Daddy Issues

While we may be reading Song of Solomon, I think it’s time we have a little bit of a refresher on what it means to suddenly turn into a bug and eventually die alienated from your family. I’m speaking, of course, about The Metamorphosis. My research paper focused on the relationship between Gregor and the father and how it parallels Kafka’s real life relationship with his father, Hermann Kafka. Now, for a limited time only, I’ll provide a quick look into the similarities between the father in The Metamorphosis and the man that raised the author himself.

To begin with, the physical resemblance itself was a strong indicator of similarities between the father and Hermann Kafka.In the case of Hermann Kafka, he was known to be a large and overbearing businessman who even intimidated his son physically. In Kafka’s own words,

“There was I, skinny, weakly, slight; you strong, tall, broad. Even inside the hut I felt a miserable specimen, and what's more, not only in your eyes but in the eyes of the whole world, for you were for me the measure of all things.” (Letter to My Father 4)

The awe that Kafka has for his father is clearly present and you can easily find reflections of this in Kafka’s work. In addition, his work as an independent retailer and as a successful businessman allowed him to have a large amount of control over the family which further contributed to the amount of power he had over the family. His superiority over his son definitely contributed to Kafka’s later insecurities and Gregor’s role in The Metamorphosis.

Meanwhile, the father in The Metamorphosis started out as a weak individual, but once the father donned a uniform, he transformed into this big, powerful man. For instance,

“Now he was standing there in fine shape; dressed in a smart blue uniform with gold buttons, such as bank messengers wear; his strong double chin bulged over the stiff high collar of his jacket; from under his bushy eyebrows his black eyes darted fresh and penetrating glances; his onetime tangled white hair had been combed flat on either side of a shining and carefully exact parting.” (Kafka, The Metamorphosis 121)

It is clear to the readers and Gregor that this man is physically imposing and dominates the scene. Similarly, the connection between the uniform and the power of the father tells us how having a job equals power in this family dynamic. While it might be a plain job (in the book, he was bank messenger), it’s more important to realize that this job serves as a sign of status in Gregor’s eyes. The father becomes the head of the house, replacing Gregor, as a result of his role as financial provider.

From the father towering over Gregor when he enters in his uniform to the power that the father demonstrates when he is beating Gregor, the physical superiority of the father to the son is apparent in reality and in fiction.

There are many other parallels between the father and the son (both real and non real) that I would love to go into further, but I’ll have to save that for another day. If you want to know more about the father-son relationship and how it relates to Kafka, I would be glad to share it with you! For now, all we can do is reconsider Gregor’s position in the family and how much of the father was inspired by real life.

Works Cited:

1. Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. Ed. Nahum Norbert Glatzer. New York: Schocken, 1971. Print.
2. Kafka, Franz. Letter to My Father. Trans. Ernst Keiser and Eithne Wilkins. Ed.

DDDDDArthur S. Wensinger. N.p.: Schoken, 1931. Google Docs. Schoken

DDDDDBooks Inc. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CK480j6khmHzAZYdR26Zu1Iu064uCo32JnESIulbFYw/preview>.

Love Potion No. 9

“ ‘Hush up,’ she said. ‘ If the man don’t love you, I can’t make him love you.’

‘Yes, you can, I know you can. That is what I wish and that is why I came here. You can make people love or hate. Or...or die.’” (Rhys, 102).

This is a small snippet of the conversation between Christophine and Antoinette about Antoinette’s relationship with Rochester. In this scene, she is trying to convince Christophine to give her a love potion so that she can trick Rochester into falling in love with her. At first, Christophine is reluctant to help her since the stuff she uses is not meant for love nor is it used on gentlemen like Rochester, but eventually Antoinette persuades her to make the potion. Antoinette’s desire to make Rochester love her despite the fact that Rochester married her for money and constantly calls her “Bertha” indicates Antoinette’s desperation for company and emotional fragility. Yet, it is this desperation that ultimately causes Rochester to separate himself from Antoinette. Shortly after the potion takes effect, Rochester goes into full desire mode and, like Christophine said, have sex. After the potion wears off, Rochester still doesn’t love Antoinette and, on top of that, Rochester suffers a major reaction from the potion.

“I woke in the dark after dreaming that I was buried alive, and when I was awake the feeling of suffocation persisted. [...] I was cold too, deathly cold and sick and in pain. I got out of bed without looking at her, staggered into my dressing-room and saw myself in the glass. I turned away at once. I could not vomit. I only retched painfully.” (Rhys, 124).

Rochester’s physical rejection of Antoinette’s love potion demonstrates the intensity with which he rejects Antoinette’s love. He purges himself of his desires for Antoinette and actually runs away from her and into the arms of another woman. The irony of this situation cannot go unnoticed. The very thing that Antoinette used to try and win back Rochester was also the thing that pushed him away the most. Furthermore, once Rochester realizes that he has been poisoned, he stares at Antoinette as she sleeps and, “ ...drew the sheet over her gently as if I [Rochester] covered a dead girl.” (Rhys, 125). Not only is his love for Antoinette gone, but actually views her as a corpse. With the addition of the affair, there is pretty much no chance for Antoinette and Rochester reuniting happily. While there are plenty of other factors contributing to this troubled marriage, this scene represents a changing point in Antoinette and Rochester’s future and at this point, it’s not especially bright.

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: Norton, 1982. Print.