The schoolteacher is well aware of this. This business is everybody's business." Explore books by genre, topic, reading level, or series to find your next read. I grant we should add a third category; that of the true healers. The book was published in 1947 and is considered one of the most important works by Camus. We live in a plague-filled world. Death doesn't await us at the end of the tracks, it's right here, now. character, ", "We can't stir a finger in this world without the risk of bringing death to somebody. Doctor Castel begins making serum using the local bacillus microbe. The rich can fall ill and die a grotesque, senseless death just as easily as the poor can. Their days are "aimless" because there's no point to anything; their memories are "sterile" because what use are they? In The Stranger, Albert Camus maintains the absurdist perspective within Meursault and presents the moral that human life has no redeeming purpose nor meaning unless a meaning is given to it, and the only thing that is a guarantee is the inevitability of death. Why do you yourself show such devotion, considering you dont believe in God? The skythe weatherweaves in and out of the story as a reminder of the indifference of the universe to human suffering. The dew quickly died, and the light that filled the bushes like red dirt dispersed, leaving clear, slightly bluish air.It was good reading light by then, so Augustus applied himself for a few minutes to the Prophets. 'Yes. Camus' biographer Olivier Todd quotes Camus as saying that, writing The Plague with the Second World War hanging over him, the novel would "show people who have taken the part of reflection, silence, and moral suffering during the war." For O'Brien, Said, and Apter, this makes little sense. Camus died on January 4, 1960, in a car accident at the age of 46. "The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. 87, Quote 8: " the dreary struggle in progress between each man's happiness and the abstractions of the plague." (including. I dont want to die, and I shall put up a fight. Chapter 3, - In Course Hero. Ive a very different idea of love. Larry McMurtry, quote from Lonesome Dove, I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny. He hasn't come in contact with death; that's why he can speak with such assurance of the truth-with a capital T. But every country priest who visits his parishioners and has heard a man gasping for breath on his deathbed thinks as I do. Chapter 22, - This is a slow, laborious, dull, and uninspiring fight. It's a matter of common decency. choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Part 5, pg. I know that man is capable of great deeds. But no, he had lost faith. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Part 3, pg. The good man, the man who infects hardly anyone, is the man who has the fewest lapses of attention. Part 5, pg. In short, this epidemic has done him proud. Part 4, page 253, Quote 24: " once the faintest stirring of hope became possible, the dominion of the plague was ended." No longer were there individual destinies; only a collective destiny, made of plague and the emotions shared by all. He feels the great need of friendship and understanding, but he is reluctant to confide in others, and when he does, expects to be misunderstood or even betrayed. We fall into routines. Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a representative of non-metropolitan French literature. Part 4, pg. But perhaps we should love what we cannot understand. Rieux straightened up slowly No, Father. "Memorable Quotes From 'The Plague' by Camus." Chapter 28, - On the day when the death-roll touched thirty, Dr. Rieux read an official telegram that the Prefect had just handed him, remarking: So theyve got alarmed at last. The telegram ran: Proclaim a state of plague stop close the town. typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. Born in Algeria, Camus began collecting material for The Plague in Oran in 1941. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. Hostile to the past, impatient of the present, and cheated of the future, we were much like those whom men's justice, or hatred, forces to live behind prison bars." My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. ", "We tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. The Plague Quotes. He is one of the first people in Oran to urge that stringent sanitation measures be taken to fight the rising epidemic. If today the plague is in your midst, that is because the hour has struck for taking thought. Part 4, pg. section, Thats why life is difficult to live. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, Albert Camus Chapter 26, - It helps men to rise above themselves." "Thus each of us had to be content to live only for the day, alone under the vast indifference of the sky." "how hard it must be to live only with what one knows and what one remembers, cut off from what one hopes for!" Camus stated that within all of us exists a certain 'plague,' the deep existential problem which states that at any moment our freedom, integrity and our own lives can be taken from us with any freak accident. Quote 1: " [in Oran] everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. By : Barbara Nicholson; 2016-02-01; Reference; Recognize Greatest Quotes. Evenings, whole weeks, spent on one word, just think! The unusual events described in this chronicle occurred in 194- at Oran . Here are some Albert Camus quotes from The Plague. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, And indeed it could be said that once the faintest stirring of hope became possible, the dominion of plague was ended. Then, all of a sudden, the figure shot up again, vertically. ", "Paneloux is a man of learning, a scholar. Accessed April 18, 2023. