1

Albert Camus’ The Plague takes us through a catastrophic outbreak of a contagious disease in
the lightly fictionalised town of Oran on the Algerian coast, through the perspective of the
novel’s hero, a Dr Rieux, a version of Camus himself. Although a work of fiction there are
multiple aspects of the novel that align with real-life outbreaks of disease down the course of
history. This essay will compare the novel’s advanced medical response to the plague,
Camus’ idea of plague as a universal pre-condition and the social behaviours of communities
in times of uncertainty such as plague, of which I will compare with primary sources from
different times of pestilence throughout history. Each of these comparisons will highlight the
ways in which modern pandemics differ from those that have gone before them.

By the time of writing and the time in which Camus sets his novel, scientific and public
health advances are equipped to respond to the outbreak of plague. Scientific and medical
advances have allowed for the better understanding of the nature of disease, how it spreads
and the importance of containing it. Dr Rieux is quick to respond to the plague and urges
immediate strict sanitations measures to be taken as death rises in the town. Calling for the
appointment of a health commission, Rieux convinces his colleagues to act as “though the
disease were a plague”1, and that stringent health measures “are necessary to prevent half the
town being killed”.2 The following day, posters were plastered around the town advising
inhabitants “to observe the most rigorous hygiene”, anyone infested with fleas were to attend
a “municipal dispensary”. The families of the town were obliged to “declare any cases
diagnosed by the doctor and agree to isolation of their patients in special wards in the
hospital”. In addition, any relatives were “advised to undergo a health test”. Later, the town
undergoes a complete lockdown in which the gates are closed and guarded, isolating the town
and its people from the outside world. A curfew is then imposed, containing the townspeople
in their homes past eleven o’clock. Communicating through letters were prohibited to
“prevent letters from transmitting the infection”.3 All vehicles were stopped from entering the
town, except for some ships and trucks of essential goods, of which were held in quarantine
for some time, disrupting most trade. The outbreak of infectious disease made the town act
efficiently, “everything really happened with the greatest speed and minimum of risk/
everything was sacrificed to efficiency”.4 The most “desperate measures had been envisaged”
1
Albert Camus, The Plague (2020), p.60.

2
Camus, p.59.

3
Camus, p.78.

4
Camus, p.201.
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to contain the spread of disease. 5 The public health measures taken reveal that the doctors
and the state have a deeper understanding and knowledge of disease and how it spreads.

The health system of the novel is clearly more scientifically advanced than the medical
profession we have seen in earlier pandemics. Imperialism of the early 19th century saw a
significant change the host-pathogen relationship, as huge scientific and technological
advancements were made. Scientific methodology and periodical observations were practiced
as scientists began to observe significant phenomenon, recording it, creating data.
Developments amongst scientists such as Edward Jenner (1749-1823), John Snow (1813-
1858), Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), Robert Koch (1843-1910) and their use of the
scientific method changed the world of science, particularly the impact of disease and how
medical professionals dealt with disease compared to earlier outbreaks of infection. As we
have seen in the novel, Dr Rieux and the others understand the pathogen and microbe and
how it can spread, they understand the importance of containing its transmission. Rieux and
Castel understand Koch’s Four Postulates as they hoped the serum would be made with the
“cultures from the very microbe that was infecting the town” as it would be directly more
“effective than any serum brought in from the outside, since the microbe differed very
slightly from the bacillus of plague as traditionally defined”.6 This draws on “Postulate 2: The
microorganism must be isolated from a diseased organism and grown in pure culture” and
“Postulate 4: The microorganism must be reisolated from the inoculated, diseased
experimental host and identified as being identical to the original specific causative agent.” 7
They even practice Jenner’s method of variolation as seen in his An Inquiry into the Causes
and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae in attempts to save Jacques, M. Othon’s son. From An
Inquiry, we can see that Jenner understands how germs are carried and how disease spreads.
He practices the scientific method as he emphasises careful clinical observation followed by
relatively simple clinical testing. It is clear from the way Dr Rieux and his team tackle the
plague and the health measures they decide to implement, that they understand the scientific
method and Jenner and Koch’s advancements.

5
Camus, p.208.
6
Camus, p.154.

7
‘10.1D: Koch’s Postulates’ in Biology LibreTexts, 2018
(https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/Book%3A_Microbiology_(Boundless)/
10%3A_Epidemiology/10.1%3A_Principles_of_Epidemiology/10.1D%3A__Kochs_Postulates).
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Such improvements in the health system created a newfound trust for the medical profession,
which differed greatly from previous pestilences when civilians condemned and feared the
medical authority. The poem of Doctor Schabel, 1656, is a perfect representation of the
attitudes held towards doctors during earlier plagues such as the Black Death, vilified frauds
who could not be trusted: “He seeks out corpses, everyone”/ “Who would not be very scared/
the Doctor with the enormous nose. Who follows the Con-tay-gion, earning his salary
therefrom.”/ “A full money bag his hellish goal.”8 This representation of Dr Schabel appears
to be the exact opposite of Dr Rieux. Doctors are no longer feared as much, they have earned
the trust and respect of their communities due to the advancements made in science. Dr Rieux
and the other doctors in the novel are certainly not feared like plague doctors and quacks of
the Black Death.

