What insights can we discover from Camus’ novel, The Plague, about moral motivations? This is best done by focusing one character (perhaps two, but not more—for the sake of focus). Of course, you can bring in points about or remarks/reflections by other characters, but your focus should likely be on one character. Almost all of you will include Rieux to some degree in your paper, at least as a “foil” to shed light on the character you are focusing on, and Rieux himself could also serve as the main focus. But you could also focus on Tarrou, Rambert, Paneloux or Cottard. I don’t think we have enough about M. Othon for a focus, but he (or even Gonzales) could shine light on the person you do discuss.
Remember that the narrator, Dr. Bernard Rieux, perhaps with the author, Camus himself, is reluctant to endorse any specific moral principles, especially if such principles might pass judgment on individuals who are acting on behalf of a personal value that they deeply feel that gives meaning to their lives. This is why I suggest to focus on moral motivation,
My point above is also that positive judgments about moral motivations might be different from negative judgments about moral motivations. In other words, while what Rambert eventually decides to do might be morally praiseworthy, what he initially wants is not necessarily morally wrong. Remember that Rambert said he agreed to undergo whatever quarantine he needed to if he were allowed to leave (84). So he’s not simply irresponsible. But certainly what motivates him changes as the novel goes on, and this is interesting.
Tarrou comes the closest to articulating moral principles, but even he expresses them more in terms of motivation. His motivations are similar to Rieux’s, but in other ways also different and unique to Tarrou, as he tells his story. He discusses his motivations in their “hour off for friendship” and exemplifies them in his death, but he also finally says something about them at the very end of his first “interview” with Rieux (130). Tarrou could be a very interesting focus.
I don’t mean to dismiss Paneloux, but his understanding of his own moral motivation is very sadly lacking, in Camus’ view (and Camus’s imagination is the only place that Paneloux exists!) With Paneloux, I would guess that the real interesting part is how he changes (but maybe doesn’t change enough), as well as the gap between his conscious beliefs and his actions and emotions.
It seems obvious that an essay on Cottard would be mostly critical, focused on the inadequacy or wrong-headedness of his motivations, which are not moral, but at best amoral and likely even immoral. But he still would clearly fit the essay assignment.
I skipped Grand, Rieux’s (the narrator’s) “hero”! A good essay could be written on him, as sad a character as he is in many ways. Nevertheless, despite all his weirdness, he’s a good person. And a paper the analyzes him by reflecting on how he relates to Rieux, Tarrou, Cottard and above all, to Oran itself could be a good paper!
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