When he falls ill, he refuses to consult a doctor, leaving his fate entirely in the hands of divine Providence. Paneloux, deeply shaken by the boy's death, delivers a second sermon that modifies the first. This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Plague by Albert Camus, an existentialist classic in which he continues to question the absurdity of life and applies the notion of rebellion. They indulge in selfish personal distress, convinced that their pain is unique in comparison to common suffering. The Plague Summary. In this clear and detailed reading guide, we've done all the hard work for you! Rieux recognizes the importance of the plague’s name, but even … The unidentified narrator of these events finally reveals himself as the tale draws to a close. The sacrifice being made by Rieux inspires Rambert to give up on his plan to escape and stay to fight the epidemic. When the epidemic ends, Cottard cannot cope. Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Those who followed this movement were regarded as a dangerous threat to church authority. But now it’s hitting the center of the Oran, where all the businesses are. Tarrou dies just as the epidemic is waning, but he battles with all his strength for his life, just as he helped Rieux battle for the lives of others. He has become the exception, however, and soon the town can barely contain its desire to celebrate the evidence that the plague is diminishing and will soon disappear. In 1947, when he was 34, Albert Camus, the Algerian-born French writer (he would win the Nobel Prize for Literature ten years later, and die in a car crash three years after that) provided an astonishingly detailed and penetrating answer to these questions in his novel The Plague. Diagrams Jean Tarrou Philosophical observer of events Dr. Bernard Rieux Doctor fighting the plague Friends Saves Fellow volunteers Fellow volunteers Fellow volunteers Opposing interests Father Paneloux Jesuit priest in Oran Raymond Rambert Journalist desperate to escape quarantine Joseph Grand City employee and aspiring novelist Cottard … These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Plague. The authorities finally arrange for the daily collection and cremation of the rats. Before too long, thousands of the creatures are making their way to the streets to die. His attempts are foiled by the ineptitude of both the government and the underground network he consults. Grand, having recovered from a bout of plague, vows to make a fresh start in life. When a mild hysteria grips the population, the newspapers begin clamoring for action. life. After the term of exile lasts several months, many of Oran's citizens lose their selfish obsession with personal suffering. It is the 1940s in Oran, a French-occupied Algerian colony. The long-awaited reunion between Rambert and his wife takes place not back home in Paris, but in Oran. It is the story of a plague epidemic in the city of Oran in the 1940’s and tells of the individual destinies of some of its inhabitants, who all react to the situation in a different way. The Plague is his chronicle of the scene of human suffering that all too many people are willing to forget. Cottard committed a crime (which he does not name) in the past, so he has lived in constant fear of arrest and punishment. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. He declares that the inexplicable deaths of innocents force the Christian to choose between believing everything and believing nothing about God. Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) was a French author and philosopher who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.His novel The Plague has recently garnered much worldwide attention do to the pandemic of 2020.As a philosopher familiar with Camus’ thought, I’d like to highlight the book’s main philosophical themes.But first a very brief plot summary. Against the background of events, he creates various attitudes of human beings toward the plague, … 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. The Plague is a novel about a plague epidemic in the large Algerian city of Oran. As the rat carcass problem is contained, Dr. Rieux treats the concierge where he lives, who is complaining of an unusual fever. Battle Against Crisis at the Conclusion of The Plague, The Absurd and the Concept of Hope in Camus's Novels. The novel tells the story of a devastating plague afflicting the city of … Helping to foster this belief is Father Paneloux, whose early sermons are filled with stern Jesuit reasoning that Oran has committed sins so great that simple forgiveness is not warranted. In the 1990s, a South American city is rocked by the imminent outbreak of a plague. He is announcing the deaths of many people, common people, and as spectators, we will wait, watch, hear, and perhaps learn from the consequences of the everyday Oedipuses and Creons of Oran — citizens warned again and again of their fate to die, yet who choose to be unbelieving, antagonistic, and indifferent to the warning. The Question and Answer section for The Plague is a great The Plague Summary. 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. Suddenly, everyone is just as lonely and afraid as him. The acceptance of the plague under these terms lessens the selfishness of the town, but does little to alleviate the collective despair and hopelessness. The flagellants believed that selfpunishment for their sins might help save them from death as a result of the Plague. He dies clutching his crucifix, but the symptoms of his illness do not match those of the plague. Summary. Because he defines The Plague as a chronicle, one would expect a journalistic report of the facts. 