The main character's relationship with others in Albert Camus 'The Outsider' and Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis'.

English IB Ranjit Amar

March 2003 Grade 11

The main character’s relationship with others in Albert Camus ‘The Outsider’ and Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’

Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’ and Albert Camus ‘The Outsider’ are two novels which present different views of the main protagonist’s relationships with others. Kafka mainly focuses on the relationships that exist within a family whereas Camus focuses on relationships that exist in the broader society.

In Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’ Gregor Samsa, the main protagonist was the primary bread winner in the Samsa household. He was a traveling salesman who was taking care of the family’s debt. Gregor was respected and valued in his family; he did not have an active social life because of his work. His only companions were his mother, sister and father; if at all Gregor had any social relationship it was with his family. The day Gregor metamorphosized, his social relationships with his family changed dramatically; he was no longer respected in his family because of his monstrous physical appearance and his inability to work. The metamorphosis of Gregor may be seen as the point at which his relationships began to break up.

In ‘The Outsider’, Meursault, the main protagonist, is a man for the moment and doesn’t think about his future. When Meursault loses his mother in the beginning of the novel, he is emotionless and shows no grief. Like Gregor, he has limited friends in society and his relationships are also limited. In the novel there are only a handful of characters with whom Meursault interacts; one of them was his girlfriend Marie. She wanted to marry Meursault and settle down, but he did not show interest and moreover he thought that she was only a sex object and based his relationship with her on sex. He was basically looking for a female to fulfill his desires. “I’d fancied her at the time, and I think she fancied me too.” (Camus, 1983, p.23). This sentence asserts our assumption about Meursault’s type of relationship with Marie.

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In the latter part of the novel, Camus introduces the Magistrate who examines the Meursault’s murder case of the Arabs. The Magistrate is one of the characters who challenge Meursault’s beliefs and way of thinking. He wanted to know the depth of Meursault’s spiritual life but this was all too personal for Meursault. The reason why Meursault cooperated with the Magistrate was because he was undergoing a trial and his future was at stake, and he wanted to get out of imprisonment. Meursault’s lawyer is another character who urged him to be silent and to act as he told him to; whereas the Magistrate wanted to get facts out of him. The relationship between Meursault and his lawyer was very typical as between a lawyer and a client in a judicial system. ‘Keep quiet, it’s better for you.’ (Camus, 1983, p.95). This is what the lawyer said when the judges asked Meursault about his case. The lawyer wanted to silence his client (Meursault) and do the talking himself. Communication is one of the important aspects in a relationship, but the lawyer is cutting of the communication lines of Meursault; due to this people began to assume that Meursault is a criminal who was stubborn enough to keep quiet in a court. This induced lack of character in Meursault by the lawyer influenced people to judge his character differently

Franz Kafka’s childhood was a bitter experience because the relationship between him and his father wasn’t a cheerful; from early childhood itself he began isolating himself from his father. His novel ‘The Metamorphosis’ portrays Gregor Samsa is isolated from his family. “If Gregor had only been allowed to turn around…..at any minute the cane in his father’s hand threatened to come down on his back or his head with a deadly blow” (Kafka, 1986, p.19). Gregor’s father was the first person to isolate his son from the rest of the family. The day Gregor changed into a vermin, his father was concerned about the financial prospects of the family. Since, Gregor was the only person who had a job in the family; his parents and sister are concerned about their future, since nobody in the family has a job and is earning money, this tells us that Gregor’s parents and sister were self-centered and concerned about their future than Gregor’s hideous predicament. Their actions finally lead them to distance themselves from Gregor.

Gregor’s metamorphosis was the main factor for the decline of his familial relationship; his new form was not accepted by the members of his family; for them the vermin was an object of disgrace both physically and emotionally. This made them remove themselves from Gregor. Even though his mother and sister showed some support to him in the initial stages by providing him with food and water, by the end of the novel they started to show disgust and wanted to get rid of him. This disgust was manifested when Gregor ventured out of his room when his sister was playing the violin and the Samsa’s boarders were present; they were concerned with the presence of the vermin and demanded explanations from Gregor’s father. The father being more concerned about the boarders than Gregor was forced to send the metamorphosized Gregor back to his room because the financial trouble the family would face if the boarders vacated the house. This event deepened the growing disgust for Gregor in the Samsa household.

When Meursault was in prison for the murder of the Arab, he was confined to the four corners of his cell; here we can see similarity between Gregor and Meursault; Gregor was confined to his room and Meursault to his cell. Both Meursault and Gregor had very little communication with their friends and family, this confinement leading to the ultimate decline in their relationships.

The declining relationship between Gregor and his family was given a death blow when his father threw and apple at him. The apple embedded into his back and started rotting. This aggression epitomizes the growing disgust of his father. His father wanted to cut off the relationship with his son who had undergone a metamorphosis; once and for all. All his disgust was filled into the apple which he threw at Gregor with great force; the apple spelled doom for Gregor and a few days later he was dead. Death put an end to the relations Gregor had with his family; the interesting fact is that Gregor died by the actions of his own father which was influenced by his mother and sister. After his metamorphosis, their disgust for him had increased and their wish to get rid of him was achieved, but Gregor always wanted to thank his sister for the services she rendered to him in the initial stages of his metamorphosis; he also wanted to talk to his parents, but the inability of Gregor to communicate detached the foundation of his relationships with his family.

Meursault’s relationships also came to an end with his death, when he was sentenced to death nobody visited him; not even his girlfriend Marie. “Remembering Marie meant nothing to me” (Camus,1983, p.115). Meursault says this after his trial and when he was sentenced, all forms of communication between the Marie and Meursault ceased. As the novel ends, he also thinks that Marie might have found boyfriend and would have carried on with life. So, he doesn’t care about the end of his relationship with Marie. On the other hand, Gregor was concerned about his declining relationships with his family. We can see a big difference in the way in which Gregor and Meursault handle their relationships with others.

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