The Plague: Part 4 Summary & Analysis

September and October come and the weeks drag on. Dr. Rieux and his friends realize how tired they are, as they ceaselessly work against the plague. Grand often talks to Rieux about Jeanne, and Rieux in turn finds himself talking about his own wife. He wires the sanatorium authorities and finds that his wife’s condition has worsened, as he suspected.

Dr. Rieux is forced to harden himself against the desperate families of the plague victims, as he must save all his energy for saving lives and dispensing information. His sleeplessness saves him from growing overly sentimental and giving in to despair. All the workers are so weary that they grow lax in their own inoculations and sanitation habits.

The only man in town who seems content is Cottard. Tarrou offers a sympathetic ear, so Cottard spends time with him and Tarrou takes notes in his diary. He explains that Cottard has always lived in a state of fear, as he distrusts everyone as a possible police informant, but at the same time he needs human contact. He has “blossomed” during the plague, as the whole town is now in the state Cottard is used to – craving human contact, but distrustful of others as possible plague-carriers. There are also no more police concerned with past crimes, so Cottard is temporarily a free and innocent man, and he rejoices in the sense of community the plague creates.

Tarrou records an incident at the Municipal Opera House, where he and Cottard attended a performance of Gluck’s Orpheus. People have still been seeking out lavish pleasures and distractions, so the opera is still popular even though it keeps playing the same show over and over. In the third act of the play, just as Eurydice is being taken back to Hades, the actor playing Orpheus collapses on the stage, succumbing to the plague. The audience immediately exits the opera house, calmly at first but soon devolving into a stampede.

Rambert meets with Marcel and Louis again, and he moves in with them and their mother, a little old Spanish woman. They agree that he will escape at midnight the next night. The next day Rambert finds Dr. Rieux in the middle of his work and tells him that he has decided to stay in Oran, and give up his happiness to keep fighting the plague. Rambert confesses that if even he did escape, he would feel like a coward. Rieux is pleased at this, but he is too weary to deal with the philosophical implications of turning one’s back on love – he says “a man can’t cure and know at the same time,” but curing is the more important job.

Dr. Castel finishes his anti-plague serum, and he and Dr. Rieux are present to give the first injection to M. Othon’s small son, Jacques, whose case is almost hopeless. M. Othon is forced to leave for a quarantine camp, but he accepts the rule of the rest of the public. Father Paneloux (who has joined the sanitation league) joins the vigil and he, Rieux, Castel, Grand, and Tarrou watch to see if the serum has any effect on Jacques.

Jacques suffers terribly before dying, the fever abating and then returning three times, and he finally expires “in a grotesque parody of crucifixion” as the men watch in horror. Paneloux cries out to God to save the child, but in vain. As he leaves the room, Rieux lashes out angrily at Paneloux, saying that the child was innocent.

Outside the hospital Paneloux talks to Dr. Rieux, who apologizes for his outburst. Paneloux understands that Rieux’s anger is directed at his sermon and the idea of divine punishment, but Paneloux still clings to faith in a system he professes to no longer understand. Rieux vows to never support a system where “children are put to torture.” He says he is not concerned with man’s salvation, but only his health. He declares that he and Paneloux are still allies as long as they are both fighting plague, and the two men part ways.

After watching the child’s death, a change seems to come over Father Paneloux in the following days. He begins working on an essay about whether a priest should consult a doctor, and he invites Dr. Rieux to come hear him preach another sermon about the plague. Since the epidemic has worsened, the public has turned from religion to superstition and vague prophecies, so the church is much emptier than the last time Paneloux preached.

In his sermon, Father Paneloux declares that the extreme and seemingly meaningless suffering of the plague only makes his first sermon more relevant. The unknowable question of an innocent child’s death, which they must now face, is a test to the Christian’s faith. He is forced to deny everything or accept everything – there can be no middle ground anymore, and perhaps not even any purgatory. Paneloux presents this dichotomy and asks only who would “dare to deny everything?”

Father Paneloux references a story of a previous epidemic in which only four monks of a monastery survived, and three of them fled. Paneloux declares that each of his congregation “must be the one who stays.” They must not give in to the plague without a struggle, but they also must trust in God and do what good is in their power to do. Paneloux ends by again emphasizing the difficulty of faith, but that in such times one must choose to either love God or hate him.