As scientific and technological advances emerged, the world was becoming increasingly
based on fact and quantitative reasoning, and less reliant on spiritual or religious meaning.
Religion was becoming less involved in people’s moral understanding of the universe.
Camus’ novel has its philosophical roots of social ‘absurdity’9, as he suggests a deeper
meaning to the sudden outbreak of disease. According to his philosophy, we are “already
living through a plague: that is a widespread, silent, invisible disease that may kill any of us
at any time and destroy the lives we assumed were solid.”10 For the narrator plagues are
merely concentrations of a universal pre-condition, “dramatic instances of a perpetual rule:
that we are vulnerable to being randomly exterminated, by a bacillus, an accident or the
actions of our fellow humans.” There has been just as many plagues as wars in the history of
human existence, both find us “equally unprepared”11 explains the narrator. To strengthen his
philosophy, Camus shows how religious sensibility responds to events of social unrest, such
as plague. The ecclesiastical authorities of the town decided to “wage war on the plague”. 12
Quoting passages from the Exodus, Father Paneloux convinces the townspeople that this

9
Debanjan Banerjee, T.S. Sathyanarayana Rao, Roy Abraham Kallivayalil and Afzal Javed, ‘Revisiting “The
Plague” by Camus: Shaping the “social absurdity” of the COVID-19 Pandemic’ in Asian Journal of Psychiatry,
liv (2020).

10
‘Camus and The Plague - The School Of Life’ in www.theschooloflife.com
(https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/camus-and-the-plague/#:~:text=Camus%20was%20drawn%20to
%20his) (22 Apr. 2022).

11
Camus, p.44.

12
Camus, p.106.
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“calamity” in the form of plague was sent to “strike down the enemies of God”.13 He preaches
to the people that this is a moment to reflect on the disappointment they have brought to
God’s “eternal hope”, he has turned his back on the people, and now “deprived of the light of
God will languish for a long time in the darkness of the plague!”.14 Yet later on in the novel,
the death of M. Othon’s young son Jacques, forces Paneloux to rethink his assertion that
everyone in Oran deserved the plague. The suffering of Jacques is unjustifiable, there is
nothing meaningful in his death. Here Camus is attacking religious connotations of suffering,
reiterating his absurdist philosophy that all people rich and poor, young, and old, are under a
death sentence every day of their lives. Death to Camus is always a collective catastrophe
because it is humankind’s collective fate.

Through Dr Rieux, Camus rejects the need to spiritually rationalise suffering, instead of
trusting in divine intervention it is doctors and scientific finding that takes control and
alleviates sickness. By looking at Jenner’s An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the
Variolae Vaccinae, his conclusions and observations similarly denounce disease as divine
punishment, by providing a scientific explanation to the cause of disease. Jenner understands
the link between animals and disease, “There is a disease to which the Horse, from his state
of domestication is frequently subject”.15 Through clinical observation and experimentation,
Jenner found that the domestication of animals was “capable of generating disease in the
Human Body”.16 By proving that animals, particularly cows, are the cause of terrible diseases
such as smallpox, Jenner provides a scientific explanation for the cause of disease and the
spread of germs, setting back any religious or spiritual explanation to the outcome of sickness
or suffering. The scientific findings of intellectuals such as Jenner distinguish modern
pandemics from much earlier ones, as they lacked such scientific advances to reject a
spiritual understanding of the outbreak of plague. For example, this is evident back during the
Black Death in Europe between 1347 and 1351, when the world was a very spiritual one,
ordered by God. People responded to disease based on religious belief, this is no surprise as
there are over one hundred references to plague in the Bible. Disease is most famously
depicted in the Bible within the Book of Exodus, in which God sent seven plagues to punish

13
Camus, p.109.
14
Camus, p.111.

15
‘The Project Gutenberg eBook of An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, by Edward
Jenner’ in www.gutenberg.org (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29414/29414-h/29414-h.htm) (22 Apr. 2022).
16
‘The Project Gutenberg eBook of An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae’,
www.gutenberg.org (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29414/29414-h/29414-h.htm) (22 Apr. 2022).
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the Egyptians, “Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, `This is what
the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” This incident of plague
along with many other present in the Bible, result in many seeing the outbreak of disease as a
divine judgment.

