Themes in The Metamorphosis include a sudden, unexpected transformation, family duty, responsibility, and alienation, etc. Franz Kafka has shown a surrealistic transformation in an individual and its impacts on the relationships. Some of the themes from this novel have been explored below.

The Metamorphosis Themes

• Economic effects on human relationships. Gregor is enslaved by his family because he is the one who makes money.
• Family duty. The theme of family and the duties of family members to each other drive the interactions between Gregor and the others.
• Alienation.
• Freedom and escapism.
• Guilt.
• Personal identity.

The main themes in The Metamorphosis are the burden of responsibility, isolation and alienation, and sacrifice. The burden of responsibility: Before his transformation, Gregor supports his family as a traveling salesman. Once freed of that responsibility, Gregor starts to feel like a burden to his family.

There is no reason given for Gregor Samsa’s transformation. Gregor is unhappy at home and at his job; despite his optimism that his hard work will change his status, he believes in determinism, and thinks that he will never truly escape from his position.

Gregor’s transformation completely alters his outward appearance, but it leaves his mind unchanged, creating a discord, or lack of harmony, between his mind and body. When he first gets out of his bed after waking, for instance, he tries to stand upright, even though his body is not suited to being upright.

Although at first Gregor is psychologically unaltered by his transformation, his personality changes over the course of the story in accordance with his new physical urges and desires. These changes primarily come about as he adapts to his new body and learns what it finds comfortable.

Change

The moral of The Metamorphosis is that doing nothing but working to fulfill an obligation can isolate and dehumanize a person. Gregor Samsa works so much to support his family that he has no time to sleep, eat good food, or form intimate relationships with anyone.

Samsa telling the three gentlemen renters to leave? It shows his grief over his insect-son dying. It reveals his guilt for shooing Gregor back into the bedroom the night before, so he does the same to them.