La Peste

Narrator

Bernard Rieux, a physician in Oran, who participated in the events and gathered testimony and documents from people in the story. He reveals that he wrote this chronicle to bear witness for the plague’s victims and fellow citizens.

Bernard Rieux

Also known as Dr. Rieux · Rieux

A physician in Oran who records and responds to the plague outbreak. Separated from his wife during the epidemic, he learns after the city reopens that she has died; he writes this chronicle to preserve the experience of the victims and affirm the capacity for human solidarity.

M. Michel

Also known as the concierge · Michel

The elderly concierge in Rieux’s building, who initially dismisses reports of rats and becomes Oran’s first plague death.

Rieux’s wife

Rieux’s unnamed wife, who is away from Oran receiving treatment for an illness. The plague’s closure of the city separates the couple; she dies away from Oran, and Rieux learns of her death after the city reopens.

The nurse

Also known as the guard

An unnamed nurse who accompanies Rieux’s wife when she leaves for treatment.

The old Spanish asthmatic

Also known as the old Spaniard · the old asthmatic

A poor, elderly patient of Rieux with asthma, who remains cheerfully fascinated by the rats and later asks whether the outbreak is cholera. A retired mercer, he has lived a cloistered life in Oran for decades.

The old Spanish asthmatic’s wife

An unnamed woman who cares for the old Spanish asthmatic and reports seeing rats in the neighborhood.

Rieux’s mother

An unnamed, gentle silver-haired woman who stays with and cares for Rieux while his wife is away. She directs Rambert to Rieux at the hospital and helps care for Tarrou during his final illness.

Mercier

The director of Oran’s municipal rat-control service, whom Rieux knows and calls about collecting the dead rats.

The housekeeper

Also known as Rieux’s housekeeper

An unnamed woman in Rieux’s household who reports that hundreds of dead rats were collected at the factory where her husband works.

The housekeeper’s husband

An unnamed factory worker whose workplace yields hundreds of dead rats; he is mentioned by his wife but does not appear.

M. Othon

Also known as the investigating judge

An austere investigating judge who remains in Oran with his family during the plague. After his son Philippe dies, he is quarantined in an isolation camp and thanks Rieux for his care. When mistakenly kept in the camp beyond his quarantine, he volunteers to return, feeling less separated from his son; he later dies of plague.

Philippe Othon

Also known as M. Othon’s little boy

M. Othon’s young son, who is selected for the first trial of Castel’s serum. He suffers and dies of plague while Rieux, Castel, Tarrou, Rambert, Paneloux, and Grand keep vigil.

Mme Othon

M. Othon’s wife, who cares for and buries her own mother, then undergoes quarantine. When Philippe becomes ill, she and her daughter are isolated from her husband.

Raymond Rambert

Also known as Rambert

A Paris journalist who came to Oran to investigate Arab living conditions. Though he seeks escape to reunite with the woman he loves, he ultimately chooses to stay and work with Rieux, believing the plague concerns everyone.

Jean Tarrou

Also known as Tarrou

A resident of Oran who keeps detailed notebooks and organizes voluntary sanitary teams. He works closely with Rieux and Rambert, and recounts his history of resisting state executions and the death penalty. He dies of plague just as the epidemic is receding.

Joseph Grand

Also known as Grand

A modest, kind municipal employee who helps Rieux and Cottard. He struggles to express himself, works on a manuscript he hopes to perfect, and serves as a clerk and statistician for the sanitary teams. He falls gravely ill at Christmas but unexpectedly recovers; after the epidemic, he writes to his former wife Jeanne.

Cottard

Also known as M. Cottard

Grand’s neighbor, whom Grand saved after a suicide attempt. Anxious about police pursuit, he becomes sociable during the plague, gets involved in smuggling, and remarks that every day is like the Feast of the Dead. As the epidemic recedes, he flees and is later captured after firing at people and police from his home.

The unnamed municipal employee

A poor former patient of Rieux who calls him to help a neighbor; the account identifies him as Joseph Grand, who then meets Rieux at the house.

The investigating commissioner

Also known as the commissaire

An unnamed police commissioner who questions Grand and Cottard about Cottard’s attempted suicide.

The commissioner’s secretary

An unnamed official who accompanies the commissioner during the inquiry into Cottard’s attempted suicide.

The hotel cashier

An unnamed hotel employee whose mistake in a bill Tarrou attributes to the discovery of a dead rat.

Camps

A tramway switchman who dies after developing a fever and abscesses following the rat outbreak. He played a brass instrument in Oran’s Orphéon.

The first tramway receiver

An unnamed tramway employee who tells a colleague that Camps has died.

The second tramway receiver

An unnamed tramway employee who recognizes Camps and discusses his death with a colleague.