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. So far, the plague has been semi-limited to the outer districts of the town. We read of the acknowledgment of the plague with a sense of relief. The Plague by Albert Camus is an existentialist classic, in which he continues to question the absurdity of life and applies the notion of rebellion. It is the story of a plague epidemic in the city of Oran in the 1940's and tells of the individual destinies of some of its inhabitants, who all react to the situation in a different way. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. When M. Othon's small son suffers a prolonged, excruciating death from the plague, Dr. Rieux shouts at Paneloux that he was an innocent victim. A lucid evaluation of the crisis has been achieved, the enemy has been revealed and can now be confronted. He chooses to stay behind and help fight the epidemic. The initial self-centered response of individuals to the quarantine as a personal tragedy eventually gives way to a widespread realization that everyone is affected equally even if in starkly different ways. "The Plague Summary". “The Plague” takes place in Oran, a city that Camus, as a son and partisan of its rival, Algiers, found tacky, shallow, commercial; treeless and soulless. Through the use of allegory and point of view, Camus substantiates that when people are not aware of time and its advancing, they are wasting the precious and limited time of … The authorities finally arrange for the daily collection and cremation of the rats. The Plague. Alone among the quarantined not bursting with happiness at this thought is Cottard. Rambert finalizes his escape plan, but, after Tarrou tells him that Rieux is likewise separated from his wife, Rambert is ashamed to flee. When the young child of Oran’s magistrate succumbs to the suffering and perishes in a painful and grotesque fashion, Father Paneloux is moved to deliver another sermon. Not only that, he is making a killing in the booming business of smuggling, another consequence of the epidemic. If you’ve read Albert Camus’ great, short novel you’ll remember a gripping narrative about an outbreak of bubonic plague that strikes a small French Algerian city in the 1940s. Rambert, a Parisian journalist unlucky enough to happen to be in the city when the outbreak begins, is determined to escape back home to reunite with his wife. What was the philosophy of the “flagellants”? The mess starts when rats everywhere die. The Plague (French: La Peste) is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story from the point of view of an unknown narrator of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. He has been carefully making notes of everything he’s observed relating to the plague. Meanwhile, Rieux, Tarrou, and Grand doggedly battle the death and suffering wrought by the plague. Considering Camus's ideas about the impossibility of reaching an objective truth, it is not possible to agree with Dr. … Unlock the more straightforward side of The Plague with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! Only after it becomes impossible to deny that a serious epidemic is ravaging Oran, do the authorities enact strict sanitation measures, placing the whole city under quarantine. Albert Camus highlights the theme of time in his 1947 novel, The Plague. Perhaps Dr. Rieux withholds his identity because he is concerned with maintaining his objective distance from the chronicle. Another visitor who is trapped by bad timing is Jean Tarrou. Dr. Rieux records him as a "doubtful case.". This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Plague by Albert Camus, an existentialist classic in which he continues to question the absurdity of life and applies the notion of rebellion. Father Paneloux delivers a stern sermon, declaring that the plague is God's punishment for Oran's sins. Camus' The Plague is an uncannily prescient description of the world of COVID-19, giving us reasons for reflection, and finally for hope. Camus’s novel offers a glimpse of this in a conversation between Dr. Rieux and Jean Tarrou, who had unfortunately arrived in Oran shortly before the outbreak of the plague. Camus presents Grand as an anti-hero, a mediocre, strange sort of everyman who still contains the practical goodness and daily heroism that is the best response to plague (or the absurdity of life). The public reacts to their sudden imprisonment with intense longing for absent loved ones. In April, thousands of rats stagger into the open and die. Not affiliated with Harvard College. An attempt is made to end the story on an inspirational note with Rieux’s observance that ultimately those trapped in Oran revealed the better side of human nature more often than the worst. On the day the gates to the town finally reopen, his madness finally overcomes him and he takes to randomly firing his gun until the police arrest him. Meanwhile, just as Rambert is ready to put his escape strategy to the test, he learns that Dr. Rieux—who has been the leading figure in trying to fight the plague—has a wife on the outside experiencing her own medical quarantine as a patient being treated in a sanatorium. As the year draws to a cold and melancholy close, in contrast to Paneloux, other victims begin to make miraculous recoveries and avoid death. Soon thereafter, M. Michel, the concierge for the building where Dr. Rieux works, dies after falling ill with a strange fever. It is the 1940s in Oran, a French-occupied Algerian colony. The people believed the Blacl Death signaled the Biblical apocolypse. The novel presents a snapshot of life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view. Oran