albert camus the plague essay

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › French Literature › Analysis of Albert Camus’s The Plague

Analysis of Albert Camus’s The Plague

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on August 4, 2023

The Plague was written by Albert Camus (1913–60), one of the most gifted and influential writers and philosophers in the French language of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957. Camus was born in Mondovi, Algeria. The Plague, written during the German occupation of France in World War II, examines how an outbreak of the bubonic plague grips the Algerian city of Oran. The town on the seacoast of North Africa is mysteriously overrun by thousands of rats that bring a deadly pestilence to the citizenry. The story is Camus’s modernist version of Daniel Defoe’s 18th-century A Journal of the Plague Year. The Plague is also Camus’s allegorical treatment of the German forces invading Europe.

The central concern of the novel falls on the response by the public to the deadly disease rather than on the ravages of the plague. At first many of the town’s doctors and leaders deny the existence of the plague. They rely on the false hope that the human deaths might have a source other than bubonic plague. But as the number of dead begins to mount, the citizenry begins to realize that an epidemic has become their enemy. The disease creates hysteria and fear. People shun one another and become isolated within their homes. Soon the newspapers clamor for action. The ravages of the plague finally force the town’s bureaucrats to order a strict quarantine of Oran, leaving the citizenry imprisoned within the city’s gates and isolated from the rest of the world.

The Plague addresses a social response to the absurd condition of existence, rather than one individual’s response, as addressed in Camus’s earlier novel, The Stranger . Camus defines the absurd as life, devoid of God and constantly faced with evil forces, with no ultimate rational meaning. The denizens of Oran eventually find that they cannot fight against the plague or stem its deadly consequences, except for measures such as burning bodies and enforcing strict sanitation practices. Despite these minor human responses, the plague continues its devastating course. Dr. Rieux, the novel’s protagonist, fights against a disease for which there is no cure, as well as an apathetic society, and he quickly realizes that human intervention brings only a modicum of relief.

The townspeople of Oran are left in a state of anguish and alienation. But Camus’s story explores both the town’s collective response and that of the individual, evidenced through Dr. Rieux, to such daunting and irrational forces as a widespread plague. The only response possible, according to Camus’s philosophy of the absurd, comes through Dr. Rieux. Camus’s absurd hero achieves the ultimate rebellion against an indifferent universe by denying the illusion of a rational order while also resisting total despair. He turns away from religion and other social props and seeks a way, designed by the human will, to strengthen the community.

The town’s collective response becomes therapeutic, albeit only in an ennobling manner, as the unity of action does not curtail the physical manifestations of the plague. After the quarantine persists for several months, many of Oran’s denizens abandon their selfish obsession with personal suffering. The plague is seen as a collective enemy that concerns everyone. They recognize their social responsibility and take up efforts against the plague.

The ending of The Plague reaffirms Camus’s contention that the only response to an absurd existence, whether collective or individual, is a conscious rebellion against irrationalism. The individual may never defeat such overwhelming forces because a rational response is incongruent with irrational forces; even so, an individual’s rebellion creates in that moment of resistance a worthy human condition.

Dr. Rieux’s existential response also exemplifies in novel form Camus’s retelling of the Greek myth of Sisyphus in his highly anthologized essay “The Myth of Sisyphus.” The Greek gods have condemned Sisyphus for his transgressions to endlessly rolling a boulder up a mountainside. As the condemned man nears the summit, the rock tumbles back down the slope of its own weight, only to have Sisyphus again taking up his inexorable burden. But Camus thinks that Sisyphus must be considered happy because he has rebelled against the irrational forces in the universe. Camus imagines the absurd hero, despite his tragic fate, to be defiant in spirit and unbroken by the gods. From using the abstract forces of the Greek gods in “The Myth of Sisyphus,” Camus adopts the more specific, although allegorical, use of rats infested with the pestilence for the German forces occupying much of Europe in The Plague .

In The Plague Camus argues that rebellion against suffering and death ultimately ends in futility. Even in ordinary life, death eventually wins out. The novel also underscores the position that human defiance of the absurd world sounds a noble note despite the inevitable defeat of this resistance. The Plague outlines Camus’s humanistic optimism in moments of deepest despair and meaninglessness. In existential terms, this fraternal solidarity alone defines the individual instead of innate or spiritual essences.

The Plague is part of a group of three literary works Camus termed The Absurds . The other two works are the companion pieces The Stranger, a short novel, and “The Myth of Sisyphus,” a philosophical essay. The Plague is the longest and most developed of the three works.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Akeroyd, Richard H. The Spiritual Quest of Albert Camus. Tuscaloosa, Ala.: Portals Press, 1976. Aronson, Ronald. Camus & Sartre. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Beauclair, Michelle. Albert Camus, Marguerite Duras, and the Legacy of Mourning. New York: Peter Lang, 1998. Bloom, Harold, ed. Albert Camus. New York: Chelsea House, 1989. Braun, Lev. Witness of Decline: Albert Camus. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1974. Ellison, David R. Understanding Albert Camus. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1990. Falk, Eugene H. Types of Thematic Structure: The Nature and Function of Motifs in Gide, Camus, and Sartre. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. Freeman, E. The Theatre of Albert Camus: A Critical Study. London: Methuen, 1971. Grenier, Jean. Albert Camus: Souvenirs. Paris: Gallimard, 1968. Lazere, Donald. The Unique Creation of Albert Camus. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1973.

Share this:

Categories: French Literature , Literature , Novel Analysis

Tags: Albert Camus , Albert Camus's The Plague , Analysis of Albert Camus's The Plague , Appreciation of Albert Camus's The Plague , Criticism of Albert Camus's The Plague , Essays of Albert Camus's The Plague , Guide of Albert Camus's The Plague , Notes of Albert Camus's The Plague , Plot of Albert Camus's The Plague , Review of Albert Camus's The Plague , Story of Albert Camus's The Plague , Structure of Albert Camus's The Plague , The Plague

Related Articles

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• Corrections

The Plague by Albert Camus: “Can One Be a Saint Without God?”

Depicting the effects a plague epidemic has on the people of Oran, The Plague is a classic novel of twentieth-century French literature that continues to resonate with modern-day readers.

First published in 1947, La Peste ( The Plague ) is a classic novel of French literature in which Albert Camus describes the effects an outbreak of the bubonic plague has on an otherwise thoroughly ordinary city in (what was then) French Algeria. Aside from this straightforward summary, however, the novel has been interpreted as an allegorical or metaphoric depiction of life for ordinary French people under the Nazi occupation of 1940-45, and it has also resonated with a new generation of readers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Plague : Plot Summary

Told over five distinct sections (echoing the five acts of a Greek tragedy), The Plague is set in Oran, Algeria, which, at the time, was a French colony. In what Camus’ narrator stresses is a thoroughly ordinary town, rats begin to die in the streets of Oran, with Dr. Bernard Rieux finding a dead rat on the landing outside his consulting room. As the number of rats dying increases, panic ensues among the people, and the papers report on this strange turn of events. Eventually, the town’s authorities order a collection of the rat carcasses, unwittingly helping to spread the bubonic plague that was carried by the fleas on the rats and caused the rats’ deaths.

When the concierge of Dr. Rieux’s apartment building dies following a short illness which manifested as a fever, vomiting, and painfully swollen lymph nodes, he and his colleagues discuss the possibility that they are dealing with an outbreak of the bubonic plague. As more deaths of a similar nature follow, pressure mounts for the medical authorities to take decisive action. Local authorities, however, including Oran’s Prefect, are slow to take action and, not wanting to cause a panic, downplay the seriousness of the disease.

But the death toll continues to rise, the 80 extra emergency beds installed at the hospital are filled within the space of three days, and the country’s emergency reserves of plague serum are exhausted. An outbreak of plague is officially declared at the end of the novel’s first part, and the town is cut off from the outside world. Under these new conditions, mail is no longer delivered to or out of the town, and the telephone lines are only to be used in the event of an emergency, leaving Oran largely dependent on the city’s telegram system.

Get the latest articles delivered to your inbox

Please check your inbox to activate your subscription.

This, in turn, affects the morale within the town, with one character, Raymond Rambert, desperate to leave. Not being from Oran, he is keen to leave and rejoin his wife in Paris, asking for Rieux’s help by granting him a clean bill of health, which Rieux refuses.

Father Paneloux, a Jesuit preacher, tells the people of Oran that the plague is the scourge of God, sent to punish them for their wicked and ungodly ways. This leads many townspeople to turn to religion. And just as Paneloux turns the plague outbreak to his advantage, Cottard (who, at the novel’s start, attempted suicide) amasses great wealth through smuggling goods while the town is supposed to be cut off from the outside world.

Rambert, meanwhile, is still determined to leave and tells Jean Tarrou, a wealthy holidaymaker, of his plans to escape. Tarrou, however, points out that Rambert is not the only person in the town to be separated from loved ones due to the plague, as Rieux’s wife is also away from him, staying at a sanatorium. Rambert then resolves to stay and assist Rieux in fighting the plague.

