Metamorphosis summary analysis

Thus, Kafka, in Metamorphosis, puts into the realistic, prosaic environment of the Samsa household a situation that is, to put it mildly, unrealistic:

Metamorphosis summary analysis

Metamorphosis summary analysis

Plot summary[ edit ] The story is told by an unnamed narrator who describes the qualities of Ligeia: He thinks he remembers meeting her "in some large, old decaying city near the Rhine ". He is unable to recall anything about the history of Ligeia, including her family's name, but remembers her beautiful appearance.

Her beauty, however, is not conventional. He describes her as emaciated, with some "strangeness".

Metamorphosis summary analysis

He describes her face in detail, from her "faultless" forehead to the "divine orbs" of her eyes. They marry, and Ligeia impresses her husband with her immense knowledge of physical and mathematical science, and her proficiency in classical languages.

The Metamorphosis Section 1 Summary & Analysis from LitCharts | The creators of SparkNotes

She begins to show her husband her knowledge of metaphysical and "forbidden" wisdom. After an unspecified length of time Ligeia becomes ill, struggles internally with human mortality, and ultimately dies.

The narrator, grief-stricken, buys and refurbishes an abbey in England. He soon enters into a loveless marriage with "the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine". In the second month of the marriage, Rowena begins to suffer from worsening anxiety and fever.

One night, when she is about to faint, the narrator pours her a goblet of wine. Drugged with opiumhe sees or thinks he sees drops of "a brilliant and ruby colored fluid" fall into the goblet. Her condition rapidly worsens, and a few days later she dies and her body is wrapped for burial.

As the narrator keeps vigil overnight, he notices a brief return of color to Rowena's cheeks. She repeatedly shows signs of reviving, before relapsing into apparent death. As he attempts resuscitation, the revivals become progressively stronger, but the relapses more final. As dawn breaks, and the narrator is sitting emotionally exhausted from the night's struggle, the shrouded body revives once more, stands and walks into the middle of the room.

When he touches the figure, its head bandages fall away to reveal masses of raven hair and dark eyes: Rowena has transformed into Ligeia. Illustration by Byam Shawcirca The narrator relies on Ligeia as if he were a child, looking on her with "child-like confidence".

On her death, he is "a child groping benighted" with "childlike perversity". Poe biographer Kenneth Silverman notes that, despite this dependency on her, the narrator has a simultaneous desire to forget her, perhaps causing him to be unable to love Rowena. This desire to forget is exemplified in his inability to recall Ligeia's last name.

Ligeia, the narrator tells us, is extremely intelligent, "such as I have never known in a woman". Most importantly, she served as the narrator's teacher in " metaphysical investigation", passing on "wisdom too divinely precious not to be forbidden!

The opening epigraphwhich is repeated in the body of the story, is attributed to Joseph Glanvillthough this quote has not been found in Glanvill's extant work. Poe may have fabricated the quote and attached Glanvill's name in order to associate with Glanvill's belief in witchcraft.

This symbolic opposition implies the contrast between German and English romanticism. If Rowena had actually transformed into the dead Ligeia, it is only evidenced in the words of the narrator, leaving room to question its validity. The narrator has already been established as an opium addict, making him an unreliable narrator.

The narrator early in the story describes Ligeia's beauty as "the radiance of an opium-dream". He also tells us that "in the excitement of my opium dreams, I would call aloud upon her name, during the silence of the night I could restore her to the pathway she had abandoned This may be interpreted as evidence that Ligeia's return was nothing more than a drug-induced hallucination.From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes The Metamorphosis Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays.

This list of important quotations from The Metamorphosis will help you work with the essay topics and thesis statements above by allowing you to support your claims. fatty acid description. On the basis of solubility data, it can be concluded that the normal saturated fatty acids are generally more soluble in chloroform and less soluble in acetonitrile than in any of the organic solvents investigated.

Northanger Abbey (/ ˈ n ɔːr θ æ ŋ ər /) was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, in However, it was not published until after her death in , along with another novel of hers, Persuasion.

fatty acid description. On the basis of solubility data, it can be concluded that the normal saturated fatty acids are generally more soluble in chloroform and less soluble in acetonitrile than in any of the organic solvents investigated. “Metamorophoses” (“Transformations”) is a narrative poem in fifteen books by the Roman poet Ovid, completed in 8 is an epic (or “mock-epic”) poem describing the creation and history of the world, incorporating many of the best known and loved stories from Greek mythology, although centring more on mortal characters than on heroes or the gods. The sample news and analysis articles that were previously hosted on these pages have been discontinued. Up-to-date IHS Jane's defence and security news and analysis content can now be found on If you would like information about specific IHS defence and security solutions please use the following links.


Chapter 3 of Franz Kafka's novella 'The Metamorphosis' contains the sad end of the unfortunate protagonist, Gregor, and a new beginning for his.

Need help with The Lady of the House of Love in Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber? Check out our revolutionary side-by-side summary and analysis.

SparkNotes: The Metamorphosis