Afterward Rieux and Tarrou discuss the sermon, and they overhear a priest and deacon talking about Paneloux’s new essay, which apparently states that it is illogical for a priest to call a doctor. Tarrou agrees, saying that in the face of a dying child a Christian must either lose his religion or “consent to having his eyes destroyed,” and Paneloux will keep clinging to his faith to the very end.

Soon afterward Father Paneloux grows sick, but he sticks to his principles and refuses to call a doctor. The woman he is staying with calls Rieux nonetheless, as she fears Paneloux has the plague. Rieux examines him and Paneloux does not have the usual symptoms of the plague, but his condition quickly declines and he dies. Rieux marks him as a “Doubtful case.”

All Souls’ Day, where the dead are usually honored, passes and is ignored this year, as death is already all too present in the public’s mind. Meanwhile the death toll stops increasing, but still remains at “high-water mark,” and Dr. Richard succumbs to the plague just before he is supposed to make an optimistic statement to the public. All public places and buildings have been turned into quarantine camps by now, and the anti-plague workers mechanically maintain their “superhuman” efforts.

The food supply of Oran also begins to dwindle, and the divide between rich and poor grows as the rich buy up extra supplies and the rest are left hungry. Under pressure from the authorities the newspapers remain optimistic, praising the “courage and composure” of the public.

Tarrou records his visit to a quarantine camp with Rambert and Gonzales, Rambert’s football-loving friend. The camp is a requisitioned football stadium, and the people living in tents inside spend their days marking time listlessly and rarely speaking, well aware that they have been forgotten. M. Othon (who is quarantined now) approaches the men and asks them about Jacques’ death, and Tarrou falsely says that Jacques did not suffer.

November ends and the weather grows colder. Tarrou and Rieux visit the doctor’s asthma patient, and after listening to his chatter for a while they go up onto the terrace of his building, which offers a wide view of the sea and the night sky. The clear expanse feels like a momentary respite from plague. Tarrou and Rieux affirm that they are friends now, and Tarrou offers that they “take an hour off – for friendship.”

Tarrou explains that he has “had plague already,” and describes his childhood. His father was a high-ranking prosecuting attorney, who had an obsession with memorizing train schedules. When Tarrou was seventeen, his father invited him to see him speak in court. The experience was traumatic for Tarrou, who was struck by the helpless humanity of the defendant (whom he compares to an owl) and his father’s ominous red robes as he condemned the man to death.

Soon afterward Tarrou ran away from home and broke off contact with his father. He became preoccupied with the death penalty, and felt that all society was based on murder. Tarrou then became an “agitator,” fighting against executions in many European countries. He still cannot rid himself of his guilt, however, that even indirectly he has caused the deaths of others.

Tarrou says that this is why the plague is nothing new to him – he has always been struggling against the plague inside himself, but he continues to struggle on, as it is the only thing to be done. He sees the world as made up of pestilences, victims, and true healers, and he tries his best not to be a pestilence, and seeks attain the third category, which he associates with peace. Tarrou pauses for a while and then tells Rieux that what most interests him is how to become a saint without God. Rieux says that he is not interested in sainthood, but only in “being a man.”

Tarrou then suggests that they take a swim in the ocean “for friendship’s sake,” as they have passes that will allow them onto the pier. Rieux agrees, and they swim silently out into the starlit ocean, feeling a rare moment of joy and peace as they are swept up by the vastness of the sky and sea. Then they get dressed and return to the town, ready to struggle on again.

In December M. Othon’s period of quarantine ends, but he elects to go back to his camp as a volunteer for the anti-plague squad, as it would help him feel “less separated” from Jacques. Rieux is amazed to see a sudden gentleness appear in the severe man’s eyes.

Christmas approaches, and Rieux tries to write a letter to his wife but struggles greatly with his words. The season reminds Grand of his courtship with Jeanne – which took place at Christmas – and he grows depressed and sentimental. Rieux notices that he is especially upset one day, and he discovers that Grand has a fever. He comes down with the plague and stays bedridden in his own room.

As his condition declines, Grand asks Dr. Rieux to read through his papers. Most of them are variations of the first sentence of his book, but there is one unfinished letter to Jeanne, containing only eight words. Grand asks Rieux to burn the papers, and he does so. The next day Grand makes a miraculous recovery and his fever disappears.

Rieux then has another patient whose case seems hopeless but makes a similar recovery. Rieux visits his asthma patient, who excitedly declares that the rats have come back. When the death toll figures are announced that week, the numbers have gone down.