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How has literature changed
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1. The contrast between Cottard and the other characters is that while everyone else is in constant fear of catching the plague and doing everything they can to fight the disease, Cottard is cheerful in the fact that the plague has put a stop to the police investigating his mysterious crime . Cottard probably also enjoys the camaraderie of everyone else finally being in the same position as he is.
2. The symbolic significance of the scene at the opera is the parallel of the situation that the citizens of Oran find themselves in.
The same opera has been playing for several months, but no one seems to care. The first act goes down as usual, in the second act, however, Orpheus gets a little creative while begging Hades to let his wife come back to life, with jerky movements and odd noises. Finally, in the third act Orpheus staggers about and finally collapses, a victim of the plague.
Like the opera scene, the plague follows a similar storyline;
When the rats show up in the beginning, even after they have been around for a while, no one seems to care. In the early stages of the plague things seem to go down as usual, After sometime, the citizens of Oran start to get anxious and everyone begins to feel the sting of exile and separation. Death ensues and begins claiming victims of the plague.
3. After Rambert talks with Marcel and Louis’s mother, who tells him he doesn’t have anything to live for besides this woman in Paris, he decided against joining his wife probably due to questioning what she really means to him. He goes to the hospital Instead of trying to escape, when he gets there, Rambert confesses to Rieux that he would feel ashamed if he left the town. Rambart has matured a little and now realizes, and understands that h...
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...tem who have a "monopoly" on the death penalty.
This is why the plague in Oran has taught him nothing new. All he knows is that they have to fight against it. Tarrou states that he is still in fact modest and not qualified to judge anyone. He believes there are afflictions, and there are victims, and it’s our job to divert from amalgamating the calamity.
10. Camus includes the swimming scene to bring a bit of humanity, normalcy and sanity to the novel. Just think of this as a personal day. They are simply taking a break from their never-ceasing work to swim in the ocean, hang out and throw their cares away, if only for a moment.
11. Just when everyone is convinced that he will die, Grand makes a miraculous recovery. Grand's being spared from death by the plague is a sign of hope. His recovery marks the turning of the tide for everyone affected by the plague.
...ll change as a result of the plague year be it for better or worse. This can be seen as while some of the characters strive through and become stronger people at the end, like Anna and Elinor, the disaster brings out the worst in others, such as Josiah Bont.
If there is one part of life that humans have trouble overcoming it is natural disasters. They are unexpected, incurable, and often unconquerable. One specific type of natural disaster is that of sickness. Plagues are disastrous evil afflictions of an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality ( Merriam-Webster ). A historically famous plague in the fourteenth and fifteenth century is the Black or Bubonic Plague. The social and economic affects of the plague in Europe were detrimental to the population and economy.
Lastly, the change in spirituality was one of the major effects of the plague. The Black Death left survivors mourning, depressed, and fearful of its return.
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.
... pain" he had previously endured. He is unable to mourn appropriately, but rather accepts his suffering as part of life. His ability to show true emotion, and love deeply, was torn away from him at the hands of the "merciless plague". Through these two characters we see an exception to the general rule. As aside from a small few, majority felt their potential to love was as strong as ever.
In Camus' novel, “The Plague”, he tells a fictional story about a port town in France that has been infected by the Plague. Camus' detail in recounting the symptoms the people face as a pla...
The plague was spread by fleas, which were not effected by the disease. Fleas first infected the rats, which lived off garbage and sewage. The rats then spread the infection to the humans. Rats were a common sight in the cities, due to the poor sanitary conditions, so no one suspected them (www.tartans.com). In the winter the plague seemed to disappear, but only because fleas were dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims (www.byu.edu). The effects of the plague were devastating. After just five years, twenty-five million people were dead - one third of Europe's population. Once people were infected they infected others very rapidly. As a result, in order to avoid the disease, many fled to the countryside where the lower population density helped to decrease the speed at which the disease spread (www.tartans.com). From a person's time of infection to his or her death was less than one week (www.home.nycap.rr.com). The plague became known as "The Black Death" because of the discoloration of the skin and black enlarged lymph nodes that appeared on the second day of contracting the disease. The term "The Black Death" was not invented until after 1800. Contemporaries called it "the pestilence" (Cantor 7).
