The Plague discussion

Preface

I would like to preface this analysis by stating that, all that is said here (other than direct book quotes) is solely my personal opinion. If there are any scientific basis, I will appropriately reference them. However, this is unlikely, and therefore, most if not all of what is written here will be my personal speculations.

This is a novel divided in 5 parts, I will be writing a part by part analysis, immediately after finishing each (meaning I will be unaware of future events). Finally, thank you to anyone who might be reading this. I hope you enjoy this culmination of my thoughts about this book.


Part I

The novel begins by setting the scene in Oran, Algeria (at the time administratively part of France*). The town is described, in quite some detail, as being ugly and that the only fine weather being at one’s disposal in winter. About spring, the season in which the story begins, the following is said:

“Spring declares itself solely in the quality of the air or the little baskets of flowers that street-sellers bring in from the suburbs; this is a spring sold in the market-place.”

Nevertheless, the town is described as being generally calm, where people work, and go on searching for their own pleasures in the evening. In short, a seemingly regular town without much in particular sticking out.

The narrator prefaces that the events described, in here, will have multiple sources. His own notes and experiences, as well as notes from others, that he will use as he sees fit. This may bring one to ponder on how accurate the retelling of this story will be. Nevertheless, it is true that a whole town is witness to these events. This fact is just something to have in mind.

We are thus introduced, to our first notetaker, if you will, our first source of knowledge to the events that were about to dispel in this town. Dr. Bernard Rieux. A number of things go on during the first few passages, a display of a rather regular life, with Dr. Rieux’s line of work can be seen. He goes on visiting his patients, he opens the surgery, and everything is more or less normal. There are two particular events, however, I’d like to bring focus towards.

The first event, his wife. On April 17th, Dr. Rieux takes his wife to the 12 o’clock train. She is to go on a journey to reach a specialised hospital, for treatment of an unspecified illness. This woman, is only talked about twice or thrice in this part, however I have an inkling she might become important later in the story.

The second event, the concierge, Michael. On the day before, April 16th, Dr. Rieux finds a dead rat at the doorstep of his consulting room. Now, managing a clinic, a rat would be inadmissible. After all, a clinic is supposed to be sanitary, and at all times clean, absent from fleas. Naturally, the concierge is not very happy with the finding of a rat. Still, he takes no heed to this warning, thinking it to be but the fruit of trickery from a child or another. Still, as Dr. Rieux makes his calls, he finds in the most impoverished, parts of town more and more rats. Something worrisome is brewing.

This is when we reach, the first apex of the issue. Patient 0, also known as M. Michael. According to Dr. Rieux’s notes, he acquired a strange parlour, not long after touching the rats. With time, he grew sick, he began describing his illness. The symptoms included: a high fever, delirium, vomiting, lymph nodes and abscesses, general body pain, short-breath, and “fungoid growth”. With the worsening of the symptoms, Dr. Rieux calls an ambulance to take Michael to the hospital. The following scene takes place:

“Broken words emerged from his mouth, which was covered in a fungoid growth. 'The rats!' he said. Greenish, with waxy lips, leaden eyelids and short, panting breath, tormented by his lymph nodes and pressed against the back of the stretcher bed as though he wanted to close it around him or as if something rising from the depths of the earth were constantly calling him, the concierge was stifling beneath some invisible weight. His wife wept.

'Is there no hope then, doctor?'

'He is dead,' Rieux said.”

The first patient had died. But he wouldn’t be the last, rats kept emerging by the hundreds. Dr. Rieux called other doctors soon after, and immediately uncovered 20 similar cases. Some of which had already proven fatal. This is when things begin to get interesting. At one point, we get the point of view from Jean Tarrou. A visiting fellow, staying at a local hotel. His notes, are majorly personal, but there is one particular event which I’d like to focus on for a moment.

Tarrou, refers to a family restaurant, and here we can see the reactions from the public. The father, from the family, outright censors any discussion, saying: “We don’t talk about rats at the table, Philippe. From now on, I forbid you to mention the word.”. Others seem to acknowledge the danger, yet think that it would pass. The following quote a few pages later summarises the situation and the public eye:

“Stupidity always carries doggedly on, as people would notice if they were not always thinking about themselves. In this respect the citizens of Oran were like the rest of the world, they only thought about themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they did not believe in pestilence.”

The characters from the story aren't dull or stupid, they are human. But it is this same humanity, that blocks this tragedy from being prevented.

“Even after Dr. Rieux had acknowledged to his friend that a handful of sick people in different places had unexpectedly died of plague, the danger seemed unreal to him.”

