La Peste , the novel by Albert Camus published in 1947, is arousing renewed interest among many readers around the world for a situation of confinement. Today, through caregivers in hospitals, “what we learn in the midst of plagues, that there are more things in men to admire than things to despise”.
Anne PROUTEAU
President of the Society for Camusian Studies
Lecturer in French literature at the UCO
https://recherche.uco.fr/chercheur/182/anne-prouteau)
The Plague is the story of this epidemic in Oran and the struggle of its inhabitants to fight against evil. The brave Doctor Rieux, who tells this chronicle anonymously, tries to do ” his job as a man “, “to reduce the pain arithmetically”. Faced with the drama, he tries to hold “a clear language” to his fellow citizens. Several protagonists are staged, each with a different posture: the same syndrome that affects them arouses a variety of reactions.
Among them, we could cite Rambert the journalist who, although the doors are closed, would like to join the woman he loves at all costs. As the epidemic progresses, it will gradually become supportive and concerned about the common good.
Father Paneloux, a priest bordering on caricature, who harangues his parishioners as if the plague were a divine punishment, also evolved after seeing a child, an innocent, die. His second sermon attests that he has lost his luster; he lives more in communion with men and women, on his knees, before the same mystery of evil.
I have a special fondness for a quiet office worker named Grand. While engaged in sanitary cordons, he spends his time writing the first sentence of a novel that would like to be perfect. This modest task may seem trivial, but it attests to the importance of the pursuit of beauty in times of distress.
We must also mention Tarrou, Rieux’s friend who, at the heart of this battle, offers an experience that would seal their friendship: take a bath in the Mediterranean which borders the city. Rieux agrees to experience this halt, this break with the friend. Under a starry night, they celebrate their friendship by swimming together; these moments, in their free character, remind us of the need at the heart of any fight for revitalization, of a return to inner life and of the care to be given to the quality of the links. They return to battle “but they had the same heart and the memory of that night was sweet to them.”
And when the gates of the city open, the crowd of Oran residents is jubilant. Doctor Rieux does not fully share this joy: he knows that he must remain vigilant, measured. He concludes by estimating all that the plague has taught him:
“There are more things in men to admire than things to despise”.
Read The Plague in full and for free: http://www.anthropomada.com/bibliotheque/CAMUS-La-peste.pdf
