The Plague by Albert Camus
…and his choice would be to believe everything,
so as not to be forced into denying anything
so as not to be forced into denying anything
Ofcourse, when there is Camus, there is always detachment.
And yet in detachment, there is a sense of fairness, of meaning and at the cost
of being inaccurate, of life. Individual miseries mean nothing in the face of
collective misery and perhaps…they mean nothing in the face of a common death for everyone.
'The plague' is set in Oran in 1940s. One day multitudes of rats suddenly
come out of manholes and of corners and start dying. Eventually, so do people. Dr.
Rieux, possibly the protagonist (but not clearly so, as was the case of Mersault
in 'The stranger') is one of the first people to notice and raise alarm in the
city.
The first reaction of administration is denial, then
acceptance with a certain degree of optimism and finally a flickering hope. As soon
as it is confirmed that the epidemic is plague, city gates are closed and
everyone is cutoff from the outside world. Soon, warm and loving letters are forced to be telegrams- every feeling that felt real is now an 'abstraction'. In the following months, people
sometimes exaggerate their emotions while realizing this 'abstraction'
from the reality. Even the religion of plague is not the regular religion. We
see a priest watching his world collapsing and bordering on heresy while preaching
sermons. But we also see heroes, who would not like to be called heroes- Dr.
Rieux and Tarrou who continue to help people even though they do not understand
why- these men have been always been aware of this plague..this executioner within themselves and yet they treat it with 'abstraction'
Dr. Rieux seems much like the absurd hero (like Mersault of 'The stranger'). He feels disconnected with the world and yet finds some moments of
honest feelings, as that of his friendship with Tarrou (which he realizes never
grew into a friendship). And although Dr. Rieux does not have the same fate as
Mersault in the exact sense, it seems that his fate is much the same
allegorically- surrendering to the 'benign indifference' of the universe. Some
critics claim that 'The plague' could be an allegorical depiction of French
resistance to Nazi occupation during the world war two. This certainly seems like
an interesting perspective and the reader would be able to interpret it as such
if they put their minds to it.
All in all, 'The plague' is nothing less than 'The stranger'- both are masterpieces! One can feel Camus's absurdism and hopelessness coupled
with irrational optimism as one sifts through the pages of the novel.Highly recommended!
