The Issue of Disease in The Metamorphosis and Frankenstein

The Metamorphosis is the story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who one day wakes up to find himself transformed into a monstrous bug. He retains his ability to think and feel as a human being, although no one but himself is aware of this fact. He is hidden from public appearance, shunned by his family, and eventually dies alone in his room. Frankenstein, on the other hand, is the story of a young scholar with an unnatural interest in natural physiology. At seventeen, he goes off to school and there develops a compelling interest in the forces that create life. So compelling is this interest that he creates a life of his own. But once he has done so, he is afraid of what he has done and shuns his monstrous creation. Nonetheless, from then on he and the monster are connected in a relationship that eventually leads to the death of much of the creator's family and the creator himself.

The incidence of disease is central to both The Metamorphosis and Frankenstein. In both texts, the disease appears to by more psychic than physical; however, in both cases it also adopts physical elements. Walter Sokel states that "the immediate function of [Gregor's] metamorphosis . . . is to prevent an imminent rebellion of the son" (170). Gregor has had to enslave himself to a company to which his father owes a debt. His language in describing his feelings for his job are laden with implicit references to his resentme

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harmonious relations which have vanished (Sokel 170-71). Victor Frankenstein's illness after the creation of his monster shares some significant elements with Gregor's metamorphosis. Significantly, Sokel states that Gregor's metamorphosis is "a self-inflicted punishment, which is at the same time a rebellion" against his situation (174). This means that Gregor is likely filled with feelings of both punishment and guilt. These are the very emotions that Frankenstein experiences when he realizes the enormity of what he has done: The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room . . . (Shelley 39). Victor's psychosomatic illness, his "nervous fever," soon follows (Shelley 43). But throughout this early part of the text, Shelley continually describes Victor's all-consuming passion
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Approximate Word count = 1596
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)