17 distribution. In his description of the author in creating literary works, Freud says
that the author is attacked by neurosis.
2. 3. Theoretical Framework
In this study, the writer aims to analyze Gregor Samsa, the main character of the novel and find out the meaning of Gregor’s transformation. To accomplish
the analysis, the writer uses some theories on character, characterization, theory of motivation, theory of psychology and other information related to the novel.
The analysis deals with Gregor Samsa, the main character of the novel. Therefore the writer attempts to analyze the character of Gregor first by using
theories of character and characterization before finding the meaning of metamorphosis itself. The theories of motivation are taken to check the
motivations of Gregor Samsa in his transformation. The last, theories of psychology and psychological approach are used to understand what has
happened in Gregor’s metamorphosis and what is the psychological conflict faced by Gregor and Kafka, the writer of this novel. After knowing the personality of
Gregor, by using theories of psychology and psychological approach, the writer will try to find the meaning of the metamorphosis.
2. 4. Context of the Novel
Jonathan Culler in Literary Theory 1997 said, “Context is what determines meaning. To know the particular utterance means, you have to look at
the circumstances or the historical context in which it figures.” p. 62. Based on
18 this argument, it can be stated that the meaning of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
can be understood by looking back to the times and the circumstances it is written. The Metamorphosis can be seen and understood as an autobiographical
writing of Kafka’s own life. The first indication is the place where the story begins. The story takes place in the early years of the twentieth century in an
apartment in which a textile salesman lives with his father, mother, and sister. The narrator does not say in what city or country the action takes place. But Kafka
probably had in mind the city of his birth, Prague, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today, Prague is in the Czech Republic.
Michael Frank in A City Reimagined: The Metamorphosis of Kafka and His Context 2002 wrote that in his writing to Gustav Janouch his friend in life,
Kafka commented of the place where he was born and lived most of his 41 years: This is not a city. It is a fissure in the ocean bed of time, covered with the stony
rubble of burned-out dreams and passions, through which we - as if in a diving bell -take a walk. Its interesting, but after a time one loses ones breath p. 1.
The city of Prague in 1883, when Kafka was born, is a city where three cultures - Czech, German and German-speaking Jewish - coexisted in often anxious
harmony. At the time Czechs had not yet won their independence, and despite its Czech majority, Prague was dominated by a German-speaking elite. The Jews of
Prague tended to identify with the German minority rather than with the Czech majority; the Czechs therefore considered the Jews to be part of the German
community, but the Germans themselves did not. As a result, it was easy for the Jews to feel that they did not fit in anywhere.
19 The Metamorphosis is an autobiographical piece of writing of Kafka’s
own family. In The Metamorphosis Background 1999 written by the Harvard University Students it is said that Kafka felt like an insect in his fathers
authoritative presence and even developed a stammer while speaking to him. Gregor, likewise, cowers in fear of his father, who finds him repulsive and attacks
him at every turn. Kafka had been very close to his sister, Ottla, and she usually understood him. In this dispute, however, even she turned against him in insisting
he stay at the office in the afternoons. Kafka felt that she had betrayed him, and that night he actually contemplated suicide. This happened in November 1912.
Shortly, there are many accidents in Kafka’s family which depressed him much p. 3.
Finally, The Metamorphosis must be read as Kafkas own expression of self-alienation. Kafka also felt enormous pressure to become a successful
businessman like his father but he failed because of the situation at that time. Gregor’s transformation to an insect is a protest against the dehumanizing and
self-alienating effects of working in a capitalistic society.
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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY
