Kafka wrote 'The Metamorphosis' in 1912, taking three weeks to compose the story. While he had expressed earlier satisfaction with the work, he later found it to be flawed, even calling the ending 'unreadable.' But whatever his own opinion may have been, the short story has become one of the most popularly read and analyzed works of twentieth-century literature. Isolation and alienation are at the heart of this surreal story of a man transformed overnight …showed first 75 words of 1665 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1665 total…whose condition begs the words to explain it. Kafka begins 'The Metamorphosis' by remarking that Gregor's transformation is 'no dream' whereas Grete's accession to female sexuality is described as the family's 'new dreams.' Possibly this is Kafka's ultimate irony -- that nightmares express lost human reality better than dreams do of animal satisfactions (Thiher 44). Grete Samsa's changing actions, feelings, and speech toward her brother, coupled with her accession to womanhood, parallel Gregor's own metamorphosis.