In February, the town gates open and people are reunited with their loved ones from other cities. Rambert is reunited with his wife. Cottard goes mad and shoots at people from his home and is soon arrested after a brief skirmish with the police. Grand begins working on his novel again. Rieux discloses his identity to the reader as the narrator and states that he tried to present an objective view of the events. He reflects on the epidemic and declares he wrote the chronicle “to write simply about what can be learned in the middle of scourges, that there is more to admire in humans than there is to scorn”.
Critical analysis
Germaine Brée has characterised the struggle of the characters against the plague as “undramatic and stubborn”, and in contrast to the ideology of “glorification of power” in the novels of André Malraux, whereas Camus’s characters “are obscurely engaged in saving, not destroying, and this in the name of no ideology”. Lulu Haroutunian has discussed Camus’s own medical history, including a bout with tuberculosis, and how it informs the novel. Marina Warner notes its larger philosophical themes of “engagement”, “paltriness and generosity”, “small heroism and large cowardice”, and “all kinds of profoundly humanist problems, such as love and goodness, happiness and mutual connection”.
Thomas L Hanna and John Loose have separately discussed themes related to Christianity in the novel, with particular respect to Father Paneloux and Dr Rieux. Louis R Rossi briefly discusses the role of Tarrou in the novel, and the sense of philosophical guilt behind his character. Elwyn Sterling has analysed the role of Cottard and his final actions at the end of the novel. Father Paneloux has been subject to several literary analyses in the context of faith faced with great suffering.
Dr Rieux has been described as a classic example of an idealist doctor. He has also been an inspiration to the life and career of the French doctor Réjean Thomas, and also to the fictional character of Jeanne Dion, starring in the movie trilogy directed by Bernard Émond (beginning with The Novena).
Perri Klass has noted that at the time of the novel, sulfa drugs were available for treatment against plague, and has criticised the novel for this historical-medical omission.
In the popular press
The novel has been read as an allegorical treatment of the French resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II.
The novel became a bestseller during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 to the point that its British publisher Penguin Classics reported struggling to keep up with demand. The prescience of the fictional cordon sanitaire of Oran with real-life COVID-19 lockdowns worldwide brought revived popular attention. Sales in Italy tripled and it became a top-ten bestseller during its nationwide lockdown.[25] Penguin Classics’ editorial director said “it couldn’t be more relevant to the current moment” and Camus’s daughter Catherine said that the message of the novel had newfound relevance in that “we are not responsible for coronavirus but we can be responsible in the way we respond to it”.
Adaptations
1965: La Peste, a cantata composed by Roberto Gerhard
1970 Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, a Hong Kong film directed by Patrick Lung
1992: La Peste, a film directed by Luis Puenzo
2017: The Plague, a play adapted by Neil Bartlett. Bartlett substitutes a black woman for the male doctor, Rieux, and a black man for Tarrou.
2020: The Plague, an adaptation for radio of Neil Bartlett’s 2017 play. Premiered on 26 July on BBC Radio 4 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The play was recorded at home by actors during the quarantine period. With Sara Powell as Doctor Rieux, Billy Postlethwaite as Raymond Rambert, Joe Alessi as Mr Cottard, Jude Aduwudike as Jean Tarrou and Colin Hurley as Mr Grand.