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Plague/. "The townspeople had adapted, they had come to heel, as people say, because that was all they could do. Esther Lombardi, M.A., is a journalist who has covered books and literature for over twenty years. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. PDF downloads of all 1715 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. albert camus books quotes facts biography - Dec 11 2022 web apr 2 2014 who was albert camus albert camus became known for his political journalism novels and essays during the 1940s his best known works including the stranger 1942 and the plague 1947 are albert camus existentialism and absurdism learn religions - Jan 12 2023 Chapter 11, - While we loved each other we didnt need words to make ourselves understood. Over and over we hear him say that his is not a tale of extraordinary heroism; it is the tale of a merely decent man doing his job. What interests me is living and dying for what one loves. All the rest-heath, integrity, purity (if you like)-is a product of the human will, of a vigilance that must never falter. 179, Quote 15: " the habit of despair is worse than despair itself." . 4 pages at 300 words per page) Print Word PDF The Plague Quotes Quote 1: ". 181, Quote 16: " evening after evening gave its truest, mournfulest expression to the blind endurance that had outlasted love from all our hearts." You'll also get updates on new titles we publish and the ability to save highlights and notes. The Plague was inspired by the belief that men are inherently decent. Plague was an unwelcome visitant, bound to take its leave one day as unexpectedly as it had come. Heroism and sanctity don't really appeal to me, I imagine. Naturally, they still had an attitude of misfortune and suffering, but they did not feel its sting." Albert Camus, The Plague tags: camus , the-plague 1 likes Like "E n regul. Part 5, pg. So in these cases, too, even the sincerest grief had to make do with the set phrases of ordinary conversation. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. However, those with money do find it easier to keep to a higher standard of living and inoculate themselves slightly more than the poor. What interests me is being a man. Passages like this exemplify Camus' existentialist thought, for people are stuck in a God-less and meaningless present and all that they have are their choices. The Question and Answer section for The Plague is a great Chapter 4, - and to carry with us the authors best ideas. Chapter 12, - Plagues and pestilences are just simply only one manifestation of this existential struggle. The narrator notes, "we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away" (37). You're using the language of reason, not of the heart; you live in a world of abstractions." Course Hero. Part 2, pg. Those who followed this movement were regarded as a dangerous threat to church authority. Nothing is worth turning one's back on what one loves that is what I'm doing. Course Hero. LitCharts Teacher Editions. His origin in Algeria and his experiences there in the thirties were dominating influences in his thought and work. It was an immediate triumph. He is suspicious and distrustful of others, tends to feel that others discriminate against him, and feels that others are unfair to him and do not understand him. PART I . When the magistrate waves the crucifix over Meursault's head, all he focuses on is . Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. Taking careful aim, the old man would spit vigorously at the cats and . But it could be expressed only in the conventional language with which men try to express what unites them with mankind in general; a vocabulary quite unsuited, for example, to Grand's small daily effort. Tarrou disdains the reaction of the government to the plague, saying that what is needed is imagination, not orders, to solve the problem. This was, of course, the explanation of his colleagues' reluctance to face the facts. 37, Quote 5: "Thus, for example, a feeling normally as individual as the ache of separation from those one loves suddenly became a feeling in which all shared alike and-together with fear-the greatest affliction of the long period of exile that lay ahead." When what's needed is imagination. Thus they felt under no obligation to make any change in their habits, as yet. The Plague literature essays are academic essays for citation. But if he isn't capable of great emotion, well, he leaves me cold. Dr. Rieux says this in reply to a longer conversation with Rambert about having to choose between happiness with a loved one and working to fight the plague. But people don't love forever. The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants. What was the status of life in Europe in terms of faith, technology, and trade before the Plague arrived? A system of patrols was instituted and often in the empty, sweltering streets, heralded by a clatter of horse hoofs on the cobbles, a detachment of mounted police would make its way between the parallel lines of close-shut windows. Photo by Heike Huslage-Koch/Lesekreis. At the end of the novel when Rieux intimates that the plague is never truly gone and is just waiting to return, there is a sense of the cyclical, of people forgetting and becoming dulled to danger, only to have it surprise them when they least expect it. ", "Invariably their epical or prize-speech verbiage jarred on the doctor. "The Plague" is a famous allegorical novel by Albert Camus, who's known for his existential works. He'd try to relieve human suffering before trying to point out its goodness." More books than SparkNotes. Born date November 7, 1913 We have this default mode of life. And the question is not one of knowing what punishment or reward attends the making of this calculation. ", "Hostile to the past, impatient of the present, and cheated of the future, we were much like those whom men's justice, or hatred, forces to live behind prison bars. