Mental illness is one the most unnoticed and misunderstood disease, a condition which causes serious abnormality in a person 's thinking or behavior, esp. one requiring special care or treatment (Mental illness, OED). There are a few common symptoms that display what type of mental illness you could be diagnosed with, many people seek help for their psychological problems which guides them from physical and emotional suffering. Mental illness plays a huge factor in the short stories, Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, it illustrates a severe isolating role.
A common symptom which ties Bartleby and Gregor together, is the theme of struggle and importance of feeling disconnect. Bartleby is separated from everyone at the office by a screen: “Meanwhile Bartleby sat in his hermitage, oblivious to everything but h8is own peculiar business down there” (Meville 486). Even in a room filled with many people, Bartleby still manages to shut himself out of everyone’s presence, this demonstrates his own inability of establishing connections with his fellow coworkers. Gregor’s Chief Clerk barges into his room: “He was still taken up with the difficult manoeuver, and didn’t have time to think about anything else, when he heard the chief clerk emit a sharp “Oh!” –it actually sounded like the rushing wind– and then he saw him as well, standing nearest to the door, his hand pressed against his open mouth, and slowly retreating, as if …show more content…
Isolation is a very serious topic being discussed in both short stories, Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Isolation is the action of isolating; the fact or condition of being isolated or standing alone; separation from other things or persons; solitariness (Isolation, OED). Seeking for guidance and opening up to others is the best possible way to obtain self-consciousness of one’s mental
A common symptom which ties Bartleby and Gregor together, is the theme of struggle and importance of feeling disconnect. Bartleby is separated from everyone at the office by a screen: “Meanwhile Bartleby sat in his hermitage, oblivious to everything but h8is own peculiar business down there” (Meville 486). Even in a room filled with many people, Bartleby still manages to shut himself out of everyone’s presence, this demonstrates his own inability of establishing connections with his fellow coworkers. Gregor’s Chief Clerk barges into his room: “He was still taken up with the difficult manoeuver, and didn’t have time to think about anything else, when he heard the chief clerk emit a sharp “Oh!” –it actually sounded like the rushing wind– and then he saw him as well, standing nearest to the door, his hand pressed against his open mouth, and slowly retreating, as if …show more content…
Isolation is a very serious topic being discussed in both short stories, Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Isolation is the action of isolating; the fact or condition of being isolated or standing alone; separation from other things or persons; solitariness (Isolation, OED). Seeking for guidance and opening up to others is the best possible way to obtain self-consciousness of one’s mental