Summary of Camus’ The Plague

[image error]Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) was a French author and philosopher who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. His great novel The Plague[image error] has recently garnered much worldwide attention. As a professional philosopher familiar with Camus’ thought, I’d like to highlight some of the book’s philosophical themes that are relevant to the pandemic of 2020.

But first a very, very brief plot overview …

Part 1

In the town of Oran, thousands of rats die. People become hysterical and the authorities respond by killing rats. The main character, the atheist Dr. Bernard Rieux, realizes there is a plague, but the authorities are slow to accept the situation, fighting over how to respond. Eventually, they declare a pandemic. Soon the hospitals are overflowing and many die.


Part 2 

The people react differently to the town’s quarantine. Some try to commit suicide or covertly leave town; a priest assumes the plague is divine punishment; a criminal becomes wealthy as a smuggler; and others, like Dr. Rieux, treat patients as best they can.

Part 3

The situation worsens and the authorities shoot people who try to flee. They declare martial law to control violence and looting; conduct funerals without ceremony or concern for the families of the deceased. Gradually, people become despondent, wasting away both emotionally and physically.

Part 4

The plague continues for months and again responses vary. Dr. Rieux controls his emotions in order to continue his work, while others seemingly flourish due to their close connection with strangers. An antiplague serum is developed but it doesn’t save even an innocent child. The priest argues that the child’s suffering is a test of faith—the priest soon dies too.

Part 5

Gradually deaths from the plague start to decline and the people begin to celebrate. But many of the main characters die of the disease. Dr. Rieux’s wife, who was being treated elsewhere for an unrelated illness, also dies. The narrator concludes the novel by stating that there is more to admire than to despise in humans.

Camus’ Philosophy 

The key to understanding Camus’ novels is to know that he was an atheist and an existentialist who emphasized the absurd—the conflict between our desire for value and meaning and our inability to find any in a meaningless and irrational universe in which we all suffer and die.

But Camus believed that we can revolt against absurdity—not by cowardly committing suicide or fleeing into religious faith—but by taking responsibility for our lives, enjoying the beauty around us, and creating our own meaning in an objectively meaningless world. We do this primarily by struggling against suffering and death even if our efforts fail. This is what the novel’s hero does, fighting defiantly against the absurdity.

Philosophical Themes in the Novel 

The plague represents this absurdity. There is no justice regarding who lives and dies; there is no rational or moral meaning to be derived; religious myths or angry gods don’t explain it. The gods watch the unfolding calamity with arms folded either unwilling or unable to do anything. The plague is neither rational nor just.

Moreover, wishful thinking doesn’t help either; instead, it distorts reality. Miracle cures won’t work and real cures aren’t right around the corner. Life is fleeting, our lives ephemeral. Neither wealth nor education completely shield us from microscopic pathogens. Yet people forget all this and assume they’re permanent, surprised that they’re vulnerable, and that their status or accomplishments don’t provide immunity.

The novel’s hero and protagonist accepts this absurdity but battles it nonetheless. The plague is always with us. (People die miserably; psychopaths kill children and rule countries; nations commit genocide.) What then do we do? The best we can to rectify the situation knowing that our efforts may well fail. Dr. Rieux has secular faith. He cares about other human beings because he cares about them. (I’m reminded of David Hume who said that morality derives not from reason or gods but from human sympathy.)

The plague is everywhere and it’s always with us—our lives can be taken from us at any moment. Death doesn’t await us at the end of the tracks, it’s right here, now. The plague represents this absurdity of suffering and death. It reminds us that our lives are transitory and fleeting. In response, we should express care and concern for our fellow travelers.

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Here is a brief summary of Camus’ essay “The Myth of Sisyphus,” the best introduction to his philosophy.

Also, The School of Life produced an excellent, short video about the novel’s philosophical themes. It’s definitely worth a watch.