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Father Paneloux in Camus' The Plague

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 which will allow them all to feel that God is involved and there is a good reason for the plague and it is for the best somehow.

In such a confident frame of mind, Father Paneloux observes the suffering brought by the plague and fits it into his strict and simplistic theology in which all things make sense. He declares, at the very beginning of his sermon:

Calamity has come on you, my brethren, and, my brethren, you deserved it. . . . [F]rom the dawn o...

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Father Paneloux in Camus' The Plague. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:34, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1702371.html