Clash of Morals in The Plague by Albert Camus

“But what does it mean, the plague? It’s life, that’s all” (Camus 120). The Plague, by Albert Camus, is a chilling and vivid novel that follows a town as it falls under a plague, leaving only chaos and destruction within its path. The narrator and protagonist, Dr. Bernard Rieux, faces the horrors of the plague and attempts to aid victims while fighting his own inner battles.

Many of the Oran citizens are separated from each other due to their own small-time greed and their lack of selflessness, as they battle against their conflict, the plague. As a common citizen of Oran, Dr. Rieux sets himself apart from his society through his realistic mindset and conflicting morals such as rejection of religion and the use of abstraction to fulfill his duty as a doctor and act for the general good of the public.

Self-pity is a physiological state that many people resort to when they are left defenseless against a looming threat and is a form of submission to the threat itself. Dr. Rieux’s solution to cope with the staggering amount of losses differs entirely from the emotional approaches of the Oran society. The citizens’ own greed is observed when normal conversations become a competition about problems, thus ensuring, “the sympathy of their concierge and the interest of their hearers” (Camus 76). The citizens exemplify self-pity when they constantly place themselves as victims within each situation, thus deserving attention and condolences. By portraying a victim, the citizens release the responsibility they have to fight against the plague and places it on the shoulders of another. The Oran society is unable to accept responsibility for their failure to act.

As the narrator, Dr. Rieux makes the ineffectiveness of pity clear to readers when he states, “One grows out of pity when it’s useless” (Camus 52). As the death toll rises, the citizens try to overshadow one another with ‘worse’ situations that would enable them to receive more pity. Although their reactions may seem cruel, human nature calls for the ‘survival of the fittest’ and the isolation of the town causes the people to be forced to compete with one another, like animals within a cage. Rieux’s critical viewpoint of the town’s chaotic temperament indirectly characterizes him as a man with a realistic mindset. His use of the word “useless” provokes a negative connotation onto pity and allows readers to see how immature the citizens are due to the fact that pity achieves nothing.

In times of desperation and hopelessness, praying can serve as an escape for society but for some, it only leads to disappointment and a dead end. Rieux outputs the faulty side of being devoted to religion when he questions if humans can fight through their own problems “without raising our eyes toward the heaven where He sits in silence?” (Camus 113). Rieux’s perspective enables him to believe that all humans are bound to death from birth, yet in reality, many still link onto life relentlessly. The lack of a spiritual belief causes him to be forced to rely only on himself and his actions which enables him to take responsibility for his own thoughts and mistakes. In contrast, the people of Oran are seen by Rieux as ignorant not directly approaching the problem head-on and instead of looking up to the superior forces to fix the problem for them.

This immature and ineffective “solution” is interpreted differently by Rieux as hopeless and tragic cries of the people. Rieux refuses to submit to the plague as he states, “until my dying day I shall refuse to love a scheme of things in which children are put to torture.” (Camus 93). In multiple occasions, Rieux highlights how he lives in the present, and none other. Even on the brink of death, he believes that one must be unwilling to accept death. The meaning that fuels his life is not only to save people, but accepting the hands that he has been dealt with, and tackles them with his best efforts, even if it always ends in death. His job as a doctor is to use all his materials to help people to best of his ability. The citizens live in what he sees as constant denial and their refusal to acknowledge their coming end is immature and worthless, thus separating him from a citizen of Oran.

In the face of a moral dilemma, one must do what is necessary to ensure the safety of others, even if it means placing themselves at risk. Rieux is forced to deal with the countless deaths of many of his patients and battles with the idea of abstraction stating, “To fight abstraction you must have something of it in your own makeup.” (Camus 67). Dr. Rieux is unable to process the horror of the millions that have died due to the plague. His “abstracting” from the plague, highlights the human tendency to push away the true terrors of reality. Dr. Rieux is forced to separate the majority of his emotions from his thinking to maintain a logical and clear mindset.

The decision to place a person into quarantine, even if it means separating a family, is a hard call that the faint of heart can not make. Although Dr. Rieux himself also struggles with the idea of staying within the city and the placing of his health in jeopardy, over time, he banishes these moral obstacles and realizes how he should stay for the greater good of humanity and do all he can to release the people of the plague. He manages to figure out his moral obligation as not only a doctor but a person. In comparison, Rambert, along with many other citizens fall victim to not only the plague but to their hearts as well. A tense atmosphere builds up when the death toll rises causing: “Others, too, Rambert for example….to try to escape from the city walls” (Camus 105).

The sorrow of separation from their families overpowers their logical and rational mindsets. The plague tests the citizens when it requires a great deal of not just mental, but self-control and forces the citizens to put others in front of themselves. The citizens struggle with the moral obligation of “doing what is right” and don’t have the capability to see how their own desires would place others in danger, even towards the end of the novel. While Dr. Rieux obtains an optimal mindset that ensures the plague is kept inside the town, he is ridiculed by the people just because of their own selfish desires, showing contrast in Dr. Rieux’s mindset compared to his society.

The public and Dr. Rieux exemplify contrasting morals and viewpoints about death, which is highlighted though Dr. Rieux’s and the public’s differing reactions and approaches to the outbreak of the plague. While the Oran society struggles to fulfill their responsibilities and fall victim to selfishness and self-pity, Rieux is aware of how one’s actions can impact the nation, thus allowing him to be an optimal doctor but a cut-off human being. If one wishes for results and a favorable outcome, one must make the right decisions and act appropriately, even if it means self-sacrifice for the greater good.