By the middle of August, however, many others besides Rambert are just as eager to escape. However, those who try to flee are shot down by armed guards. After violence and theft break out, martial law is declared and a curfew imposed. Meanwhile, funeral services become brief, cursory affairs, and the town’s mood continues to suffer even more.

By the autumn, the plague is still ravaging Oran. Rieux receives word from the sanatorium that his wife’s health is declining. In order to continue in the relentless task of treating plague victims, however, he must close himself off emotionally.

Cottard, however, feels more connected than ever to the other people of the town, as they now all face a common danger, and Rambert turns down an offer to escape, claiming that if he were to do so, he would feel ashamed of himself.

Meanwhile, the death of M. Othon’s infant son from the plague makes Paneloux modify his more fire-and-brimstone style of sermonizing. He preaches a second sermon addressing the issue of the suffering of the innocent, especially the suffering of an innocent child. He portrays this issue as a test of one’s faith in God, as it asks us to either believe wholeheartedly or deny the existence of an omnibenevolent God. He implores the congregation not to waver in their faith or their commitment to combating the disease and its spread but to continue to do their utmost in the fight against the plague.

This is precisely what Othon, Oran’s conservative magistrate, decides to do once his time in quarantine comes to an end. He chooses to remain in the isolation camp as a volunteer as a means of giving his life purpose and occupying him while he grieves the death of his son.

Joseph Grand, a dreary civil servant, catches the plague and, fearing it will prove fatal, instructs Rieux to burn all his papers, including the masterwork he has been toiling away over for many years. The plague, however, goes into remission, and Grand recovers.

By the end of January, the people of Oran look forward to the imminent reopening of the gates. Cottard, on the other hand, is less enthusiastic about the prospect of returning to normality, and many other characters featured in the novel do not live to see freedom return once more to the town.

Set in the 1940s and first published in 1947, it is possible that Camus took inspiration from the 1944 outbreak of the plague in Oran. During this outbreak, however, there were only 95 cases, whereas the outbreak described in The Plague is far more widespread. Therefore, Camus was likely largely inspired by the cholera epidemic that devastated Oran in 1849.

Camus’ decision to set the novel in the 1940s has further significance, however. From 1940 to the end of the war in 1945, France was under Nazi occupation and had only been recently liberated at the time when Camus wrote the novel. In its depiction of the resistance and bravery of ordinary people against a seemingly indomitable evil, The Plague has therefore been interpreted as an allegorical portrayal of life under Nazi occupation.

It is also worth noting that Camus himself was a prominent member of the French Resistance movement. As Camus himself states: “What’s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves.”

More recently, however, The Plague has seemed to resonate with readers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, such was the demand for Camus’ absurdist novel that, in 2020, Penguin reported that they were struggling to keep up with sales of the English translation, which had increased by 150% compared with the previous year. Meanwhile, the novel became a top-ten bestseller in Italy, and in France, sales increased by a staggering 300% relative to the sales of the year before.

“ The message of La Peste rings true today as it did back then, as it will in the future’, Camus’ daughter, Catherine, has stated: ‘We are not responsible for coronavirus but we can be responsible in the way we respond to it. ’”

Critical Responses

Camus is a Nobel Prize laureate , and The Plague is widely hailed as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. While it has been typically viewed as an allegorical or metaphorical treatment of French life under the Third Reich, John Cruikshank argues that The Plague is also a meditation on “man’s metaphysical dereliction in the world.” While this is very much in keeping with Camus’ absurdist view on the world and humanity’s place within it , Cruikshank’s interpretation suggests that (as is typical of great literature) The Plague is simultaneously a timely response to contemporary society and a timeless meditation on broader human themes.

Despite Camus’ avowed absurdism (he preferred absurdism over existentialism ), The Plague is also a deeply humanist novel. As Marina Warner has observed , far from demonstrating “how all pieties stink,” the novel “is about courage, about engagement, about paltriness and generosity, about small heroism and large cowardice, and about all kinds of profoundly humanist problems, such as love and goodness, happiness and mutual connection.”

Warner also notes that, although the novel is set in Oran, none of the characters are Arabs – an oversight not especially mitigated by the fact that Oran is meant to stand in for France during the Nazi occupation. She also observes that women are largely absent from the novel, or, as she puts it, they “ are achingly always elsewhere .”

While The Plague has been interpreted as an allegory of life in Nazi-occupied France and has found new pertinence with the COVID-19 pandemic, as a cautionary tale, it also carries a wider, more timeless significance. It warns against putting oneself before the good of the community and celebrates courage through adversity. For these reasons, The Plague will likely continue to speak to readers for many more generations to come.

Life is Absurd! Exploring Albert Camus’ Rebellious Philosophy

By Catherine Dent MA 20th and 21st Century Literary Studies, BA English Literature Catherine holds a first-class BA from Durham University and an MA with distinction, also from Durham, where she specialized in the representation of glass objects in the work of Virginia Woolf. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction, reading, and spending time with her rescue dog, Finn.

Frequently Read Together

The Black Death: Europe’s Deadliest Pandemic in Human History

Collaborationist or “Neutral”: What Was Vichy France?

Charles de Gaulle: The Man Who Saved France

Albert Camus

• Literature Notes
• The Plague as Allegory
• Albert Camus Biography
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Dr. Bernard Rieux
• Father Paneloux
• Jean Tarrou
• Raymond Rambert
• Joseph Grand
• Critical Essays
• Camus and the Absurd
• Essay Questions
• Suggested Theme Topics
• Cite this Literature Note

Critical Essays The Plague as Allegory

Attempts to explain an allegorical work are, at best, rarely satisfactory. Allegorical interpretations are as elusive and as tenuous as their interpreters. One critic will charge that the work has been diced into irreparable ruins; another will dismiss the same essay as superficial and general. Camus recognized this difficulty and remarked that only broad outlines should be paralleled in allegorical comment. To attempt a thorough analysis would be to suggest that the work was not art but contrived artifice. It is in this spirit of generalities that The Plague has been considered.

Camus' chronicle had been conceived as early as 1939, but was not begun until after France was defeated and the Germans moved their occupation troops into the country. During these years Camus kept a series of notebooks and many of the jottings in the notebooks suggest the multitude of ideas that Camus considered before his book was finally completed. Nearly all these early Plague ideas reveal Camus' concern for a truthful realism and a rejection of sensationalism. They also indicate his continuing insistence that his book carry his metaphysical ideas of the absurd. Initially Camus was even wary of the word plague. Late in 1942, he cautions himself not to include the word in the title. He considers The Prisoners. Later and more frequently he mentions the prisoner idea and, especially, the theme of separation.

Several kinds of separation are apparent already in the first part. Within the plot line, many of the characters are separated from one another by their small-time greeds, their lack of human love, and their indifference. There is also the separation of the living and the dead as the plague progresses into Oran. The ill are put into isolation camps and are separated from relatives and family. Finally, and of philosophical interest, is the separation of nature and the Oranians. The setting is awesome and beautiful on the sea. Throughout the sick-tainted days of the epidemic, nature is radiant. Man's plight seems nonexistent. Here is Camus' crux. Man wants and prays fervently to be important to some guiding force in the heavens — something larger than himself. Yet there is only beautiful, sun-warmed silence; there is only separation between man and his universe.

What supreme irony that man should be in such total isolation and long most for the impossible. The universe is indifferent to us, to our plagues of whatever magnitude. Nothing is certain but death. We are isolated. Alone. These are the truths which Camus believed about existence and which he hoped to parallel in Oran's situation, cut off from the outside world and imprisoned by the plague. And, in this extreme situation, he created characters who would be forced to think, reflect, and assume responsibility for living. Death is faced by many of the Oranians for the first time — and with all the horror of a plague. This confrontation with death is mandatory for experiencing the Absurd. The symbol of the plague can, of course, represent any hardship or disaster, but rationally facing our existence is probably one of the most extreme of metaphysical trials. One never fully experiences until he has gone through a struggle for self-understanding and, in The Plague, the symptoms of the rats suggest the confusion one undergoes before this long struggle. The symptoms of distress — of this need to understand oneself and one's universe — can of course be ignored, but finally one does have to face himself honestly and endure a plague-like period of readjustment to the truths one must live with. Within existential philosophy this examination period is mandatory. It is actually a reassertion of Socrates' "the unexamined life is not worth living."

There seem, however, to be few positive or concrete symptoms of distress before man comes to terms with his existence in the universe. On the contrary, there seem to be only negatives and nothings to confirm this distressed feeling. One must reach rock bottom and begin questioning a faith that began long ago to cope with the revelation of the frauds of Santa Claus, of stork-delivered babies, and the perfection of, at least, one of our parents. Everyone finally seemed composed of a measure of hypocrisy, greed, and selfishness. People become, simply, human. And with honest consideration even the superhuman becomes suspectedly human. The universe is ever silent. Prayer seems much less than even 50-50 certain. God's whimsy confuses.

