Introduction “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis”
Stories “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis” published during the modernist movement show the impact of this movement in various ways. This movement emerged out of industrialization and the ravages of WW-I and affected individuals as well as characters presented in literary texts, specifically fiction. Various novellas and short stories including “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis” have depicted characters demonstrating impacts of the modern life on their minds as well as their relationships with other characters. “The Dead” by James Joyce as well as “The Metamorphosis”, by Franz Kafka, show the impacts of the modern lifestyle on the characters in various ways. Most emblems of the modern lifestyle and modernism are clear from the way they behave with one another and treat each other as well as how they see themselves. The intellectual and spiritual crisis not only shows through the characters at “Misses Morkan’s annual dance,” gathering guests such as Mr. Gabriel, Mr. Brown, and other characters, but also through their activities, relationships, and treatment of others (Joyce 01). Meaningful activities are absent in their lives. And their approach toward life and others, too, is mostly self-centered. The same idea goes in the relations and treatment of others with Gregor Samsa, Grete Samsa, the mother, the father, and the boarders in the novella, “The Metamorphosis.” Characters in both stories “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis” not only show the absence of meaningful activities and relations but also the importance of financial pressure or animal instinct more than humane passions as well as psychological consciousness in their treatment of others and themselves.
Modernist Culture and “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis”
Whereas “The Dead” is concerned, it opens with Mokran’s dance party where various people gather to enjoy. Everyone, who knows the family of Mokran, comes to the party including Gretta and Gabriel along with Mr. Browne and Mrs. Conroy (01). The conversation among the family shows that they do not have a single meaningful topic to talk about. Then, their departure shows that there are “cross-directions, contradictions, and abundance of laughter” but no single purpose in the whole issue (15). This is entirely meaningless whether it is Aunt Kate, Aunt Julia, Mary Jane, Gabriel, Mr. Browne, Gretta, or other characters. Everyone in the gathering is engaged in making himself important through his conversation at the time when Aunt Kate is taking care of everybody by telling them what they are doing. For example, she states that Gretta is not down yet and Browne is everywhere (14), which shows amply that she is taking care of everybody, but mostly through her own self-centered approach. In other words, she is asking about everybody to show that she is also present. Even Gabriel is obsessed with his own personality regarding the impression he leaves upon others. This shows that not only is this entire activity meaningless and full of contradictions, but their relationship is full of absurdities. Gabriel is rather more obsessed with his wife as if “she [was] a symbol of something” for him (16).
Although there is no financial pressure, the psychological dilemmas that Gabriel faces when his wife, Gretta, tells him about her former lover, Michael Furey, brings him to the point of consciousness about others as well as about himself. At that time, Gabriel noticed what was the reason behind his wife’s strange mood. Simultaneously, he wanted to crush her body against his own (20). But when he became conscious regarding his relations with Gretta, he rather felt ashamed as “he turned his back more to the light lest she might see the shame that burned upon his forehead” (20). The moment dawned upon him the absurdity of his earlier relation and “His soul approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead,” dawning upon him the reality of his life and his own act of treating Gretta merely through his lust (20). Commenting on Gabriel’s consciousness in Shen Yuan and Dong Hong’ paper, “The Modernist Features in James Joyce’s Dubliners,” they maintained that after Gabriel realizes his wife’s situation and news of her former lover, he felt shocked. He realized that he was a blind person who was given self-satisfaction and self-deception in the past despite his intellectual life (30). This was his consciousness not only about himself but also about others.
