The changing use of metaphors traces the evolution of the social order. Depictions of disease in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and Tristan and Albert Camus' The Plague reveal the evolving values ​​of Western culture. By examining their representation of illness through a phenomenological analysis, one sees a reflection of early 20th century philosophies. Written in 1902, Tristan illustrates the decline of the European aristocracy and the rise of new world powers. In Death in Venice, cholera represents the change in social structures underlining the relationship between beauty and death. In Camus's The Plague, the suffocating effects of the plague mirror the troubling philosophical questions inspired by the rise of totalitarianism across Europe and the lack of resistance to the Nazi occupation of France. By examining Thomas Mann's and Albert Camus' interpretations of illness on the individual and government, one can observe the influence of historical phenomena on Western philosophy. As an early 20th-century work, Mann's Tristan reflects the major political and economic changes that reshaped Europe in the pre-World War I era. As industrialism swept through Europe, Europeans were forced to abandon ancient notions of aristocracy in favor of nationalist ideals and philosophies of government. The mortally afflicted Gabrielle Klöterjahn serves as the most prominent representation of the traditional elite. Delicate and weak, Gabrielle conforms to conventional gender roles by obeying her husband's every command. To establish Gabrielle's role as a symbol of the failing European order, Mann juxtaposes her suffering face with opulent imagery. References to Gabrielle's “blue and sickly” veins evoke images of the old......paper center...Italism and industry. Camus's The Plague demonstrates the changes in political philosophy caused by the effects of World War II and reflects Camus's absurd views. Through images of oppression and futility, Camus examines the role of morality and the individual in an absurd world with little hope of true understanding. The shift from Tristan and Death in Venice's concern with the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of capitalism to The Plague's concern with the nature of morality in a totalitarian society reflects the effects of political events. Through a phenomenological examination of disease in Mann's Tristan and Death in Venice and Camus's The Plague, one can observe the changes in political philosophy due to the great historical changes caused by the decline of the old world monarchies and the totalitarian occupations of much of the Europe from the Nazis.