The fraught woman calls Rieux, who hurries over. It is an entertaining piece until the very end, when the actor playing Orpheus seems more and more overcome and falls grotesquely down. The story is narrated to us by an odd, nameless narrator strangely obsessed with objectivity, who tends to focus on a man named Dr. Bernard Rieux. Othon asks Rieux to save his son, and agrees to the accommodations proposed—a room for Madame Othon and the little girl, and an isolation camp at the municipal station for Othon. With the wind howling outside, Paneloux says his choice is to believe everything so he does not deny everything. They undress and jump into the water. He continues to decline but refuses a doctor until he finally says he will be taken to the hospital in accordance with the regulations. Tarrou begins his story by saying he already has the plague. First the rats are dying in the streets of the Algerian coastal city Oran, then the plague breaks out. He says that no person can lift a finger without the risk of bringing death to someone else, and this is why everyone has plague. From that day on he could not look at the railway directory. The mess starts when rats everywhere die. Unfortunately, this doctor becomes a plague's victim. Tarrou suggests that the two of them do something for friendship—take a swim in the sea. Thus all of these characters undergo a process of initiation, of understanding the great implications of such a misfortune, until they decide to work together for their mutual benefit. The old woman at the home tells them to check out the roof terrace, from where they can get a lovely view and fresh air. Summary Of Albert Camus's The Plague 846 Words | 4 Pages. She is struck, she narrates later, by his restlessness. Albert Camus, much like Nietzsche did not believe that death, suffering, or the human existence had any underlying moral or rational meaning due to the fact that he did not believe in God or even an afterlife for that matter. Albert Camus’ ‘The Plague’ and our own Great Reset Two police officers are the only ones on Rome’s Spanish Steps on March 10 amid the coronavirus outbreak. A young deacon tells him the Father is working on an even more radical pamphlet—that it is illogical for a priest to call a doctor. That Christmas is a mournful one for the town. The cemeteries are unvisited, as the dead are no longer thought of as the forsaken who must be visited once a year; rather, they are intruders. He tells Rieux how he came to see the death penalty as a fundamental evil and thus spent many years as an agitator. Rieux takes the boy’s pulse and silently urges it to match his own. Battle Against Crisis at the Conclusion of The Plague, The Absurd and the Concept of Hope in Camus's Novels. At first, everyone is in denial. The boy’s infection is spreading and Rieux has no qualms administering the serum to him. The Plague Summary. In the interim between sermons the people have become less religious and more superstitious. In this section we also come to know more about Tarrou, who expatiates on his history and his past and present motivations. Unlike the characters from "The Stranger", which are rather individualistic, free to accuse and even kill each other, in "The Plague" we encounter characters that unite to fight together the great curse of plague. He is under immense strain and is prone to excesses of sentimentality and musings about Jeanne. Monsieur Othon’s young son is sick and the family is quarantined again. Once they do become aware of it, they must decide what measures they will take to fight the deadly disease. They espy him standing in front of a shop window, tears coursing down his face. Rieux meets with Othon after he gets out of the isolation camp, and the magistrate shocks him by saying he wants to return as a government volunteer, for it would be the only way to be close to his little boy. Raymond Rambert, a foreign journalist, tries to escape Oran and rejoin his wife in Paris, but he is held up by the bureaucracy and the unreliability of the criminal underground. Tarrou loved quizzing his father and seeing how skilled he was. Rambert manages to get letters out to his wife and tells Rieux, who laboriously composes his own to send. For any kind of exile there is an unavoidable cause, and also a means of defeating it. Tarrou writes of a time he and Cottard see a performance of Orpheus and Eurydice put on by a traveling company stuck in the town. Paneloux is killed by an aporia.”