Scripts of Sickness: A Narrative Inquiry into Medical Commercials in Kerala through Arthur Frank's The Wounded Storyteller

International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 59 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.17502123 Scripts of Sickness: A Narrative Inquiry into Medical Commercials in Kerala through Arthur Frank’s The Wounded Storyteller Nikitha Nelson MA Graduate, English Language and Literature, Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram ABSTRACT The growth of healthcare in Kerala, particularly since the 1980s, has been characterised by the increasing dominance of private hospitals, coinciding with a decline in government healthcare spending. This shift was driven by several socio-economic factors, including rising literacy rates, higher income levels, and lifestyle changes, which collectively created a growing demand for more advanced medical services. The private sector, in response to this demand, expanded rapidly, offering a wide range of services that appealed to both local and international patients. This expansion was accompanied by strategic marketing with healthcare services being promoted through various channels, including print media, television and digital platforms. The consumption of these services has also evolved, with an increasing reliance on private healthcare, especially in urban and semi-urban areas, as patients seek quicker, higher-quality care and more personalised treatment options. This paper focuses on thematic analysis based on the framework proposed by Arthur Frank in his work The Wounded Storyteller to explore how healthcare advertisements construct meaning. By analysing the narrative structure of the advertisements, we can identify the stories they tell, such as promises of recovery and the idealisation of medical intervention. These narratives often play on emotions like fear and hope, using plot structures, characters to engage viewers. Decoding of the visual and linguistic symbols in these advertisements is employed, such as the use of doctors in white coats and smiling patients, which promote ideologies of trust in modern medicine. It further reveals how medical language, including technical jargon and references to cutting-edge technology, serves to establish authority and power within the medical field, often commodifying healthcare. Metaphors of healing, such as „restoration‟ and „battle‟, are also examined, drawing connections between the language of ads and traditional literary tropes that shape our understanding of illness and recovery. Keywords: Advertisement, Healthcare, Restitution, Chaos, Quest International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 60 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 Healthcare advertising has long been a prominent feature of the medical industry, particularly gaining prominence with the patent medicine sector. “The press stoked the popularity of patent medicines. Patent pages dedicated to advertising these concoctions – often fortified with morphine, opium, or cocaine – to adults, children, and infants became an essential source of income for newspapers at the time” (McLennan). The narratives surrounding health and healthcare services help individuals make informed decisions about which services to choose. This paper aims to examine how patient choices in Kerala are shaped by the narratives in medical advertisements propagated by hospitals in Kerala. By studying these advertisements as cultural texts, it seeks to understand how they shape perceptions of healthcare and guide decision-making among patients. Despite the increasing scholarly attention bestowed upon the ethics of healthcare practices, a significant research gap remains in the application of literary theories to the study of medical advertisements in Kerala. Existing literature predominantly approaches healthcare marketing through ethical and regulatory lenses, often overlooking the narratives these advertisements convey and their profound influence on patient behaviour. By integrating perspectives from cultural studies and narrative theory, this research seeks to fill this void by conceptualising medical advertisements as cultural texts that actively shape and reflect societal attitudes towards health and healing. This paper is formulated based on narrative voices in illness-based storytelling, adhering closely to the frameworks offered by Arthur Frank in his work, The Wounded Storyteller. By categorising the advertisements curated from Kerala‟s medical sector under this framework, the close association of culture and healthcare is analysed. This association is found to result in the blurring of fact and fiction. Something as real, rational and empirical as medicine becomes a norm that caters to the regional specificities of a community. The classification of the advertisements reveals that a scientific realm, such as healthcare, is uncontrollably guided by monetary interests that twist the best interests of a group into a capitalising mission. Each advertisement type appeals to particular emotions and contexts, enabling viewers to identify with the narratives presented. In doing so, a subtle yet powerful process of manipulation operates behind the mask of innocent imagery. The chapter analyses the thematic representation and narrative techniques followed in each advertisement and provides comments on how a pattern of storylines is reinforced in the decision-making process of an individual seeking medical attention. