Coronavirus: Insights from Albert Camus' 'The Plague'

 

 

 Much has been written about my hero French- Algerian existentialist philosopher Albert Camus ,   https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2012/05/albert-camus-71113-4160-smoking.html admirer of revolutionary syndicalism, anarchists, conscientious objectors, and all manner of rebels. Standing against totalitarianism in the form of Stalinism and fascism, and was never afraid to speak his truth.
Born in extreme poverty, on the 7th of November 1913 in French occupied Algeria, to an illiterate mother who was partially deaf, who lost his father in the horror that was  World War 1, and despite tremendous disadvantages by the age of 44 he was collecting the Nobel Prize for literature.

His acclaimed novel, La Peste, translated as The Plague in English, published in 1947  is currently flying off the bookshelves  amidst  the current coronavirus pandemic, a novel that  evokes so  vividly and on such an epic scale the story we are currently living every day. 

The book  often seen  as an allegory for the French resistance movement, a tale of valiant though impossible struggle. against the dark forces of fascism, but beyond this connection , Camus tale written in sparse, haunting prose –goes beyond this and  takes us through a catastrophic outbreak of a contagious disease in the lightly fictionalised town of Oran on the Algerian coast, as seen through the eyes of the novel’s hero,  Doctor Rieux.

While Bernard Rieux is The Plague’s central protagonist, and later revealed to be its narrator too, Camus’ beliefs are most explicitly delivered through the character of Jean Tarrou. A former communist revolutionary from France who is whiling away his disillusionment in Oran when the quarantine is announced, Tarrou aids Rieux by organizing volunteer sanitation workers to fight the disease’s spread. The novel advances through the two characters’ perspectives, via Rieux’s recollections and Tarrou’s diary entries, sections of which read as if they are a continuation of Camus’ philosophical work on absurdism—the desire to find meaning in a meaningless world: 

" How contrive not to waste one’s time? Answer: By being fully aware of it all the while. Ways in which this can be done: By spending one’s days on an uneasy chair in a dentist’s waiting-room; by remaining on one’s balcony all a Sunday afternoon; by listening to lectures in a language one doesn’t know; by traveling by the longest and least-convenient train routes, and of course standing all the way; by lining up at the box-office of theaters and then not buying a seat; and so forth."

Tarrou also directly addresses the plague as a metaphor for something much larger and longer-standing than the epidemic. One evening, sitting on a terrace overlooking the city to the sea, Tarrou tells Rieux:

"I had plague already, long before I came to this town and encountered it here. Which is tantamount to saying I’m like everybody else. Only there are some people who don’t know it, or feel at ease in that condition." 

Tarrou goes on to clarify that he isn’t referring to the bubonic plague, but to the condoing of murder—which amounts to the same thing: death. He saw this “plague” in his father, who was a prosecutor arguing for executing criminals, just as he saw it in some of his communist comrades with an authoritarian bend, who claimed to be fighting for a better world, but also committed cold-blooded murder. From this disillusionment comes Tarrou’s only certainty:

:"All I maintain is 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.” And so Tarrou chose to throw his lot in with the people of Oran, a strange city where he knew no one, helping them fight off a disease that ultimately claims his life."

As the novel opens, an air of eerie normality reigns. ‘Oran is an ordinary town,’ writes Camus, ‘nothing more than a French Prefecture on the coast of Algeria.’ The inhabitants lead busy money-centered and denatured lives; they barely notice that they are alive.But with the first series of deaths displaying the same curious symptoms, town officials squabble about whether or not the deaths qualify as an “epidemic” and how seriously they should take it. They nervously note how poorly prepared they are with the necessary equipment to treat large numbers of stricken people. Officials advise locals to “practice extreme cleanliness” while privately worrying about how many hospital beds are available. The number of deaths rise,  Oran officials decide it is time to close the town. Businesses are shuttered. Daily deaths are counted. Protective masks are sought. Fake antidotes are advertised. Panic and fear is spread “This here damned disease,” one character says, “even them who haven’t got it can’t think of anything else.” Most of all is the waiting.