Awareness of a godless universe and a thorough re-evaluation of one's life and one's civilization is of prime importance within the existential context. Man's struggle to adjust to his new vision, his guilty relapse into easeful hope for eternal life, and his fleeting thoughts of suicide — all these will plague him until he will, with new insight, re-emerge to live with the absurd vision, with spiritual hope, or self-impose his own death.

The plague is also a useful symbol for all evil and suffering. The old Spaniard suggests that life is plague-like and Rieux seems to argue for this possibility of interpretation. Facing a plague's problems is no more than facing the problem of man's mortality. Camus' atheism may at first seem repugnant, but it is affirmative because it stresses each man's role as representative in its responsibility and commitment. Camus does not tempt man to endure suffering or evil for promised rewards in the hereafter. He denounces evil and offers human dignity to men who will end suffering through action, not through prayer. He offers man the awful burden of total freedom to determine the fate of mankind — with no recourse to an always, all-forgiving deity. God can too easily become last-minute insurance. His forgiveness entitles man to exist in the lifeless monotony of Oran, living life selfishly and indifferently until crisis time.

Leaving the metaphysical and turning to the concrete, remember that while he was writing The Plague, Camus was living in a homeland occupied by German conquerors. His country was imprisoned as completely as plague might seal off its borders. There was destruction, death, and suffering. The cruel violence of this was as unjust as the cruelty of a plague. And Camus' chronicle is a personal affirmation of the worth of human beings and life despite — despite being exiled in the universe, despite being ravaged by disease and tyrants. It is a belief in life's potential for multiple meaning and fullness.

This belief is especially remarkable because Camus realized that the world was not conscientiously reacting to the symptoms of war. France, particularly, has been criticized by historians for succumbing too easily to the Nazis and delivering their country into German hands. But France was not alone. These symptoms were known to all countries, and because Part I of Camus' book deals with symptoms of the plague and the reaction of the populace to them, we might now consider the symptoms that preluded World War 11 and some of the national reactions. Further, we might recount some of the major national deaths before the United States actively entered the fight against the Axis powers.

Aggression was first initiated by Japan in September, 1931, when she moved into Chinese Manchuria. The trouble spot was oceans away. The Chinese made appeal to the League of Nations, who appointed a committee to study the problem. The committee verbally condemned the aggression, but no active measures were taken to repel Japan. Her next move was a deeper penetration into northern China.

The actions taken against the enemy, then and in Camus' book, were on paper — compiling, counting, suggesting. To combat either a plague or a hungry aggressor, piles of study reports often amount to the same kind of ashcan effectiveness.

The Chinese Nationalist government recognized Japan's conquests, but the rebelistic Chinese Communists refused, demanding that the invaders be driven out. They finally kidnapped Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and demanded immediate military action against the enemy. But the Chinese continued to retreat and in 1938 Japan openly proclaimed a New Order. Chiang Kai-shek's empire was to be annihilated and all Occidentals were to be removed so that a new and completely Oriental government might be established.

Here was solid proof of aggression that should be halted, but because Japan had not declared war, could another nation label her actions aggressive? The policy of look-see (the same as that of Dr. Richard, Dr. Rieux's opponent, in The Plague ) was generally agreed to at this time.

Meanwhile, happenings in Europe were somewhat parallel. In 1936, Hitler had sufficiently mesmerized the German people into a growing Nazi war machine. His first move was to march into the Rhineland. After World War 1, this area had been a kind of no-man's land. Originally it was to have been ruled by France; later decisions filled it with Allied occupation troops. It was to be strictly demilitarized. Hitler's invasion was in gross violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Further, it violated the Locarno treaty, which reaffirmed the zone as demilitarized and which France, Germany, and Belgium agreed not to invade. Any offender would be attacked by the other two signers.

Camus could be justifiably proud of his nation in this crisis. While the rest of the world looked on at the Rhineland, France mobilized 150,000 troops. She alone responded. Other nations thought it unwise to engage in militaristics; some feared the label of "warmonger"; others simply saw Germany as arming her borders, a rather natural thing for a country to want to do.

In 1936, Italy overran Ethiopia. France, Britain, and the United States seemed indifferent.

Meanwhile, Hitler continued his expansion. Austria was swallowed in March, 1938; a year later, Czechoslovakia was overwhelmed by the Nazis. In America people went to their jobs, hoping for the best. Enjoying relief from the earlier Depression, they were not anxious to face the horrors of war.

During this time President Roosevelt delivered his "quarantine speech," stating that peace was being jeopardized by a small portion of the world. Later in 1939 he speculated that "in case of war" the Germans and the Italians might win.

Even earlier than Roosevelt's quarantine speech, however, Winston Churchill (a Rieux or Castel figure) had the reason and the imagination to consider what confronted the world. "Do not suppose that this is the end," he said. "This is only the beginning of the reckoning . . . which will be proffered to us year by year unless, by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor, we arise again and take our stand for freedom . . . . . .

United States armed soldiers came to Europe late. Only in December, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, did the United States officially enter the world conflict. Before this entry the Nazis had invaded Poland, conquered Denmark and Norway, defeated Holland and Belgium, driven through France, captured Paris, annexed Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Finally they threatened Britain with successive air raids. Then they turned toward the Soviet Union.

Throughout these years, the people of the United States had commented on these tragedies to each other over bowls of breakfast cereal. And, as the Nazi machine devoured the houses of European neighbors, the United States continued to go its way — like Grand, Cottard, Rambert, and many others of the Oranians. We hoped for the best, that this plague would sate itself and relent. Ironically, after we quarantined ourselves from the European conflict, we found ourselves in a kind of quarantine after Pearl Harbor. Our Allies lay wounded at the Nazis' heels and we were surrounded by enemies.

Thus not only can one see parallels in the French people's failure to curb German encroachment and occupation, but a general reluctance on the part of people everywhere to recognize the germination of the plague of war. Finally, of course, must come the formal declaration.

Even before their country was occupied by la peste brune (the brown plague), as the brown-uniformed Nazis were called, the French people did not consider the mobilization orders serious. Sisley Huddleston, in his book France, the Tragic Years, reports that the general comment was "it will be like last year." The people thought it silly to cry "Wolf!" when there was no real danger.

When war was official, there was the same sense of incredulity that Oran suffered. There was also death, but it was not caused by the kind of war fought in 1914. This time war was mechanized. Nazis parachuted their troops, had amphibious craft, and Panzer divisions. The French were ill-equipped and fear was as destructive as the Nazis' machines. This fear, plus the lack of any cohesion weakened the country. By degrees, waves of panic, dejection, and indifference swept the trapped people. At the war's beginning, even Camus was rather unbelieving; later he was morose when the conflict could not be averted. He blamed both the masses and the leaders for their weaknesses, just as in The Plague, he attacks the indifferent citizens and their wishy-washy officials.

The plague lasts almost a year; the Occupation of France lasted four years. During those years the majority of the French people clung instinctively to life, seeking out small pleasures, praying intermittently, hoping for signs but, largely, neither aiding nor resisting the enemy. The Resistance was not a large organization, just as Rieux's team was also not large. But they persevered, believing in the rightness of their efforts. It was not easy to murder men merely because they were Occupation troops. Tarrou's philosophy seemed most humane, but Camus and others finally took the stand that he writes of in his "Letters to a German Friend." Here he confesses the difficulty he had in affirming violence to counter the enemy. He stresses the agony that intelligence burdens one with, especially when one is fighting savage violence and aware of consequences of which the enemy is ignorant.

The despair and the separation were endured by the French people until the Allied troops liberated the country trapped behind the Occupational walls. And, like all men, like even those survivors of World War 1, the French swore never again to let tragedies like this happen. Mankind, however, is free. Camus believes in the potential of the human race to avoid destroying itself. But he offers it the freedom to do so — under one condition: that each man assume his guilt for the holocaust.

Previous Camus and the Absurd

The Plague, a Review

Margaret Betz reviews Camus' classic.

The Plague , by Albert Camus was first published in 1947.

As I write, the world collectively continues to bear the weight of the coronavirus pandemic; it wears on without clear end in sight. I found myself hesitant, therefore, to pick up Albert Camus’ The Plague , worried it would only increase my general unease. What struck me upon rereading this classic is how well Camus succeeds at capturing the feel of this nearly unimaginable experience, especially for someone who had never endured it himself. Far from adding to my apprehension, Camus’ book offers moments of catharsis and hope.

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. Published in 1947, The Plague focuses on the character of Bernard Rieux, a doctor in Oran. In the opening pages, Rieux notices an ominously increasing number of dead rats around town. The townspeople are repulsed by this growing problem but are otherwise not concerned about what is clearly a formidable threat to the animals living among them. If recent environmental crises have taught us anything, it is that this kind of wilful neglect will haunt the people of Oran.