The old man across the street

Also known as the little old man · the little old man with the cats

An elderly resident Tarrou observes from his balcony, where he lures neighborhood cats with scraps of paper and spits at them. When the cats disappear during the plague, he becomes distressed and stops appearing at his window.

The hotel night watchman

Also known as the old hotel guard

An unnamed hotel employee who says the rats’ departure may signal disaster. He later insists he foresaw trouble and reflects on how the plague weighs on everyone.

The hotel restaurant father

A strict, formally dressed hotel guest who treats his wife and children with cold, controlling politeness.

The hotel restaurant mother

Also known as the black mouse

The slight, dark-haired wife of the hotel restaurant father, who backs his order that their son not mention rats at the table.

Nicole

The young daughter of the hotel restaurant family, whom her father rebukes and whose distress he seems to welcome.

The hotel restaurant daughter

The young daughter of the hotel restaurant family; her name is not given in Tarrou’s account.

The hotel restaurant son

Also known as one of the hotel restaurant children

The young son of the hotel restaurant family, whom his father calls Philippe and forbids to speak of rats at dinner.

The hotel director

The unnamed director of Tarrou’s hotel, vexed by dead rats and among the first to mention fever cases. As the epidemic empties the hotel, he worries about its financial future.

The hotel chambermaid

Also known as the chambermaid

An unnamed hotel worker who is among the first people reported to have contracted the fever.

The old Spanish asthmatic’s neighbor

An unnamed man who develops fever, swollen glands, and vomiting; Rieux treats him as the illness spreads.

Richard

Also known as Dr. Richard

One of Oran’s leading physicians and president of the local medical association. Cautious about declaring an epidemic, he later interprets its plateau as a good sign before dying of plague.

Castel

Also known as Dr. Castel

An older physician and colleague of Rieux who recognizes the disease as plague. He develops a serum from local plague cultures, which is tried on Philippe Othon but does not save him.

The prefect

Oran’s unnamed prefect, who oversees the response, initially favors restrained measures, and eventually receives orders to declare a state of plague and close the city.

The mayor

Oran’s unnamed mayor, a wealthy industrialist whose maxim that no one has ever died of hunger is recalled in Grand’s story.

The woman in the suburb

An unnamed woman with bleeding groin swellings who cries out to Rieux after the medical conference.

The tobacconist

Also known as the tobacco seller · the marchande de tabacs

An unnamed woman who runs a tobacco shop and is described by Grand as sharp-tongued. Cottard abruptly flees her shop when she praises the imprisonment of criminals.

The grocer

Also known as the épicier

An unnamed shopkeeper in Cottard’s neighborhood, who sometimes treats him warmly and is later accused of hoarding food to sell at inflated prices; he dies of plague.

The grocer’s wife

An unnamed woman who tells Rieux that she does not want her sick husband used for experiments; he dies of plague.

The young commercial clerk

An unnamed young man whose arrest in Algiers is discussed by the tobacconist. He killed an Arab on a beach and is mentioned but does not appear.

The Arab man killed on the beach

Also known as the Arab

An unnamed man killed on a beach by a young commercial clerk; he is mentioned but does not appear.

Cottard’s distant sister

Cottard’s unnamed sister, who lives far away and receives a monthly money order from him; she is mentioned but does not appear.

The maître d’hôtel

An unnamed restaurant maître d’hôtel who escorts Cottard and helps him put on his overcoat. Cottard says he could testify that he is not a bad man.

M. Rigaud

Also known as Rigaud

An architect whom Cottard claims is his friend; he is mentioned but does not appear.

The hotel director’s cabinet director

Also known as the directeur du cabinet préfectoral

An unnamed senior official in the prefect’s office who hears Rambert’s request to leave Oran and says no exception can yet be decided.

The prefecture secretary

An unnamed secretary at the prefecture who laughs when Rambert seeks help contacting his partner.

The hotel correspondent

Also known as the correspondent of Rambert’s newspaper

An unnamed correspondent for Rambert’s newspaper in Oran, whom Rambert considers inept.

The woman Rambert loves

Also known as Rambert’s partner

An unnamed woman in Paris with whom Rambert has recently become close. She is separated from him by the city’s closure and reunites with him when Oran’s gates reopen.

Jeanne

Grand’s former wife, a poor young woman from his neighborhood whom he married early. After years of loneliness and disappointment, she left him with another man; at the end of the plague, Grand writes to her.

Jeanne’s father

An unnamed railway worker mentioned in Grand’s account of courting Jeanne; he is often seen sitting thoughtfully by the window.

Jeanne’s mother

An unnamed woman who kept house and whom Jeanne helped while Grand was courting her.