. When he turns and sees Rieux, Rieux is struck by the man’s sorrow. It the beginning, he is rather on the side of resignation and accepting the plague as a divine punishment, but he ends up joining the fight, also with the use of his spiritual weapons. While Tarrou is far from being the monster that Cottard is, he still ultimately retains an abstract response to the plague. He is profoundly against any suffering whatsoever: Lesic-Thomas notes, “He places himself always on the side of the victim and refuses to kill, directly or indirectly, under any circumstances.” For Tarrou, the plague is much more than the microbe—it is man’s inhumanity to man. He remains for several weeks. There are groans and cries and men in white moving from bed to bed. It is the 1940s in Oran, a French-occupied Algerian colony. In the economy of the novel, plague acts as a character in itself alongside its human counterparts. And Rieux grapples with the nature of God, suffering, and love as the plague rages around him but then, by the end of the section, begins to wane. When conditions in Europe suddenly changed at the beginning of the 14th century, what did many people believe had come? Another doctor named Jean Tarrou is both tender-hearted and daring. The men sit, grateful for the pleasant spot. It is founded on the sacrifice of the innocent and the acceptance of this sacrifice” (quoted in Hanna). Tarrou smiles and leads him to a small room for a disinfected mask. Rieux suggests they go home, but Grand frantically runs away, then falls onto the ground, clearly ill. Tarrou and Rieux take him home, and as he has no family, they decide to let him stay in his home instead of being evacuated. No is even allowed to write letters lest the plague spread through the mail. The Plague literature essays are academic essays for citation. That day it is windy and the church is not as full as the first time. He speaks of how all trials work together for good for the Christian, how nothing on earth is more horrible than the suffering of a child and we naturally seek to understand it and reason with it. He felt sick. The stadium is surrounded by high walls and now sentries, giving the impression of people being forcibly hidden from society. The camp manager comes up and tells Tarrou and Rambert that Othon wants to see them. When he is done speaking, the doctor asks if Tarrou has an idea of the path for getting peace. Rieux hesitates but Grand repeats his request in an agonized tone, so Rieux complies. He was interested in the death penalty and became an agitator against it all over Europe. At the hospital Paneloux submits weakly to observation but still seems undiagnosable. Dr. Castel is showing much wear and tear, which brings a lump to Rieux’s throat. 9782806270160 29 EBook Plurilingua Publishing This practical and insightful reading guide offers a complete summary and analysis of The Plague by Albert Camus. The plague is neither rational nor just. When a mild hysteria grips the population, the newspapers begin clamoring for action. They should not give up, but grope their way through the dark if they must and do what good they can. When Rieux mentions this to Tarrou later, Tarrou says it makes sense, for if Paneloux wants to hold on to this faith he will do so until the end. Suffice it to say, they are all feared and despised. The Plague is a novel about a plague epidemic in the large Algerian city of Oran. He is a representative of silent and discrete suffering and unconditional commitment to the fight he willingly joins. Albert Camus's The Plague Chapter Summary. He has to wait a fortnight, and continues his work indefatigably at the sanitation station. However, the only thing Tarrou could focus on was the criminal, who was most definitively a man. Full Title: The Plague Author: Albert Camus Year: 1947 Genre: Fiction, Novel Publisher: Vintage International ISBN 0-679-72021-9 (trade paperback) Wikipedia page; Author’s Wikipedia Page Summary. Right as Rieux is about to flee from not being able to take it anymore, it stops. What was the philosophy of the “flagellants”? The gods watch the unfolding calamity with arms folded either unwilling or unable to do anything. Camus researched various plagues throughout history in order to prepare for his fictionalised account of an epidemic consuming the Algerian coastal town of Oran one April. The child has passed. People immediately react to their sudden isolation by yearning for their loved ones outside Oran. Rieux is baffled. Even more horrifying to Tarrou was that his own father was the one arguing for this. Paneloux hesitates, and stands. The Plague, a novel written by Albert Camus and published in 1947 has a large cast of colorful characters that help tell the story of people dealing with plague and quarantine in the town of Oran. Rieux examines him and says he does not have any of the specific symptoms of the disease but he cannot be sure so he should be isolated. Rieux feels his own sensibility is problematic, as he has hardened everything so he can carry on. The book actually presents us the evolution of the community as the terrifying disease spreads its poison. Of moderate height, dark skinned, and broad-shouldered; he has dark steady eyes, a big, well-modeled nose, and thick, tight-set lips. The boy stiffens and relaxes, and repeats. The loudspeakers announce that it is mealtime and the inmates shuffle to their tents. Eugene Hollahan reminds readers that Tarrou’s motivation for fighting the plague is his own private code of morals; his “troubled intellectual stance contrasts with the doctor’s simple statement that his own motivation for fighting the plague is sympathetic outrage at human suffering.” In his identification with the cat-spitter and pear-counter, he “indicates his own deep tendency toward abstraction and transcendence.” He cannot travel the path of sympathy to its end, and dies of the plague. Rieux smiles that he is working for health. The Fall. Albert Camus’s novel The Plague (1947) is often cited as a classic of