With the first series of deaths displaying the same curious symptoms, town officials squabble about whether or not the deaths qualify as an “epidemic” and how seriously they should take it. They nervously note how poorly prepared they are with the necessary equipment to treat large numbers of stricken people. Officials advise locals to “practice extreme cleanliness” while privately worrying about how many hospital beds are available. The number of deaths rise, and Oran officials decide it is time to close the town. Businesses are shuttered. Daily deaths are counted. Protective masks are sought. Fake antidotes are advertised. “This here damned disease,” one character says, “even them who haven’t got it can’t think of anything else.” Most of all is the waiting.

Camus dedicates many pages to how the residents of Oran attempt to cope as the plague aggressively descends upon the town. He recognises the mental toll involved in the isolation, in hearing the daily death count, and in the dull inactivity and fear that plague brings. Poignantly capturing the surreal relation to time, Camus writes, “It was undoubtedly the feeling of exile – that sensation of a void within which never left us, that irrational longing to hark back to the past or else to speed up the march of time.” While we longingly remember the freedom of movement and connection we took for granted in the past, we also longingly look to the future and returning to some sort of normalcy.

And yet there is beauty and meaning in this “void”: Rieux describes a daily “sort of dress parade of youths and girls”, which reveals the “frantic desire for life that thrives in the heart of every great calamity”. It soon becomes clear that Camus regards “plague” as the metaphorical plight of us all since we will all eventually face our own death. “Each of us has the plague within him,” declares the character Tarrou. How shall we regard this harsh reality? Camus’ characters refuse to be overwhelmed by the plague, meeting it time and again with resistance. The townsfolk form voluntary “sanitary squads” to help victims, despite the personal risks involved, because there is “certitude a fight must be put up”. Death may eventually await all of us, but together we can fight the best we can to delay each one.

Camus offers solace as both we and the people of Oran collectively mourn the many deaths and mourn the lives we once knew, with a wary eye to the future. What he offers in particular is a meaningful path forward out of the darkness by emphasising his faith in humanity and our willingness to face these burdens together. “On this earth there are pestilences and there are victims,” Tarrou surmises, “and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences.” As Rieux bears witness to the events of the plague-stricken Oran, he realises the importance of courage, which represents the difference between being swallowed up by the plague or prevailing over it.

As things slowly return to normal and people resume their daily lives, Camus describes a sense of comradeship that persists among the people of Oran, who are deeply aware of what they have endured together. It is strangely comforting when townsfolk catch sight of the rats returning, this time indicating signs of normalcy and relative health, akin to the dove returning with an olive branch.

As different parts of the world cautiously begin tentative attempts to reopen, I am reassured by the overwhelming beauty and compassion that emerged during the pandemic. From the lovely impromptu symphonies that arose from Italian balconies to the nurses returning home from work met with applause by their neighbours, Camus would encourage us to rejoice in this “common decency”, as Rieux calls it, that holds us together. Camus’ The Plague shows us the worth of “the path of sympathy” in these troubling times or, as Rieux says, that “a loveless world is a dead world”.

Margaret Betz is an assistant teaching professor of philosophy at Rutgers University – Camden and is the author of the book The Hidden Philosophy of Hannah Arendt.

You might also like...

The Transgender-Rights Issue

Of Our Great Propensity to the Absurd and Marvellous

The Art and Style of Crosswords

Woman as Resource: A Reply to Catharine MacKinnon

Women, Men and Criminal Justice

Philosophia

What Is the Philosophy of Madness?

Who Is Feminism For?

Subscribe to The Philosophers' Magazine for exclusive content and access to 20 years of back issues. 

Most popular.

The Fact/Opinion Distinction

The Meaning of "Asshole"

Want to Be Good at Philosophy? Study Maths and Science

Do Animals Have Free Will?

Can Psychologists Tell Us Anything About Morality?

Reinterpreting Albert Camus’s The Plague How the novel by the Nobel Prize-winning French-Algerian author speaks to our present moment.

Duncan Riley

The existence of political authority must, ultimately, lead to murder: That is the message at the heart of Albert Camus’s novel, La Peste, or, as it is known in English, The Plague. Interest in the book has renewed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but its seditious quality has generally passed unnoticed.

Recent commentators have chosen, understandably, to emphasize aspects with obvious parallels to our present reality. But The Plague is, at its core, a fierce condemnation of authority as domination, with an understanding that as long as it exists, we are susceptible to pestilences—both those that incubate in the human body and those that fester in the human heart.

First published in 1947, Camus’s novel is the fictional chronicle of a plague that strikes the French Algerian city of Oran sometime in the 1940s. It has often been interpreted as a symbolic rendering of the German occupation of France and the gaping wounds left in French society. While Camus’s experiences during the occupation and as a member of the Resistance undoubtedly influenced The Plague, to construe its narrative as a simple allegory would unjustly limit the breadth and depth of its social critique. It is telling that Camus chose to set the novel, not in a totalitarian state, but in the liberal-democratic yet still deeply unequal and segregated environment of French Colonial Algeria. The plague which devours Oran is less a proxy for a manifestly odious occupying force than it is emblematic of the contradictions inherent in democracy, in which the limits of liberal universalism and equality collide against the violent reality of state power.

While Camus’s experiences during the occupation and as a member of the Resistance undoubtedly influenced The Plague, to construe its narrative as a simple allegory would unjustly limit the breadth and depth of its social critique.

As the novel opens, the citizens of Oran are depicted as almost entirely absorbed in the well-established daily rounds of work and habit: “[T]heir chief interest is in commerce,” the narrative indicates, “and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, ‘doing business.’” The outbreak of plague disrupts this drone-like routine; it drags the people of Oran out of the realm of familiarity and into a terrifying realization of their own mortality, compelling them to reconsider what truly matters in life. The individual’s confrontation with the reality of death—and the questions about meaning and authenticity this engenders—is the central concern of existentialist philosophy, of which Camus’s essay The Myth of Sisyphus was a seminal expression. Little surprise, then, that The Plague is taken as another classic of existentialist literature.

But that label must not blind us to the novel’s still broader philosophical concerns. As much as The Plague is concerned with death and meaning, it is even more concerned with murder and the ways authority is used to legitimize it. The deep concern with lethal violence pushes the novel beyond existentialist individualism, in the direction of a profound social inquiry.

Albert Camus in 1957, the year he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Indeed, even as the first disease-bearing rats appear on the streets of Oran, the reader’s attention is drawn to a different, social plague of injustice and indifference. After the protagonist and narrator, Dr. Bernard Rieux, returns from saying good-bye to his wife at the train station, he meets the Parisian journalist Raymond Rambert, who has been tasked with writing a report on the living conditions of the city’s Arab population. Rieux tells Rambert that the conditions are not good, but before he will say any more, demands to know if Rambert would be able to “publish an unqualified condemnation of the present state of things.” When Rambert equivocates, Rieux refuses to offer him any more information, saying he has “no use for statements in which something is held back.”

Amused by this, Rambert accuses him of speaking “the language of Saint-Just,” the Jacobin ideologue who played a key role in the advent of the Reign of Terror. Rieux, however, rejects the association. He is simply “sick and tired of the world he lived in—though he had much liking for his fellow men—and had resolved, for his part, to have no truck with injustice and compromises with the truth.” Their brief exchange establishes clearly and succinctly the conflict that will define the rest of the novel. Confronted with an injustice that threatens human life, Rieux resolves to combat it as best he can—by rejecting state violence, by showing compassion for his fellow humans, and, above all, by committing to tell the truth no matter what the cost.

Unfortunately, Oran’s civic leadership has a far less stringent attitude towards the truth. As the plague begins to claim its first victims, and the epidemic worsens, Rieux, “by dint of a persistence that many thought ill-advised,” convinces the city’s medical and political authorities to convene a meeting to address the growing crisis. The city’s officials, however, are loath to even hear the word plague uttered, since an outbreak of plague would compel them “to take very drastic steps” that might cause a panic and undermine their authority. Led by Dr. Richard, the chairman of the town’s medical board, the committee reproaches Rieux for painting “too gloomy a picture,” arguing that it could not be known for certain that it was plague. Rieux, unimpressed, warns the committee that if they fail to act quickly to put prophylactic measures into place, “half the population may be wiped out.”

Confronted with an injustice which threatens human life, Rieux resolves to combat it as best he can—by rejecting state violence, by showing compassion for his fellow humans, and, above all, by committing to tell the truth no matter what the cost.

After some further verbal sparring, Richard and the authorities resolve “to take the responsibility of acting as though the epidemic were plague.” Disgusted by this dishonest and dangerous approach, Rieux leaves the meeting, only to encounter one of the first victims of the committee’s indifference just a few minutes later: “a woman screaming in agony, her groin dripping blood.” For those in positions of authority, the truth must be made to conform to what they consider to be necessary, even when it means death for half the people they are supposed to be serving.

