At the
beginning of Kafka's , Gregor wakes up and realizes that he has failed to
hear the alarm, and so he is late. He must get up and go to work, for his family depends on him
for their survival.
He saw the alarm clock over there,
ticking on the chest of drawers. Good God! he thought. It was half past six, and the hands
were going quietly on. It was past the half hour, almost quarter to seven. Shouldn't the alarm
have sounded? One could see from the bed that it had been properly set for four o'clock.
Certainly it had rung. And was it even possible for one to sleep quietly through the noise that
made even the furniture shake?
Gregor is frantic about
the time. He has overslept by two and a half hours. The idea of being late increases a sense of
anxiety related to time. That feeling is heightened even more as Gregor describes the sound of
the clock as something so loud that it makes "the furniture shake." A sense of urgency
related to time is found again as Gregor tries to decide what he must do:
The next train left at seven o'clock. To catch that one, he would
have to make a mad dash...
Using time, the mood of the
story (in addition to the curiosity of Gregor's change into a giant insect) promotes a feeling
of tension. At the beginning, references to time are precise. Time is a specific measure in
Gregor's life. As he lies in bed, he bemoans the fact that he has no time to himself. In working
so hard for his family, all of his timeand his very lifehave been stolen away from him. He has
been powerless to change it.
As the story goes on, Gregor begins to lose
sense of the passage of time. Whereas it completely controlled his life at
the start, the reader notices that with his advancing metamorphosis, the concept of time becomes
unfamiliar to him. "Vague hopes" refer to things he once was concerned with, but the
passing of time make these hopes distant and difficult to recapture. This seems to apply to all
aspects of his life.
There he remained the whole night,
part of which he spent dozing, always waking with a start because of his hunger, and another
part of which he spent in worry and vague hopes€¦
A
schedule of sorts is established, but specific times are not used: only generalizations in
keeping with the activities of the family. Instead of a time, there is a general reference to
morning and after€¦lunch.
In this manner, Gregor now
received his food daily: Once in the morning while the parents and the maid still slept, and a
second time after the common lunch€¦
At the story's
outset, Gregor may refer time in minutes or hours, but soon he recognizes only days and, then,
only months passing.
Oncea full month had already gone by
since Gregor's transformation€¦
Other terms that vaguely
refer to time can be found in the story:
Gregor's wish to
see the mother was soon fulfilled.
We have no specific
referent point as to how long it takes for Gregor to see his mother; we know only that it
happens soon.
Gregor fills his days climbing the walls, and the evenings
listening to what he can of his family's activities. The alteration in his concept of time
coincides with his growing disconnect from humanity. The days become an endless stream of
Gregor's wandering about and casual wondering about his situation, but more so concerned about
his family and their circumstances.
Gregor is unable to maintain his grasp
on time or the human world; and his family is also changing. His father has started to work
again, and there is even some money the older man had hidden away when his business went
undermoney that could have eased Gregor's burden. But the knowledge of money was kept hidden
from him, despite his struggles and sacrifices for his family.
Kafka seems
to use the element of time to promote Gregor's feeling of alienation, as well as a sense that
the world is moving along at a rate with which Gregor can no longer keep up.
The physical changes in Gregor and his inability to provide support for them any more
have widened the chasm between him and his family. The tension created by
Gregor's inability to navigate time may well be used to prepare the reader for the ultimate
separationGregor's death. Manipulating time in this way makes the reader feel that time is
actually running out for Gregor, as he cannot measure it any longer. Making use of and living
for time was once the thing that controlled every moment of every day of Gregor's life. Now,
however, it moves steadily forward with little recognition of its passing and no chance of
controlling it, not even to recognize it in connection to a clock.
Whereas
time meant everything to Gregor at the start of the story, it has no hold over him now, for
neither can he use time to measure what is required of him or calculate his accomplishments.
Tension is created using time in that large chunks disappear, as well as those days when the
family shared some connection. It creates tension as we realize Gregor has no
time. While the family's circumstances change, Gregor's do not. Certainly there will
be no accommodations made for Gregor. In having no time, and no time left, Gregor
dies.
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