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 61 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 Arthur Frank, in his work The Wounded Storyteller, categorises illness narratives into three groups based on the thematic differences and narrative styles – Restitution narratives, chaos narratives and quest narratives. He provides distinct experiences of patients and caretakers and how their testimonials contribute to the various narratives centred around illness. I consider each narrative type in four sections, beginning with its plot. Second, I describe the elective affinity that the narrative type has to the action problems of embodiment (control, body-relatedness, other-relatedness and desire). Third is how the narrative works as a self-story. Finally, I discuss the power of each narrative type and its limitations. (Frank 76) The fact that Frank‟s categorisation is rooted in oral narratives highlights how this approach enables consumers, particularly patients and caregivers, to connect, reflect and find solidarity in shared experiences. Medical advertisements adopt a similar logic to draw themes that will resonate with their viewers who seek healthcare services. “Reflection on one‟s own narrative preferences and discomforts is a moral problem, since in both listening to others and telling our own stories, we become who we are” (77). The medical advertisements invoke questions within the viewer to contemplate that they need to make use of the service that they provide. The constant interaction within this manipulative environment creates certain perceptions in the viewers regarding health and healthcare. One of the most common narratives that Frank discovers in illness stories is a restitution narrative. The plot of the restitution has the basic storyline. “Yesterday I was healthy, today I‟m sick, but tomorrow I‟ll be healthy again” (77). The advertisements utilise this plot by first introducing a relatable character who is struggling with a common health issue. The next step is to present their product or service as the best treatment option available for this condition. The key element of this narrative lies in the restoration of health, making the person return to his regular life. “First, the ill person is shown in physical misery, and often though not always, in social default…The second movement introduces the remedy…and the third movement shows physical comfort restored and social duties resumed” (79). Advertisements featuring doctors explaining treatments or patients sharing their recovery journeys often employ the familiar trope of restitution narrative – a story arc where illness is overcome and health is restored. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 62 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 The advertisement in Appendix 1 is intended to market the Advanced Keyhole Bypass Heart Surgery offered by Caritas Hospital, a multi-speciality healthcare centre in Kerala. The plot follows the trope of a restitution narrative by presenting relatable characters, Curious Thomas and Sunny Cool, in a familiar scenario, enjoying a normal life (Caritas Hospital). This normality is suddenly broken off when Curious Thomas starts sweating and explains that he had delayed his open-heart surgery (See Figures 1 and 2). At 0:13 in the video (see Figure 3), Sunny takes on the role of the informed friend, explaining the benefits of the procedure, while the narrator strengthens this explanation with medical credibility (see Figures 4 and 5). This dual narrative – personal testimony and expert validation – guides the viewer through a symbolic „before and after‟ journey. In doing so, it mirrors the restitution arc, where illness is a temporary detour on the road back to well-being. As Frank observes, the restitution narrative is not only a reflection of a “natural” desire to recover and return to health. “People learn this narrative from institutional stories that model how illness is to be told” (Frank 78). This is precisely the narrative strategy that medical advertisements adopt – they don‟t just address illness, they script it. In the case of the Caritas Hospital commercial, the patient‟s journey is shaped to reflect a return to health, suggesting that the outcome is only achievable through the specific medical service being advertised. While every person suffering from illness harbours the hope of healing, advertisements like these amplify this desire, mapping it directly onto the product they endorse. “These advertisements set in place the narratives of the stories that real people tell about real illnesses” (80). Restitution narratives force the idea that patients should adhere to strict medical advice. An extreme case of this matter would promote unrealistic standards of healthcare, which in turn can exploit the consumer. Frank considers this as an institutionalised approach, as illness is not a temporary condition in the case of certain diseases, and that it makes the patients docile medical subjects (81). Based on Frank‟s observation, we can argue that the advertisements featured in Kerala do not validate the unique patient experiences of an illness and thus manage to see them as a worthy customer in need of their product. Figure 7 in Appendix 2 uses bold letters to highlight phrases like “Mental Health at Work” and “World Mental Health Day”, thus making health conditions related to mental health a social responsibility that requires proper medical attention (Holy Family Hospital). “Medical sympathy is to be International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 63 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 limited by the overriding message that the sick person‟s task is to get well and return to normal obligations of work and family” (82). Thus, a clear doctor-patient hierarchy is established, and it deviates from the patient-centred healthcare that the advertisements offer. The deviation is not based upon the services being offered, but in the ignorance of the patient‟s internal conflicts and struggles. Advertisements that emphasise the uncertainty and suffering associated with illness fall under the category of chaos narratives. They do not provide a matter of cure for the disease but aim to convey that precaution is better than a cure. “Chaos is the opposite of restitution: its plot imagines life never getting better” (Frank 97). These advertisements generate anxiety and fear in the minds of the viewers by portraying the disease as something repulsive or threatening. The most common example of a chaos narrative available to the Indian audience is the „No Smoking‟ campaigns displayed at the beginning of movies. These advertisements showcase the most extreme cases of those diseases inflicted due to smoking habits through the use of raw and blunt images, including those of affected people and the state of their organs. Contrary to the restitution narrative, a chaos narrative shows that even healthcare services cannot offer solace to the severity of certain illnesses. All the proclamations regarding progress, innovation and technology come to a standstill before a chaos narrative. “In these stories, the modernist bulwark of remedy, progress and professionalism cracks to reveal