Even one of the most reasonable characters so far, who is so aware of the danger of the plague, is unable to believe it. Because, we tend to resist belief in what scares us, we tend to wish it is all a brief tempest, and put off believing in its danger. Because believing, would make it real. In this sense, both the public and the doctors thoughts and feelings, are quite raw and realistic. This is a very natural reaction, but one that will lead to their doom. On this regard, I’d like to turn the focus back to Dr. Rieux.

As stated before, Dr. Rieux inquired other doctors about the current situation after the death of Michael, and whether they had seen any similar cases. This scene follows:

“He called a few other doctors; and enquiring in this way he uncovered about twenty similar cases in a few days. Almost all had been fatal. So he asked Richard, the president of the Association of Doctors in Oran, if new patients could be isolated.

‘There's nothing I can do,’ Richard said. ‘The measure would have to be taken by the Prefect. In any case, who told you there was any risk of infection?’

‘Nothing tells me that there is, but the symptoms are disturbing.’

However, Richard felt that ‘he was not qualified’. All he could do was to mention it to the authorities.”

This moment is interestingly realistic. So far, Dr. Rieux has been the only one decently preoccupied with this. And taking the point of view that this is no mere incident, but a bigger infection to come. As pointed previously, other characters have dismissed this train of thought all together, either by flat out censoring/ignoring it. Or by simply thinking “it's not that bad, and it will come to pass”. Even though Dr. Richard, can somewhat see the gravity of the situation, he still hesitates to do something about it, and insists that the relevant authorities/government, must be the ones to take action. Which, of course, are always late and inefficient. This is a repeating theme during this part of the novel.

To situate in time, the just quoted scene seems to have happened on the same day as Michael’s death (although, this is unclear), which was April 30th. 19 pages later, which I estimate to be at the very least 2–3 days after this phone call. Dr. Rieux finally convinced the Prefect’s office to appoint a health commission. A meeting took place, with several doctors in Oran, including Dr. Rieux, Dr. Castel, and Dr. Richard. The discussion lasts a while, but this particular section caught my attention:

“Two or three doctors protested, while the others appeared hesitant. As for the Prefect, he leapt up in his seat and automatically turned towards the door, as though checking that it had really prevented this enormity from spreading down the corridor. Richard announced that in his opinion they should not give way to panic: all they could say for certain was that it was an infection with inguinal complications; and it was dangerous, in science as in life, to jump to conclusions.

[...]

‘When a microbe’, Rieux said, after a brief silence, ‘is capable of increasing the size of the spleen four times in three days, and of making the mesenteric ganglia the size of an orange and the consistency of porridge, that is precisely when we should rush to do something. The sources of infection are multiplying. At this rate, if the disease is not halted, it could kill half the town within the next two months. Therefore it doesn't matter whether you call it plague or growing pains. All that matters is that you stop it killing half the town.’”

Once again, we see the clear theme of hesitation. This parallels with the previously described (in the novel) civil servant Grand, who is also still looking for the right words.

“But, to begin with, the chief who first employed him had died a long time ago and in any case the clerk did not remember the precise terms of the promise that has been given. Finally, and most of all, words failed him.

[...]

He was still trying to find the right words.”

Like Grand, here the Prefect is also struggling to find the right words. He hesitates in what to call the current situation. Except in this case, it is much more serious. While Grand can take his time exploring the vocabulary, this matter requires utmost urgency. But the Prefect is too rigid. He wrongly places his focus on what to call the current situation, and argues that only then can action be decided. When the focus should be placed on the effects of the situation, and time. This ends up, once again, reflecting the real world. With the recent pandemic, we saw multiple health organisations, and governments hesitating to take action, and to give the situation a name. They remained in radio-silence, or deflected any questions, for as long as they could. Because they knew that the wrong words and the wrong time, would generate panic. And when a population panics, it cannot be controlled nor contained, it won't listen, and it will make everything worse.

From this point of view, hesitation is natural and understandable. But this hesitation, as Dr. Rieux put it, is what is threatening to kill half the town. Moreover, the hesitation of the Prefect also parallels with Dr. Rieux own hesitation. Both are afraid, and both are hesitant, but there is a crucial difference between them.

As mentioned previously here, Dr. Rieux is afraid, yet unable to see the danger as a reality. He also does not want to call it a plague, just yet, at least. Still, he understands that whether this is a plague or a mere infection, it is serious. He understands that time is crucial, and that people’s lives are at stake here, and hesitation is not an option. One may hesitate on the wording, but they cannot hesitate in the actions. So while Dr. Rieux pushes for action, to treat it as if it were a plague, regardless of whether it truly is or not, and despite his own personal feelings. The Prefect refuses to do so.


