Existentialism and Albert Camus' The Plague Essay

"The Black Death" is known as the worst natural disaster in European history. The plague spread throughout Europe from 1346-1352. Those who survived lived in constant fear of the plague's return and it did not disappear until the 1600s. Not only were the effects devastating at the time of infection, but during the aftermath as well. "The Black Death" of the fourteenth century dramatically altered Europe's social and economic structure.

A book of horrors, fear and death. “The Plague” is a book by Albert Camus which weaves these emotions and events into one suspenseful tale. Each paragraph and section is written and structured in such a way as to give the reader insight into the feelings of the victims of the plague, and to show somewhat of a theme. The passage from section 4, part 4, line number 1 to line number 35 gives us a glimpse of the melancholy of the people of Oran to their dead loved ones to the extent that they do not attend All Souls' Day, for they were thinking of them too much as it was. Albert Camus fills this passage with figurative devices, including, diction, personification, pathetic fallacy, metaphors, irony and a turning point. The first two paragraphs

The word “plague” is defined as a contagious bacterial disease characterized by fever and delirium, typically with the formation of buboes, and sometimes infection of the lungs. The article entitled, “On the Progress of the Black Death”, written by Jean de Venette, a French Carmelite friar who was a leading clergyman around Paris at the time of the Black Death, is a well-known account of the spread of the plague in Northern Europe. In this account, Jean de Venette explained the history of the plague, its causes and its consequences.

The book When Plague Strikes, is about 3 deadly diseases. It 's about the Black Death, Smallpox, and AIDS. Each of these diseases can cause a serious outrage of death. The book also tells about how doctors try to come up with treatments, medicines, and antibiotics to try and cure these diseases. All these diseases got the best out of everyone. Some people reacted differently than others with these diseases. All the diseases came in play in A. D. 1347, when the Black Death broke out for the first time in what’s today is know. As southern Ukraine.

The reappearance of the plague virus was utterly unexpected in Camus’ novel. The Algerian government involvement with the epidemic was lackadaisical. They refused to address the new, hastily spreading virus as the bubonic plague. Through this denial the infected city of Oran was completely quarantined. Those that were infected with the deadly virus were transported into sick isolation wards that were equipped to provide patients with immediate treatment and ensure the “maximum prospect of recovery” (Camus 26). The people were isolated in “quarantine camps” (Camus 115), and the majority of those that were infected with the plague died painful deaths. After a prolonged period of experimentation, the serum to cure

The plague was a catastrophic time in history, and happened more than once. It took millions and millions of people’s lives. It destroyed cities and countries, and many people suffered from it.

Everyone will die. Meursault’s awareness of death contributes to his nonchalant attitude toward every death he witness or must endure in The Stranger. Death fails to upset Meursault. In The Stranger, Albert Camus emphasizes mortality in order to expose the ignorance humanity has towards the inevitable or unknown end.

Geraldine Brook’s novel, Year of Wonders is based on a true story which recounts a 17th Century Plague, which struck the English village of Eyam and put many in strife. The story revolves around the protagonist, Anna Frith as she develops strength throughout the novel from being a maid in the beginning of the novel and eventually becomes a midwife. Similarly, Steven Soderbergh’s Film, Contagion is set in 21st Century America, which narrates the epidemic of the MEV1 virus, which causes dispute amongst many characters and has a manipulative effect on the characters in the film. In both the text and the novel, Diseases not only attack individuals but also causes the breakdown in society. Diseases cause the greed and the want for money in some characters, which has a huge impact on society as a whole. Similarly, diseases cause the need for self-preservation in order to survive. On the other hand, diseases cause characters to lose faith.

The Plague or ¨Black Death¨ was a virus that spread across Europe killing about 60% of the population. The plague's origin was at the time unknown and this brought about many questions. At this time, people did not have basic necessities such as proper hygiene and medicine. Therefore there was fear, superstitions as well as conspiracy, and there were also some who realized that they could gain from the deaths of those around them.

In chapter 9, the three great calamities were France and England in a hundred year war, the Bubonic plague also known as the Black Death, and the breakdown and revival of the late medieval church. The hundred year old war was caused by King Edward the 3rd when he tried to claim the French throne when Charles the 4th died. It wasn’t the only reason since both England’s and France’s territory powers were too close to each other and tensions were high. The Bubonic plague also arrived between 1348- 1350, killing 2/5th of the Western Europe population. It was spread throughout by ticks on rats which nested in roofs or the filthy streets.

The Great Plague was a pandemic that killed many people, and for the people from the olden times the plague equaled painful death; it was torture. As a result, many people categorize ‘the Great Plague’ as a catastrophe that had caused huge damage in Europe, but without this epidemic, we many not have had substantial changes that lead us to the modern day we have now.

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.

In its most basic sense, absurdity addresses the meaninglessness of life, with special attention directed to divine disavowal.” Jared White utilizes Absurdism to highlight the thoughts and meanings that go from individuality to the community. Absurdism is defined as the philosophy that humans live in essential isolation in an irrational and meaningless world. White says that when people realize their time has almost no value in the large scale, they give it up to the remainder of the world. He also claims that despite of the humans’ absurd settings, personal gains are favored. White makes clear that, taken literally, the plague of rats is an epidemic, but, symbolically, the plague of humans is a pandemic. The smaller outbreak only parallels the massive disease that people are infected with. White also argues that The Plague is in part a historical allegory, in which the plague signifies the German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944 during World War II. “In a deft narrative act, Camus allegorically uses the plague to consider not only his personal situation--sick, exiled, and restricted--but also the European conflict. Bernard further elaborates that Camus wrote La Peste with the plague as an obvious reference to “the kind of imprisonment [. . .] the Germans imposed on occupied France” (165).” Oran is cut off from the outside world, which is equivalent to France; the different attitudes of the

When the gates of Oran are opened, Rieux writes a chronicle of the plague hoping to teach others a lesson. He wants them to witness the admirable qualities in men and the injustice they endure. As a doctor he knows that the plague bacillus can lie dormant for long periods and then resurface. Although man may never be the victor over the plague and the loss of life it inflicts, he can better manage life’s adversities in the future.

In his novel The Plague, Albert Camus presents a pseudo-historical documentary of a plague that confines and controls the citizens of Oran within their city gates. The plague possesses the power of life and death over the people, as it determines which citizens will face their death or those who work to stop death. These latter men, personified by the character's of Rieux, Grand, and Tarrau, each struggle endlessly to master the plague's power over their lives, even with the realization they may never succeed. For Camus, this idea of "impossible struggle" against an unseen power resonates throughout the novel and reoccurs in another "plague" which these men must contend - the limits of human