Revisiting Albert Camus’s “The Plague” during the time of Coronavirus: If we cannot be ‘saints’, we can at least try to be healers.

By Vasilis Giavris

A fictional outbreak of Bourbonic plague that spreads across the Algerian town of Oran (at the time under French occupation), is the subject matter of Albert Camus’s novel 'The Plague'. Published in 1947, the novel has acquired a newfound relevance in this time of Coronavirus. It explores the behaviours and actions of individuals, government, religion, and science, as they try to deal with the epidemic and ensuing emergency lockdown. The novel is rich in symbolism and both the meaning of life and coming to terms with the absurd are themes explored by Camus.

No, Camus did not predict that that a plague will affect humanity in 2020. However, he did very well understand that plagues are a natural occurrence that periodically effect humanity and will continue to do so. He warned that:

 “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.” 

Indeed, despite the current proliferation of Covid-19, past disease outbreaks are still ignored by many people who unwisely believe them to be a ‘historical footnote’ which ‘will not happen to us’. A similar attitude is adopted by the people of Oran, at no surprise to Camus. He describes the town as filled with bored people who subordinate all aspects of life to business – even love making is relegated to a weekend chore. In a spirit of pointless commercialism, the narrator declares that:

“Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, 'doing business'".

He further declares that:

“Treeless, glamourless, soulless the town of Oran ends by seeming restful, and after a while, you go complacently to sleep there”.

To Camus, this behaviour is absurd – it is a divorce between man and his life. Such a circumscribed society that refuses to live, inevitably, cannot make sense of death. As such, it remains indifferent to the imminent danger and is unable to deal with its repercussions when it arrives. After all, whilst not necessarily immoral, it was dead long before the plague arrived.

The novels main characters come together to navigate through complex ethical theorem. The novel’s narrator and protagonist, Bernard Rieux, is a doctor. He is a first-hand witness to the events that take place in the city. He first observes a sudden increase in rats entering the city, a growing number of which begin to die. The rats carry with them a terrible disease that ultimately, spreads indiscriminately through-out the population, aided by the town’s hypocrisy and apathy.

Rieux is a humanist who assumes a rational outlook of what transpires. He is forced to confront the denial and indifference of governmental authorities and other colleagues. He views the plague as nothing more than a natural occurrence. He is trying his best to alleviate the devastation by attending to the ill despite the risk of contracting the virus himself. Rieux is an 'absurd' hero who, noting the ever-mounting death and infection rate, is conscious of the absurdity of life. It is this consciousness and realisation of the absurd that provides him with the necessary power and strength to continue attending to the ill.

Father Paneloux, a popular Jesuit priest, initially declares the plague as God's punishment for Oran's sins. He later views the plague as an unexplained gift from God. He preaches to his congregation that they must just accept God’s gift for failing to do so will mean that they are denying God. For Paneloux, the plague is as a supreme test of faith. Eventually, he himself falls ill and is faced with the dilemma - to refuse medical help and accept God’s will or seek treatment. Ultimately, Paneloux refuses medical treatment and dies even though, ironically, it appears that his illness was not related to the Plague.

Another pivotal character in the novel is the journalist Raymond Rambert. He is a self-proclaimed stranger to the town, who constantly tries to escape Oran to meet up with his wife in Paris but is unable to do so. He offers bribes to secure escape, but these too fail. He is disillusioned about his personal predicament and obsessed with his personal suffering. However, the Plague irreparably changes Rambert. He ultimately joins the narrator in helping the sick, refusing to leave the city even when an opportunity to do so finally arises. Announcing his change of heart, he explaines: “This business is everybody’s business.”. In doing so, Rambert has rationalised that he must deny personal happiness and make a moral commitment to a cause higher than himself - that to mankind.

The novel remains a contemporary commentary as it anticipates current global developments. More than seven decades after its publication, like the folks of Oran, we too live in an inchoate (COVID-19) world - an estranged hyper-materialist and self-absorbed world. A world intertwined between the fixation of doing business, reckless populist rhetoric, ludicrous conspiracy theories, dogma, and science. We too are susceptible to false information and fake news - now amplified by social media - as the people of Oran. In fact, we are living through the ramifications of these today. 

However, underlying the actions of the protagonists in this novel, is the realisation 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.”. 

As such, doing no harm either through our actions or through our voice is of paramount importance. If we cannot be saints, we can at least strive to be healers.

In his essay ‘Summer in Algiers’, Camus writes:

"...If there is a sin against life, it lies perhaps less in despairing of it than in hoping for another life, and evading the implacable grandeur of the one we have".

Perhaps it is time for us to rethink our place in this world and defeat the bonds of our existence. Maybe, we can find a new way forward. By becoming less self-absorbed and more accepting of the fragility of life we can finally appreciate its splendour, allowing the emergence of a better and more humane post Covid-19 world. 

Vasilis Giavris

Lawyer & Political Scientist