Though the plague only worsens, the municipal authorities’ response continues to oscillate between lethargic inaction and violent authoritarianism. (To draw contemporary parallels seems superfluous.) Rieux sums up their failure with a derisive exclamation: “Orders… when what’s needed is imagination.” Even as the plague grows so serious that it can no longer be ignored and the city is quarantined, the local government opts for a response that is as much military as it is medical. Many families, not trusting the government and not wishing to be parted with their plague-stricken loved ones, refuse to cooperate with quarantine measures. The city responds with violence—with “batterings on the door, action by the police, and later armed force,” and patients “taken by storm.”

Forced to participate in this charade of coercion masked as medicine, Rieux falls into deep psychological stress. One evening, standing beneath the statue of the Republic, all he can feel is “a bleak indifference steadily gaining on him” as the gears of state power gradually grind his compassion down into dust. Rieux, who began the story by firmly condemning injustice out of a genuine feeling of empathy for his fellow humans, finds he no longer needs to “steel himself against pity,” for “one grows out of pity when it’s useless.”

Rieux’s humanity, fortunately, will ultimately be salvaged by the intervention of Jean Tarrou, a disillusioned political radical who arrived in Oran shortly before the plague began. As cases continue to rise and the city’s medical infrastructure is increasingly overwhelmed, the city’s leaders begin to contemplate conscripting the prisoners in the town jail to perform sanitary services. Upon hearing this, Tarrou comes to Rieux with a proposal. Tarrou does not wish to leave the response to the plague to the authorities alone, in part, because he believes that “[o]fficialdom can never cope with something really catastrophic,” but even more important, because he “loathe[s] men’s being condemned to death.” Tarrou proposes that instead he and Rieux, outside of the realm of officialdom, organize volunteers into sanitary squads to help fight the plague. They escape the murderous dichotomy between the plague and state violence imposed upon Oran by the authorities, and Rieux rededicates himself to the task of fighting injustice, not with power, but with compassion.

Much later, as the epidemic reaches its peak, another conversation between Rieux and Tarrou reveals the deeper criticism of contemporary society behind Tarrou’s efforts. He begins by telling Rieux about his father, a kind man with a strange passion for the railway directory, who served as a prosecuting attorney. One day, when Tarrou was a teenager, his father invited him to observe one of his court cases, and Tarrou was forced to look on in shock as this affectionate, peculiar man transformed into a red-robed monster, cruelly demanding the death of another man. From that moment on Tarrou realized that the whole “social order… was based on the death sentence,” on “murder in its most despicable form,” and resolved to struggle against this profoundly unjust order.

Yet after witnessing an execution in Hungary, Tarrou came to realize that, in attempting to put an end to murder, he had himself aided in committing many murders—that he, in his own words, carried the plague: not the biological scourge but a contagion of politics, a virus of authority which renders the human conscience mute and human life worthless. In Tarrou’s disillusioned view, almost everyone in the world suffers from plague, for all of us have the capacity to harden our hearts to others’ suffering and claim the right to punish and kill; in short, to become “a rational murderer.”

The only remedy for this fatal condition that Tarrou can propose is to recognize “that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences,” to follow not the path of domination, but “the path of sympathy.”

In Tarrou’s disillusioned view, almost everyone in the world suffers from plague, for all of us have the capacity to harden our hearts to others’ suffering and claim the right to punish and kill; in short, to become “a rational murderer.”

The plague begins to ebb away, though not without carrying off Tarrou in one of its last spasms of violence. When it ends—as abruptly as it began—the cruelty and injustice it brought to the fore remain. Shortly after the quarantine is lifted, a character who was about to be arrested before the plague struck, loses his mind and starts firing a gun randomly out of his window. Rieux observes as the police dislodge him from his house using a machine gun, and then brutally beat him in full view of an onlooking crowd. As Rieux walks away, off to see another patient, he cannot get “the dull sound of fists belaboring the wretched man’s face,” out of his head.

Returning to the spot where he and Tarrou had spoken months before, and staring out over the city, Rieux decides to write a chronicle of the plague to commemorate all those who, in a spirit of mutual aid and freedom, join in “the never ending fight against terror,” and “despite their personal afflictions… strive their utmost to be healers.” At the same time, he knows that just as “the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good,” neither does the threat of organized violence. It always lurks behind the veneer of legitimacy that authority grants it: “Perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men,” the plague “would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city.”

About The Common Reader

The Common Reader , a publication of Washington University in St. Louis, offers the best in reviews, articles and creative non-fiction engaging the essential debates and issues of our time.

The Current Issue

The word “stories” was used often at the annual NABIP Capitol Conference, held in the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, February 25-28, 2024. I went because I have my own stories of frustration with health care, and because I am interested when someone seems ready to try to make things better in the largely incomprehensible and vaguely menacing system we all rely on.

Never see this message again.

by Albert Camus

The plague essay questions.

Why is there a dearth of female characters in the novel?

Perhaps the simplest answer is that Camus didn't want to write any besides a saintly mother and conveniently off-site wives. He is a paragon of mid-twentieth century masculinity, fundamentally convinced that men's stories are the ones that should be told, that men are the heroes, that women are too "other" to offer any sense of universality. Not writing women is like not writing any Arab characters in the novel—their perspectives simply aren't important. However, there are other critical interpretations, such as Anthony Rizzuto's musing that the absent women, sterile men, men-and-mothers, and lack of children are indicative of the destruction of the future. It is a "flight from the human;" it is necessary to "eliminate women and children from his literary and imaginative universe, for they were the living proof of life's stubborn will to survive. Death was the only truth and death was sterile."

What are some of the similarities between the plague and the spread of fascism?

Both creep up slowly, permeating the populace in a relatively unobtrusive way. They are passed from living creature to living creature, sparing very few. They bring sorrow, disruption, distance, and death. Irene Finel-Honigman writes, "the plague is an emblem of exile, death, and arbitrary evil," and both it and fascism exhibit "the bureaucracy of death leading to the creation of crematoriums and the all-male quarantine camp." There are deportations and suspicion and imprisonment, but there are also numerous examples of resistance, charity, and collaboration.

How does language fail to encompass the reality of plague?

Language is rendered insufficient, trite, hollow, and lackluster by the plague. Letters, while already problematic in conveying the breadth and depth of one's emotions and experience, are replaced by the even more formulaic telegram. People try to have conversations but it seems like they aren't talking about the same things. Publications that are supposed to issue facts are instead peddling quack cures. The words of soothsayers and prophets carry more weight with some people than those of medical professionals or scholars. Outside communications from other countries and towns are the epitome of superficiality and lack of real empathy. All of these examples reveal how language, invented by man—endlessly fungible and always full of gaps and slippages—is absolutely unequipped to account for the pain, grief, disbelief, and disruption caused by the plague.

What role does love serve in the text?

Rambert insists that love is the only thing worth striving for and worth suffering for, whereas someone like Rieux finds that it can be distracting and useless. The narrator explains how people come to feel that their love for another person is simply too much to bear, and they must compartmentalize it. Rieux does this with his wife, and Rambert eventually comes to do so when he realizes the quiet heroism in the doctor's striving for "common decency" and "doing [his] job" (163).

How does the plague affect the people of Oran?

This is a huge question, of course, but some of the most salient ways the people are affected include: they first deny that the plague is really happening or that it is as bad as it is said to be; they embrace religion at first and then embrace the pursuit of pleasure; they feel listless and restless; they can only live in the present as the past and future are no longer tenable; they try to escape or otherwise evince their discontent by small acts of rebellion or violence; they crave human contact but fear it at the same time; they embrace spurious cures and prophecies proclaiming the known date of the plague's end; they have to learn to eschew formerly important social rituals such as burials; they give up any sense of uniqueness or importance and accept the collective experience; they evince some acts of heroism in volunteering their time to risk their lives in the sanitary squads or in their normal professions, such as Rieux; and they ultimately do their best to return to normal as soon as they can.

The Plague Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Plague is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What was the philosophy of the “flagellants”?

The flagellants believed that selfpunishment for their sins might help save them from death as a result of the Plague. Those who followed this movement were regarded as a dangerous threat to church authority.

When conditions in Europe suddenly changed at the beginning of the 14th century, what did many people believe had come?

The people believed the Blacl Death signaled the Biblical apocolypse.

What was the status of life in Europe in terms of faith, technology, and trade before the Plague arrived?

no i do not

Study Guide for The Plague

The Plague study guide contains a biography of Albert Camus, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Plague
• The Plague Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Plague

The Plague literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Plague.

