Kafka's novella is funny on a number of
levels. First, Gregor's whole situationhis transformation into a giant insectfunctions as a kind
of broad joke, an example of , or amade literal. Gregor isn't simply insignificant
like an insecthe is an insect. His transformation has
additional comic effect as he family struggles to understand what has happened to him and how to
act. Grete's repudiation of Gregor-as-insect is a kind of final comic take on man's inhumanity
to man (or brother, in this case): she argues that if the bug really were Gregor, it would have
the sense to know it was not wanted and leave on its own!
The tragic
implications of Gregor's case are equally clear. As a bug, he is stigmatized, feared, and
unloved, even by his own family. If we understand his transformation as a kind of realization of
his social and political powerlessness, then we can understand his fate as a bug to be the fate
of all who share his disenfranchisementa fate that ultimately destroys even the bonds of
family.
An extra tragic twist lies in the empathy Grete expresses only after
Gregor is dead: Look how thin he was," she says, recognizing the corpse of the bug as her
brother. The end of the storywhich suggests that the Samsas have a bright future now that Gregor
is gonealso has a tragic air to it. While it is possible to read their sense of well being as
another example of their insensitivity, on another level their eagerness to embrace the
bourgeois life (now they can get a better apartment!) suggests that they are just as trapped and
powerless as Gregor.
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