vulnerability, futility and impotence” (97). Figure 8 in Appendix 3 features an advertisement by Maanu Medical Hospital that illustrates an image showing a man decaying away because of his smoking habits. Although smoking can be stopped, its long-term effects persist, making complete recovery from its impact unlikely. The chaotic depiction of the man, darkened by the smoke from the cigarette, and the family running towards him, white-clad and untouched by the smoke, symbolise the fear experienced by a smoker and his loved ones – an emotion that advertisements exploit for persuasion (Maanu Medical Hospital). Kerala‟s cultural landscape cherishes family bonds, and thus advertisements such as these leave their intended effect on the viewer. Figure 9 in Appendix 3 is an image published by Medtarg, a Kochi-based advertising firm, that evokes a chaotic feeling of distress by portraying deformed hands, infected by leprosy. Figure 10 in Appendix 3 by Caritas Cancer Centre generates the idea that the disease should International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 64 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 be identified at the earliest since cure in the later stages of cancer is found to be difficult and almost impossible. A viewer in doubt is prompted to seek the check-ups, and thus the advertisement reaches its target audience. A similar trope is followed by Aster Mims Hospital in Figure 11 in Appendix 3, which says that the first reaction to epilepsy is not the hectic search for keys, a popular medical narrative implemented in films, but the treatment that they are offering. But none of these advertisements offer a complete recovery from the illness, as certain chronic illnesses have lifelong impacts. Hence, there is no hope for recovery in a chaos narrative. Chaos narratives are conveniently erased from the commercial medical discourses since they do not align with the expectations of the customer. By hiding the reality behind the impact of certain diseases and their treatment, medical ads may create false hope and oversimplify the illness experience. A chaos narrative does not follow a structured plot and is almost like a linear narrative without any development. An advertisement starting in misery will end in misery. “The chaos story presupposes lack of control, and the ill person‟s loss of control is complemented by medicine‟s inability to control the disease” (100). The unwillingness of a chaos narrative to purport an unattainable realm of cure causes it to deviate from the usual aim of the medical industry. Even if a cure cannot be attained in its entirety, an advertisement offering a medical service would always convey the idea that a cure is possible. The question of truth arises in this situation. “Chaos feeds on the sense that no one is in control” (100). A quest in popular literary narratives is when a hero, who is the embodiment of chivalry and boldness, journeys through a tough expedition filled with suffering and distress to finally gain a prize at the end. A quest narrative follows a similar trope. The emphasis is on the adventurer, who is the patient from the advertisement‟s perspective, hoping to obtain a gain at the end of the journey, which, in this case, is a full recovery. “While the restitution narrative prioritises the action of the medical product, service or the doctor, a quest narrative highlights the experience of the patient himself. It is the sufferer whose story dominates in a chaos narrative as well, but it does not provide the patient a voice for himself. A quest narrative offers the patients International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 65 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 an agency to recount their painful experiences, "because only in the quest stories does the teller have a story to tell. (115) In order to analyse the plot of a quest narrative, Arthur Frank seeks the aid of Joseph Campbell‟s interpretation of the hero‟s journey, which divides the narrative into three: departure, initiation and return. In „Departure‟, the hero gets a call for adventure. The patient, upon whom the ad is catered, is faced with the challenges of his illness and the fear of having to endure the pain and the cost of treatment. In „Initiation‟, the patient undergoes the challenges involved – surgeries and medicines. A supernatural aid is employed, in this case, a doctor or a caretaker who mentors the patient along his journey. At the end, the hero-patient is provided with the “Ultimate Boon” or the release from his illness. In „Return‟, the hero goes back to his homeland to implement what he learned on his journey. Similarly, the patient returns to his normal life and provides positive feedback to the healthcare treatment he received. Thus, the narrative ends on a positive note of success and happiness. Though patient autonomy stands out in the quest narrative, it is again marketed by healthcare institutions to reach the audience at a more personal level (Campbell 69 – 259). Figure 12 in Appendix 4 is an advertisement by Apollo Adlux Hospital promoting the Health Check-Up Package they are offering on Women‟s Day. The subject is the woman in a superhuman costume. The common narrative of women being superheroes comes from their assigned gender roles as mother, wife, daughter and sister facing battles of their own in a male-driven society (Apollo Adlux Hospital). The advertisement makes use of this popular narrative and frames how societal expectations wear a woman‟s health out. Through the acknowledgement of women being fighters and emphasising how their health matters to run society, the advertisement caters to the narrative and commercialises their check-up options. Hence, the protagonist of this quest narrative is a representative of all women whose struggles in performing their roles give them cause to be ill. She then embarks on a transformative journey that is aided by the check-up that is being offered, which becomes a turning point in her path of recovery. Snippets from the promotion video of Meitra hospital show elements of a quest narrative, though we find a blend of restitution narrative as well. The entire advertisement uses imagery of human beings enjoying their life and how proper medical care can ensure such a situation for the consumer and their loved ones. Figure 13 in Appendix 5 shows a