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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis—Kafkaesque:
It is important to note that Kafka wrote and spoke German, not English. The reader, by reading a work of translation, is only consuming an interpretation of Kafka’s original story. While it is always important to keep the fact that one is reading a translation in mind, it is especially important in the case of The Metamorphosis, as Kafka is intentionally ambiguous about the type of bug Gregor transforms into. In fact, even "bug" or "insect" is not universally agreed upon as a translation of the original German: "vermin" may be a more accurate, but less common, translation of what specifically Gregor transforms into. Overall, some elements of Kafka's writing style are lost in translation, although there are still many stylistic choices evident in English and German alike.
One stylistic choice that transcends translation is the structure of The Metamorphosis. The story is divided into thirds, which corresponds with the three times Gregor leaves his room over the course of the story. This stylistic choice emphasizes the restrained nature of Gregor's life as insect, with each protrusion from his room worthy of a substantial structural separation. Furthermore, the reader can understand Gregor, but Gregor's family can not. This creates a fascinating and important communicative divide between Gregor and the world, one that the reader oscillates between. Kafka uses a third-person point of view which is mostly limited to Gregor’s perspective, although there are some exceptions, most notably after Gregor dies. Once Gregor's life comes to an end, the family (and the reader) leave the house to go on a walk.
"Kafkaesque" has become a term in and of itself to describe writing or real-life situations similar stylistically to Kafka's fiction. While the term is hard to define, it usually refers to overly complicated, bureaucratic, and/or illogical situations in which people are left feeling helpless, confused, and at the whims of authority. This understanding of "Kafkaesque" is evident in The Metamorphosis, with Kafka's diction, syntax, and subject matter portraying a world in which Gregor is beholden to the Chief Clerk as a person and his family as an insect. Gregor is subject to bizarre laws of nature neither he nor the reader can fully understand.
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