The Plague characters

Appears from the start

A physician in the Algerian city of Oran. Practical, observant, and exhausted by his rounds, he treats the first victims of the strange epidemic while his ailing wife leaves the city for a sanatorium. He resists comforting abstractions and concentrates on naming illness honestly and relieving suffering where he can.

Appears from the start

An independent visitor who has been living in an Oran hotel and filling notebooks with detailed observations of the town. Affable and composed, he is interested in people others overlook and approaches Rieux as the crisis develops.

Appears from the start

A Paris journalist who came to Oran to report on living conditions among Arabs and is trapped when the gates close. He considers the epidemic no concern of his and is desperate to return to the woman he loves in France.

Appears from the start

A poorly paid municipal clerk and Rieux's patient. Quiet, conscientious, and chronically unable to ask for the promotion he deserves, he spends his evenings endlessly revising the opening sentence of a novel.

Appears from the start

Grand's neighbor, a withdrawn man involved in an unspecified offense who attempts suicide shortly before the epidemic. After Grand and Rieux save him, he becomes unusually sociable but remains fearful of police attention.

First appears in chapter 2

A learned Jesuit priest in Oran and a forceful public speaker. As the epidemic worsens, he addresses a crowded congregation and interprets the disaster through Christian ideas of collective sin and judgment.

Appears from the start

An older colleague of Rieux who quickly accepts that the mysterious deaths are bubonic plague. Drawing on professional memory and historical accounts, he urges the authorities to recognize the danger.

First appears in chapter 2

A stern examining magistrate whose formal manner and belief in order set him apart from the doctors and volunteer workers. He appears in public with his wife and two children and expects disciplined obedience from them.

Appears from the start

Rieux's mother, who comes to keep house for him after his wife leaves Oran. Calm, economical in speech, and attentive without intruding, she provides a quiet domestic steadiness during the emergency.

Appears from the start

The concierge of Rieux's building and one of the first townspeople to fall seriously ill after dead rats begin appearing. His rapidly worsening fever and swollen glands help force the doctors to confront what is happening.

First appears in chapter 2

A Spanish acquaintance recruited to connect Rambert with men who may be able to smuggle him through the sealed city gates. He moves comfortably through the clandestine networks that flourish under quarantine.