Kafka and Metamorphosis: The Spooky Coincidence

So this week, I’m writing about Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The tale of a man caught up by unknowable forces has resonated with readers and scholars alike for generations, but after doing some cursory biographical research on Kafka’s life, I am looking at Metamorphosis with renewed eyes, owing to what may be  one of the oddest examples of ‘life imitating art’ I’ve ever seen.  Namely, the fact that in the ending to Metamorphosis, Kafka ending up predicting the manner of his very own demise.  Spooky and unbelieveable, I know, but entirely true!  

Some background on Kafka himself, to set the stage.  Franz was born to a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague in the late 19th century, in fact he was the fourth  child in said family, and the only son, due to the untimely deaths of two previous boys.  The Kafkas were very close in that sort of “apples not falling far from the tree” way some families are.  Kafka himself only began living on his own at the ripe old age of 31!  By his own accounts, Kafka was deeply influenced by his father, who was a stern and authoritarian man.  No wonder so many of his works seem to feature authority and father figures and unknowable blustery creatures, if things were that bad. (And they were, if the fact that the letter Kafka wrote to his father pouring his heart out about all these things was over 100 pages!)  Educated as a lawyer solely to appease his father, Kafka always bemoaned the fact that his day job took away precious time that he would rather devote to writing, his life’s calling.  Kafka was so devoted to writing, that he considered it tantamount to prayer.  A lofty sentiment, considering that his own formal religious education ended after his bar mitzvah!  Kafka kept writing up until his death in 1924 of complications arising from tuberculosis.  Due to the fact that his throat had swelled shut, the cause of death is thought to have been starvation.  Ironically enough, Kafka’s last work is titled The Hunger Artist.

This brings me to my point, that Kafka had in fact predicted the manner of his death years before its occurrence.   Gregor Samsa, the main character in Metamorphosis, is a bright young man working in a job he hates to appease the overbearing family he lives with.  SOunds familiar, right?   Kafka was most definitely drawing from the well of experience there.  After being shunned and hurt by his family for ages following his monstrous transformation, Gregor falls ill and dies of starvation, only discovered by his family after the fact.  Kafka predicted his own death, in one of those supremely spooky coincidences that sets your spine ashiver.   I mean, its meaningless, but the fact that it happened is kinda great.   More evidence that real life is stranger and more confusing than any fiction.  (Save for Herr Kafka’s works, of course.  There's a reason byzantine social orders that make no sense are called Kafkaesque)   Next time, I’ll be talking about Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway, so stay tuned!