existentialism, though Camus himself refuted that classification. He will never accept any argument that allows the people in power to justify their butcheries. Dr. Bernard Rieux is the first to intuit that things are not right with the city when he notices a sudden spike in the number of dead rats around town. Filing out with the others, Rieux is of the opinion the sermon was more uneasy than powerful. For the Christian, he says, the ultimate choice is to believe everything or deny everything. Tarrou is fine but his diary entries have lost their depth and diversity; he seems mostly interested in Cottard. Nevertheless, it is she who discovers one morning that he has not arisen and seems more flushed and weaker than ever. "The Plague" is one of his biggest affirmations of his desire for social solidarity. They would probably preserve the memory of sharing the same fight, the same sufferance, of finding the road to happiness which passes through charitable, unselfish love. While many attempt to flee the city, Dr. Bernard Rieux sends his sick wife away and does his best to care for the plague's victims. Or perhaps it should be put like thus: fear seems to him more bearable under these conditions than it was when he had to bear its burden alone” (199). He has no illusions anymore, and his four hours of sleep do not lend themselves to sentimentality. And rats may still return one day to invade such a happy and victorious community, but people will however not lose the joy of the fight's remembrance. Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest, delivers a sermon declaring that the plague is a divine punishment for Oran’s sins. The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus that was first published in 1947. She suggests calling a doctor but he refuses. Paneloux prepares a second sermon and tells Rieux he ought to come. The other men are silent. Although, most of the cultural points in this novel are based off of the authors own traditions and culture, the major things to focus on are the differences between history, culture, and religious beliefs between the novel and Oran, Algeria. All night Rieux is tormented by the thought of Grand’s imminent death, but the next morning he is greatly improved. Rambert thanks him, then asks why he does not try to stop his going. Rieux sees that same phrase and all of its changes and corrections, and Grand croaks at him to read it, and, when Rieux does, to destroy it. Summary. Camus, a known atheist, remarked once that “in its essence, Christianity (and this is its paradoxical greatness) is a doctrine of injustice. He tells of his conviction that his belief in certain principles or systems in his life contributed to the death of thousands, no matter how indirectly. Paneloux rues that he has not convinced him, and Rieux responds that it doesn’t matter and nothing can part them now. There is no justice regarding who lives and dies from the plague; there is no rational or moral meaning to be derived from it; religious myths or angry gods don’t explain it. Paneloux is faced with a crisis of faith, for, as critic Thomas Hanna explains, “either he maintains his faith that God is the ultimate ruling force in the universe, bringing good out of the evil which he allows to afflict man, or else he takes his place with Dr. Rieux, Tarrou, and all the rebels of the earth in maintaining that this evil and this death are unbearable and that either there is no God and men must ceaselessly struggle with their single powers against the plague of life or else, if there be a God, he is a murderous, unjust, and incomprehensible being who is the supreme enemy of men.”, Paneloux ultimately has to choose all instead of nothing, to believe everything instead of denying everything. He is rather aloof from Rieux and Rambert but seeks Tarrou out. They first were full of chatter but now they are silent. The ward is stiflingly hot even though fans whir above. He sits wearily on the bench. Rieux checks the mortality figures that are released every Monday, and sees that they have decreased. Within the prison of Oran, if a man burns his home, he is legally imprisoned and, once behind bars, certain of death, for nowhere is plague so thorough as it is in the prison house. The ordeal is the all or the nothing, and Rieux realizes from the pews that to some this must sound like heresy. There is no cheer, no celebrating. Some might say this smacks of fatalism, but to him it is an “active” fatalism. Rambert waits and then bursts out in confusion that they are not responding. Grand falls ill with the plague and anguishes over the futility of his manuscript. After a long inoculation process, Rieux, Paneloux, Tarrou, Grand, and Dr. Castel gather to observe the effects. Paneloux looks at him with warmth and a sad smile, and says priests can have no friends as they’ve given their all to God. Analysis. Once the gates of the town are shut, the plague becomes everyone’s concern – no one is trying to ignore it anymore. The characters are unequally involved in this terrible fight and the final conclusion is that people have more things to admire than things to despise. He then dies, and is marked as “Doubtful case.”