Paneloux joins the team of volunteer workers and preaches another sermon saying that the death of the innocent child is a test of faith. Since God willed the child’s death, so the Christian should will it, too. A few days after preaching this sermon, Paneloux is taken ill. He refuses to call for a doctor, trusting in God alone, and dies. Since his symptoms did not seem to resemble those of the plague, Rieux records his death as a “doubtful case.”
Minor characters
The Narrator: the narrator presents himself at the outset of the book as witness to the events and privy to documents, but does not identify himself until the ending of the novel.
The Prefect: The Prefect believes at first that the talk of plague is a false alarm, but on the advice of his medical association, he authorizes limited measures to combat it. When they do not work, he attempts to avoid responsibility, saying he will ask the government for orders. He later takes responsibility for tightening up the regulations relating to the plague and issues the order to close the town.
Dr. Castel: Dr. Castel is one of Rieux’s medical colleagues and is much older than Rieux. He realizes after the first few cases that the disease is bubonic plague and is aware of the seriousness of the situation. He works hard to make an antiplague serum, but as the epidemic continues, he shows increasing signs of wear and tear.
M. Othon: M. Othon is a magistrate in Oran. He is tall and thin, and Tarrou describes him as follows: “Two small eyes, round, and hard, a thin nose, a horizontal mouth give the air of a well-brought-up owl.” Othon treats his wife and children unkindly, but after his son Philippe dies of the plague, his character softens. After he finishes his time at the isolation camp, where he was sent because his son is infected, he wants to return there because it would make him feel closer to his lost son. However, before Othon can do this, he contracts the plague and dies.
Philippe Othon: Philippe Othon is M. Othon’s young son. When he contracts the plague, he is the first to receive Dr. Castel’s antiplague serum. The serum is ineffective, and Philippe Othon dies after a long and painful struggle.
Mme. Rieux: Mme. Rieux is Dr. Rieux’s mother, who comes to stay with him when his sick wife goes to the sanatorium. She is a serene woman who, after taking care of the housework, sits quietly in a chair. She says that at her age, there is nothing much left to fear.
Dr. Richard: Dr. Richard is chairman of the Oran Medical Association. He is slow to recommend any action to combat the plague for fear of public alarm. He does not want even to admit that the disease is the plague, referring instead to “a fever that had inguinal complications”.
M. Michel: M. Michel is the concierge of the building in which Rieux lives. An old man, he is the first victim of the plague.
Raoul: Raoul is the man who agrees, for a fee of ten thousand francs, to arrange for Rambert to escape. He introduces Rambert to Gonzales.
Gonzales: Gonzales is the smuggler who makes the arrangements for Rambert’s escape and bonds with him over football.
Asthma Patient: the asthma patient receives regular visits from Dr. Rieux. He is a seventy-five-year-old Spaniard with a rugged face, who comments on events in Oran that he hears about on the radio and in the newspapers. He sits in his bed all day and measures the passing of time by putting chickpeas from one jug into another.
Louis: Louis is one of the sentries who take part in the plan for Rambert to escape.
Marcel: Marcel, Louis’s brother, is also a sentry who is part of the escape plan for Rambert.
Garcia: Garcia is a man who knows the group of smugglers in Oran. He introduces Rambert to Raoul.
Plot
Part One
In the town of Oran, thousands of rats, initially unnoticed by the populace, begin to die in the streets. Hysteria develops soon afterward, causing the local newspapers to report the incident. Authorities responding to public pressure order the collection and cremation of the rats, unaware that the collection itself was the catalyst for the spread of the bubonic plague.
Dr. Bernard Rieux learns that M. Michel, a concierge in his building, has died from a fever. Rieux consults his colleague, Dr. Castel, about the illness. They conclude that a plague is sweeping the town and both approach fellow doctors and town authorities about their theory which is met with denial. As more deaths ensue, it becomes apparent that an epidemic is imminent. Meanwhile, Rieux’s wife has been sent to a sanatorium in another city, to be treated for an unrelated chronic illness.