• Exile and the Kingdom
• Battle Against Crisis at the Conclusion of The Plague
• Ideological Tenacity in The Plague
• The Absurd and the Concept of Hope in Camus's Novels
• The Plague as Double Allegory

Wikipedia Entries for The Plague

• Introduction
• Previous plague epidemics
• 14th-century plague
• Recurrences

• Newsletters

Site search

• Israel-Hamas war
• 2024 election
• Solar eclipse
• Supreme Court
• All explainers
• Future Perfect

Filed under:

• Future Perfect podcast

What Camus’s The Plague can teach us about the Covid-19 pandemic

A conversation about solidarity and revolt in Camus’s famous novel.

If you buy something from a Vox link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement .

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: What Camus’s The Plague can teach us about the Covid-19 pandemic

A 1947 novel by the French philosopher Albert Camus has racked up sales since the Covid-19 pandemic engulfed our lives earlier this year.

It’s called The Plague and, on the surface, it’s a fairly straightforward story about a coastal Algerian town beset by a mysterious epidemic. But the book is much more than a tale about disease; it’s also an intensely layered meditation on the human condition and the obligations we all have to each other.

I wrote about The Plague back in March , but I wanted to dive a little deeper into its meaning and significance. So I spoke with Robert Zaretsky, a philosopher and historian at the University of Houston, for Future Perfect’s new limited-series podcast, The Way Through , which is all about exploring the world’s greatest philosophical and spiritual traditions for guidance during these difficult times.

This is a conversation about the existentialist philosophy behind The Plague and what it has to say to us today. We talk about the symbolism of the novel and the moral lessons it can offer us in this moment of sickness and racial unrest. We also discuss why the coronavirus pandemic, as awful as it is, highlights a permanent truth about our vulnerabilities and our mutual interdependence.

You can hear our entire conversation in the podcast here . A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows.

Subscribe to Future Perfect: The Way Through on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Sean Illing

For people who haven’t read The Plague , can you sum up the basic narrative?

Robert Zaretsky

The Plague is a fictional account of the advent of the plague in the city of Oran, which was and remains Algeria’s second-largest city. We’re not given a precise year, but the city is suddenly hammered by the plague. And the story is told by a narrator who at first doesn’t identify himself. We eventually learn that the narrator is also one of the chief characters in the novel, a doctor by the name of Bernard Rieux.

What Camus is trying to do, philosophically as well as narratively, is convey both his experience of living under the plague, namely the occupation of France by the Germans, but also say something about the importance of moderation, which for him is really the most courageous of virtues. And what you find in The Plague are the ways in which Rieux and the other characters join forces over the course of the plague in Oran. What they achieve as a group, as opposed to individuals pursuing their individual interests, is quite extraordinary. And that’s really the whole point.

Camus distills this point in a famous tweak he gives to Descartes. Descartes, of course, is the 17th-century thinker who gave us the “Cogito, ergo sum — I think, therefore I am.” And Camus at a certain point says, “Well, that’s all well and good, if you’re interested in making the case for an individual ego. But I’m more interested in knowing how to make a case for the collective, rather than for the individual.” And so for him, it’s not so much “I think, therefore I am.” It’s “I resist, and therefore we are.”

In other words, what we find at moments of crisis is that people have to resist what’s taking place, and that initial step toward resistance, toward saying “No, this cannot be tolerated,” that’s when you look around and discover that other people are doing the very same thing. And that’s where the meaning is to be found. And it’s a bit heavy-handed, and probably also a bit unnecessary on my part, to point out how that’s taking place today, Sean, with the social movements that have formed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

No, I’m glad you went there. How does your understanding of The Plague shape your view of what’s happening right now?

In many ways, The Plague anticipates not just what’s taking place in the United States today but what has taken place over the course of decades, ever since 1947. The civil rights movement, for example. Or the pressure in occupied Europe behind the Iron Curtain. That finally led to that tipping point in 1989 and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and the implosion of the Soviet Union. It serves as a kind of template, this wonderfully compelling and complex template, of the ways in which people respond to governments or forces that pose a threat to their dignity and to their integrity as human beings.

And so, on the one hand, what is taking place right now in the United States in regard to Black Lives Matter is quite extraordinary, and it’s something that I think would please Camus. But I think Camus would also be worried about the excesses of the response to George Floyd’s murder. This is something that he examines in great detail in the essay The Rebel , which is the philosophical pendant to The Plague .

Camus makes the case that rebellion is distinct from revolution. The rebel is not the revolutionary. The rebel, in fact, is a moderate. It’s somebody who insists, on the one hand, on telling that individual or that institution that “Here the line must be drawn. You cannot do this to me.”

But at the same time, Camus insists that we have to see the humanity of those who are attempting to steal our dignity or our life. And it requires tremendous exertion to hold the balance between becoming a revolutionary and doing what revolutionaries always do, which is yielding to abstractions and forgetting the human costs involved, or becoming apathetic and resigned to the way things are.

There’s a lot of symbolism in The Plague , but one thing it definitely symbolizes is the absurdity of life. The plague is absurd in the sense that it just happens. We’re living our lives the way we always live our lives and it simply arrives. And there’s no real explanation for it. It can’t be justified. It can’t be explained.

In the same way, we find ourselves hurled into this existence that doesn’t have any clear purpose and it will end and the question is, how do we respond to that fact? And all the characters in The Plague face this conflict we all have to face between our individual happiness and our obligations to other people. And all of the characters are defined by what they do in this moment of choice.

In the novel, Camus shows how the plague shakes us out of the stupor that we all live in. We have this default mode of life. We fall into routines. We take comfort in certain stories we tell ourselves. The plague explodes all of that shit at once, and all of a sudden we are all facing the same situation and we have to do something about it.

How do the characters deal with this choice?

Well, the protagonist, Dr. Rieux, is frustrated, probably in the same way Dr. Fauci feels right now . He knows something terrible is happening and at first he can’t quite believe it. There are legions of rats who appeared in the streets and are dying, and then a few of his patients begin to develop these really weird symptoms that had not been seen for centuries. But eventually he says, “I can’t avoid the truth, it’s the plague.” And he tries to communicate this to the authorities and they refuse to believe it. And they have all sorts of reasons not to deal with this truth, or as we might say, all these reasons not to tell people to wear masks, but all the reasons are political.

But the main thing about Rieux is that he’s a truth-teller. He wants to establish a one-to-one correspondence between language and the world. “There is a plague unfolding in our city, and we must respond to it.” And his ethic is made more complex by his belief that, though there are no transcendental sources of solace or salvation for humankind, his work nevertheless is his work. In other words, he insists, “I just need to do the best job possible.” So here is somebody whose job, saving lives, is primordial.

Then you have the character Rambert, the journalist, who comes down to do a story on the Arabs and Berbers of Algeria. And when the city is locked down, Rambert is beside himself because he’s from Paris. That’s where his girlfriend lives, and he wants to return. And so he tries to find all sorts of ways of escaping the city. And very early on, following the announcement of the quarantine, he goes to Rieux and asks him for a medical pass that designates him as healthy and able to return to Paris. And Rieux replies, “Well, you know I can’t give that to you.” And Rambert, frustrated, says, “But I don’t belong here.” And Rieux’s reply is quite simple and utterly true. “From now on, you do belong here.” That’s something I’ve been trying to keep in mind as Houston now approaches another lockdown. We all belong here.

There is the character Jean Tarrou, this mysterious man who lives in the same building as Rieux, who doesn’t seem to have any employment. He doesn’t seem to have a job or a profession. Soon after the declaration of the quarantine, he approaches Dr. Rieux with the idea of forming sanitation squads. And we eventually learn why he wants to do this, and it has to do with an experience he had as a teenager who went with his father one day to court.

His father was a magistrate and one day in the courthouse he saw his father demand the death sentence for this small figure and the whole thing seemed distant and abstract. All the teenage Tarrou could do was look at this little man and notice the tiniest details about him — his tie, his fingernails bitten down to the nub, his strange face. But no one else is looking at him that way. They seem him as a non-human abstraction. So Tarrou says, “At that moment, I realized we’re all carrying the plague, and that we have to be as careful as possible not to breathe it on one another.”

If there’s an ethical philosophy in The Plague , it can be summed up in one word: attentiveness. What do you think that word means to Camus?

It’s not the “attention” we find in human resource offices, or in banks, or in department stores, where people are pretending to listen to you but all the while thinking about how they need to respond or what they already have decided they’re going to say in response. What Camus means is what another French philosopher, Simone Weil, called “decreation,” which is undoing yourself in order to make room for other selves in your life. And this is what Camus’s characters in The Plague understand. This is what motivates Rieux and Tarrou — they attend to their patients, to the sick, in ways that are wholly admirable.

Something worth highlighting, especially as we’re confronting our own pandemic, is that the plague, for Camus, dramatizes a permanent truth of our condition, which is that we’re all vulnerable to loss and suffering. No one escapes it. We’re all victims in that sense, and Camus thought we should always take the side of the victim. And if we were able to do that, then maybe we could build a real human community, or what Camus called an “earthly kingdom.”