Jeanne’s lover

An unnamed man who left with Jeanne when she separated from Grand; he is mentioned but does not appear.

Mme Loret

An unnamed woman whose daughter has plague. Rieux examines the daughter and has her taken to hospital.

Mme Loret’s daughter

Also known as the hotel chambermaid’s mother’s daughter

An unnamed young woman with plague whom Rieux examines at home before she is taken to hospital. Her mother is Mme Loret.

Mme Loret’s mother

An unnamed woman who pleads with Rieux when her daughter is diagnosed with plague; she is described as the mother of the woman who works as a chambermaid at Tarrou’s hotel.

The voluntary inspector

An unnamed volunteer inspector who accompanies doctors on their rounds after the initial weeks of the epidemic.

Father Paneloux

Also known as le père Paneloux · the Jesuit

A Jesuit priest and scholar who first preaches that plague is divine punishment, then revises his sermon after witnessing Philippe Othon’s prolonged death. He joins the sanitary teams, dies after refusing medical consultation, and is recorded as a doubtful plague case.

Saint Roch

Also known as the plague saint

A saint invoked in Oran’s solemn mass during a week of public prayers against plague. A hastily made image of him is later set up in the cathedral.

Mathieu Marais

A chronicler of the great plague of Marseille whose account of being plunged into hell without help or hope is cited by Father Paneloux.

The judge’s wife

Also known as Mme Castel

Castel’s unnamed wife, who is away in a nearby town when Oran is closed. She returns despite the danger, having realized she cannot live apart from her husband.

The laughing man

Also known as the madman

An unidentified man Rieux and Grand encounter in the street, laughing silently with his eyes closed and sweat streaming down his face.

The child watching Rieux

Also known as the boy with black hair

An unnamed boy playing hopscotch who fixes Rieux with a grave stare and then smiles at him.

The sick woman’s mother

An unnamed woman who protests that her daughter should not be used for experiments; she is mentioned by Rieux but does not appear.

The man with plague delirium

An unnamed man rumored by Cottard to have run into the street and embraced the first woman he met while shouting that he had plague.

The woman embraced by the delirious man

An unnamed woman whom a man with plague delirium is rumored to have embraced in the street.

The devoted faithful

Also known as the churchgoer

An unnamed churchgoer who tells Rieux that attending the prayer week cannot do any harm.

The café proprietor

Also known as the little man in the blue apron · the café man

A small unnamed man who runs a café frequented by Cottard and arranges to send a boy to find Garcia.

The café proprietor’s boy

Also known as the gosse

An unnamed boy whom the café proprietor says he will send to find Garcia; he does not appear directly.

Garcia

A man connected to Oran’s smuggling network, whom Cottard introduces to Rambert as a contact for an illicit exit from the city. Garcia arranges meetings with Raoul and later reconnects Rambert with him after an escape plan fails.

Raoul

A well-dressed, precise-speaking man in Garcia’s network who offers to arrange Rambert’s escape for a fee. He connects Rambert with contacts who can approach guards at the city gates.

Gonzalès

Also known as the half-back · the man with the horse-like face · the football player

A football-playing member of Raoul’s network who connects Rambert with guards willing to help him leave Oran. He later accepts rotating surveillance work at the internment camp on weekends.

The imagined amazone

Also known as the svelte amazone

The woman in Grand’s repeatedly revised opening sentence, imagined riding through the Bois de Boulogne. She is a subject of Grand’s painstaking literary work.

The imagined jument

Also known as the alezane · the somptueuse jument

The chestnut mare imagined in Grand’s opening sentence, which he repeatedly revises while searching for the right description.

The old man preaching in the streets

Also known as the old man with the hat and lavallière

An unnamed elderly man who crosses the evening crowds repeating that God is great and urging people to turn to Him.

Professor B…

Also known as the professor

A professor identified only by an initial in a newspaper headline, quoted in Tarrou’s account as answering that there will not be a plague autumn.

Marcel

Also known as one of the two young guards

A young gate guard in Gonzalès’s network who agrees with his near lookalike Louis to help Rambert escape Oran. He shelters Rambert with his brother and their mother, and plays guitar while they wait.

Louis

Also known as one of the two young guards

A young gate guard in Gonzalès’s network who agrees with his near lookalike Marcel to help Rambert escape Oran. Their guard shifts and absences create opportunities for Rambert to pass the gates.

The mother of Marcel and Louis

Also known as the old Spanish woman · the old mother

An unnamed, smiling elderly Spanish woman, mother of Marcel and Louis. She feeds and hosts Rambert and Gonzalès near the city gates, reassures Rambert about his choice to rejoin the woman he loves, and believes plague reflects sin in the world.

