The lead actor in a rendition of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice collapses onstage, “his arms and legs splayed out under his antique robe”. The failure of the governors to consistently impose “social distancing” is shown up spectacularly in the novel’s most picturesque scene. Everyone realises that anyone – even those they love – could be a carrier.Ĭome to think of it, so could each person themselves. In these circumstances, fear and suspicion descend “dewlike, from the greyly shining sky” on the population. Our key protagonists, Dr Rieux and his friends Tarrou, Grand and Rambert, set up teams of voluntary workers to administer serums and ensure the sick are quickly diagnosed and hospitalised, often amongst harrowing scenes. Schools and public buildings are converted into makeshift plague hospitals.Ī convention centre in London has been transformed into a 4,000-bed hospital.

Houses, then entire suburbs, are locked down. Meanwhile, anyone showing symptoms of the disease is isolated. Rationing is brought in for basic necessities, including petrol. Some Oranians turn plague-profiteers, preying on the desperation of their fellows. Soon, food shortages emerge (toilet paper, thankfully, is not mentioned). Oran’s commercial harbour is closed to sea traffic. The city gates are shut, and martial law declared. By the time the plague-bearing spring gives way to a sweltering summer, over 100 deaths daily is the new normal.Ĭoronavirus weekly: as the world stays at home, where is the pandemic heading?Įmergency measures are rushed in. As our narrator comments drily: “In this respect they were wrong, and their views obviously called for revision.” So, like many nations in 2020, they are slow to accept the enormity of what is occurring. The people of Oran initially “disbelieved in pestilences”, outside of the pages of history books. Then, men, women and children start to fall ill with high fever, difficulties breathing and fatal buboes. Like people anywhere else, the Oranians are completely unprepared when rats begin emerging from the sewers to die in droves in streets and laneways. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, ‘doing business’.

Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich.

The plague camus pages