Authorities, including the Prefect, are slow to accept that the situation is serious and quibble over the appropriate action to take. Official notices enacting control measures are posted, but the language used is optimistic and downplays the seriousness of the situation. A “special ward” is opened at the hospital, but its eighty beds are filled in three days. As the death toll begins to rise, more desperate measures are taken: homes are quarantined and corpses and burials are strictly supervised. A supply of plague serum finally arrives, but there is only enough to treat existing cases and the country’s emergency reserves are depleted. When the daily number of deaths jumps to thirty, the town is quarantined and an outbreak of plague is officially declared.
Part Two
The town gates are shut, rail travel is prohibited, and all mail service is suspended. The use of telephone lines is restricted only to “urgent” calls, leaving short telegrams as the only means of communicating with friends or family outside the town. The separation affects daily activity and depresses the spirit of the townspeople who begin to feel isolated and introverted.
Raymond Rambert devises a plan to escape the city to join his wife in Paris after city officials refused his request to leave. He befriends some underground criminals so that they may smuggle him out of the city. Another character, Father Paneloux, uses the plague as an opportunity to advance his stature in the town by suggesting that the plague was an act of God punishing the citizens’ sinful nature.
His diatribe falls on the ears of many citizens of the town, who turned to religion in droves, but would not have done so under normal circumstances. Cottard, a criminal remorseful enough to attempt suicide but fearful of being arrested, becomes wealthy as a major smuggler. Meanwhile, Jean Tarrou, a vacationer; Joseph Grand, a civil engineer; and Rieux, exhaustively treat patients in their homes and in the hospital.
Rambert informs Tarrou of his escape plan, but when Tarrou tells him that there are others in the city, including Rieux, who have loved ones outside the city whom they are not allowed to see, Rambert becomes sympathetic and offers to help Rieux fight the epidemic until he leaves town.
Part Three
In mid-August, the situation continues to worsen. People try to escape the town, but are shot by armed sentries. Violence and looting break out on a small scale and the authorities respond by declaring martial law and imposing a curfew. Funerals are conducted with more speed, with no ceremony and little concern for the feelings of the families of the deceased. The inhabitants passively endure their increasing feelings of exile and separation.
Part Four
In September and October, Rieux hears from the sanatorium that his wife’s condition is worsening. He also hardens his heart regarding the plague victims so that he can continue to do his work. Cottard, on the other hand, seems to flourish during the plague because it gives him a sense of being connected to others, since everybody faces the same danger. Cottard and Tarrou attend a performance of Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice, but the actor portraying Orpheus collapses with plague symptoms during the performance.
After extended negotiations with guards, Rambert finally has a chance to escape, but he decides to stay, saying that he would feel ashamed of himself if he left.
Towards the end of October, Castel’s new anti-plague serum is tried for the first time, but it cannot save the life of Othon’s young son – who suffers greatly – as Paneloux, Rieux, and Tarrou tend to his bedside in horror.
Paneloux, who has joined the group of volunteers fighting the plague, gives a second sermon. He addresses the problem of an innocent child’s suffering and says it is a test of a Christian’s faith since it requires him either to deny everything or believe everything. He urges the congregation not to give up the struggle but to do everything possible to fight the plague. A few days after the sermon, Paneloux is taken ill. His symptoms do not conform to those of the plague, but the disease still proves fatal.
Tarrou and Rambert visit one of the isolation camps where they meet Othon. When Othon’s period of quarantine ends, he chooses to stay in the camp as a volunteer because this will make him feel less separated from his dead son. Tarrou tells Rieux the story of his life. To take their mind off the epidemic, the two men go swimming together in the sea. Grand catches the plague and instructs Rieux to burn all his papers. However, Grand makes an unexpected recovery and deaths from the plague start to decline.
Part Five
By late January, the plague is in full retreat and
