Finding Meaning in Albert Camus’ The Plague
Socrates, a Greek philosopher, once said that “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology 38b). Like Socrates, Albert Camus believed that a man needs to live meaningfully.
In his novel The Plague Camus creates characters who are forced to think, reflect, and assume responsibility for living as they battle an epidemic of bubonic plague that is ravaging the Algerian port of Oran. For ten months as the outbreak isolates the city from the rest of the world, each of the citizens reacts in a unique way. Camus’ main characters undergo both individual and social transformations.
Dr. Bernard Rieux, the narrator and central character, is one of the first people in Oran to recognize the plague and is instrumental in fighting it. The plague brings to a focus the best in him as he assumes responsibility for his fellow man and uses all of his talent and strength to fight tirelessly against the plague without concern for his own welfare. He realizes that the town will need to band together to fight against the disease: “The essential thing was to save the greatest possible number of persons from dying and being doomed to unending separation. And to do this there was only one resource: to fight the plague. There was nothing admirable about this attitude; it was merely logical” (Camus 133).
Since Rieux does not believe in God or an afterlife, he accepts that the present is all that matters. He feels it is important for him to battle death in an effort to preserve life. Even though he acknowledges that man can never conquer death, he feels that his life has value when he helps others fight mortality.
As the plague ends, Rieux reaffirms the value of human love which makes happin...
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...way with the adjectives in his writing. He now seems happier, is able to move freely, and has “. . . a twinkle in his eye . . .” (Camus 306).
In The Plague Camus’ characters are forced to think, reflect, and assume responsibility for living. Their self-discovery and actions demonstrate that every man can give meaning to his life by doing good deeds for the welfare of others. In the case of the plague men have to work together and do away with indifference if they are to reach the common goal. One of the purposes of Dr. Rieux’s chronicle was “. . . to state quite simply what we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise” (Camus 308). The plague has offered them a chance to give meaning back to their lives.
WORKS CITED
Camus, Albert. The Plague. New York: Vintage International, 1975.
Socrates. Apology 38b.
Dr. Rieux is absolutely an absurd hero because he does what he has to do. He still works as a doctor instead of hiding in fear, hoping to not get the plague like many other of the citizens. Of course, he does not want to fall ill, but he knows that should not stop him from completely ignoring his duties. Unlike many of his fellow citizens who just cowered in their home, he realizes his responsibility and lived up to his specific duty. Everyone’s belief was that the whole city is condemned to die, which was influenced by the priest's sermon, stating this is punishment for the sins of the townspeople, but Dr.Rieux ignored that and stayed to fight. "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." (Camus, The Plague). He does not give up and he does not show weakness. Dr. Rieux has a very similar personality to the character Sisyphus in The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus is sentenced to roll a rock to the top of the mountain and then watch it roll back down, for eternity. “Man...
Plague is here and we’ve got to make a stand, that’s obvious. Ah, I only wish everything were as simple!” (Camus, 134). Grand’s job on the “sanitary squads” may have been a small sacrifice, yet it represented something so much larger than himself. Since he was an older man with not much to give, he gave all he was able to because it was the right thing to do.
The protagonist, Meursault, was interesting character. His ideas and beliefs seem to point to a time when there is no hope to be had. Although he is able to accept the fact that everyone dies and in so doing realizes that you can live better. He lives a controlled life in which he takes responsibility for all of his actions. This is a direct reflect of Camus personal beliefs about absurdism.
Augustus influenced the way the Roman people thought of him and because of that influence he set on the people of Rome he was able to prevail as a leader. Throughout the Res Gestae Augustus portrays himself as a humble leader that was given the opportunity to rule Rome by the people and not like many other rulers before him that fought against other powerful people to take the position of the head of Rome, when in fact Augustus did exactly what others had done before. He had taken the position by force but it is what he did differently once he had it, that he was able to last. He made it seem that he did not take it nor did he want it, but he was given the position by the people of Rome for which he accepted.
30 BC ~ Octavian was given the title of Imperator, which was used in the Eastern provinces. Imperium suggests unlimited imperium (or power) (Antiquity 2 Interpreting The Past) This was the first of many titles that were to be given to Octavian after his defeat of Mark Antony in 31 BC at the Battle of Actium. It indicates that the provinces thought Octavian was worthy of being honoured, and that the power he possessed at the time should remain his. Therefore this was the first factor that initiated the rise of Octavian.
New York: Vintage Books, 1991. Print. The. Cervo, Nathan A. -. " Camus' 'The Plague'" Explicator 62.3 (2004): 169+.
In Camus' The Plague we recognize that the plague took away peoples health on both a physical and mental level. Yet despite this, it generally left ones capacity to love, in an excellent condition. Although not everyone remained able to love like they did prior to the infestation of the pestilence, most endured the emotional challenges, and upheld, if not strengthened their desire for human affection.
