Solidarity in pestilence

The Plague serves as a parable of the German occupation of Paris during World War II

At the beginning of Albert Camus’s The Plague, Dr Bernard Rieux — the protagonist of the novel — puts his wife on a train. She is on her way to a sanatorium. Seeing her off, Dr Rieux begs her forgiveness for not taking better care of her. But he is also hopeful: “once you’re back everything will be better. We’ll make a fresh start.” The poor couple are unaware that the town in which the good doctor lives, Oran in Algeria, will soon be quarantined, with all its citizens prisoners within its walls, because of a plague epidemic. Dr Rieux