The Metamorphosis (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Franz Kafka
- First Published: 1915
- Type of Work: Short story
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: The 1910’s
- Setting: Prague
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction, Allegory, Fantasy
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, Self, Betrayal, Guilt, 1910’s, Reality, Punishment, Fantasy, Hallucinations or illusions, Work or workers, Sales personnel, Metamorphosis or transmogrification, Insects, Isolation, Czechoslovakia or Czechoslovakians
- Locales: Prague, Czechoslovakia
Characters Discussed
Gregor Samsa, a young traveling salesman who awakes one morning to find himself transformed into a hideous vermin. Self-effacing to the point of suicide, he dutifully leaves the family apartment early every day for a job he hates so that he can pay off his father’s debts. Incapacitated by his new physical form and scorned by his mother, father, and sister, he expires of his own volition.
Grete Samsa, Gregor’s younger sister, an aspiring violinist whose studies at a musical conservatory Gregor hopes to be able to finance. After the metamorphosis,...
[The entire page is 555 words long]
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