Around 1347-1348 the most well-known epidemic struck the European world. The bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death or the Black Plague, rained sickness over millions; for most people, death was the only end to the sickness. The Black Death is known as one of the most depressing occurrences in history. It attacked the three most important aspects of a person’s well-being, their mental, emotional and physical health. While the plague impacted early society, authors, Jean de Venette and Giovanni Boccaccio, described the epidemic in their own words. Modern author, Charles L. Mee Jr., describes the plague with the scientific knowledge he has living in today’s society. These three authors wrote about the bubonic plague with their own voice’s and reasoning’s but many of the accounts they mention are similar to one another. Jean de Venette, Giovanni Boccaccio and Charles L. Mee Jr. explain the symptoms, the causes and the way people acted because of the black plague.
Albert Camus’s The Plague is a novel about an ordinary town that is suddenly stricken by plague. A few of Camus’s philosophies such as the absurd, separation, and isolation are incorporated in the events of the story. The absurd, which is the human desire for purpose and significance in a meaningless and indifferent universe, is central to the understanding of The Plague. In The Plague, Camus uses character development and irony to show that even through the obvious superiority of the universe, man is in constant effort to outlive the absurd. The Plague is crafted around the belief that humans live life in search of a value or purpose that will never be revealed to them because it does not exist.
Think of a North America without electricity, no running water, no government, almost no buildings left intact, and ravaged by a Chinese manufactured plague, even though it’s hard to imagine that's what happened in Jeff Hirsch’s The Eleventh Plague. In Jeff Hirsch’s Eleventh Plague a family made up of the Dad, Mom, Grandfather, and son are trying to survive in a North America ravaged by a Chinese Plague , But then the mom and grandpa die and dad and Stephen are left on their own, but when the dad gets injured running away from some slavers, A Town named Settlers Landing that seems too good to be true takes them in. Then Stephen befriends a girl named Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends the town into chaos. A war is started and it is up to them to help stop it. I thought that The Eleventh Plague was a believable piece of Speculative Fiction because of Hirsch's use of elements of Conflict, Theme, and Red Herrings.
... evening, on leaving the office, they forgather, at an hour that never varies, in the cafes, stroll the same boulevard, or take the air on their balconies. The passions of the young are violent and short-lived; the vices of older men seldom range beyond an addiction to bowling, to banquets and "socials," or clubs where large sums change hands on the fall of a card (Camus,The Plague)." Here it shows an example of existentialism as it did in The Stranger. In both novels the main characters of interest are consumed by repetitive redundant lives; which reflects the philosophy. But this novel, The Plague, also shows possibly a reason why Camus denies existentialism. In The Plague it is expressed that man is good of at least has potential to be good.
Most notably, two of his generals, Antony and Lepidus, were members of the second triumvirate. Some of his assassins even rose to prominence serving under him, like Decimus Brutus . And of course, Octavian could begin his rise to power because Caesar adopted him posthumously in his will. Even though a dead man could not adopt someone, Gaius Octavius changed his name and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, and his position as Caesar 's son was incredibly important for him in the coming civil
Octavian, or Caesar Augustus, was an effective ruler, implementing reforms that positively affected virtually all areas of life throughout the Empire. Social, economic, and political tensions that had led to so much violence in earlier years were calmed by Augustus's policies. Corruption and abuses of the people were also given attention by the Emperor. The borders of the Roman Empire grew dramatically under Augustus's rule, adding material wealth and manpower to Rome's already significant resources.
Camus establishes in his argument that life is meaningless. He believes that people following the same regiment repeatedly for years will eventually ask themselves the point of this endless behavior. For Camus, there are two ways to approach this dilemma. People can either just ignore the thought continuing on the usual path, or they can encounter the definitive
Albert Camus was a French writer who was very well known all over the world for his different works but especially with the idea of “absurdism”. Camus believed that something that was absurd was not possible by humans or logically. It was beyond ridiculous and therefore impossible. This was the basis of one of his most famous works, The Plague. The Plague is a novel that explores aspects of human nature and condition, destiny, God, and fate. The novel is about a plague that takes place in Oran, Algeria that is fictional, but it’s believed to be relatively based on a cholera outbreak in the mid 1800’s in Oran that killed thousands of people. Dr. Bernard Rieux is the protagonist but also is the narrator. However, he doesn’t admit to being the narrator until the end of the novel. Camus writes in the beginning that the instances in Oran are being told by witnesses of the plague. In The Plague, Camus wants his audience to read the book unbiasedly not knowing the narrator in order to take sides with the characters that one wants to and not to be persuaded by the narrators telling of the events.