Notes about Kafka's The Transformation

by Gene Michael Stover

created Wednesday, 2026 November 4
updated Wednesday, 2026 November 4

original at cybertiggyr.com/ca31a5.php

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Context

The Transformation, also known as The Metamorphosis, is a story by Franz Kafka. I read a copy I obtained from Project Gutenberg. [gutenberg.org]

I read it for my book club. I don't understand why we selected it. Someone thought it was related to H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. Okay.

My notes

Overall, I didn't care for the story. I don't mean that I hated it. I mean that I didn't like it. I also didn't hate it. I didn't hate reading it. I just read it. And that's that. That is also the reaction I expected. I think it's the reaction I had when I read it in high school.

I guess that “Greta” is pronounced like Gretta.

Plenty of people have written reems of thoughts about the story. Plenty of those plenty of people are smarter than I ever was or will be. So what they say is better than what I said. But here are a few of my own thoughts...

It reminds me of Lovecraft's story about Arthur Jermyn, & my observation about that story. Specifically...

  1. During the story, we learn that before the story began, Gregor was his family's only source of income. He was valuable to them.
  2. Gregor's transformation alienated him from most of his family & from the world.
  3. Some people try to help him for a while, but their feelings of care eventually evaporate. They come to perceive Gregor as a burden.
  4. Multiple family members acquire incomes. Greta might find a husband (& in that culture, I guess husband means income).
  5. Gregor dies.
  6. Gregor's surviving family members now have their own sources of incomes. Compared to when Gregor was the family's only source of income, they are better off, & the narrator implies that the future might be bright.
  7. Like my interpretation of Lovecraft's Arthur Jermyn story, the world is a better place without him. (My interpretation of Arthur Jermyn is more extreme: Arthur concluded that he never should have existed, & the world agreed. Not exactly the same, but similar.)

Gregor's situation also reminded me of when a loved one goes to their death bed. For decades, they have been a valuable member of your family. That's why they are a loved one. You don't want to see them go, you dread them leaving, but when they finally do, everyone is relieved & realizes how tiring the ordeal has been. You are not better off without them when they were healthy, but you are better off than when you lived with them while they were on their death bed.

On the other hand, that love one on their death bed is a loved one because they were loved. From Kafka's story, it sounds like Gregor was useful though not much loved. In that way, when Gregor's survivors feel relief & have better lives later, it is not like when a loved one dies.

The story has a grim chagrin to it, but I dislike that. At least it's not the kind of humor that I dislike the most.

The story almost contains a condemnation of clerical work in it. Almost. Or maybe it does but it's too subtle. I dunno.

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