However, the modern impacts of the treatment of characters of other characters and with themselves have some other patterns, a bit different from that of the characters in both stories “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis”. It is because there is a sudden transformation of shape and role of Gregor Samsa, the central character of “The Metamorphosis”. He suddenly realizes that he is no longer a human being. It is because he has turned into a cockroach. Then he questions what has happened to himself, whereas his treatment of himself starts with, somewhat, different thinking (Kafka 03). He becomes self-reflecting on his new life, leaving his role as a bread-earner, and thinking about his family members who must be facing hard times. He tries to come out of this situation through his ruminations about his job, his boss’s reaction, his family’s situation, and his own activities at his job. But all this seems absurd and meaningless to him in the face of a new situation, because he cannot go out despite his care for his family. When his sister comes to call him in the morning for breakfast, he faces a new situation in which his voice becomes very cold. The same reaction comes from different people who come to take him out of his room (07). Although Gregor tries his best to enter the circle of humanity by acting as a human being in the shape of that cockroach, the financial pressure on his family transforms their relationship. The cockroach, Gregor, treats them as his family members, but they are losing interest in him, as he is no longer a breadwinner. That is the reason why his sister starts chasing him down from the wall which is an action that makes him realize his new existence of no value and no importance due to having no role of a breadwinner (47). His father, who used to love him, yells at him with mixed feelings of anger and confusion, but this does not go down well with him. All of a sudden, the cockroach relationship starts changing, as “it was no longer the animated social interaction of the former times” (53), but a new reality having financial repercussions as his father starts working. Now he does not need his son’s financial help as he used to have in the past. As a result, Gregor thinks that if he leaves the apartment, his family will not need him and he will not cause a financial loss for them (65). In fact, characters in both stories “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis” demonstrate the same traits.
Psychological Impact on Characters in “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis”
Even on a psychological level, it has impacted his own view of himself and of his family members. They start treating him not as Gregor Samsa, but as vermin. As his sister discusses with her father that “It must be gotten rid of,” (65) referring to Gregor which she sees as the only option to save the family from financial and psychological ruin. Commenting on his thinking and his family’s treatment of her Cecile Rozuel in her article “Otherness in Self and Organizations” maintains that Gregor is a man who tried hard to support his family, but he fail, saying “he is a man who has tried, and perhaps, failed to support his family in whichever way he could” (06). She that “he becomes further alienated” due to his transformation not only in shape but also in his role as a breadwinner (06).
Conclusion
To sum up, modern lifestyle has impacted the characters of these two pieces in such a way that their treatment and their relations with others are based on their search for meaning in life, though their activities demonstrate this meaninglessness. Financial pressure has its consequences in the shape of contradictions in life as well as thinking. Psychological realities stare characters in the face and bring self-consciousness as well as consciousness about others, as Gabriel feels about his wife or Gregor has a moment of epiphany that he feels about his family and himself. However, the consciousness of one character about others does not change this; Grete and Gregor’s father want Gregor to be dead so that they could live, while Gabriel in, “The Dead,” feels that his own identity is “fading out into [a] grey impalpable world” after realizing that he does not love his wife but wants to possess her due to his lust (Joyce 22). These moments of consciousness show how modern life has impacted the characters to see and treat others differently due to the alienation that has crept into their lives.
Works Cited
- Joyce, James. The Dead. English Leaners. n. d. english-learners.com/wp-content/uploads/THE-DEAD.pdf. Accessed on 24 Mar. 2017.
- Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Planet Ebook. 1999. www.planetebook.com/ebooks/The-Metamorphosis.pdf. Accessed on 24 Mar. 2017.
- Rozuel, Cecile. “Otherness in Self and Organizations: Kafka’s The Metamorphosis to Stir Moral Reflection.” Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, vol. 11. 2014. pp. 25-50. http://www.cecilerozuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/CRozuel_Kafkas-Metamorphosis_REIO.pdf. Accessed on 24 Mar. 2017.
- Yuan, Shen and Dong Hong. “The Modernist Features in Joyce’s Dubliners.” Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 12, no. 2, 2016. pp. 28-32. www.cscanada.net/index.php/sll/article/download/8173/9030. Accessed on 24 Mar. 2017.
Relevant Questions about “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis”
- How do the characters in “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis” grapple with existential isolation, and how does this isolation shape their perceptions of life in “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis”?
- In what ways do the modernist narratives in “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis” challenge conventional notions of life, death, and meaning, and how does this challenge reflect the authors’ modernist presentation of life?
- How do the settings and atmospheres in “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis” contribute to the overall portrayal of life in a modernist context, and how do they differ in conveying the themes of existence and mortality in “The Dead” and “The Metamorphosis”?