Comparason of Joyce's, "The Dead" and Kafka's "Metamorphasis"
In both Joyce's The Dead, and Kafka's Metamorphasis, the central charater is suffering from a severe delusion about their own self. Gabriel, in Joyce's The Dead, believes he is the one true love in Gretta's life. When this deception is revealed his world becomse shattered. Similarly, in The Metamorphasis, Gregor Samka realizes that he is only a drudge in society, and his entire life is changed in consequence. The importance of self knowledge becomes apparent in these two tales. James Joyce, in The Dead, gives us a glimpse into the life of a man fraught with self deception. He is secure in the knowledge that he is smarter than his fellows, more adept than his fellows in his chosen profession, and that he is on a social level far removed from those around him. This easily can be seen through any number of speeches given by Gabriel, but it is particularly evident when he states "He was undecided about the lines from Robert Browning for he feared that they would be above the heads of his readers."(Dead, 334). He lords his superior knowledge and social niceties above the rest of his family, treating them like some subclass of humanity better left untouched. His wife scoffs at the fact that the majority of the attenders of the party do
not even grasp the concept of galoshes, a 'neccesity' of life that has not filtered down to the less fortunate. Gabriel's shame for his famile is readily apparent. He speaks down to them, refuses to learn their common language, and prefers to escape away from their land as much as possible. When he is asked about this shame and it is brought to the forefront, he becomes very upset and even lashes back at his family. "O to tell you the truth, retorted Gabriel suddenly, I'm sick of my own country, sick of it!" (The Dead, 363) All of these illusions come crashing down when Gabriel realizes that even the lowest among his family has the one thing that he lacks, true love. Gabriel realizes that although Gretta cares for him, he does not have the depth of feeling that she has for a young boy that has given his life for her, nor will he ever realize that emotion. We can see this destruction of identity when Joyce describes Gabriel "His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world . . . " (the Dead, 390). Failing to completely know oneself can have disasterous repurcussions. In Kafka's Metamorphosis, Gregor's subconscious realization of identity and conscious realization of identity are separated and only joined through his physical transformation. When the story is begun, Gregor has been transformed into a large
Some common words found in the essay are:
Kafka Joyce, Robert Browning, Metamorphosis Gregor's, Joyce Dead, Gregor Samka, Joyce's Dead, Kafka's Metamorphasis, true love, physical transformation, gabriel realizes, subconscious mind, realization identity, joyce's dead,
Approximate Word count = 892
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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