previously mentioned, that this metamorphosis had transformed the family into being able to take care of themselves and breaking free of their own prison of inaction by allowing Gregor to provide solely for the family.  Therefore, it is obvious that Gregor Samsa was a hero and anti-hero throughout the story, and each role played a major part in the plot.

The main character within the story showed many characteristics that defines him as a traditional hero and anti-hero within “The Metamorphosis.”  Kafka utilizes this character to not only show the physical transformation that Gregor undergoes, but also the transformation that his circumstances forced upon his family and everyone associated with them, even the cleaning ladies, manager, and lodgemen.  Despite good intentions, Gregor caused great harm from most of his actions or inactions and this forced the family to also endure great amounts of stress and pain over their new situation.  Through the presumably heroic act of his death, Gregor frees his family of the circumstances and allows them to begin a new life separate from him or their pain surrounding the situation.  Kafka is able to accurately describe Gregor as a true hero in human form but in addition to a physical transformation, Gregor also plays the role of an anti-hero.  Through these physical and positional transformations, the reader gains a deep appreciation for the story through the events that comprise his life and death as well as the impact that each had on his family.  Kafka’s work has a much deeper symbolic message than most traditional literary works, which makes “The Metamorphosis” a world-renowned short story.