*Translator’s note from this book’s edition

“On the day after that Rieux could read some little white posters that the Prefecture had rapidly had stuck up in the least obtrusive corners of the town. From this poster it was hard to reach the conclusion that the authorities were confronting the situation. The measures were far from draconian and it appeared that a good deal had been done to avoid upsetting public opinion.”

I especially like the detail here, that this poster was placed very out of the way, and for that reason difficult to find. The narrator goes on to explaining the measures announced, which are quite reasonable, yet inefficient (I will circle back to this). But not only did the prefecture take 2 days to announce these, they made the announcement almost inexistent to the general public, and greatly diminished the gravity of the situation. So far, this seems to be a clear critique to governmental organisations. This is the crux that separates Dr. Rieux from Dr. Richard/the Prefect.

“‘So doctor, is it cholera?’

‘Where did you get that idea?’

‘In the paper. The radio says the same thing’

‘No, it's not cholera.’

‘In any case,’ the old man said, in a state of great excitement, ‘they're exaggerating, aren't they, those bigwigs?’

‘Don't believe any of it,’ said the doctor.

He had examined the old man and was now sitting in the middle of the wretched dining-room. Yes, he was afraid. He knew that in this same part of town a dozen patients would be waiting for him the next day [...]”

Here we can see the uncertainty and illness taking a tool on the Doctor. This further strengthens my point that Dr. Rieux is also, like the Prefect, hesitant. They are both hesitant about the same thing: what to call it. But they are hesitant in different ways.

Circling back to the issue of the measures taken by the Prefect, Dr. Rieux states the following:

“The measures that had been taken were insufficient, that was quite clear. As for the 'specially equipped wards', he knew what they were: two outbuildings hastily cleared of other patients, their windows sealed up and the whole surrounded by a cordon sanitaire. If the epidemic did not stop of its own accord, it would not be defeated by the measures that the local administration had dreamed up.”

“Sure enough, in three days the two buildings were full Richard thought that they could requisition a school and provide an auxiliary hospital. Rieux waited for the vaccines to arrive and he lanced lymph nodes. Castel returned to his old books and spent a long time in the library.”

Again, I believe this to be a critique from Camus about not only governmental measures, but just the way authorities always hesitate in the most crucial moments. When it is truly relevant to take action, and do something, is when they seem to be the most afraid to do it. An infection of this sort, always takes anyone by surprise. So, I would like to point out a few brief mentions made about a “serum” so far, the pharmacy has been referred 3 times. And every doctor (or at least Dr. Rieux and Castel) have been waiting on some sort of serum. The pharmaceutical supplier is apparently completely out of it. This is beyond perturbing, but not necessarily strange. Big orders for this serum must be taking place somewhere, perhaps by multiple people, suggesting an even greater number of patients, unknown both to these doctors and the reader. Perhaps, not all doctors have reported the cases. Later on, it is in fact mentioned that the serum has completely run out, that the current batch is enough to treat the current 30 cases, but more will need to be produced.

This fact alone, is beyond disturbing to the current progress of the story, and will surely pose an obstacle later on.

This part of the novel finishes with the following paragraph:

“The epidemic seemed to be declining and for a few days they counted only ten or so deaths. Then, suddenly, it shot up. On the day when the death-toll once more reached thirty, Bernard Rieux looked at the official telegram which the Prefect had held out to him, saying: ‘They're scared’. The telegram read:

‘DECLARE A STATE OF PLAGUE STOP CLOSE THE TOWN.’”

Finally, the government takes action. What it took? Several days of the death tool going up and down. Yet, life is described as if it were normal in Oran. Nothing changed, everyone did their lives as usual, because no one believed or was sincerely aware of how grave a danger this was.

This was the main analysis from this part, but there are a few more events I’d like to analyse. First of, is Cottard. Cottard first appears, when the civil servant, Grand, calls Dr. Rieux. The following scene takes place:

“On the second (and top) floor, on the left-hand door, Rieux read the words ‘Come in, I'm hanged’ in red chalk.”

For some unknown reason, which was later officially registered as “personal sorrows”, Cottard attempted suicide. This event is quite interesting, immediately after Cottard states that, it was but a whim and he wants nothing but peace. He reiterates his desire for peace multiple times throughout this part. According to Grand, Cottard also seems to have suffered some sort of big transformation. His whole personally appears to have shifted immediately after the incident. Yet, the way he describes it, it seems like Cottard is forcing that shift.

“‘I don’t know how to put it, but I have the impression, you see, that he is trying to get on the right side of people, that he wants to have everyone supporting him. He often talks to me, he invites me to go out with him and I’m not always able to refuse. In any case, he interests me and, after all, I did save his life.’”

