Therefore, Rieux marks him as a "doubtful case" after his death. It is also true that he hardens his heart against the suffering of the plague victims, but it is not true that he is indifferent to their suffering. Tarrou writes of a performance of Gluck's Orpheus. It was in wartime Paris that Camus developed his philosophy of the absurd--the assertion that life ultimately has no rational meaning. Rieux must harden his heart against his own suffering in order to continue contributing to the anti-plague effort. Paneloux cannot produce a moral or rational explanation for an innocent child's horrible death. The Plague, published in 1947, was Albert Camus’ international breakthrough. Soon thereafter, Paneloux falls ill, but he refuses to consult a doctor. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Plot Summary. Camus implies that the people of Oran can break the alienation and isolation produced by their fear of the plague by putting up a collective resistance against it. The Plague by Albert Camus Albert Camus published The Plague in 1947. He is happier now that he no longer bears that burden alone. Now that everyone suffers from a constant sense of fear, Cottard feels less alone. A wanderer who comes innocuously to Oran, he stays to help Rieux battle the plague and becomes its last victim. In a sense, Paneloux asks his congregation to accept a condition of ignorance. When his period of quarantine ends, Othon volunteers to remain in the camp to help out with the anti-plague effort because it would make him feel "less separated" from his son. He denied the basic drive of the human will to survive. From the creators of SparkNotes. This represents the doubtful nature of Paneloux's understanding of human existence. He argues against mute resignation because there is no excuse to give up the struggle. When a definite time for his escape is finally set, Rambert chooses to stay because he is too ashamed to leave during such a crisis. Deeply convinced that his lawyer-father was wrong to demand the death sentence for a criminal, and later disillusioned when his revolutionary party guns down former heads of state, Tarrou believes man is too frequently a party to murder. Check out our detailed character descriptions. Rieux's asthma patient gleefully declares that the rats are back. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. The first-person narrator is unnamed but mostly follows Dr. Bernard Rieux. The play is also about lovers separated by death. Cottard has always lived with a constant sense of fear. When reality creeps into the fabric of the public's fantasy world, they react with disorganized terror. Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory. Camus implies that the people of Oran can break the alienation and isolation produced by their fear of the plague by putting up a collective resistance against it. The Plague Part 5 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts. During Christmas, Grand is overcome with depression because it reminds him of his courtship with Jeanne. Meanwhile, Tarrou devotes a great deal of attention to Cottard in his notebooks. His writing is greatly influenced by the poverty and illness of his youth. His father was killed in World War I at the battle of Marne. Although his family was impoverished, Camus went on to attend university in Algiers. At first, everyone is in denial. However, his body of work suggests that within every human being there is an innate capacity for good, although many people never fully realize their potential. This is the Absurd that Camus confronts us with in the novel – a vast, meaningless, uncaring universe that we must deal with in some way. He craves human contact, but he distrusts everyone as a possible police informant. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of “The Plague” by Albert Camus. Fighting the plague is an affirmation of the human will to survive while the paralysis of fear and escapism are acts of surrender. Escaping to a performance of Orpheus is merely surrender to and denial of these dangers. Detailed Summary & Analysis Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Themes Camus won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957. Rieux hardens his heart against the desperation of the families of plague victims in order to continue doing his work. He chooses not to consult a doctor when he becomes ill because he wants to put all of his faith in divine Providence. He paid the expenses of his education with various odd jobs until a severe attack of tuberculosis forced him to drop out. Camus moves from the general to the less general and then to various lengths of specifics before presenting again a full chapter of action. He declares that the unanswerable question of an innocent child's suffering is God's way of placing the Christian's back to a wall. The actor playing the role of Orpheus forces his audience to recognize the real dangers facing them. When the city can withstand no more, the plague begins to level off. Constant fear breeds distrust. Jean Tarrou The best friend of Rieux. It's a fictional story written about the very real town of Oran in Northern Algeria. Such catastrophes test the tension between individual self-interest and social responsibility. Although his family was impoverished, Camus went on to attend university in Algiers. Earlier in the novel, Rambert accused Rieux of using the language of abstraction instead of the language of the heart. Camus is often considered an existentialist, but the philosophy he most identified with and developed was called absurdism. The child suffers terribly before dying as Paneloux, Rieux, and Tarrou watch in horror. Explore Course Hero's library of literature materials, including documents and Q&A pairs. The Plague concerns an outbreak of bubonic plague in the French-Algerian port city of Oran, sometime in the 1940s. The actor's collapse forces the audience to confront the false illusion this play creates. The desire for human contact is a powerful human need, especially in times of suffering. During World War II, Camus went to Paris and joined the anti-Nazi resistance movement. Rieux is amazed to see gentleness in Othon's character because he has always regarded him as a steely, inflexible man. The actor playing Orpheus collapses on the stage in the manner of a plague victim just as Eurydice is taken back to the Underworld. Therefore, it is a test of Christian faith in the utmost sense: the Christian is faced with the choice between believing everything and denying everything about God. The absurd hero is a hero because he achieves the ultimate rebellion--that which resists the illusion of a rational order while also resisting despair. Meanwhile, Castel finishes the first batch of serum, and Othon's small son is the first to receive it. In plague, like war, the suffering and death can take on such a massive scale that the mind balks at it. The plague is often considered an allegory for war and military occupation, and Camus drew from his own experience to describe the isolation and struggle of the novel. This study guide and infographic for Albert Camus's The Plague offer summary and analysis on themes, symbols, and other literary devices found in the text. Get free homework help on Albert Camus' The Plague: book summary, chapter summary and analysis, quotes, essays, and character analysis courtesy of CliffsNotes. Plot Summary. Rats. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis … 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. Paneloux believes that the suffering of innocents is not explicable in terms that human beings can understand. The plague is just one incarnation of death, which is an omnipresent “collective disaster,” so the hierarchies were basically absurd before the plague as well. The Plague Character Analysis | LitCharts. He declares to his congregation that each of them should choose to be the one who stays behind. His second sermon is an interesting variation on Rieux's "all or nothing" response to the plague. It is true that Rieux dispensed with sentimental pity. if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is.” -Albert Camus, The Fall In Albert Camus’ novel The Plague, the author employs three main characters -- the narrator, Tarrou, and Father Paneloux -- to represent extremist views on religion and science in culture. Paneloux understands that Rieux's anger is directed at his sermon some months earlier. The Plague Introduction + Context. Camus' philosophy borrows a lot of ideas from the Existentialist movement. Tarrou's sympathy for the defendant was very much like that which Camus felt for a boatload of prisoners he saw in the Algerian port in 1938. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. 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. It tests his faith because it requires him to either deny everything or believe everything. Find summaries for every chapter, including a The Plague Chapter Summary Chart to help you understand the book. For other uses, see Plague (disambiguation). It is interesting that in 1941, when Camus was jotting ideas for the novel in his notebooks, he had decided to have a sea full of corpses. While the philosophy of Camus' fiction often tends to imply that no moral order actually has a rational basis, Camus himself did not act with moral indifference. However, he does not really break free from his alienation. He falls ill with the plague and Rieux burns his papers at his request. He came very close to accusing Rieux of indifference. Although the effort to alleviate and prevent human suffering seems to make little or no difference in the ravages of the plague, Camus asserts that perseverance in the face of tragedy is a noble struggle even if it ultimately fails to make an appreciable difference. Paneloux cites a chronicle of a previous epidemic in which only four monks survived, three of whom fled the stricken city. The announcement of death is paramount in Camus' philosophy and in his novels. And then the worst is over. The Plague Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory. During the plague, everyone craves this same contact, but they must also distrust everyone as a possible carrier of the deadly plague. Complete summary of Albert Camus' The Plague. Albert Camus is one of the 20th century’s most esteemed writers, and La Peste, or The Plague (1947), is considered one of his masterpieces. The mess starts when rats everywhere die. They have denied the possibility of their own deaths by indulging in fantasies about absent loved ones. This particular plague happens in a Algerian port town called Oran in the 1940s. First the rats are dying in the streets of the Algerian coastal city Oran, then the plague breaks out. Set in the North African French colony of Oran, the novel chronicles a recrudescence of the bubonic plague and the various ways … Similar to the Existentialists, Camus asserted that there is no intrinsic rational or moral meaning in human existence. From the title, you know this book is about a plague. Analysis Of Albert Camus 'BookThe Plague' 1424 Words | 6 Pages. Most of the papers concern the opening line to Grand's book, but one sheet contains an unfinished opening to a letter addressed to Jeanne. The Plague Introduction + Context. It entertains the fantasy that a loved one can be reclaimed from the jaws of death. The plague itself is based on several cholera and plague epidemics that swept through Oran during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the deadly grip of the plague, the public has turned its attention from religion to superstition. His novel The Plague has recently garnered much worldwide attention do to the pandemic of 2020. Had it continued its killing, Rieux projects, carloads of bodies would have been dumped into the sea. Calm at first, the audience eventually stampedes for the exit. The Plague Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, in Mondovi, Algeria. Camus presents Religion versus Plague. They respond to this isolation in differing ways. Fighting the plague is an affirmation of the human will to survive while the paralysis of fear and escapism are acts of surrender. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. As a philosopher familiar with Camus’ thought, I’d like to highlight the book’s main philosophical themes. Rieux lashes out at Paneloux, shouting that the boy was an innocent victim. Everyone in Oran must distrust everyone else as a possible carrier of the plague. Check out our revolutionary side-by-side summary and analysis. His wife is slowly dying in a sanitarium 100 miles from Oran while he is trapped in the city. The Plague (French: La Peste) is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story from the point of view of a narrator of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. The point made by this scene is that everyone is just as isolated while indulging in escapist rituals of entertainment as they are in their collective terror of death. He chose to passively accept death, something that the novel argues against. Grand often talks about Jeanne to Rieux; he, in turn, unburdens his worries about his own wife. 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