One of the major power struggles among the characters in
Kafka's The Metamorphosis revolves around the financial support of
the Samsa family.
Prior to Gregor's transformation into a
dung beetle, he had been the family's breadwinner. Both his father, and his beloved
sister Grete, had been dependent on him.
Gregor's father,
Mr. Samsa, is a failed businessman who has not worked for five years. Gregor's seventeen
year old sister, Grete, is considered by her parents to be "a somewhat useless
daughter." Her big hope in life is that Gregor will someday be able to finance her
studies at a music conservatory.
After Gregor's metamorphis
and subsequent retirement from his job, both his father and sister go to work. The
father becomes a messenger for a bank. He takes particular pride in his uniform,
probably because it is a symbol of his "victory" over his son. Grete becomes a sales
clerk.
In the end, it is Grete and the father who take the
lead in the decision to banish Gregor from the family home. Part of Grete's reasoning
is that it is unfair to her and her father, who are working so hard, to have to put up
with such a monstrosity at home:
If people have to work as hard as we all do, they
can't endure this endless torment at home as well. I can't do it
either.”
The power equation
has been reversed. No longer is Gregor the most important member of the family upon
whom others are dependent for financial support. Rather, his sister and
father--formerly dependent on him--decide to expel Gregor from home because he has
become a useless burden.
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