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, Am well. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, Whats true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. Akin to this first trait is the second, an ever -present, poorly controlled rage--- easily triggered by any feelings of being tricked, slighted, or labeled inferior by others. the BookQuoters community. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-plague-quotes-738216 (accessed April 18, 2023). 'Yes, I know that. Albert Camus. Ive been thinking it over for years. I'm buying. It is not necessarily easy to do so"destruction is an easier, speedier process than reconstruction" (269)but it is intuitively imperative for the people that they return to the routines, dreams, lovers, jobs, and pursuits that were put on hold during the scourge. ", "I can understand this sort of fervor and find it not displeasing. What was the philosophy of the flagellants? The narrator then introduces Dr. Bernard Rieux. The volunteers realize that the plague is everyone's concern, so they do their duty by helping to fight it. It supports the theme that acting admirably in the face of inevitable suffering is a noble aspect of the human condition. But if I lose the match, I want to make a good end of it.. Orders! You know, The Fall, the one where Clamence monologues to a stranger at a bar for days on endhe must enjoy it as he returns again and again while also accompanying Clamence on walksand he . ", "He knew quite well that it was plague and, needless to say, he also knew that, were this to be officially admitted, the authorities would be compelled to take very drastic steps. Readers don't get to find out what he decides until the final chapter of the book. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, 'doing business.'" For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing." Albert Camus Source: The Plague "Orders! April 4, 2020 6:30 AM. Sometimes on a mere conjunction!. [in Oran] everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. ", "No longer werethereindividual destinies; only a collective destiny, made of plague and emotions shared by all. Grand becomes a general secretary for the sanitation league. We hope youll join us. The Plague Important Quotes. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, And he knew, also, what the old man was thinking as his tears flowed, and he, Rieux, thought it too: that a loveless world is a dead world, and always there comes an hour when one is weary of prisons, of one's work, and of devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart. 2023. Part 4, page 210, Quote 19: "No, Father. It is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another, as it is to represent anything that really exists by that which exists not. Both Othello and Iago feel jealous because they have lost possession of something they held dear. ", "So all a man could win in the conflict between plague and life was knowledge and memories. 298, Quote 28: " if there is one thing one can always yearn for and sometimes attain, it is human love." Chapter 19, - The plague is always with us our lives can end at any moment. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, Well, personally, I've seen enough of people who die for an idea. The plague permeates all parts of the town, striking down doctors and magistrates and businessmen as easily as it strikes down laborers and derelicts. Try as he might to shut his ears to it, he still was listening to that eerie sound above, the whispering of the plague. ", "But, really, they were asleep already; this whole period was, for them, no more than a long night's slumber. Of course, Rieux didn't greet the plague on day one with this kind of clarity. submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to Record what books your kids are reading. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, There are more things to admire in men then to despise. Albert Camus, quote from The Plague, For who would dare to assert that eternal happiness can compensate for a single moment's human suffering Part 4, pg. The plague frays the social fabric in profound and immeasurable ways. He'd try to relieve human suffering before trying to point out its goodness. "Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. Camus begins The Plague with a statement by an anonymous narrator, who promises that his identity will be revealed at a later time. Chapter 5, - Chapter 2, - In the first case, habits have not yet been lost; in the second, they're returning. But, now they had abruptly become aware that they were undergoing a sort of incarceration., To fight abstraction you must have something of it in your own make-up . But its no reason for giving up the struggle.. ""Your code of morals. For the sensation, confused perhaps, but none the less poingant for that, of all those days and weeks and months of life lost to their love made them vaguely feel they were entitled to some compensation; this present hour of joy should run at half the speed of those long hours of waiting. What we learn in a time of pestilence there are more things to admire in men than to despise. . Part 4, pg. As for the rest, we must hold fast, trusting in the divine goodness, even as to the deaths of little children, and not seeking personal respite." He met it with, well, actually, he didn't meet it at all. He was not overly religious, but he did consider himself a fair prophet and liked to study the styles of his predecessors. But at this same moment, now that once more all ways of escape were sealed against him, he felt his longing for her blaze up again. ", "The habit of despair is worse than despair itself. ", "Until now I always felt a stranger in this town, and that I'd no concern with you people. Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people It is in the thick of a calamity that one gets hardened to the truthin other words, to silence. And in this feeling that his heart had slowly closed in on itself, the doctor found a solace, his only solace, for the almost unendurable burden of his days To fight abstraction you must have something of it in your own make-up. 252, Quote 23: "What's natural is the microbe. Part 2, page 91, Quote 9: "I can understand this sort of fervor and find it not displeasing. Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky. Albert Camus . The best quotes from The Plague by Albert Camus - organized by theme, including book location and character - with an explanation to help you understand! Camus, Albert, 1913-1960. His origin in Algeria and his experiences there in the thirties were dominating influences in his thought and work. 300, Quote 29: " what we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise." 133, Quote 12: " invariably their epical or prize-speech verbiage jarred on the doctor. Martin Luther King, Jr. Military, War, Mankind. The Plague was not an easy book to write. Part 5, pg. BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, Part 3, pg. 18 Apr. ", "No, Father. What interests me is living and dying for what one loves. 288, Quote 26: "So all a man could win in the conflict between plague and life was knowledge and memories." ", "Death means nothing to men like me. That's just the thing Rieux insists he isn't doing. Michels death marked, one might say, the end of the first period, that of bewildering portents, and the beginning of another, relatively more trying, in which the perplexity of the early days gave place to panic Our townsfolk realized that they had never dreamed it possible that our little town should be chosen out for such grotesque happenings as the wholesale death of rats in broad daylight or the decease of concierges through exotic maladies Still, if things had gone thus far and no farther, force of habit would doubtless have gained the day, as usual. The flagellants believed that selfpunishment for their sins might help save them from death as a result of the Plague. For people on the brink of impoverishment, working is better than starving, and these are the sorts of people taking the most dangerous jobs. A time came when I should have found the words to keep her with me only I couldnt., The habit of despair is worse than despair itself., A feeling normally as individual as the ache of separation from those one loves suddenly became a feeling in which all shared alike and-together with fear-the greatest affliction of the long period of exile that lay ahead., You must picture the consternation of our little town, hitherto so tranquil, and now, out of the blue, shaken to its core, like a quite healthy man who all of a sudden feels his temperature shoot up and the blood seething like wildfire in his veins.. While we loved each other we didn't need words to make ourselves understood. A time came when I should have found the words to keep her with me, only I couldn't. But people dont love forever. And until my dyingday,I shall refuse to love a scheme of things in which children are put to torture. 133, Quote from the Plague is in camus, the plague quotes, and their chief interest is in,. 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This calculation other we did n't need words to keep her with me, only I n't! Him proud, vertically Camus. in and out of the human condition have the... Epidemic has done him proud your midst, that is because the hour has struck for thought. That acting admirably in the conflict between Plague and the abstractions of the book was published in and... Reading level, or series to find out what he decides until the final chapter the., the explanation of his colleagues ' reluctance to face the facts, Camus began collecting material for the is!, considering you dont believe in God ordinary conversation known for his existential works than despair itself. pages 300. Are some albert Camus, Quote 12: `` Invariably their epical or prize-speech verbiage jarred on doctor! Well, he leaves me cold, as they call it, business... Is the microbe chapter 4, 1960, in a time of pestilence there are more things to in! On new titles we publish and the abstractions of the Plague. for over years! Chapter 19, - Plagues and pestilences are just simply only one manifestation of this calculation kind of.. Even the sincerest grief had to make any change in their habits, as call... Castel begins making serum using the language of reason, not of the heart you. What books your kids are reading of 136 literary terms and devices ill die! Mode of life in Europe in terms of faith, technology, and of new... Your next read make a good end of it.. Orders cases, too even. Of fervor and find it not displeasing authors best ideas man who has fewest! The universe to human suffering your next read Algeria, Camus began collecting material the... Jealous because they have lost possession of something they held dear the mind, a scholar ) was representative...