man with an injured leg kicking a football to a wall that has the word „Hope‟ painted on it. This shot evokes the International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 66 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 idea that, besides his struggle, he is willing to endure it and strive towards recovery (Meitra Hospital). The narrative glorifies the patient as an active hero rather than a passive struggler. Figures 14 and 15 from Appendix 6 show how the call to adventure is unveiled as we see the distress and hesitation of the patients going through a medical crisis. The „Departure trope‟ is set in action. “The first is departure, beginning with a call. In illness stories, the call is the symptom: the lump, dizziness, cough, or other sign that the body is not as it should be” (Frank 117). Campbell‟s terms – Departure, Initiation and Return – as well as portraying healthcare experts as aids to recovery, reinforce the quest plot in this advertisement. Figure 14 shows the woman going through intensive labour pain, and the “call to adventure” begins with her adapting to the medical crisis. “…and the departure from the world is regarded not as a fault, but as the first step into that noble path…” (Campbell 169). Figure 15 demonstrates the patient‟s hesitation and anxiety regarding his condition, which deprives him of his ability to walk. “The call is often refused, because the hero, who has yet not become a hero, knows how much suffering will be involved” (Frank 117). During „Initiation‟, the patient undergoes the hardships of the disease and the treatment, but the struggle is deemed a necessity to achieve the ultimate aim of recovery. “Campbell calls initiation „the road of trials‟, easily identified in any illness story as the various sufferings that illness involves, not only physical but also emotional and social” (Frank 118). The mentor role is played by the doctors and nurses in the video (see Figures 18 and 19 in Appendix 8) who provide the guidance and confidence for the patient to attain his mission. This is equivalent to the role played by supernatural interferences in quest stories that facilitate the hero‟s journey. “For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of the herojourney is with a protective figure [healthcare expert] who provides the adventurer with amulets against the dragon forces he is about to pass” (Campbell 84). In Figure 16 in Appendix 7, the patient who was previously in pain encounters the doctor who is his trustworthy aid in the journey. His confident smile indicates that he has undergone into transformation since he believed in the institution‟s care. In Figure 17, the patient trying to walk with the doctor‟s help symbolises “The Road of Trials”, as a key part of the Initiation phase. In Figure 18 in Appendix 8, the smiling doctor becomes an icon of trust and authority, marking the helper phase of the quest. This transformation aligns with overcoming obstacles in the hero‟s journey. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 67 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 This trope reinforces the trust-building strategy in medical advertisements. With the doctor and the nurse as guiding figures in Figure 19, the patient‟s effort to walk represents the hero gaining strength and wisdom through the process. “The hero to whom such a helper appears is typically one who has responded to the call” (Campbell 87). Through this visual strategy, a positive conclusion is derived of the institution, which instils confidence in its reliability. The doctor-patient dynamic reinforces trust and faith in the institution. Life after treatment is what the „Return‟ phase conveys, but the video reverses the narrative. It places the healthy, happening lives of people who are free of illness (see Figures 20,21, 22 and 23 in Appendix 9) in the shot, ranging between 0:10 and 2, 25 and then shows people in distress from 2:33 to 3:00 who are affected by some disease at the least expected time. By fortifying the narrative that timely intervention of their healthcare in unforeseen circumstances can help the patient gain the „Ultimate Boon‟, the video carries elements of the quest narrative. “The teller [patient] returns as one who is no longer ill but remains marked by illness…This marked person lives in a world she has travelled beyond, a status well described by Campbell‟s phrase „master of the two worlds‟” (Frank 118). Arthur Frank‟s illness narratives reveal how the stories centred around medicine and healthcare are shaped by social, cultural and institutional factors. Similarly, medical advertisements produced in Kerala largely cater to the state‟s public perceptions and interests. They are not just innocent mediums meant to convey information, but are platforms intended to shape the common man‟s view on health. As a result, health becomes a commodity, accessible only through the treatments sanctioned and promoted by the healthcare industry. The unrealistic standards promising quick solutions and idealised recoveries contrast with the lived experiences documented by Arthur Frank. In conclusion, health is not just a biological construct but a reality that is socially mediated and culturally anticipated. This manufactured idea behind health attempts to prioritise profit above genuine patient care. Challenging this dominant discourse will pave the path for an ethically responsible healthcare framework – one that does not compromise lived experiences for the sake of monetary benefits. International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 74 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 Appendix 7 International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 75 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 Appendix 8 International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 76 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 Appendix 9 International Journal of Research (IJR) e-ISSN: 2348-6848 p-ISSN: 2348-795X Vol. 12 Issue 13 October 2025 Received: 12 October 2025 77 Revised: 25 October 2025 Accepted: 30 October 2025 Copyright  authors 2025 DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5281/ZENODO.13880395 Works Cited Aster Mims Hospital. “Purple Day of Epilepsy Advertisement.” LinkedIn, 26 March. 2025, tinyurl.com/4m7btzmc. 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