Music and humanity

I was struck by this passage from Kafka’s Metamorphosis the other day:

And yet his sister played so beautifully. Her face was turned to the side, intently and sadly following the notes on the page. Gregor crept forward a little further, keeping his head near to the ground so that his eyes could meet hers. How could he be a brute beast, if music could make him feel like this?

To outward appearance, Gregor Samsa has become a monstrous insect (Ger. ungeheueres Ungeziefer, lit. ‘monstrous vermin’). His family has responded with hostility or indifference. He has come to be regarded as vermin and as a result is feeling increasingly isolated from the human race. Then he hears his sister playing the violin.

The music gives him the courage to dare to make eye contact. In response to what he hears, he risks breaking out of the isolation that has enveloped him. Music still has the power to move him. And in this capacity to be moved, he finds evidence of his continuing humanity.

The point is not really about the transformative power of music. Rather it is about Samsa’s capacity to be moved. To be human is to be capable of responding in this way to our fellow human beings and to God.