Father Paneloux in Camus' The Plague
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Father Paneloux, in Albert Camus' novel The Plague, is used by the author to show how a man of religion evolves from great certainty about his faith to a position of greater doubt and greater compassion. The two most significant elements of Paneloux's presence in the novel are the sermons which demonstrate the great changes he undergoes as the more horrible aspects of the plague become clearer to him. He begins his presence in the book as a man of God who is certain that those stricken by the plague are deserving of their suffering because of their sins. However, later, when he is confronted by the suffering of an innocent child, his views and his faith change dramatically. Paneloux is a man, like all human beings, who sees suffering in the world (to an extreme extent in this novel) and tries to make sense of it so that the world does not become an entirely absurd place without meaning. Paneloux is a man who bases his life and work on his faith in God, which means that everything in the world id made sensical based on its purpose in God's plan. If Paneloux can explain the great suffering caused by the plague in terms that make sense, then he and the people listening to him and looking for faith in their suffering will be able to endure and continue to believe in God. That is the state of mind in which Paneloux finds himself when he gives his first sermon. He has seen the suffering from the plague, as has his audience, and he believes he has the answer for that audience w
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ill not really suffer much for their sins, or so they believed. The plague, says Paneloux, is essentially God's response to such self-will on the part of the people. God does not enjoy visiting the plague upon them, nor does He precisely will it to happen, but it is necessary and inevitable that he allow it to happen because only through such a dramatic event can he separate the good from the evil, or so Paneloux believes. In other words, human beings have sinned and brought such suffering upon themselves.
Incredibly, in his own great pride, and especially in his own great arrogance and ignorance about the mystery of suffering, Paneloux declares that the plague will only strike those who have done wrong:
The just man need have no fear, but the evildoer has good cause to tremble. . . . Now you are learning your lesson, the lesson that was learned by Cain . . . , by the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, . . . by all that hardened their hearts against Him (97).
From that position of arrogance and certainty, Paneloux "falls" to a place of humility and true compassion when he encounters a terribly suffering child, a victim of the plague. Intensifying his change of mind, heart and soul are two facts. First, there is nothing he can d
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Approximate Word count = 1367
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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