essay

In both versions of metamorphosis, Gregors death is presented as a relief not only for Gregors family but for Gregor himself. When the family find out that Gregors they don’t react in any sort of way they just brush it off. After the death they then move to a smaller house and continue living their lives giving off the impression that their lives were at a standstill when Gregor was alive.

I feel that Gregor dying was a relief for himself because all the pain he was enduring during his time alive, with the apple stuck in his back. He was physically damaged and also emotionally damaged. Gregor was a family man he loved providing for his family and seeing his family happy, it was both clear in the book and film that he was grateful for his family tolerating him and wanted to change back and return to work. all of these facts would of meant that Gregor definitely felt bad about the fact that his mum and dad now had to work and his sister had to study extra hard in order to find a high paying job.

Kafka’s version lets us know that Gregor in pain when the narrator says,

“The rotten apple in his back and the inflamed area, entirely covered with white dust, he hardly noticed.”

the word ‘inflamed’ which was used in this quote to describe Gregors back gives off the impression that he was in a lot of pain as the word inflamed is usually linked with heavy swelling or a burning feeling. ‘The rotting apple’ I think Kafka used the word rotting because you link the word with a long period of time. The word rotting suggest to the reader that the apple has been lodged in his back for a long period of time.

‘Entirely covered with white dust’

The word ‘entirely’ is an exaggeration. Instead of Kafka saying the top of his back or the middle he uses entirely to exaggerate the amount of area covered in white dust.

Whereas in Swanton’s film version, it focuses more on the family’s point of view rather than Gregor. When the made reveals Gregor death the family hardly reacts. The camera focuses on the family as they all look down at the lifeless body. Gregory sister looks away and does a deep sigh. The sigh gave off the impression that she was upset at her brother’s death but it also was a sigh of relief. The scene before the family find out about Gregor death is actually quite emotional. This is seen where greter explodes and shows her real feeling towards Gregor and try to persuade her parents that they need to get rid of him. After her rant he walks away slowly towards his bedroom dragging his broken foot along behind him. Just before he takes his last breath the camera shows the night sky, the big clock tower that stood in front of his window and sad music quietly plays in the background. The detail in this scene communicates the audience that this was the end. The little clip of the window and the clock tower is Swanton’s way of telling us he was trapped that was Gregors last view of the outside world, once he changed into a beetle he never got to leave his room again.

The slow movement from Gregory and the sad music in the back ground built up the tension because it made you aware that something dramatic was about to happen. So when Gregory’s family hardly reacted after the scene of his death was emotionally tense communicated to the audience his family wasn’t emotionally connected to him. However this also showed how a characters attitude towards another can change drastically compared from the start to the end because at the start of the metamorphosis when Gregor first transforms it’s his sister that panics and is worried and she is also the only one who fed him and cleaned his room yet at the end of the metamorphosis she was the one saying that the family needed to get rid of him and how he no longer had the soul or mind of Gregor.

Kafka’s version of the metamorphosis portrays that Gregor death is from pain whereas Swanton’s plays it out to be more of a death caused by emotional neglect.

Kafka presents this by making sure he focuses on Gregory physical problems.

‘As a result of his suffering condition. He had to guide himself through the difficulty of turning around with his head’

This is just after the scene where Gregory sister just exploded and ranted about how the family need to get rid of him however this text focuses on Gregory physical disabilities

‘only when he was already in the door did he turn is head, not completely, because he felt his neck growing stiff’ this is yet another example of a text where Kafka is focusing harder on physical rather than emotional even this is supposed to see an emotional scene.

Whereas in Swanton’s film version, he portrays Gregors death as a result of emotional distress by using specific camera angles at the right moments. The scene where Gregor witnesses his sister ranting about getting rid of him is expressed as quite an emotional moment in this film. When Gregory begins turning to head back to his room although you can see his broken leg, grey fur covered skin and the apple lodged in his back it wasn’t the man focus. the camera focuses on his face as he looks back before entering his room, it focus on his eyes which have bags smothered under them communicating his tiredness to the audience however his eyes are also filled with tears letting us understand that in this particular moment he is emotional. The music choice in this scene also very much contributes to heating the tension, Swanton doesn’t use loud dramatic music but uses the opposite. He uses a quiet song with many string instruments the violin in particular. Although not loud and dramatic it gave off double the effect because you felt Gregors pain through each and every one of the instruments.

The last scene where Gregor takes his last breath is by far the saddest scene, he looks up out of his window however appears to be in 1st person mode, and this made you feel like you could see everything Gregor saw minutes before his death.

Throughout this essay in have tried to communicate to the reader that Kafka was more about the physical attire but Swanton was more in touch with the emotional, I have used quotations and referred to many scenes from both versions to prove this.