The Importance Of The Plague In The Late 19th Century

People started to abandon cities and run off to the country side where it was believed to be a safer place to live, away from all other people. It is known that some family members would leave their own loved ones who had contracted the plague and venture to clean areas. Doctors would refuse treatment on the sick in hopes that they could somehow be spared for the epidemic. Yet there was one group of people who as a whole looked out for those who were sick: the clergy of the Catholic Church. Priests, nuns, and monks were typically the only glimmer of hope for the sick. With everyone else shunning the sick or abandoning them, those with the plague were happy to receive whatever help they could get.

The plague, otherwise known as “the Black Death”, brought on much turmoil and suffering for the habitants of Pistoia. Numerous ordinances were put into effect with the primary goal of limiting the spread of the plague as well as to keep the city as healthy as possible. These ordinances typically focused on confinement, i.e. no one goes to Pisa and Luca and no one from Pisa and Luca is allowed to enter Pistoia (ordinance 1), how death and burials are to be processed (ordinances 3-12), and how butchers were to handle their animals and animal carcasses (ordinances 13-19). Essentially, confinement was targeted in hopes of stopping the spread of the infection while keeping the city isolated. Secondly, how the bodies of plague victims and their

All throughout history nations all over the world have dealt with deadly diseases, but one in particular brought out the fear in the nations of Europe, the bubonic plague or as others call it, the black death. During the thirteenth century, medicine was not as developed as it is now, causing England to suffer more than others. According to Cantor (2002) the European nations encountered the bubonic plague in its most brutal state during 1348 to 1349, taking out about a third of Europe’s population (pp. 6-7). He continues on by claiming that one big question to this event was whether or not the plague was the full cause to the loss of lives or if there was another cause along with it (p. 11). Cantor (2002) also explained that the reason the black plague stopped in Europe around the eighteenth century could possibly have been from an introduction to a new species of rats, the gray rat (p. 13). Even though there is controversy based around the plague being spread by rats and how it was stopped by isolation, it may have taught countries useful strategies and ways to grow stronger.

When the plague was consuming most of the European population, priests, monks, and nuns cared for any who had the plague. They also took the responsibility to bury the dead. This caused the population of the clergy to suffer, showing that all of society was affected by the plague, whether it was caring for others, or suffering themselves. The economy was also affected. Before the plague started to spread, most of Europe was experiencing the affect of overpopulation. With overpopulation came the need for food, land, and anything else needed for survival. When the plague hit Europe, the population naturally decreased meaning labor did as well. This caused the price of most all foods went up, yet also caused wages to go up as well, bringing in

The Bubonic Plague took the lives of many individuals in the heart of Florence. Its reign affected “not just that of men and women…but even sentient animals” (Stefani). While the plague only lasted a mere six months, from March 1348 – September 1348, it is a piece of time that society should forever acknowledge and learn from. Much of the significant information from the Bubonic plague are unbeknownst to people today, even though it possesses such an importance aspect in our history. Therefore, in this essay, I will discuss the effects the plague had on the people of Florence, and how the appearance of this plague brought about short and long term historical change what we see today.

The black death had a devastating effect on society. The country was torn between riot and disorder. The first Plague was followed by others milder each time but no less disjointing to society. Landowners and rich men were threatened with ruin by what seemed the crazy demands of the poor men to get higher wages. Wandering homeless man was for the first time masters of the labour market and Peasants from villages migrated to towns and cities, leading to the downfall of the Feudal System' When the plague was happening everybody thought it was a punishment from God for being too sinful, so what they did was pleasure god as much as they could but it still wouldn't work, so that made people lost faith and courage in Christianity and the church.

During the Late Middle Ages in Europe, between the years 1000 and 1300, thanks to agricultural improvements the population in Europe nearly doubled. During this time the life expectancy for an average European was 35 years of living in poor conditions. Due to the lack of jobs, extreme hunger was experienced at least once in the life of a European. In 1315 and 1317, Europe was faced with famine created with cold weather and crop failure.(text)

According to Robert S. Gottfried, author of the book The Black Plague: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe, the Black Plague had a huge impact on human behavior and psychology, “the mechanics and commonplaces of everyday life simply stopped, at least initially “(77-78). With the devastation of the plague, “peasants no longer ploughed, merchants closed their shops, and some, if not all, churchmen stopped offering last rites” (Gottfried 78). In his book The Decameron, Boccaccio described many of the responses of the people during this time:

The plague had killed about one third of Europe's population, almost 25 million people. It was said by an Italian author, Boccaccio, “‘If I and others had not witnessed it with our own eyes, I should dare not believe it”’(McCabe 50). There were very few people left to work, so overall prices rose. “The Ordinance of Laborers (1349) tried to legislate a return to pre-plague wage levels, but the overwhelming shortage of laborers meant that wages continued to rise”(Ross 53). Landowners that needed laborers tried to make the best offer, since laborers were so limited.

Travelers like them usually spent money buying new lands and using money for voyages. It also became difficult for people to procure goods as many were reluctant to leave the house, in fear that they too would get the plague. As a result of this, trade declined, and the price of both goods produced locally and goods imported from afar skyrocketed.

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.

During this time, Religion had a large cultural influence on Europe. Priests were summoned before medical care because God was thought to be the knower of all. Some Christians retaliated against other religions that they believe would have caused the outbreak, while others focused on prayer and holy rituals in hopes for a cure. When someone died of the plague, they were thought to have been rich in the new world (“Khan Academy,” n.d.). When those remedies began to show signs of fault, people began using their own remedies in hopes of healing. Home remedies ranged from drinking vinegar and water to essentially bleeding the patient out to rid them of the bacteria since it was in the blood. Once the plague started to spread, though, sanitation methods were introduced and those exhibiting symptoms were confined to isolation (“Cures for the Black Death,” 2015).

There is a certin unsureness in the circulation and communication of information in A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe. This instability of the language in this proto-novel is caused by the author citing two sides to every point or statement he makes causing contradictions. On top of this Defoe repeats the same points throughout the entire text. This uncertainty helps to make the reader believe the writing is an actual journal as opposed to an edited, actual non-fiction.

A Journal of the Plague Year is a first person account of what it was like living through the times of the plague. It recollects stories and other accounts of plague times heard by and collected by the Defoe from other involved individuals. Explains many aspects before, during, and after the plague of their ways of life and culture. Tells of tales of survivors of the plague but mostly off different tales of deaths and how they died in many outrageous and tragic ways of people killing their families, themselves, or masses of people. The whole journal is filled with collections of stories, but also with charts showing the deaths in different parishes and how they change as the plague raged on. In the end, it tells how life went back to normal for London and Defoe and his family.

Incidentally, at the time Boccaccio begins to write the Decameron the Black Death starts coming to an end in Europe. And in fact, much like the characters of his story, many left the dirtiest of cities, in the beginning, for clean country air in an attempt to escape the plague. These escapees left behind them the crowded, filthy streets where disease was easily contracted for clean, spacious countryside. However the plague infected the animals as well, meaning as they moved, it did too. But for those who chose to stay in the cities, avoiding the disease meant avoiding people. Many shops closed down and some priests even refused to give people their last rites.