GEH 102                    Study Guide for Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

Be sure to make an note of where you find evidence to answer the questions. It may be useful to number each paragraph of the three parts of the story.

1. The very first line of the story sets up an obvious example of “metaphoric treatment of illness” in this story: Gregor wakes up changed into a giant insect.  (Remember, metaphoric treatment of illness means comparing illness to some other thing or experience in order to reveal something about the nature of illness or add new meanings to the experience of illness.)  Why does this comparison – being sick is becoming a giant insect—work? In other words, what specific details about being an insect (as it’s portrayed by Kafka) make it work as a way of expressing the experience of being sick? How is being ill like being an insect?

2. How do the family react to this change? What stages of response do they go through?  List the changing responses of the mother, the father, and particularly the sister.

3. How are the changes in Gregor’s sister important to the story?

4. What roles do the minor characters—especially the lodgers—play in the action of the story?

5. How does “illness as metaphor” work in this story? How does Gregor’s transformation into an insect becomes itself a metaphor for other roles, states of being, experiences, and relationships? If Gregor’s change into an insect is like illness, what ELSE is it like? If he is sick or disabled in his body, what other issues are suggested by his sickness or disability?

6. Does Kafka portray the change as something that is taking place in actuality or something that is just psychological? Does Gregor really change into an insect?  Be ready to back up your answer with supporting evidence. Consider not only how Gregor experiences things, but also how others treat him; also consider who tells the story (is it a first-person, second-person, or third-person narrative?)

7. Two common techniques of fantasy or horror fiction are to make the familiar strange and to make the strange familiar. Which do you think Kafka does in this story?

8. Is the story funny? When and why?

9. The story is divided into three parts—like many plays’ three-act structure. What does each part of the story accomplish? Think not just of what happens (plot)  but the meaning of what happens (theme).