Gregor and Meursault are certainly problematic characters. What is the Essay - 1

Gregor and Meursault are certainly problematic characters. What is the main problem both confront - Essay Example Therefore Gregor’s alienation is less deliberate than Meursault’s alienation, as Rossignol says, â€Å"GREGOR’S alienation is slightly less deliberate. Used as a tool for money and for control by his family, yet has been indoctrinated in only seeing their good side (if it exists). This however also stems from self-denial and self-alienation.† (56) Apparently Gregor seems to be the poor victim of the society, in which he lives, that cruelly has robbed him of all of the opportunities to survive decently on his own worth, gradually restricting him within the periphery of a room. Ironically the way how Gregor views others in his family and orientates himself in the society essentially shows that Gregor’s psychological inertia has reached the height that prevents him from looking into his discomfiture and from identifying the causes. He cannot -more appropriately, does not want to- search for the underlying reasons of the discomfiture. Gregor simply take s the discomfiture as it is. Such non-resistive acceptance of the situation as well as the humiliation inflicted by his family members is reminiscent of Meursault’s disinterest in the ‘well and woe’ of life and other social affairs. Whereas Gregor’s self-alienation is illusive and evading, Meursault’s self alienation is more obvious. Indeed the psychological inertia of Kafka’s protagonist is camouflaged in his apparently innocent stance that invokes the readers’ sympathy towards him against the hostility of the family members. The root of Meursault’s alienation lies in his disinterest in social affairs. Again his disinterestedness evolves from the meaninglessness or the absurdity of life. Both Meursault and Gregor deceive themselves and subsequently their deceptions result their isolation from their societies. In this regard, Rossignol says, â€Å"In L’Étranger (Camus) and The Metamorphosis