The Approaches Of Hermeneutics And Poetics In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

Authors usually use literary devices such as metaphors, similes, and symbolism to allow their audiences to relate to the work they are reading, but that is not true for Franz Kafka in his “The Metamorphosis. ” He makes what appears to be a simple story not so simple and up to the reader to decide what it means. “The Metamorphosis” is about Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, who wakes up to find that he has metamorphosized into a giant vermin. His family is disgusted with him and no longer wants him, especially when they realize that he can no longer provide for them financially. Gregor eventually dies after deciding that his family has taken advantage of him when he was human and does not care for him now. In this story, Kafka makes the reader apply their knowledge of poetics and hermeneutics to relate instead. Poetics tries to answer the question about “what does a literary work do to us?” It is the approach that examines what effects the literary work invokes on the reader. Hermeneutics tries to answer the question about “what does a literary work mean?” This is the approach that attempts to determine the meaning of the literary work which is hidden or left obscure. Kafka focuses the reader’s attention on Gregor, the main character, who I think symbolizes Kafka himself and his life. In “The Metamorphosis” there are many similarities between Gregor’s life and Kafka’s life. Poetics allows us to feel certain types of ways towards Kafka and Gregor and hermeneutics allows us to make connections between Kafka’s life and Gregor’s life.

Poetics comes into effect immediately in the very beginning of the story when Kafka uses vivid, gruesome, and disturbing images about Gregor turning into a vermin, “He lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections” (Kafka 3). By reading this, we cringe and we get the images of a cockroach squirming to get back on its legs after we kill one. After Gregor’s family sees that Gregor has turned into a huge bug his other and father repel against him, except his sister who slowly forgets about Gregor in the end. Gregor must hide under the family couch since his transformation and only his sister is able to bear his ugliness. We feel a sense of pity for Gregor and his because Gregor is crippled and cannot come out from hiding and his sister must bear him and feed him like an animal. Gregor’s mother faints many times upon seeing Gregor until one time she faints and Gregor’s father returns home. After finding out Gregor is the reason for his mother fainting, Gregor’s father starts to throw apples at Gregor and an apple gets lodged in his back which evidently kills Gregor, ‘However another thrown immediately after that one drove into Gregor’s back really hard” (Kafka 52). Kafka uses images of blood, violence, grossness, and pity throughout the whole story making it a theme, “a brown fluid came out of his mouth, flowed over the key, and dripped onto the floor” (Kafka 18).

The use of hermeneutics can be found throughout the story by the use of realistic and unrealistic elements in various situations. At the beginning of the story, Gregor thinks to himself, “O God what a demanding job I’ve chosen!” (Kafka 4). Gregor did not have a choice in his occupation since he is repaying his father’s debt to his manager. Additionally, Kafka refused to let his publisher associate an image with “The Metamorphosis,” leaving the audience to decide what type of vermin Gregor metamorphoses into. In today’s world, vermin means rat or filthy creature but in Kafka’s world a vermin meant ugly bug, which leaves the reader to decide for themselves the type of bug Gregor is. Although “The Metamorphosis” is a work of fiction, Gregor’s life after turning into a bug is similar to Kafka’s life which we can figure out from hermeneutics. But, first, we must review Kafka’s life in order to make the connection.

Kafka began his career with an insurance company which required him to travel frequently. He worked for the insurance company for most of his career. Kafka also had an abusive father and a mother who was delicate and dependant on her husband. Kafka had a younger sister who he was close to. He lived with his family and was the main source of income. He never married. Kafka was afflicted with numerous illnesses throughout his life. He spent much of his time during these periods with the symptoms in a sanitarium. With his illness and loneliness, Kafka felt like vermin, rejected and repugnant. In 1924, he passed away in a sanitarium Austria.

Similarly, Gregor lives with his mother and father and younger sister, Grete. In the story, Gregor is the eldest child and the only individuals that associated with each other were the siblings, just as Kafka was only close to his younger sister, “Only the sister had remained still close to Gregor” (Kafka 35). In the story, Gregor’s father dominating and abusive just as Kafka’s father was. The extent of Gregor’s abusive father is shown in this quote, “he faced the threat of a mortal blow on his back or his head from the cane in his father’s hand” (Kafka 24). Gregor’s mother, who is just like Kafka’s own mother, is dependent on his father and supports him in everything, even above her children, “hurried from the table, and collapsed into the arms of his father” (Kafka 23). Grete is originally presented as an innocent young girl who matures as the story progresses, “had blossomed recently, in spite of all the troubles which had made her cheeks pale, into a beautiful and voluptuous young woman” (Kafka 77). Just as Kafka had never married, Gregor never married as well and always had “constantly changing human relationships which never come from the heart” (Kafka 4). The most obvious resemblance between Kafka and Gregor is that they both die lonely deaths. Gregor’s life is radically altered when he transforms into a vermin and is completely forgotten about towards the end of the story. This is similar to Kafka being forgotten about when he is admitted into a sanitorium where he is left all alone.

In conclusion, the approach of hermeneutics is heavily used as well as the approach of poetics. The approach of hermeneutics allows the audience to make the connection between Kafka and Gregor’s lives while the approach of poetics leads the audience into feeling sadness and extreme pity for Gregor throughout the story, especially in the end when Gregor’s family feels relieved to find out that Gregor has died. Grete tells their father that they must get rid of Gregor in order to cherish and the father agrees hoping Gregor would leave on his own. Upon, gearing this Gregor realizes that no one is thankful for him and cares for him and moves back into his bedroom where he dies. After his death, they decide to move on to better things in life and the parents decide to find a husband for Grete. No one from the family is thankful for how they got to the position they are in now due to Gregor’s hard work and struggles, showing that they took advantage of Gregor and used him. Kafka similarly died in this way, he was in isolation due to his illnesses and died alone. He is clearly using the approaches of hermeneutics and poetics to hint that he is writing about himself indirectly.   

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