“The Plague” by Albert Camus is a meditative journey in which fulfillment shows that some kind of solace can be achieved by resisting absurd. Camus skillfully demonstrates that rebellion is not always completely futile and some instances of life are worth resistance.
The main character of “The Plague” Dr. Rieux does not stop to struggle throughout the whole novel. Even after he loses his dearest people – his wife and best friend – Rieux cannot avoid making medical rounds that give him purpose with their “certitude”. (Camus, p. 238) Only when Rieux comes home to see his mother, he finds desired solace there. That reminds of the solace found by Sisyphus with his sense of fulfillment when he finally descends from the mountain. Thus, a powerful symbol of mother’s love demonstrates the usefulness of the struggle: “Something always changed in his mother’s face when he came in. The silent resignation that a laborious life had given it seemed to light up with a sudden glow” (Camus, p. 239) His mother’s eyes look with adoration and approval and for Rieux it means that those eyes are worth fighting for.
The struggle for fulfillment can be not only individual but also collective. Another character of “The Plague” Cottard is the one who struggles for his own fulfillment finding no answers. He is selfish and lonely. As opposed to him, Tarrou, Rieux and Joseph Grand struggle together and try to help each other being closely united by the ties of friendship. Rieux and Tarrou even try to help Grand in his writing. The friends show a genuine interest “in the laborious literary task to which he was applying himself while the plague raged above him”; and helping the writer, two friends “too, found it a relaxation of the strain”. (Camus, p. 240) Together they struggle for life against death. At the end of the novel Rieux realizes one fact: “He has deliberately taken the victims’ side and tried to share with his fellow citizens the only certitudes they had in common—love, exile, and suffering”; by this Rieux can truly assume that “there was not one of their anxieties in which he did not share, no predicament of theirs that was not his”. (Camus, p. 241)
Albert Camus’ idea is as follows: fulfillment can be reached with rebellion against absurdity. He also gives some hints as for the content of fulfillment. According to Camus, fulfillment consists of small victories over various sufferings and the joys of everyday life that give people happiness. But it is not the universal justice and abolition of all sufferings. Tarrou is the one who appreciates pleasures of everyday life. Rieux can see that Tarrou is “fond of swimming,” “good-humored,” and “an addict of small pleasures without being their slave” (Camus, p. 242) Tarrou was once struggling for absolute justice. However, he understood the value of human happiness. So he reminds Rieux that they struggle for their present happiness. This is Camus’ message to his readers. Voegelin disputes that Camus’ idea was to arrive at “the joy of the here and now”. (Voegelin, p. 244) This joy is the substance of fulfillment and also the substance of life. For the sake of this joy it is necessary to resist the absurdity of life. So, Rieux resists, feeling obliged to “the society of the living”. (Camus, p. 245)
The sanitary squads in the novel are a strong metaphor which stands for resistance movement that “claims to fight in the name of human life”. (Blanchard, p. 89) Still, Camus reveals that “the cause of resistance should be more personal than abstract”. (Blanchard, p. 89) For example, Rieux as a doctor must take efforts to toughen the quarantine so that to minimize the spreading of plague. But he helps Rambert to escape, and after that Rieux realizes that he is smiling for the first time since the outbreak of plague. Rieux is committed to fighting the plague, however he prefers not to stop it, because, as he explains, “Perhaps because I, too, would like to do my bit for happiness” (Camus, p. 247)
Happiness is not the only thing human beings have potential for. They are also capable of love. This is another component that is added to the resistance in “The Plague”. Rambert explains his decision to leave Oran in one of the most emotional and passionate dialogues in the novel: “Well, personally, I’ve seen enough of people who die for an idea”. (Camus, p. 248) He does not believe in heroism, because he is sure that it is easy and it can be murderous. What interests him is “living and dying for what one loves”. (Camus, p. 248) Rampert has an idea that the sanitary squads treat all people as abstract entities. Rieux reminds him that a person cannot be an idea, but Rampert does not agree: “Man is an idea, and a precious small idea, once he turns his back on love”. (Camus, p. 249)
Voegelin argues that “Camus gained new insight through love”. (qtd. in Blanchard, p. 90) In the context of fulfillment this idea is present in “The Plague”. After the quarantine is lifted, Rieux walks through the streets and feels the significance of some celebration in the air that is taking place everywhere around. According to Camus, this kind of fulfillment of hope is very important. It is quite fanciful and odd to strive for a world that is not absurd. But love is a real possibility, so striving for it is more realistic. And the citizens of Oran comprehend this: “They knew that if there is one thing one can always yearn for and sometimes attain, it is human love”. (Camus, p. 251) But they also know that “for those who aspired beyond and above the human individual toward something they could not even imagine, there had been no answer”. (Camus, p. 251)
At the end of the novel Dr. Rieux loses his wife and his best friend. However, he finds his own fulfillment, as he “alleviates his burden by sharing the burden of others”. (Blanchard, p. 90) He feels somehow united with the citizens for whom he struggled and with whom he suffered together. Camus’ idea of fulfillment that is substantively and also temporally limited is absolutely clear: it is never meant to last. The absurd cannot be abolished forever, and thus it will eventually reemerge. Plague is a metaphor Camus uses to express the idea of the reoccurring absurdity of existence. So, the end of the novel “The Plague” is somber and lucid at the same time:
And, indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town, Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperiled. He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen-chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city.(Camus, p. 254)
Evidently, fulfillment is not the final destination of meditative journey in “The Plague”. It is a stopping point. The real nature of existence, according to Camus, is a struggle against the absurd. The absurd reinforces the fulfillment to be gained from everyday life. For this very reason Camus introduces the idea that Sisyphus is happy. The mythological character is aware that he would never evade from his punishment, and the comprehension of this fact makes him find happiness in the insignificant details of his existence. So, in terms of Albert Camus’ mediation, fulfillment and absurdity are linked, and rebellion is something that mediates between these two notions.
Works cited:
Blanchard, Brian J. Albert Camus’ Meditative Ascent: A Search For Foundations in “The Plague”. Louisiana State University, 2003.
Camus, Albert. The Plague. New York: Vintage International, 1991.
Voegelin, Eric. Anamnesis: On the Theory of History and Politics. Translated by M. J. Hanak. Edited by David Walsh. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002.
