Student Question
How did the charwoman dispose of Gregor's body in The Metamorphosis?
Quick answer:
In "The Metamorphosis," the charwoman disposes of Gregor's body without providing explicit details. She simply informs the family that Gregor's corpse has been "taken care of." This lack of detail underscores the story's symbolic nature, highlighting how the labor of the lower classes, such as servants, often goes unnoticed by their employers, as they manage the unpleasant aspects of life discreetly and invisibly.
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a story that work mainly on a
symbolic rather than realistic level. The basic premise, that a person can wake
up having been turned into a cockroach, suggests to us as readers that we
should search for metaphoric interpretations of events rather than naturalistic
details.
The cleaning woman announces to the family that Gregor’s corpse has been taken
care of, but she does not give us details of what precisely she does to take
care of or dispose of it. On a symbolic level, this reminds us that the work of
the lower classes, of servants, was invisible to their masters, and that they
would “take care” many of the unpleasant details of daily life almost
invisibly.
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