You’ve said it so well, Sean. It would be an extraordinary thing. I think of that scene in The Plague when Rieux and Tarrou are in Rieux’s apartment, and it’s at that moment that Tarrou had shared his story with Rieux about his experience with his father at the court, and what he has done ever since in order not to be an agent of the plague. And it’s at this moment that the plague is really at its peak. Both men are just exhausted.

But after Tarrou tells his story, Rieux says, “Let’s take a moment off for friendship.” And they go for a swim in the Bay of Algiers, in the Mediterranean. And it’s silent. They don’t say a word to one another. And at a certain moment while they’re swimming, their strokes begin to synchronize. They mesh. And it’s one of the most extraordinary beautiful images in the novel. And perhaps by holding on to this image of just trying to synchronize our lives with one another in ways that speak to our shared humanity, our shared dangers, our shared aspirations, that would be a wonderful thing.

I realize that may sound lame, but this is what I’m reduced to right now.

Will you help keep Vox free for all?

At Vox, we believe that clarity is power, and that power shouldn’t only be available to those who can afford to pay. That’s why we keep our work free. Millions rely on Vox’s clear, high-quality journalism to understand the forces shaping today’s world. Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today.

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via

Next Up In Culture

Sign up for the newsletter today, explained.

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.

Thanks for signing up!

Check your inbox for a welcome email.

Oops. Something went wrong. Please enter a valid email and try again.

Nebraska legislators reject proposal to help Trump win the Electoral College

Taiwan’s earthquake preparedness saved a lot of lives — and prevented a catastrophe for the global tech economy

“Equivalent to having 50 Super Bowls”: The staggering — and lucrative — scale of eclipse tourism

Trump has set up a perfect avenue for potential corruption

She’s been chasing solar eclipses for three decades. What’s she after?

Good news: Democracy won in Senegal. Here’s why it matters.

Authors & Events

Recommendations

• New & Noteworthy
• Bestsellers
• Popular Series
• The Must-Read Books of 2023
• Popular Books in Spanish
• Coming Soon
• Literary Fiction
• Mystery & Thriller
• Science Fiction
• Spanish Language Fiction
• Biographies & Memoirs
• Spanish Language Nonfiction
• Dark Star Trilogy
• Ramses the Damned
• Penguin Classics
• Award Winners
• The Parenting Book Guide
• Books to Read Before Bed
• Books for Middle Graders
• Trending Series
• Magic Tree House
• The Last Kids on Earth
• Planet Omar
• Beloved Characters
• The World of Eric Carle
• Llama Llama
• Junie B. Jones
• Peter Rabbit
• Board Books
• Picture Books
• Guided Reading Levels
• Middle Grade
• Activity Books
• Trending This Week
• Top Must-Read Romances
• Page-Turning Series To Start Now
• Books to Cope With Anxiety
• Short Reads
• Anti-Racist Resources
• Staff Picks
• Memoir & Fiction
• Features & Interviews
• Emma Brodie Interview
• James Ellroy Interview
• Nicola Yoon Interview
• Qian Julie Wang Interview
• Deepak Chopra Essay
• How Can I Get Published?
• For Book Clubs
• Reese's Book Club
• Oprah’s Book Club
• happy place " data-category="popular" data-location="header">Guide: Happy Place
• the last white man " data-category="popular" data-location="header">Guide: The Last White Man
• Authors & Events >
• Our Authors
• Michelle Obama
• Zadie Smith
• Emily Henry
• Amor Towles
• Colson Whitehead
• In Their Own Words
• Qian Julie Wang
• Patrick Radden Keefe
• Phoebe Robinson
• Emma Brodie
• Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Laura Hankin
• Recommendations >
• 21 Books To Help You Learn Something New
• The Books That Inspired "Saltburn"
• Insightful Therapy Books To Read This Year
• Historical Fiction With Female Protagonists
• Best Thrillers of All Time
• Manga and Graphic Novels
• happy place " data-category="recommendations" data-location="header">Start Reading Happy Place
• How to Make Reading a Habit with James Clear
• Why Reading Is Good for Your Health
• 10 Facts About Taylor Swift
• New Releases
• Memoirs Read by the Author
• Our Most Soothing Narrators
• Press Play for Inspiration
• Audiobooks You Just Can't Pause
• Listen With the Whole Family

The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays

Introduction by David Bellos

By Albert Camus Introduction by David Bellos Translated by Stuart Gilbert and Justin O’Brien

Part of everyman's library contemporary classics series, category: literary fiction | classic fiction | short stories.

Aug 17, 2004 | ISBN 9781400042555 | 5 x 8 --> | ISBN 9781400042555 --> Buy

Buy from Other Retailers:

Aug 17, 2004 | ISBN 9781400042555

Buy the Hardcover:

• Barnes & Noble
• Books A Million
• Powell’s

About The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays

From one of the most brilliant and influential thinkers of the twentieth century and a Nobel Prize-winning author: two novels, six short stories, and a pair of essays in a single volume that deploy his lyric eloquence in defense against despair. In both his essays and his fiction, Albert Camus (1913—1960) provides an affirmation of the brave assertion of humanity in the face of a universe devoid of order or meaning.   The Plague— written in 1947 and still profoundly relevant—is a riveting tale of horror, survival, and resilience in the face of a devastating epidemic. The Fall (1956), which takes the form of an astonishing confession by a French lawyer in a seedy Amsterdam bar, is a haunting parable of modern conscience in the face of evil. The six stories of Exile and the Kingdom (1957) represent Camus at the height of his narrative powers, masterfully depicting his characters—from a renegade missionary to an adulterous wife—at decisive moments of revelation. Set beside their fictional counterparts, Camus’s famous essays “The Myth of Sisyphus” and “Reflections on the Guillotine” are all the more powerful and philosophically daring, confirming his towering place in twentieth-century thought.

Also in Everyman’s Library Contemporary Classics Series

Also by Albert Camus

About Albert Camus

Born in Algeria in 1913, ALBERT CAMUS published The Stranger–now one of the most widely read novels of this century–in 1942. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. On January 4, 1960, he was killed in a car… More about Albert Camus

Product Details

You may also like.

Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov

Sketches from a Hunter’s Album

Novels, Tales, Journeys

Fathers and Sons

Resurrection

Eugene Onegin

The Double and The Gambler

Praise for Georges Simenon: “One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” — The Guardian “These Maigret books are as timeless as Paris itself.” — The Washington Post “The matchless French crime novelist.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker “Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals.” — People “I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov.” —William Faulkner “An astute observer of human nature, writing in a spare and vivid style.” —Amor Towles “I never read contemporary fiction–with one exception: the works of Simenon.” —T.S. Eliot “A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré “One of the most important writers of our century.” —Gabriel García Márquez “A favorite writer of mine.” —Sigrid Nunez “A great writer of detail, of atmosphere.” —Leïla Slimani “Feels incredibly modern…A great writer.” —Ian Rankin “The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature.” —André Gide “A supreme writer . . . Unforgettable vividness.” — The Independent (London) “Superb . . . The most addictive of writers . . . A unique teller of tales.” — The Observer (London) “Compelling, remorseless, brilliant.” —John Gray “A truly wonderful writer . . . Marvelously readable—lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the world he creates.” —Muriel Spark “A novelist who entered his fictional world as if he were a part of it.” —Peter Ackroyd “Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century.” —John Banville “Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world’s bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor” ― Times (London) “Strangely comforting . . . so many lovely bistros from the Paris of mid-20th C. The corpses are incidental, it’s the food that counts.” ―Margaret Atwood “One of the greatest writers of the 20th century . . . no other writer can set up a scene as sharply and with such economy as Simenon does . . . the conjuring of a world, a place, a time, a set of characters – above all, an atmosphere.” ― Financial Times “Gripping . . . richly rewarding . . . You’ll quickly find yourself obsessing about his life as you tackle each mystery in turn.” ―Stig Abell, The Sunday Times (London)

Nobel Prize WINNER 1957

Table Of Contents

Introduction 

Select Bibliography 

THE PLAGUE 

THE FALL 

EXILE AND THE KINGDOM 

THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS 

REFLECTIONS ON THE GUILLOTINE 

Related Links

Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

Raise kids who love to read

Today's Top Books

Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

An online magazine for today’s home cook

Just for joining you’ll get personalized recommendations on your dashboard daily and features only for members.

The Character of Joseph Grand in “The Plague” by Albert Camus Analytical Essay

In this paper, I would like to discuss such character of Camus’ novel The Plague as Joseph Grand. Although it is too early for me to advance any far-fetched arguments, I can say that Joseph is very much similar to Sisyphus; he becomes accustomed to the routine nature of daily life, and his existence reminds us of Sisyphus’ attempts to roll a rock to the top of the mountain.

Albert Camus creates this character to show that the majority of modern people do not strive for intellectual or spiritual development, while focusing on the material side of their lives.

