Albert Camus The Plague

The Black Death, one of the deadliest plagues in world history, engraved a wide swath of cataclysmic damage and inflicted a large loss of life. Discriminating against no one, it claimed the lives of the lower class and the gentry, the young and the old. Albert Camus’s novel, The Plague, illustrates the effects of and the responses to a plague that strikes the Algerian city of Oran. The allegorical representations and actions of five central characters in the novel, Dr. Bernard Rieux, Jean Tarrou, Raymond Rambert, Cottard, and Father Panaloux, all capture the impact of disease on human society. Indeed, The Plague demonstrates that one must acknowledge the constraints of human existence, yet still engage in struggle in spite of inevitable failure. The
plague in Oran illustrates the constant state of terror and anxiety of the citizens, because death is now a concrete reality instead of a metaphysical manifestation. However, rather than resigning themselves to the fate of suffering and death, Dr. Rieux and Tarrou decide to battle the plague because of their ideas about social responsibility.
Tarrou is, undoubtedly, more philosophical because he does not believe that death has a moral meaning. As Tarrou recounts to Dr. Rieux, when Tarrou’s father condemns a criminal to the death penalty in court, Tarrou becomes increasingly conscious of his own mortality. He realizes that one can only gain meaning by partaking in the struggle against death, and in this case, the suffering caused by the plague. Thus, he questions the inactions of the previous administration against the plague and implements new health and sanitation measures, including the creation of voluntary “sanitary squads.” In addition, he, along with Dr. Rieux, recognizes the importance of official statistics, such as the marking of death tolls, and thus, chronicles the events of the plague as they unfold. Similarly, Dr. Rieux is one of the first people to call for action against the plague once he realizes the urgency of the situation. As an altruist, Rieux believes that “the only means of righting a plague is … common decency.” Thus, Dr. Rieux aids in the anti-plague endeavour for the sole goal of helping the community. He understands the limits of human existence because of the futility of his efforts against such a
destructive force. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the increasing death count renders his struggles meaningless, Dr. Rieux remains logical; it is his job as a doctor to save people from suffering. Indeed, he concludes that one must be a “madman … to give in tamely to the plague.” Consequently, Dr. Rieux voices the importance of advisory roles and public health, and helps the bureaucracy implement quarantine and fumigation. In fact, he retains accounts of the occurrences in Oran to illustrate the effects of the plague on the populace. This record-keeping parallels Tarrou’s chronicling of statistics and emphasizes the significance of documentation in a time of crisis. The plague also highlights the feeling of exile that permeates citizens and visitors of Oran alike, as well as the eventual realization that everyone must join together for the good of the community. Raymond Rambert, a Parisian journalist, is so consumed with attempting to escape the city to return to his wife that he does not bother to report on the events of the plague. Fundamentally, Rambert feels alienated from the outside world because the city is quarantined so as to prevent the spread of disease. His efforts to escape reveal his selfish and self-protecting nature, and demonstrate Rambert’s ignorance of the necessary sanitation measures that Dr. Rieux and Tarrou instigate. In essence, he resembles Cottard, a criminal who also exists in a state of isolation before he realizes that the plague equalizes everyone because they face the same danger. Only when Tarrou tells Rambert that Dr. Rieux is also separated from his wife does Rambert truly grasp that he is in the same situation as the citizens of Oran. After this understanding, Rambert engages in the struggle against the plague, even as he accepts that the plague brings no end to the city’s suffering. Accordingly, Dr. Rieux and Cottard both acknowledge that the plague is an equalizing force that discriminates against no one. Dr. Rieux is conscious of this fact because he treats victims of all kinds, while Cottard comes to this awareness by understanding that everyone in the city is experiencing the same fear and isolation. Cottard no longer has to worry about his prosecution as a criminal. Because he is no longer an outsider, he behaves as if he has a new lease on life. Indeed, he intimately understands the limits of human existence, especially because he tries to commit suicide before the events of the plague. In contrast to Dr. Rieux, Tarrou, and Rambert, however, Cottard does not contribute to the anti-plague effort. Rather, he takes advantage of the distraction that the plague presents, seeking monetary gain by selling sparse commodities. Thus, he never attains the human dignity that Rambert eventually develops, which ultimately leads to the breakdown of Cottard’s sanity as the plague comes to an end. While Dr. Rieux, Tarrou, and Rambert all possess humanist values, Father Panaloux, a Jesuit priest, firmly believes in the will of God and in attaining meaning through religion. Indeed, Tarrou and Panaloux are polar opposites, especially because Tarrou does not believe in meaning in death or in a higher power. Originally championing the plague as the “flail of God” due to the sins of the citizens of Oran, Panaloux questions his faith when he witnesses a young child suffer with the disease.
This instance is the first in which Panaloux truly faces the idea of mortality. He can no longer make excuses about the plague in a world of abstraction, particularly with the concrete deaths of innocents that surround him. Truthfully, he does realize, if subconsciously, that man can only depend on man, and thus, he joins in the battle against the plague by tending to the sick. Panaloux even modifies his previous outlook on the plague, coming dangerously close to heresy when he states that everyone must “believe everything or deny everything.” He desperately tries to present the Church as a beacon of hope, even as he faces the fruitlessness of this endeavour. Furthermore, Father Panaloux’s desperation to reconcile his religious beliefs emanates when he contracts a mysterious disease that he refuses to get treated. Contrary to Tarrou, who boldly fights against death when he is diagnosed with two strands of the plague, Panaloux dies passively, clinging to his hollow beliefs as he loses confidence in humankind. While Tarrou’s death brings him peace, Panaloux is rendered a “doubtful case,” which emphasizes
the uncertainty that he feels regarding religion. Unlike Tarrou, Panaloux refuses to understand the constraints of the human condition and hence, does not die in peace. Albert Camus’s The Plague presents its characters in the allegorical context of the Black Death. Indeed, disease illustrates that one must recognize the idea of mortality and fight against it, even with the knowledge that resistance is futile. In the novel, the roles of the characters parallel the actions that the public undertook in an effort to fight against the Black Death. These responses included questioning religion, implementing new sanitation measures, chronicling events, and profiteering in a time of crisis. The Black Death undoubtedly resulted in a new age, one in which a sense of community was formed because of the collective action of nations. In truth, the Black Death will forever be an exemplification of man’s confrontation with death that still very much pertains to the world today.