As we explore the worlds of characters in different novels and plays, I think this topic of happiness proves to be increasingly more difficult to classify. I think in some of the books we've read, it radiates off the page and holds the book together. In others, I think it's almost non-existent and hides behind the text. In Kafka's The Metamorphosis, I think it walks in between those two lines. I think happiness is present, but not within the time period of the text.
In Kafka's novella, happiness is synonymous with the ability to function. The thought of making it through another day successfully, with money, and with all the family members generates true happiness for the Samsas. I think this period of time occurs before the novella begins; and before Gregor transforms into a bug. Even though it describes his mundane profession and the burden of getting up every day to work, there is a relief and comfort in such a routine. Gregor's ability to provide for his family in the form of his daily job provides stability. I don't think that any of the characters would label their lives as happiness. But I think that in the time period they find themselves in, it's the closet definition that they have.
Once Gregor transforms into a bug, the family's stability and ability to function is immediately taken from them. They are left with chaos in their house; they're left wondering how the will find the stability that Gregor previously took care of. Most of the novella discusses Gregor and dealing with the life of a bug. Though it is never proposed how he is transformed back, Gregor struggles with his new life. Yet there are moments when he begins to lose his humanity, that he enjoys his bug state. He claims how it is enjoyable for him to climb along the walls and to eat rotted food. Though he finds it enjoyable, I don't think he ever regains his happiness. I think in the case of this novella, happiness and pleasure or enjoyable are not synonymous of each other. He find pleasure in his bug life at certain points, but it is not the stability of a routine that he longs for in his old life.
It amazes me how quickly the family is able to pick up and move on when Gregor dies. The morning of his passing, I feel a great weight lifted off the page that the family is no longer burdened with. Now that the other members of the family are working, they have regained their ability to function sans Gregor. Once he finally dies, they can officially forget about his life all together. The parents and the sister are free to find stability in their new life, wherein they will eventually find happiness. I think happiness book-ends the main action of the story. As much as it is life for interpretation before and after Gregor's transformation, I think there is a stark and intentional absence of happiness throughout the majority of Kafka's novella.
