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Essay / Reading Kafka's The Metamorphosis from a psychological point of view
The unconscious of Gregor Samsa can be explained through three important symbols prevalent in The Metamorphosis. According to the Freudian theoretical framework, these three symbols are personified in Samsa's mother, father and sister. For Samsa, his family members represent his identity, his superego and his ego. Samsa's sister represents his identity, his father represents his superego, and his mother represents his ego. In a Freudian framework, the id represents the subconscious drive for appetite, survival, and primal desire. The superego has to do with the discipline of the id and provides the capacity for shame, guilt, and repression in the name of social acceptance. The ego has to do with a realistic balance between discretion and renunciation and the satiety of the appetite as well as the achievement of personal satisfaction. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Samsa's sister, the "it," fits her role in predicting Samsa's immediate needs. She provides Samsa with food, and when Samsa rejects the food given to him, experiencing a new appetite, Grete, his sister, responds by bringing him a range of food from which he can freely choose what he prefers to eat : “To test his taste, she brought him a whole selection, all spread out on an old newspaper. (Kafka, 13 years old) Likewise, when Samsa wants space to move around easily, Grete realizes this and does her best to move the furniture that is much too heavy for her in order to accommodate her brother: “… And that's how she came up with the idea of making the space where Gregor could squeeze in as big as possible and thus removing the furniture that was in the way, notably the chest of drawers and the desk. But she couldn't do it alone. (Kafka, 18 years old). When the rest of Samsa's family does their best to hide her, Grete does everything possible to meet her immediate needs. When Samsa is in the infant stage of his transformation, Grete cares for him as if he were a baby. However, as Samsa grows as an insect, his immediate needs become more difficult to satisfy and he loses his appetite. The more Samsa resembles an insect, the less he cares about his own well-being: “. Trails of earth ran along the walls; here and there were tangles of dust and filth. (Kafka, 25 years old). The force reinforcing Samsa's low self-esteem associated with his transformation is his superego. This is well represented by his father. It is Samsa's father who throws apples at him to quell his behavior after an altercation between Samsa's mother and Grete: “A new escape was of no use, because his father had decided to bomb him. From the fruit bowl on the sideboard, his father had filled his pockets, and now, without yet aiming precisely, he was throwing apple after apple. (Kafka, 22) The father assumes the worst of Samsa and aims to beat him into submission and silence. The father is also suitable for his role as he adheres to a strong work ethic and demonstrates authority. The father refuses to take off his banker's uniform except by force, too attached to his servile position as a clerk: “But now he stood up straight, dressed in a tight-fitting blue uniform with gold buttons, like those of servants. carry in a banking company. (Kafka, 22). The Superego is dominant and intimidating, and the stronger it becomes, the weaker Samsa becomes: “. Gregor wanted to drag himself, as if he could make the unexpected and incredible pain disappear if he changed his position” (Kafka, 22). Samsa's mother is a perfect fit for her role as Ego as she balances both her husband and her daughter. When Grete tries to,>.