In order to write the book, Camus immersed himself in the history of plagues. He read books on the Black Death that killed 50 million people in Europe in the 14th century; the Italian plague of 1629 that killed 280,000 people across the plains of Lombardy and the Veneto, the great plague of London of 1665 as well as plagues that ravaged cities on China’s eastern seaboard during the 18th and 19th centuries. In March 1942, Camus told the writer André Malraux that he wanted to understand what plague meant for humanity: ‘Said like that it might sound strange,’ he added, ‘but this subject seems so natural to me.’

Camus wrotes: ‘Pestilence is so common, there have been as many plagues in the world as there have been wars, yet plagues and wars always find people equally unprepared. When war breaks out people say: ‘It won’t last, it’s too stupid.’ And war is certainly utterly senseless, but that doesn’t prevent it from starting again and bloody again, like a pestilence that sadly has no ending . an absurdity that to this day some deny, in a continued irrational way. 

Camus argued that there is in most of us a moral plaque  as equally debilitating  as the physical variety, The plague is our moral indifference to the unnecessary suffering of others,including the suffering  of others, including the suffering that we may not directly endorse, but which occurs under our implied consent to the current social contract, Describing very well a society  where the policies of our leaders leaves people dying in the Mediterranean sea, as they failed in their search for a better life. the plague is our moral indifference.

Camus saw no dichotomy between the emptiness that lies at the center of immorality  of politics and in the tragedy of morality, but in end offered solace as both we and the people of Oran  collectively mourn the many deaths  and keep a wary eye to the future. What he still offers is a meaningful path forwards out of the paths of darkness, emphasising his faith in humanity and our willingness to face these burdens together. 

The theme of love is also omnipresent and Camus explores it most profoundly through the character of Rambert. A young Parisian journalist trapped in Oran, Rambert initially attempts to escape from the plague-ridden town. Invoking deep love for his wife back in Paris, Rambert tries to justify his decision to Rieux and Tarrou. Rambert insists that his desire to escape isn’t borne out of a lack of courage; previously he’d risked his life fighting in the Spanish Civil War. But what the war taught him is that courage and conviction cannot be abstract idea. Dying for an idea, he claims, is heroism, and it is heroism in which he no longer believes. For Rambert, life is about “living and dying for what one loves,” and his concrete love for his wife, he insists is what really matters.

The doctor Rieux counters that “man” — whether in fighting war or fighting disease — isn’t merely an abstract idea and that his own actions aren’t about heroism, but common decency and doing one’s job. But in any case, Rieux reassures Rambert that his decision to leave is “absolutely right and proper”. Rambert insists he’s putting love first and that it’s easier for Rieux and Tarrou to stay and fight the plague because they have nothing to lose. Assuming that both of them are alone, Rambert claims it’s easier “to be on the side of angels”. But when his efforts to flee are delayed and he’s forced to witness the suffering brought on by the pestilence, Rambert is forced to re-think his position. His views are further challenged when Rambert discovers that Rieux is married and that his wife is in quarantine with plague. Upon learning of Rieux’s wife, Rambert gives up his efforts to escape and courageously volunteers to help the fight. In short, Rieux becomes empathetic. And empathy is really a form of love for humanity. So in the end it’s not a question of putting love first, ahead of some other cause, but about embracing a broader and deeper form of love that encompasses yet transcends Rieux’s love for his wife.

The theme of justice also runs throughout the novel. The plague is indiscriminate. Rambert seems to be rewarded for his courage and is eventually reunited with his wife. Yet at the same time, an innocent child dies. Tarrou, despite great courage, also succumbs to the plague, as does Rieux’s wife. Grand, a man who wastes his life revising the first line of his novel, miraculously recovers. These examples highlight the absurdity of existence and the fact that we cannot rely on the benevolence of some external force to ensure just outcomes. For justice to be served, we must take matters into our own hands. Thanks to the brave actions of a small group of people, the plague is eventually defeated. And at the end of the novel Cottard, an opportunist that had profited from shady dealings during the outbreak, feels the wrath of justice at the hands of a mob of frustrated townspeople.

" On this earth there are pestilences and there are victims " Tarrou surmised , " and it's up to us so far as possble, not to join forces with the pestilences" And like Rieux we must realise the importance of courage, which represents the difference between being swallowed  up by the plaque or prevailing over it. Keep safe, don't give up hope, much love.Thank you Albert Camus

 

 Coronavirus: Insights from Albert Camus' 'The Plague'