Now, it is worth keeping in mind that this is only Grand’s personal point of view, an outsider to Cottard’s mind. Still, the way he puts it, that “he is trying to get on the right side of people”, is certainly interesting. Especially when paired with other aspects of his character. Further into the conversation, Grand said the following:

“‘He's a man’, he said, ‘who has something on his conscience.’”

This sentence alone is strangely eerie. It leaves me to ponder whether Grand knows more than he lets on, or whether this is all his own speculations and judgment. Still, Cottard’s behaviour does not make him much justice. For some unknown reason Cottard has shown a great dislike, if not contempt, towards the police and even to be afraid of them (example, when the police interrogated him over his attempted suicide). This paragraph caught my attention:

“But she stopped when she saw Cottard suddenly become very agitated and rush out of her shop without a word of apology. Grand and the woman were left with their arms dangling, watching him vanish.”

Here the woman was speaking of a recent arrest. Cottard’s reaction reveals that he isn’t just afraid of the police, he is angry. Grand has also described him as being “suspicious”. All of these factors together paint an eerie picture around Cottard. Why does he dislike the police? Why is he seemingly attempting to build support? And why right after his attempt? Why did he attempt in the first place? I wonder if this will be developed later, and how.

Another detail I want to point out is the weather. Right after Dr. Rieux and Dr. Richard’s phone call, there is a detailed description of the weather. It is described as slowly growing more turbulent/unpleasant. In contrast with the initial weather, which was nice. This reveals a funnelling of space, often used in tragic literature. It not only reflects the mood of the whole town, as the tragedy sets its place, but it creates ambiance to the terror to come. Like a warning, which nobody heeds to. And truly, no one heeded any warning. Not the rats, not the sick, not the doctor’s complaints, not the dead. No matter what sign, action only took place, when the gravity of the situation spiked.

Camus does a great job at playing with the weather and ambience. Right at the end, the weather is described once more. The weather returns to the initial description of pleasantness, making everything seem normal and “fine”. It is quite a good detail that the “Thousands of roses withered in the flower-sellers’ baskets on the pavements, and their sugary scent wafted across town.” This is the only apparent change, compared to the beginning, in which the flowers were fresh for sale. Yet, this calm, this peace, is disturbed by the received telegram. Things are only calm on the surface, underneath the sick are dying in their houses or in make-shift hospitals.

This scene, in particular, is also something I would like to mention:

“But what are a hundred million deaths? When one has fought a war, one hardly knows any more what a dead person is. And if a dead man has no significance unless one has seen him dead, a hundred million bodies spread through history are just a mist drifting through the imagination. The doctor recalled the plague of Constantinople which, according to Procopius, claimed ten thousand victims in one day. Ten thousand dead equals five times the audience in a large cinema. That's what you should do. You should get all the people coming out of five cinemas, take them to a square in the town and make them die in a heap; then you would grasp it better. At least, one might put some known faces on this anonymous pile.”

This reveals very real thoughts regarding statistics. A number is nothing but a number. And sometimes it is difficult to truly understand the magnitude of something by simply staring at a percentage or a random digit. 1000 dead people, shocking to the average citizen, another Tuesday for a medic in the battlefield, or a doctor during an epidemic. Yet 1 dead family member or friend, is enough to tear any man apart, no matter the profession. Statistics are cold and plain, and while they provide data that is required to reach a solution or outcome, they have no real feeling in them. So how can a man, who has been so desensitised to death and illness, bring himself to care when looking at a number? I believe this translates in Dr. Rieux’s thoughts and feelings throughout this part. He clearly cares, but it is difficult to keep doing so when numbing oneself to death and illness is almost a requirement to his profession.

Finally, I’d like to just transcribe here some quotes I found interesting, but I won’t necessarily analyse or comment on.

“[...]there is nothing more normal nowadays than to see people work from morning to evening, then choose to waste the time they have left for living at cards, in a café or in idle chatter.” (Pages 6 & 7).

“‘Please’, he said. ‘Take care of yourself.’

But she could not have heard him.” (Page 14).

“Without raising his voice Rieux said that he knew nothing about that, but that it was the language of a man weary of the world in which he lived, yet who still had some feeling for his fellow men and was determined for his part to reject any injustice and any compromise.” (Pages 15 & 16).

“The little girl is about to cry. That's what he wants.” (Page 34).

“The two poodles stuck their noses into their bowls and the owl thanked her with a nod that gave little away.” (Page 34).

Here Tarrou is talking about a family, who runs a restaurant. His referring to each family member as an animal is intriguing. Specially in contrast with everyone else he has spoken about.

“[...] To console him, I said: ‘But everybody has the same thing.’

‘Exactly,’ he replied. ‘Now we are like everybody.’” (Page 35).

[End of Part I analysis]