. In the car, Rambert tells Rieux he does not want to go and wants to stay with him. From the title, you know this book is about a plague. She does not care for herself she later says, but feels responsible for the Father. In this section, nearly all of the characters undergo psychological and/or physical crises. The Plague is considered an existentialist classic, despite Camus' objection to the label. Modern antibiotics are effective in treating it. "...Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperiled. He had a good relationship with his father, a prosecuting attorney. The title refers to a terrible plague that strikes Oran, Algeria. by Albert Camus. Critic Andrea Lesic-Thomas confirms this assessment, writing that “Camus makes Paneloux face the logical paradox of the presence of suffering inflicted by a good and just God, bringing him to the realization that the only way of continuing to be a believing Christian is to believe without understanding and without judging.” Unfortunately, that also means he “really abandons himself to the divine will—and it swallows him. The Plague, published in 1947, was Albert Camus’ international breakthrough. Those who followed this movement were regarded as a dangerous threat to church authority. He starts to write during the appearance of a new ideological movement, that of existentialism. Cottard, of course, is still a picture of contentment. He adds, though, that he knows he and Paneloux are working for the same thing and they are united beyond blasphemy and prayers. by Albert Camus. The curve has seemingly flattened, and Dr. Richard proclaims this a high-water mark. He tells Rieux to get his manuscript. Rieux sighs that he does not know what is right, and he should do his bit for happiness. La Peste = The Plague, Albert Camus The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. He once felt alone in this town but now he feels a part of it whether he wants to be or not. The struggle, we are told, is a struggle between abstractions and happiness for each man. He “took a horrified interest in legal proceedings, death sentences, executions” (248) and could not help knowing what his father’s role in such things—such murders—was. Rieux asks why he has come, and Rambert says he’d like to speak with him. La Peste, the original French title of the novel, translates to The Plague in the American edition. The plague represents this absurdity. The novel presents a snapshot of life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view. The flagellants believed that selfpunishment for their sins might help save them from death as a result of the Plague. Rambert replies that he’d be ashamed of himself if he did not do the right thing. Rambert understands, but awkwardly repeats his request. The announcement of death is paramount in Camus' philosophy and in his novels. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44 in 1957, the second-youngest recipient in history. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Copyright © 1999 - 2021 GradeSaver LLC. It provides a thorough exploration of the novel’s plot, characters and main themes, including war, guilt and disease. The plague does not abate during the cold spells, and is more and more in the pneumonic form. In the first paragraph of the book, the ordinariness of Oran is contrasted with the extraordinary business of the plague, and on the surface the comment seems possibly only a bit of literary formula. Dr. Benard Rieux- About 35 years. It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny and the human condition. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Plague. The Question and Answer section for The Plague is a great Tarrou asks if Rieux might take an hour off for friendship, and Rieux smiles yes. Osborne-Bartucca, Kristen. The boy often gasps and has tremors, then sinks back into his languor. He finds Tarrou in his office, who tells Rambert he is reluctant to let him in because he is trying to spare Rieux as much as possible. He thinks everyone must be careful not to infect others, not to lapse in attention. Rieux says quietly that he does not know anything, and Rambert can stay if he wants. He is happy to be with the others instead of set apart from society. Rieux softly says he will stay with him. Rieux hears his own wife’s condition has worsened but everything is being done as it should be. He thinks they should all be like the one who stayed. Continuing, he speaks of the story of how only four of more than eighty monks at one monastery during the Black Death survived, and three fled. It is clear thoughts of Jeanne are consuming him. The town is fully at the mercy of the plague, and there is nothing to do but mark time and try and cope with the immense fatigue. It slows, and Rieux realizes his utter impotence. Rambert chooses to stay in Oran even though he can get out, realizing he needs to choose a love for the collective rather than a personal love. Find summaries for every chapter, including a The Plague Chapter Summary Chart to help you understand the book. Rieux warns him that Monsieur Othon remarked that Rambert ought to be careful about associating with smugglers, and he ought to hurry up. This is the case of the simple public officer named Grand. The company plays one show every week. Since he, Tarrou observes, “has learned