The naval officer

Also known as the officer of marine

An unnamed naval officer in a hotel bar who recounts a typhus epidemic in Cairo and describes the harsh confinement of Indigenous people in camps.

The naval officer’s listener

Also known as the gros interlocuteur

An unnamed, heavyset, flushed man listening to the naval officer’s account of a typhus epidemic in Cairo.

The opera singer playing Orpheus

Also known as Orphée

An unnamed singer performing Orpheus in the municipal opera’s production of Orphée et Eurydice. During a performance, he falters and collapses onstage, prompting the audience to realize he is gravely ill.

Eurydice

A character in the opera Orphée et Eurydice, whose escape from her lover occurs in the scene during which the singer playing Orpheus collapses.

The municipal employee who advises the cremation plan

An unnamed city employee who suggests using retired tramcars to carry plague victims to the crematorium outside Oran.

The two men at Marcel and Louis’s post

Also known as the two gate guards

Two unnamed men who ordinarily share a gate watch with Marcel and Louis. One contracts plague and the other is put under observation, leaving the brothers alone on duty for several days.

The infirmary attendant

Also known as the masked nurse

An unnamed masked staff member who brings Tarrou a bundle of records reporting six deaths during the night.

The hospital assistant

Also known as the aide

An unnamed hospital worker who holds out a tray for Rieux’s instruments after he treats a plague patient.

The two nurses

Also known as the infirmières

Two unnamed nurses who hold a plague patient in place while Rieux incises his groin swellings.

The sergeant at the hospital guard post

Also known as the sergeant

An unnamed sergeant directing the crowd outside the hospital. Sweating in the heat, he tells people there is nothing to wait for.

The hospital patient with groin swellings

Also known as the patient Rieux treats in the hospital

An unnamed plague patient whom Rieux treats in the hospital by incising his groin swellings.

The other hospital patients

Also known as the patients in the auxiliary hospital

A group of unnamed plague patients sharing the converted schoolroom with Philippe Othon. One cries out in surprise and joins the ward’s cries as Philippe dies.

The elderly landlady

Also known as the old woman who hosts Paneloux

An unnamed elderly woman, devoted to churchgoing and still untouched by plague, who lodges Paneloux after he leaves his former apartment. She recounts his illness and reluctance to see a doctor, then calls Rieux when his condition worsens.

The old priest

An unnamed elderly priest who comments on Paneloux’s second sermon, praising its eloquence but worrying that it reveals too much doubt.

The young deacon

An unnamed young deacon who says he knows Paneloux’s changing views and believes the priest’s treatise on consulting a doctor would not receive Church approval.

The priest who lost faith

An unnamed priest whom Tarrou knows; he lost his faith during the war after seeing a young man whose eyes had been gouged out.

The old man who stayed at the Mercy convent

Also known as the surviving religious

An unnamed religious at Marseille’s Mercy convent who remained through a plague that killed seventy-seven of the community’s eighty-one members; Paneloux cites him as an example of staying to serve.

The bishop of Belzunce

Also known as Belzunce

The bishop of Marseille during the great plague who eventually withdrew into his walled house with provisions. The people turned against him and threw plague victims’ bodies over the walls.

The prosecuting father

Also known as Tarrou’s father · the advocate general

Tarrou’s father, a mild-mannered advocate general who sought the death penalty for a defendant and attended executions. Tarrou’s exposure to his father’s role prompted him to leave home and oppose capital punishment.

Tarrou’s mother

Also known as the mother of Jean Tarrou

A quiet, self-effacing woman whom Tarrou loved. He later took her into his care after his father died, and she died in time.

The condemned man seen by Tarrou

Also known as the defendant

An unnamed, poor red-haired man around thirty, whom Tarrou’s father prosecuted and who was sentenced to death. His frightened, human presence turned Tarrou against executions.

The two officials pursuing Cottard

Also known as the two men in the corridor

Two unnamed, formally dressed officials who appear at Cottard’s home to ask for information. Their arrival prompts him to flee into the night.

The young woman who recovers from plague

Also known as the young girl with pulmonary plague

An unnamed young woman whose severe pulmonary plague unexpectedly remits. Her recovery is one of several cases that signal the epidemic’s decline.

The new concierge

An unnamed man who takes over the concierge’s post in Rieux’s building during the plague.

The dog shot outside Cottard’s building

Also known as the dirty spaniel

An unnamed spaniel that wanders into the street during the police siege at Cottard’s building. Cottard shoots and kills it as it approaches the doorway.

The police agent injured during Cottard’s shooting

Also known as the wounded agent

An unnamed police agent wounded when Cottard fires at people trying to enter his building.

The police officer who strikes Cottard

Also known as the agent who hits Cottard

An unnamed officer who punches Cottard twice and kicks him after police seize him.