The Plague

With Oran in full lockdown, its residents, who initially failed to acknowledge that the plague had become “everyone’s business,” now find themselves in the same boat. With all meaningful forms of communication halted, residents begin to realize the simple elements of life that they have long taken for granted; as is often the case, only in losing something does its value shine through. Quarantine causes Oran’s residents to feel both imprisoned and exiled, seemingly contradictory states in that the former entails being locked within a place and the latter involves being sent away from a place. Of course, Oranians have not been exiled from their city—though the quarantine in effect causes Rambert’s exile from France—but the once-familiar Oran has grown unrecognizable to its people.

During quarantine, the characters become mouthpieces for different emotional reactions to isolation and nuanced philosophical viewpoints. In effect, Oran’s lockdown provides the narrative discursive space for varying philosophies to come into dialogue and debate. Continuing to lament his inability to find the right words for his novel, Grand grows intensely sentimental during quarantine as he reflects on his failed marriage. Rieux the humanist has no room for sentimentality and flowery language, which only stand in the way of his rational “get the job done” approach; for this, Rambert accuses him of living “in a world of abstractions” (42).

Like Rieux, Paneloux also lives in the world of rationalized abstractions. The priest’s basis for abstraction derives from his absolute faith in God—a quality that juxtaposes with Rieux’s characterization. Unlike Rieux, who sees death by plague up close every day, Paneloux preaches about plague death more from a removed, biblical standpoint than from that of his actual surroundings. In fact, for the priest, the only concrete reminder of Oran’s current crisis comes in the form of a symbol-turned-reality—a torrential storm that erupts outside the cathedral during his sermon.

A humanist like Rieux, Tarrou voices his outright condemnation of the death penalty when the discussion of potentially using prison labor to perform difficult tasks occasioned by the plague arises; the sanitary squads—a plague-fighting volunteer corps—come into being due to Tarrou’s convictions. Rambert—like most Oranians—dwells in his personal suffering, in his case caused by being separated from his beloved; during quarantine, he professes loving his wife—rather than working—to be his raison d’être. At the end of Part 2, despite their diverging perspectives, these characters all find common ground as they rally together out of “common decency” to fight the pestilence.

Since the novel’s publication, readers and critics have read Camus’s fictitious account of quarantine in Oran as an allegory of the German occupation of Paris—and much of the rest of France and Europe—during World War II. Given the temporal proximity between the war and the narrator’s notation of the plague’s occurrence, the parallel holds water. Like Parisians during Nazi occupation, Oranians are essentially trapped in their homes and cut off from outside contact, which elevates their sense of anxiety and despair. For both peoples, time becomes virtually meaningless; like prisoners, they are “[h]ostile to the past, impatient of the present, and cheated of the future” (35). The quarantine period in Oran presents a portrait of physical and psychological suffering commensurate with that experienced by those living under Nazi rule, as both groups try in vain to find sense and meaning in a world turned increasingly dark and absurd. Neither group finds answers explaining why and how such cruelty has befallen them.

Both groups live “under the vast indifference of the sky” (36), a theme Camus repeatedly explores through his use of the weather to reflect fluctuating conditions in Oran and to advance the plot. As quarantine progresses, the weather comes to dictate Oranians’ moods to the point where they become subservient to “a burst of sunshine” (36) or a rainstorm. Devoid of their own capacity to comprehend their situation and regulate their moods, residents are “at the mercy of the sky’s caprices” (36)—a sky that delivers no explanations.

Those seeking answers blame those in power, with local officials—whose decisions are relayed through the press—being the most visible targets. In occupied France and plague-ridden Oran, some attempt to benefit from society’s misfortune. In the novel, Oran’s cinema-houses, though unable to import new films, draw heavy profits by showing older movies to a public hungry for distraction from the plague. Similarly, Cottard revels during quarantine, not unlike Europe’s Nazi collaborators, as the urgent health concerns displace authorities’ searches for criminals. Afforded a period of relative freedom from worry, Cottard makes money hand over fist by smuggling contraband goods. For a short time, Rambert appears to be in complicity with Cottard, whose dealings in the underground link Rambert to contacts who may be able to facilitate his escape from Oran. Ultimately, all but Cottard work in tandem to fight the plague’s evils.

Just as the old asthmatic and Grand live in the absurd—because they endlessly pursue tasks that can never be finalized—the sanitary squad’s efforts to combat the plague indicate an element of the absurd. Rieux and Tarrou remain well aware of this condition; the doctor knows that despite his medical skills and concerted efforts, he will encounter death after death, and Tarrou knows that his squad can accomplish only a fraction of the work that lies ahead of it. Still, amid the omnipresent whistling of plague and silence of death haunting Oran, the characters forge ahead, fighting the noble fight.