Gregor Samsa’s sacrifice somewhat resembles the fasting-artist’s it is just as unappreciated, but more beneficial to others. No one but himself is around to appreciate his death from starvation, a sacrifice for an ignored art, as “the world was cheating him of his reward” (218). The artist’s fasting is an end in itself. No one who does not feel it can be made to understand what it means” (218) the narrator tells us, and indeed the ludicrousness of public exhibition fasting, the appeal of which display no reader can comprehend, underscores the private nature of the artist’s performance. “Just try to explain to someone what the art of fasting is. The artist’s plea shows that even those who try to admire his work do not understand it. As the only one aware of his fasting, the Artist is the only one able to appreciate it, and he even tells his overseer that he “shouldn’t admire” (218) the fast. The curious aspect of the fasting-artist’s performance is that his sacrifice for art is indistinguishable from the art itself. Eventually the circus keepers stop keeping track of the days the artist has fasted, and his sacrifice is no longer for his audience, but for himself and for his art. But while at the circus he leans that people are not interested in seeing him they merely pass his cage on their way to see the animals.

So great is his dedication to sacrifice and to his art that, when business worsens, he is willing to join a circus and understands that “he should not…be placed…in the middle of the ring as a star attraction” (216).

He feels that his true sacrifice is “lying in bed almost at his last gasp…the consequence of the premature ending of his fast” (215) which he does, again, because after “about forty days…the audience fell away” (212).

He thinks that fasting is not a sacrifice at all “he knew…how easy fasting was” (212) but his ability to eat the food supplied to him by watchmen who cannot understand “the honor of his art” (210) shows that it costs him at least some effort when his audience does not appreciate his sacrifice. The artist fasts for public admiration, so that ladies can have the place of honor holding his body and crowds can come to look at him. The most prominent example of this tendency appears in “The Fasting-Artist”.

Metamorphosis kafka art