A Book Review
“The Plague” by Albert Camus
What an epidemic teaches us about human existence.
Reading “The Plague” during the times of an actual pandemic is a surreal experience. The course of events, the social strain of the characters, and the ubiquitous transformation of the fictionalized city of Oran resemble accurately the Corona crisis we are experiencing today.
The actuality of Camus’ masterpiece, published in 1947, is second only to its profoundness. At the beginning of the novel, the serenity of the Algerian coastal city of Oran is perturbed by an invasion of rats, which are found dead in increasing numbers in several districts of the town. Soon after the rat invasion seems to cease, Doctor Bernard Rieux, the main protagonist, recognizes that an unusual disease is starting to spread among Oran’s citizens. In spite of the warnings, the response of the authorities and of the population is slow and shallow. In a short time, the city is hit by a fierce plague epidemic and gets sealed under a rigid lockdown.
Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky. There have been as many plagues as wars in history, yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.
The central part of the novel accompanies Doctor Rieux and the other characters through the exhausting siege that the plague will lay to Oran for longer than one year. The harshness of the disease and the brutal randomness of the deaths increasingly challenge the protagonists in their values, emotions and attitudes.
Episodes of suffering, separation and indifference interchange with expressions of generosity, engagement and compassion. Even Doctor Rieux, with his firm personality, is brought to the verge of an existential crisis. On the one hand, he never stops devoting all of his energy in assisting the growing number of patients; on the other hand, he often finds himself powerless in front of the relentless development of the epidemic, which makes no distinctions nor shows mercy.
With its unpredictable decourse, the plague acts as an overarching magnifying glass that emphasizes the steady precarity of human existence. This is how Camus gradually unveils the main concept of its philosophy: the absurdity of life. For Camus, the word absurd refers to the fact that our existence lacks any meaning and is fully vulnerable to all the arbitrary events occurring around us. The plague is nothing but a concentrated, collective showcase of our fragility.
However, Camus does not want us to fall in despair. On the contrary, he suggests that recognizing our fragility is the starting point toward living fully. You are truly free only when you realize that nothing is ultimately important.
What’s true of all the evils in the world is true of the plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves.
The epidemic crumbles the hopes of the young journalist Rambert, strains the morals of the virtous Tarrou, and shakes the beliefs of the devout Father Paneloux. Instead, Doctor Rieux embraces the absurdity and holds on to the present moment. Doctor Rieux does not escape the absurd, he decides to live it. He keeps trying to alleviate the suffering of his patients, even if he knows it’s mostly a lost battle. For Camus, living freely consists of finding one’s ease in between the constant struggle.
There’s no question of heroism in all this. It’s a matter of common decency. That’s an idea which may make some people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is — common decency.
Occasionally, dialogues and moments of mutual connection alleviate the individual fight of the characters and give them new impulse to keep going. Each human contact acquires a precious value, in a daily life where reality collapses more and more inwards. Love is also a recurring theme, which manifests itself in different forms. Sometimes strongly, as the love between mother and son, or the love towards a sick friend; other times, it is a love that fades away in separation and memories.
A loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one’s work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart.
The conclusion of “The Plague” leaves a bitter taste. After a cold winter, the epidemic starts to lose strength and the doors of Oran are finally reopened. The population fills the streets in jubilation.
Doctor Rieux, still busy in his shifts, can’t empathize with this joy. He is aware of a deeper truth: the plague can’t be ultimately defeated. It is only a matter of time.
He knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of final victory.
We can never be saved from the absurd, but can only decide to live it. In practice, Camus’ Absurdism invites us to face life’s obstacles with a smile and be kind to our fellow human beings, even when all the rest is falling apart.
Author, Albert Camus (1913–1960) is one of the most fascinating philosophers and authors of the 20th century. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. “The Plague” is considered one of his greatest novels and, as the experience of the Corona pandemic is still alive, the power of this spectacular read is further enhanced.
But what does it mean, the plague? It’s life, that’s all.
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