what it is to live in a constant state of fear, he finds it normal that others should come to know this state. The Myth of Sisyphus. He does not believe anymore that the plague is punishment for the sins of the people, but it is still mysterious beyond man’s measure and ultimately one must trust in God regardless of the inscrutability of His plan. Tarrou lies and says no. It is a Sunday afternoon and Gonzalez, the football player and fan, comes with them. Directed by Luis Puenzo. He sees their reactions to the plague as ones he already had when he was condemned; he feels their superstitions, their fears, their panics, their stretched nerves. The music stops and the show ends, and the audience files out in confusion and dismay, then moving faster and faster in their revulsion. Around the end of October, it is time to try Castel’s anti-plague serum; for Rieux this is a last hope. The characters in the book, ranging from doctors to vacationers to fugitives, all help to show the effects the plague has on a populace. Surprised, Rieux asks about his wife. happiness is freedom... And the secret to freedom is courage” (Thucydides). The Plague by Albert Camus Albert Camus published The Plague in 1947. What was the status of life in Europe in terms of faith, technology, and trade before the Plague arrived? Before too long, thousands of the creatures are making their way to … Rieux is even more convinced of the absence of God, for the death of this innocent child is unfathomable in a world where God putatively loves all of His creatures. Tarrou says he is essentially trying to be a saint without believing in God. His black hair is clipped very close. In the 1990s, a South American city is rocked by the imminent outbreak of a plague. Cottard is still prospering but Grand is not doing well. Raymond Rambert, the journalist is separated from his beloved lady, and the death illustrated by the omnipresence of rats makes this character do anything to try to save himself from this disease. The majority of the people are sitting on the stands, while others loll about or walk around listlessly. Finally the boy issues a terrible, long scream and clutches his blankets. Tarrou concludes. Rambert runs a quarantine station at the hotel and Grand is dealing with the facts and figures that come his way. The climax of the novel occurs when Rieux, Tarrou, and Paneloux witness the intensely painful and grotesque suffering and death of the Othon boy. The Plague, is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran.It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny, and the human condition. He was a human being and though he was a criminal, he was to be killed. Some of them break small rules, and “the energy they devoted to fighting the disease made them all the more liable to it” (194). In the beginning we find out that the novel is a chronological diary. As he comes to his conclusion, Paneloux says he knows this requires total self-surrender and it is a hard lesson but that they must “aspire beyond ourselves to that high and fearful vision” (228). Albert Camus (/ k æ ˈ m uː / kam-OO, US also / k ə ˈ m uː / kə-MOO, French: [albɛʁ kamy] (); 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. They feel this abomination acutely, as this innocent child is literally dying in front of them. It asks a number of questions relating … The town is fully at the mercy of the plague, and there is nothing to do but mark time and try and cope with the immense fatigue. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel. Albert Camus is a famous and complex personality of French culture. As November ends, Tarrou goes with Rieux to visit the old asthma patient. Plague cannot be kept out, not even in the civilized confines of the arts. There are pestilences and there are victims; Tarrou believes one must know that and live that, and act carefully. They feel free from the town and the plague, and are “conscious of being perfectly at one, and the memory of this night would be cherished by them both” (257). It provides a thorough exploration of the novel’s plot, characters and main themes, including justice, society and the Absurd. Paneloux sits with him and agrees that they are both working for salvation. They meet with the tired man, who asks if his son suffered. At this same time, such a pattern repeats in a girl at the hospital: she has all the symptoms of pneumonic plague and seems fated to die, but recovers miraculously. The Plague tells the tale of a fictional outbreak of plague in the real city of Oran, Algeria — the same country where author Albert Camus was born. The Plague Summary: A Novel by Albert Camus Claudia Miclaus Feb 23, 2020 The well-known French writer Albert Camus, expresses his deep concern and wish for social solidarity in his novel "The Plague" which depicts how people manage to survive together in the end, in spite of trials. Albert Camus's novel The Plague is about an epidemic of bubonic plague that takes place in the Al-gerian port city of Oran.When the plague first arrives, the residents are slow to recognize the mortal danger they are in. Most of these men have seen children die before but not watched one’s agony minute by minute. 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