Abstract
This study examines Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis by treating anxiety not only as an individual or psychological condition but also as an experience of everyday life shaped by work, economic obligations, family responsibilities, and social expectations. The main aim is to identify how Gregor Samsa’s anxiety is connected to time pressure, indebtedness, job insecurity, institutional surveillance, economic usefulness, and uncertainty about the future. The study combines qualitative document analysis with textual and sociological discourse analysis. The 2020 Turkish edition translated by Gülperi Sert was used as the primary text. The novella was read systematically, relevant passages were coded, and the findings were organized under five themes. The analysis shows that Gregor’s immediate concern after his transformation is not primarily his altered body but being late for work, missing the train, and facing his employer. This pattern reveals the internalization of work discipline. His inability to leave a job he dislikes because of family debt demonstrates how economic necessity restricts autonomy, while his declining position within the family after he becomes unable to work exposes the fragile relationship between economic productivity and social value. These patterns are discussed through Beck’s risk society, Giddens’s ontological security, Sennett’s work and character, Rosa’s social acceleration, and Marx’s alienated labour. Studies on job insecurity, financial anxiety, and future anxiety in Türkiye are also included to strengthen the contemporary sociological context. The study concludes that The Metamorphosis offers a reading of existential anxiety that cannot be separated from social and economic relations and remains a powerful literary lens for interpreting contemporary economic, occupational, and global uncertainties.