In The Metamorphosis, much of the plot revolves around relationships in a family. Ordinarily this would not be too surprising, but so far this year we have not seen very many close families. Howie in The Mezzanine seems to be in good relations with his family, but he lives on his own and seems to only see them on rare occasions. The only real family we see in Mrs. Dalloway is the Dalloway family, and while they seem to get along well only Richard and Elizabeth have an especially close relationship. Clarissa seems to be distant from both of them. The Sun Also Rises relates a group of people who are especially estranged from their families. Not only are they physically separated by an ocean, but the characters never mention their families at all, and I get the sense that good old family values have no place in the ironic culture of the expatriates.
The Metamorphosis centers around family dynamics and how the family works. However, it's not a very flattering view of family relationships. Kafka seems to view family relationships as based mostly on guilt and shared fiscal responsibility. Gregor's relationship with the other members of his family is mostly based on his ability to earn money for them. Once he stops earning money for them, he is no longer useful and is ignored and shunned. In fact, he is blamed for no longer being able to provide for them. In addition, he blames himself for his inability to provide for his family.
Of course, this can be seen as kind of the worst case scenarios of families, which makes sense if The Metamorphosis is viewed as the externalizations of Gregor's fears about himself. Gregor is partly treated the way he is because of his gross insect form and because he can no longer act as part of the family in the relational sense because he has lost the ability to communicate. The rest of the Samsa family seems to care for each other and treat each other well, especially at the end after Gregor is dead. Still, the Samsa family is not the kind of family that anyone would choose as an example to uphold of these type of family values.
As I was thinking about this I was wondering what kind of role family usually plays in literature. Quickly searching my mind for books I have read in other English classes and on my own, family often plays a much more prominent or favorable role than in the novels we have read so far. I wonder if this says something about the early 20th century and the "lost generation" classification under which some of the authors we have read could fall. As part of their rejection of tradition and traditional values, they have rejected the institution of the family as the primary mechanism for love and affection and instead depict alienation from family. I am sure that not all writers of that time period were like that, but it does seem to be a definite trend and it will be interesting to see if it continues throughout the 20th century.
Kafka's view of the family seems to be heavily influenced by Freud (or, his own observations about the family dynamic might have accidentally touched on some of the same insights as Freud), and this means that it's the primary source of personal neuroses. But it's funny that you suggest this as a "worst-case scenario" of a family, given how stable and even close they might appear from the outside: Mr. and Mrs. Samsa are not separated, their adult son still "wants to" live with them (though it's not clear how voluntary this is), the son appears to be dedicated to the family unit, etc. The neurosis emerges from the inside, though--Gregor's transformation means he's around more now than he usually is, and this seems to mean that he's subjected to more psychic damage.
ReplyDeleteSo do we read the ending as a restoration of some kind of idealized family unit? Mr. and Mrs. Samsa awake in the "marriage bed," looking on with pride at their newly mature daughter and thinking of her marriage and their bright futures together . . . as if Gregor is the "disease" that needs to be removed for the family to function.