essentially becomes cut off and isolated from the rest of the world. Permeating the fear of the disease and the longing and loneliness is a common exhibition of belief that the singling out of their city is no random act of science, but divine punishment of some kind. Word Count: 785. Requests to the government to initiate a strategy before an epidemic gets out of control are ignored and only after the death toll skyrockets are leaders finally incapable of denying the seriousness of the situation. What was the status of life in Europe in terms of faith, technology, and trade before the Plague arrived? By the time they finally respond to the gravity of the outbreak, the only choice is absolute quarantine of the city. At the end of The Plague, the narrator reveals himself as Dr. Rieux. The chronicler is Dr. Rieux and his book is composed as a testament to the victims and those who fought it rather than as a self-serving story as a personal victim of the tragedy. When a cluster of similar cases appears, Dr. Rieux's colleague, Castel, becomes certain that the illness is the bubonic plague. The reaction of the residents of Oran vary widely in terms of specifics, but share a commonality of experience: it is the sense of imposed exile from society and the longing for simple human contact with friends and family outside the closed gates that drives every individual response. Not long after the concierge succumbs to the ravages of the affliction, doctors all over town are flooded with patients experiencing similar symptoms. Overview Unlock the more straightforward side of The Plague with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! The title refers to a terrible plague that strikes Oran, Algeria. The public quickly returns to its old routine, but Rieux knows that the battle against the plague is never over because the bacillus microbe can lie dormant for years. It is the story of a plague epidemic in the city of Oran in the 1940's and tells of the individual destinies of some of its inhabitants, who all react to the situation in a different way. The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. A paranoid criminal named Cottard attempts to aid Rambert in his escape. Our study guide has summaries, insightful analyses, and everything else you need to understand The Plague. With William Hurt, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jean-Marc Barr, Robert Duvall. Bernard Rieux (behr-NAHR ryew), a physician and surgeon in Oran, Algeria, where a plague is claiming as many as three hundred lives a day. Like, Mary Poppins windy, which is bad news when you live on an unprotected plateau. The theme of this sermon is plainly stated: the plague is evidence enough that you either believe in Christianity wholeheartedly or you reject it outright. That note of optimism is ultimately undercut, though, by his haunting reminder that the microbe responsible for bubonic plague can lie dormant for so long that it creates the illusion of being gone forever when in reality it has the power to recrudesce into an epidemic with little warning once more. Directed by Luis Puenzo. These observations stimulate him to organize sanitation duties with the help of volunteers. Part II re-begins the chronicle in a different tone and with a … They come to recognize the plague as a collective disaster that is everyone's concern. The work is an allegorical account of the determined fight against an epidemic in the town of Oran, Alg., by characters who embody human dignity and Copyright © 1999 - 2021 GradeSaver LLC. He accumulates a great deal of wealth as a smuggler during the epidemic. They confront their social responsibility and join the anti-plague efforts. From the title, you know this book is about a plague. An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. He greets the plague epidemic with open arms because he no longer feels alone in his fearful suffering. Rieux notices the sudden appearance of dying rats around town, and … Not long afterward, Paneloux himself dies, committed so thoroughly to his view of the faith that he refuses medical treatment. He and Dr. Rieux are forced to confront the indifference and denial of the authorities and other doctors in their attempts to urge quick, decisive action. When a mild hysteria grips the population, the newspapers begin clamoring for action. In April, thousands of rats stagger into the open and die. The Plague concerns an outbreak of bubonic plague in the French-Algerian port city of Oran, sometime in the 1940s. The Plague is a novel written by Albert Camus, an ultimately bleak story about a terrible illness that swept through an unprepared town. Albert Camus’s novel The Plague (1947) is often cited as a classic of existentialism, though Camus himself refuted that classification. Dr. Rieux is not so lucky; his wife has died during the separation mandated by the quarantine. The Plague literature essays are academic essays for citation. Adding to the horror is a death toll affecting so many people that cremation is necessary to keep up. The Plague, novel by Algerian-born French writer Albert Camus, published in 1947 as La Peste. The Plague, written in 1948, is a fictional account of events that take place in a North African town that is stricken with a fatal contagion. He begins randomly firing his gun into the street until he is captured by the police. At that point, Tarrou is diagnosed, but fails to recover and dies. Through the voice of his compassionate protagonist, Dr. Rieux, Camus speaks of the graphic horror of the plague and its effect on the population. GradeSaver, 9 June 2020 Web. 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