Camus’ novel also highlights social patterns of behaviour in response to plague. At the
beginning of the novel, the people of the town of Oran seem to remain calm and accept their
“status as prisoners”17, as their despair and longing for their loved ones “saved them from
panic”18. In the summer months the people began to realise the plague “drove away all joy”19
and as the heat and fear rose many soon turned to violence and revolt, “creating an
atmosphere of alarm in the town”.20 Media heralded this terror in the town through newspaper
and radio, ushering the spread of misinformation and fear. A new newspaper called The
Courier of the Epidemic had been created to originally provide official updates of the plague
and to “sustain morale”21 but eventually became a vehicle for promoting new products which
were “infallible in protecting against plague”.22 Soon the inhabitants were driven mad by the
plague and soon accused the wind of “carrying the seeds of infection”.23 Some people “driven
mad by grief and misfortune”24 set fires to their homes believing it would kill the plague. As
myths travelled through the town, scenes of panic and revolt forced authorities to compare
the plague “to a state of siege and apply appropriate laws”.25

The way in which the media plays upon the fears of the inhabitants of Oran recalls the 1802
cartoon ‘The cow-pock, -or-The wonderful effects of the new inoculation!’ by English
caricaturist James Gillray. A satirical attack on Edward Jenner, the image depicts a
vaccination scene at the Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital at St. Pancras, showing Jenner
17
Camus, p.83.

18
Camus, p.89.

19
Camus, p.130.

20
Camus, p.129.

21
Camus, p.137.

22
Camus, p.138.

23
Camus, p.194.

24
Camus, p.195.

25
Camus, p.198.
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vaccinating a frightened young woman, and cows emerging from different parts of people's
bodies. The image replicates the fear and controversy that surrounded Jenner’s vaccination.
Gillray clearly recognised the vaccine controversy as an excellent opportunity to exercise his
comic gifts as a visual artist. It is a striking reminder of how the media and certain individuals
profit or take advantage of vulnerable people in times of crisis. This recalls Thucydides’
account of the Plague of Athens from his History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, Chap.
VII. Having suffered from the plague himself, Thucydides is highly specific and gives an
honest depiction of the illness and its physical impact on the body. We get the sense
Thucydides is not trying to spread false information, to create fear amongst the Athenians,
and is simply providing an informative response to the pestilence. He is also quite dismissive
in response to the Athenians blaming Pericles for their misfortunes. To put these rumours to
rest, Thucydides then delivers an overall evaluation of Pericles's leadership, praising his
intelligence, distinguished reputation, and incorruptibility. He even compares Pericles with
his successors and refers to him as “the genius of Pericles”.26 This illustrates a change in the
way different individuals respond to plague and how the media can prey on the fears of the
vulnerable.

From analysing Albert Camus’, The Plague to specific primary sources such as Robert
Koch’s four postulates, Edward Jenner’s An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the
Variolae Vaccinae, James Gillray’s cartoon, ‘The cow-pock, -or-The wonderful effects of the
new inoculation!’ we can see some of the ways pandemics have changed over time. The
biggest difference must be the growth of much more progressive scientific and medical
techniques, which allowed the medical and health profession to tackle the outbreak much
more efficiently than plagues gone before, such as The Great Plague of London 1665, The
Black Death in Europe, 1347-1351, the Justinian Plague of 541AD and the Plague of Athens
in 430 BC. Developments in the world of science not only made doctors more trustworthy,
and respectable individuals in society, but it also dismantled the religious hold on society and
their spiritual understanding of the universe. Additionally, the behavioural patterns of society
and how people react in times of uncertainty has changed and progressed over time.

26
‘The History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides 431 BC’ in www.gutenberg.org
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7142/7142-h/7142-h.htm#link2HCH0007). (April 25.2022).
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Bibliography

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(https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Microbiology/Book
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10.1%3A_Principles_of_Epidemiology/10.1D%3A__Kochs_Postulates)
 8

‘Camus and The Plague - The School Of Life’ in www.theschooloflife.com

(https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/camus-and-the-plague/#:~:text=Camus
%20was%20drawn%20to%20his) (22 Apr. 2022)
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Vaccinae, by Edward Jenner’ in www.gutenberg.org
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29414/29414-h/29414-h.htm) (22 Apr. 2022)
Banerjee, Debanjan, T.S. Sathyanarayana Rao, Roy Abraham Kallivayalil and Afzal Javed,
‘Revisiting “The Plague” by Camus: Shaping the “social absurdity” of the COVID-19
Pandemic’ in Asian Journal of Psychiatry, liv (2020)
Camus, Albert, The Plague (2020)