Blog: Leprosy as metaphor

“Leprosy has become much more than a disease. It has become a metaphor for everything that is socially considered ‘shameful’ and disrupting and should be kept apart” – Alice Cruz, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members.

As Alice Cruz has noted, having leprosy is often equated to being outcast from society. Historically, people affected by leprosy were isolated and put in leprosy villages and hospitals. In Europe, leprosy hospitals were established to separate and care for patients in the Middle Ages, such as St Nicholas in Harbledown, England, which dates to 1085 and is the oldest surviving leprosy hospital building in the country, and St Jørgen’s in Bergen, Norway, which dates back to the late 1300s.[1] Leprosy villages were also set up around the world, often by Christian missionaries. Those with leprosy were often forced to relocate to these villages, separate from their community.

Equating leprosy to being an outcast (often with the implication that the person had done something wrong to get the disease) is a common trope in literature. I have discovered that several of the fictional works commonly assigned as reading in my high school deploy leprosy in such a negative light. I want to discuss what implications these texts make and what effect they could have on how we view leprosy and those afflicted by it.

Leprosy as isolation

Two of the books assigned for reading in my high school’s Norwegian literature course make comparisons of leprosy to isolation. In the book Ekko: et essay om algoritmer og begjær (Echo: an essay on algorithms and desire), Lena Lindgren says that people could be “isolated like a leper outcast”. In this derogatory use of leper, Lindgren has constructed a metaphor that takes for granted that the reader would know that people affected by leprosy should be isolated from society. Likewise, in Mimir Kristjánsson’s Mamma er trygda (Mom is on the dole), Kristjánsson writes that “being a smoker in our days is almost like being leprous. Nothing is such a sure proof that you are a loser in society as being a smoker.” In this passage, Kristjánsson assumes that the reader will associate “being leprous” with being rejected from society.

It is important to note both authors used the Norwegian word “spedalsk”, which is used in the same derogatory way as “leper” and “being leprous”. These terms are no longer acceptable to use as they are dehumanizing and derogatory.

Leprosy as punishment

At least two books in the International Baccalaureate English curriculum associate leprosy with punishment. In George Orwell’s classic book 1984 he wrote that “If he could have infected the whole lot of them with leprosy or syphilis, how gladly he would have done so! Anything to rot, to weaken, to undermine!” This implies leprosy as a form of punishment. In The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the portrait portrays “the leprosies of sin” that Dorian has committed. This connects leprosy with being a result of sinful behaviour, thereby being a punishment for it.

Leprosy has historically been viewed as a form of divine punishment in several religious communities. In Christianity one can see this in 12;1-15, where Miriam is punished by God with leprosy for speaking against Moses. In Hinduism, leprosy can be a result of bad karma.[2] The Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad presents leprosy as something to flee from: “flee from the leper as you would flee from a lion”.

We know now that leprosy is caused by Mycobacterium leprae, and that it can be treated effectively with antibiotics. Additionally, even though leprosy is an infectious disease, most people will not develop the disease after being infected with M.leprae. Despite this fact, the ideas of leprosy as a form of punishment persist.

Conclusion

Having metaphors, comparisons, and references to leprosy commonly appear in fictional literature gives it social currency. The word often has a negative connotation and continues to be used in that manner. It is very true that leprosy is a serious disease, with potentially lifechanging effects on its bearer. However, words can have a harmful effect on those it speaks of, and literature that stigmatizes people with leprosy may hinder the fight against leprosy. There is no need for people with leprosy to be outcasts in their society. NLR and other leprosy organizations work to decrease stigmatization and give equal opportunities to persons affected by leprosy.

In your future readings, I encourage you to be critical when encountering leprosy in a text—think of the connotations and stigmatization the author is putting on leprosy through their words.

Voluntarily written for nlrinternational.org by Marion Jørgensen. Opinions stated in the article are on personal title of the author and do not necessarily express NLR’s views. 

[1] https://www.michaeljournal.no/article/2010/10/The-fight-against-leprosy-in-Norway-in-the-19th-century

[2] https://leprosyreview.org/article/91/2/19-0090