THE TRIAL - Franz Kafka

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Biographie:
The Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung) is a novella written by Franz Kafka which was first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, The Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect (German ungeheures Ungeziefer, literally monstrous vermin), subsequently struggling to adjust to this new condition. The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, with differing interpretations being offered.PLOTGregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin. He initially considers the transformation to be temporary and slowly ponders the consequences of this metamorphosis. Unable to get up and leave the bed, Gregor reflects on his job as a traveling salesman and cloth merchant, which he characterizes as an exhausting and never-ending traffic. He sees his employer as a despot and would quickly quit his job were he not his family's sole breadwinner and working off his bankrupt father's debts. While trying to move, Gregor finds that his office manager, the chief clerk, has shown up to check on him, indignant about Gregor's unexcused absence. Gregor attempts to communicate with both the manager and his family, but all they can hear from behind the door is incomprehensible vocalizations. Gregor laboriously drags himself across the floor and opens the door. The manager, upon seeing the transformed Gregor, flees the apartment. Gregor's family is horrified, and his father drives him back into his room under the threat of violence.With Gregor's unexpected incapacitation, the family is deprived of their financial stability. Although Gregor's sister Grete now shies away from the sight of him, she takes to supplying him with food, which they find he can only eat rotten. Gregor begins to accept his new identity and begins crawling on the floor, walls and ceiling. Discovering Gregor's new pastime, Grete decides to remove some of the furniture to give Gregor more space. She and her mother begin taking furniture away, but Gregor finds their actions deeply distressing. He desperately tries to save a particularly-loved portrait on the wall of a woman clad in fur. His mother loses consciousness at the sight of Gregor clinging to the image to protect it. As Grete rushes to assist her mother, Gregor follows her and is hurt by a medicine bottle falling on his face. His father returns home from work and angrily hurls apples at Gregor.

Sommaire:
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) A German-speaking insurance clerk, Franz Kafka preferred to spend his time writing. One of the most important writers of the Modernist period, Kafka's writings went against the conventions of his time. His works are notable for the aspects of the absurd, the surreal, and the fantastic. Although he incorporates elements of realism in his writing, many of his texts and protagonists engage with the loss of all coherent structures and meanings. It is common for the character to come across as an alienated individual, almost shunned from society. Over the years, his writing style has developed an identity of its own and is, today, widely known as 'Kafkaesque'. Kafka never intended to publish his works. In fact, he had ordered his friend to burn all of his unpublished works after his death. However, his friend published these works posthumously. Kafka's best-known works include The Trial, Metamorphosis, and The Castle. Kafka's works, more often than not, show a bleak and hopeless world where a just society and governance is more a matter of imagination than reality. He compels his readers to question the monotony of the systems around them, and the structures of authority....