If they do decide to make a difference to their existence, their attempts are usually very superficial. Another purpose which Grand serves is to prove that as a rule people do not search for good qualities within themselves, and only a sudden misfortune can force them to do it. In order to elaborate this argument, I need to discuss the behavior of this man, his relations with others and, most importantly, those expectations, he sets for himself.

At first, one has to show how the author describes this person. Camus points out that “ambition was not the spur that activated Joseph Grand… All he desired was the prospect of a life suitable insured on the material side by honest work” (Camus, 56). This indicates that he was quite content with his status in community and the quality of his life. In part, this lack of ambition explains why he has served his entire life as a clerk and why his wife left him.

It should also be noted that Grand also attempts to write a book, most probably, a novel. However, he never even finishes the first line of this alleged masterpiece. In his defense, Conrad says that he struggles to find the most suitable words and phrases for this novel and this perfectionism prevents him from progressing further.

At this point, an attentive reader has to ask oneself a question whether this behavior can ascribed only to perfectionism or to something else, for instance to the fear of a making a mistake, laziness, and reluctance to take risks.

He changes his lifestyle only when the epidemic of plague breaks out in the town. This calamity helps Joseph to rediscover the traits of which he was unaware before, namely, fortitude and resolution. He is seen by others as the “embodiment of quiet courage” that raises the spirit of other people (Camus, 100).

During the plague, he stops being a Sisyphus, engaged in senseless labor. He becomes a person who realizes that his life must not be spent in vain. At the very end, we learn that Joseph resumes the work on his novel, but we do not know for sure whether he has ever completed the first line. The author leaves it for the readers to decide whether Joseph Grand is a changed man, who can take initiative and responsibility for his actions, or he is the same Sisyphus, who is more content with the safety of daily routine.

It is quite difficult to determine how this novel would have looked like without him. Most likely, the plot of The Plague would have remained unchanged, yet the impression, produced by this literary work would have been different.

The thing is that Joseph Grand embodies the strengths and weaknesses of modern people, including their aspirations, fears, and prejudices. Again, this character proves an idea that people usually do not attempt to change for the better on their own accord, unless there is a powerful external stimulus. This is why the character of Joseph Grand is important to this novel.

Works Cited

Camus Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. 1955. Web.

Camus Albert. The Plague. BookEden, 1967.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, December 20). The Character of Joseph Grand in "The Plague" by Albert Camus. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-plague/

"The Character of Joseph Grand in "The Plague" by Albert Camus." IvyPanda , 20 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/the-plague/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'The Character of Joseph Grand in "The Plague" by Albert Camus'. 20 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "The Character of Joseph Grand in "The Plague" by Albert Camus." December 20, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-plague/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Character of Joseph Grand in "The Plague" by Albert Camus." December 20, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-plague/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Character of Joseph Grand in "The Plague" by Albert Camus." December 20, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-plague/.

• Albert Camus’ Sisyphus Treatise and The Plague Review
• Albert Camus “The Myth of Sisyphus” and “The Stranger”: Meursault’s and Sisyphus’ Happiness
• Camus’ Notions in The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger
• Meaningless Existence in Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus"
• The Myth About Sisyphus and the Meaning of Human Life
• The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus: The Philosophy of Absurdism
• "The Plague" by Albert Camus Literature Analysis
• The Correlation Between Perfectionism and Depression
• "Outsider" by Albert Camus: The Character of Mersault
• Meursault in "The Stranger": A Novel by Albert Camus
• Marate/Sade: The Main Characters’ Answers to Philosophical Questions
• The Problem of the Human Nature in The Prince
• “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka
• Jacques Le Goff: the Terms “Intellectual” and "Labor"
• World Literature Syllabus

• Literature & Fiction
• World Literature

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays (Everyman's Library) Hardcover – August 17, 2004

• Print length 696 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Everyman's Library
• Publication date August 17, 2004
• Dimensions 5.4 x 1.5 x 8.3 inches
• ISBN-10 1400042550
• ISBN-13 978-1400042555
• See all details

Similar items that may deliver to you quickly

Editorial Reviews

From the inside flap, from the back cover.

"From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author

Product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Everyman's Library; Not Stated edition (August 17, 2004)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 696 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1400042550
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400042555
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.56 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 1.5 x 8.3 inches
• #1,830 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
• #5,542 in Classic Literature & Fiction
• #12,061 in Literary Fiction (Books)

About the author

Albert camus.

Albert Camus (French: [albɛʁ kamy]; 7 November 1913 - 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. His views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism. He wrote in his essay The Rebel that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.

Camus did not consider himself to be an existentialist despite usually being classified as one, even in his lifetime. In a 1945 interview, Camus rejected any ideological associations: ""No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked..."".

Camus was born in Algeria to a Pied-Noir family, and studied at the University of Algiers from which he graduated in 1936. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons to ""denounce two ideologies found in both the USSR and the USA"".

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Photograph by United Press International [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Reviews with images

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Start Selling with Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

“The Plague” by Albert Camus Critique

The biggest problem of our life is its ending. However, this can happen either when the time comes or undesirable due to some disease. The Plague is a perfect representation of a horror that took many people’s lives. The book represents the circumstances that a town in Algeria had to face. The main hero of the book is Dr. Rieux who is severely challenged by the plague and hundreds of people who he cannot heal. He watches his friends dying and completely reconsiders this life’s values. The book describes how the specific society perceived this life as being colorless and meaningless. However, once the plague strikes the town, it is evident that people have their attitudes and values change.

The main character of the book Dr. Rieux despite others’ sorrows takes an optimistic view and seeks the way out of this complicated situation. He declared: “And, be it said to the credit of mankind, they are more numerous than one would think” (Camus, p. 132) about people who didn’t refuse to fight for their lives, whereas some really gave up. There is no doubt we are talking about a strong person with the strength of will, the one who is able to face any challenges, the one who I admire personally and would like to have the same optimistic view on many life’s facets. Dr. Rieux embodies the virtues of a true fighter. Indeed, he represents the best human feature ever – the ability to help other humans just like him no matter what: “…I feel more fellowship with the defeated than with the saints. Heroism and sanctity don’t really appeal to me, I imagine. What interests me is being a man” (Camus, p. 255). I would like to possess this endlessly good altruistic trait that Dr. Rieux acquired. The Plague gives us an amazing description of a person whom we lack today in our society. Therefore, it is a pity that people get together only when there is a need for that or the threat. My utmost desire is to practice doing “good” just for the sake of helping people without any benefit.

Though there is another hero of our times that Rx for Survival introduces to us. His name is David Heymann. Some consider him to be a real polio fitter. Indeed, in the 1970s when the Earth was under the smallpox threat, he said his words, did his deeds, and saved thousands of little children and grownups from this disease in India and all over the world. Now, it might seem somewhat unclear what is so fantastic about what he did. However, back in the 1970s he successfully vaccinated the disease off this planet. This makes us compare David Heymann with Dr. Rieux from The Plague. Both prominent men did great jobs to facilitate people’s lives. However, the only contrast between them is that Dr. Rieux knew everything was in vain though kept on fighting, whereas Heymann believed in the success of his program from the very start.

So, it is important to mention that the course was very informative for me. I got acquainted with prominent characters whom I would like to follow in specific situations when life challenge to make the right choice. Though everybody has to remember that: “It is important to know that choice embraces what we choose not to do as well as what we choose to do” (Devettere, p.1)

Camus, Albert., Gilbert, Stuart. The Plague . New York: Vintage, 1991. Print.

Devettere, Raymond J . Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics: Cases and Concepts. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press, 2009.Print.

Cite this paper

• Chicago (N-B)
• Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2022, March 9). “The Plague” by Albert Camus Critique. https://studycorgi.com/the-plague-by-albert-camus-critique/

"“The Plague” by Albert Camus Critique." StudyCorgi , 9 Mar. 2022, studycorgi.com/the-plague-by-albert-camus-critique/.

StudyCorgi . (2022) '“The Plague” by Albert Camus Critique'. 9 March.

1. StudyCorgi . "“The Plague” by Albert Camus Critique." March 9, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/the-plague-by-albert-camus-critique/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "“The Plague” by Albert Camus Critique." March 9, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/the-plague-by-albert-camus-critique/.

StudyCorgi . 2022. "“The Plague” by Albert Camus Critique." March 9, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/the-plague-by-albert-camus-critique/.

This paper, ““The Plague” by Albert Camus Critique”, was written and voluntary submitted to our free essay database by a straight-A student. Please ensure you properly reference the paper if you're using it to write your assignment.

Before publication, the StudyCorgi editorial team proofread and checked the paper to make sure it meets the highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, fact accuracy, copyright issues, and inclusive language. Last updated: March 9, 2022 .

If you are the author of this paper and no longer wish to have it published on StudyCorgi, request the removal . Please use the “ Donate your paper ” form to submit an essay.