In the wake of the plague, nobleman and religious authority figures struggled to maintain their high place in society as government leaders were unable to find an effective response to the disease, and people began to doubt the power of the Church. Confusion and suspicion arose among followers of the church when the Church itself was powerless to stop this devastating diseases supposedly “sent from the heavens”. When praying and amending their sins didn’t cure themselves or their loved ones of that great pestilence, people believed that God had abandoned them, shown in these quotes taken directly from the journal of an Italian citizen who contracted the disease. “…and nowhere is there a refuge. No haven beckons in any part of the globe, nor can any hope of longed for salvation be seen. Wherever I turn my frightened eyes, their gaze is troubled by continual funerals: the churches groan encumbered with biers…”(Petrach 27-31). “… it is the wrath of God… the harsh assault of the stars in their perpetually changing conjunctions. This plague-bearing year has borne down on humankind and threatens a tearful slaughter, and the highly charg...
Character development in The Plague plays a significant role in illustrating the way that man will endure against an incomparable being or force. In this case, the plague. The people of Oran have an understanding, though an indefinite one, of the power of the plague because Dr. Rieux publicly accepts the situation. Rieux makes it clear that he plans to “get busy with [the plague]” (89), but “[he] knew: that this wasn’t the easiest course” (89). In other words, Dr. Rieux us fully aware that he is up against something much stronger than himself. However, he is intent on combating the plague. Dr. Rieux, however, does not represent all of the people. Not all of the people are immediately awake to the fact that the plague is a force to be reckoned with. Because a majority of them do not know the true power of the plague, they have no desire to counteract the early stages of the disease. Without knowing the actual severity of the situation, “the risk of the plague seemed insignificant” (70) to them. The overall nonchalant attitude of the citi...
In the novel, the people of Oran are ignorant and selfish by thinking that a fatal plague or epidemic would never harm them. When it does though, everyone goes ballistic and can’t understand why it is happening to them. Dr. Rieux is one of the main people that decided to do something about it. He is a doctor that sees some of the first signs of the plague early on. Being one of the first that acknowledges the problem as a plague came with disagreements amongst everyone. No one believed that there was a plague in their city and couldn’t recognize that they were all in serious danger. As days go by and the death toll increases dramatically, the ci...
The plot of a play is defined by Aristotle to be "the arrangement of incidents," and it is therefore logical that the events of Othello perform an integral part in sustaining the interest of the audience. Shakespeare was clearly well aware of the importance of a good script and captivating plot, as the tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, features twists, turns and revelations, each grasping and holding the attention of the audience. For example, within only one scene of the tragedy, Act IV Scene I, the readers and viewers of Othello witness Othello's emotional breakdown, the continued manipulation of characters by Iago and the arrival of Lodovico to Cyprus. The intriguing plot maintains it's momentum throughout the play, never giving the audience a chance to focus their attention elsewhere, and thus holding their interest until the final line.
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).
The Plague (French, La Peste) is a novel written by Albert Camus that is about an epidemic of bubonic plague. The Plague is set in a small Mediterranean town in North Africa called Oran. Dr. Bernard Rieux, one of the main characters, describes it as an ugly town. Oran’s inhabitants are boring people who appear to live, for the most part, habitual lives. The main focus of the town is money. “…everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. 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’” (Camus 4). The citizens’ unawareness of life’s riches and pleasures show their susceptibility to the oncoming plague. They don’t bother themselves with matters not involving money. It is very easy for the reader to realize that they are too naive to combat the forthcoming calamity. The theme of not knowing life is more than work and habits will narrow the people’s chances of survival. Rieux explains that the town had a view of death as something that happens every day. He then explains that the town really doesn’t face towards the Mediterranean Sea. Actually it is almost impossible to see the sea from town. Oran is a town which seems to turn its back on life and freedom. The Plague was first published in 1948 in France. “Early readers were quick to note that it was in part an allegory of the German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, which cut France off from the outside world; just as in the novel the town of Oran must close its gates to isolate the plague” (“The Plague” 202). When the plague first arrives, the residents are slow to realize the extreme danger they are in. Once they finally become aware of it...
This tale of life and death is told by Dr. Rieux, who maintains that his "business is only to say 'this is what happened', when he knows that it actually did happen, [and] that it closely affected the life of a whole populace [...]" (Camus, The Plague, p.7). Of the novel, Germaine Bree says,
only way to cure the plague and keep the kingdom stable seems to be the