Raymond Rambert
Rambert is a character that has annoyed me for a variety of reasons but he is also the character who has kept me engaged while reading. Since the lockdown, he has put himself first and pestered all the officials into seeing how they could help him out. He believes that he is special because he does not actually live in the town of Oran and he was only there coincidentally when the plague broke out. He does not seem to grasp that he is not the only person that is trapped in the town nor that the lockdown is supposed to protect the rest of the world from the plague. This is just our introduction to the character, already painting as this somewhat self interested individual.
With that introduction, you may be able to empathize with him but he has been painted as an annoying character in the novel. Despite this, his story has arguably been the most interesting portions of this book. Since he decided to escape, he has been at the center of the best parts of the book so far. I can only take so much of Camus speaking through some unknown narrator talking about how desperate the town is getting or Rieux and Tarrou being overtaxed in their efforts to fight the plague. Apart from Rambert’s attempt at escape, there has been very little actually happening in the novel.
His escape was keeping me interested. He met with a variety of smugglers and showed us a different side to the plague than just the counting of statistics and checking on those who are ill. I was looking forward to when he would finally be making his escape. Would he have to sneak past another set of guards after he gets out of the town? Will he spread the plague to the rest of the world? Why doesn’t he build a boat and sneak out the harbor? I was drawn in. Then, finally the brothers told him that everything was in place. Then Rambert has a change of heart. He decides not to go a just a few hours before his scheduled departure. We had been building up to this for half the book only to be let down. I know this is supposed to illustrate Rambert becoming more connected with the town and less self interested but it just makes me even more annoyed with him.
This is character development and it shows that he has advanced to looking after the town and not just himself and overall it does make him less annoying. However, he just threw out the only thing keeping me invested in this book. I am disappointed and I hope that some other narrative pops up to take its place.
I was also pretty annoyed by Rambert. However, because I found him annoying and selfish, I was not very invested in his escape storyline. Plus, I kind of suspected that he was going to end up staying in Oran anyway. I thought it was nice when he decided to stay in Oran to help--though it puts him a lot closer to death which isn't good--since, like you said, it showed character development and made him less irritating. I hope the book gets more interesting for you. Maybe Cottard will do something wacky idk
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that Rambert is annoying. However, I feel that at some point, everyone in the world still has an inner-Rambert like complex. Most of us just choose to suppress it as it is outweighed by the safety of numerous others. What makes most of the people in the town and us different by Rambert is that we are able to grasp the danger of the situation, and not make exceptions for ourselves as a result.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Edward, Rambert is a piece of everyone in a situation like this. Of course we would like to go out and do whatever we want, but like Rambert eventually does we put that behind us for the sake of others. I would say that yes Ramberts development was disappointing for me, but it made perfect sense.
DeleteYeah, I think Rambert is one of the most engaging characters because he's the least resigned to what's happening. If the story only followed Rieux, it would be a book about a doctor doing steady, diligent, and only somewhat successful work to fight an epidemic. That's realistic, and makes his character likable, but not very entertaining. The other characters' lives are also fairly procedural (maybe with Cottard as the exception). Rambert, meanwhile, is doing deals with criminals and planning a high-stakes escape. Both his actions and his character development are most volatile/dynamic parts of the story -- even the plague itself is mostly steady and predictable in its destruction -- which makes them my favorite parts.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you here. Though I think Rambert does not only decide to stay because he "loves" Oran. I think from an existentialist POV he has found an alternate meaning in his life, instead of only loving his wife. He finds meaning in his existence in Oran (which is to help other people). Plus, I think he realizes that leaving Oran would be a sort of betrayal.
ReplyDeleteI like to see change in characters like you said, but it is sad that we didn't get to see his narrative explored a little bit more. The rest of the book does get pretty repetitive, but Rieux points out that this is why plague is misery, because of the repetition.
ReplyDeleteI also did not like Rambert at the beginning for the very reasons you articulate here. He really rubbed me the wrong way because of his total lack of empathy. Rieux was going through the same sort of separation as Rambert, but Rambert didn't know that because he didn't take interest in anyone except for himself. But Rambert did redeem himself slightly by realigning himself and his priorities, which I appreciate. This might be an unpopular opinion, but I wasn't really bored by the storyline. I found the characters and their relationships to be engaging enough throughout the book to keep me entertained, so I wasn't as dedicated to his escape plot as you.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm one of the few people who really didn't have much of an opinion on Rambert - he wasn't my favorite, but I never honestly disliked him. He was definitely self-centered for at least the first half of the book, but I got where he was coming from, and never felt overly annoyed with him. Surprisingly, I found his storyline the most drawn out and tedious to get through however. I think that was mainly because for me, the sisyphean nature of "nothing is ever going to get done" just popped out in Rambert's storyline, much more than in any of the others. It's kind of strange because in the end, Rambert was the one whose storyline had the chance of *not* being sisyphean - he could have actually gotten out. But for some reason, it just felt so tedious for me to get through his passages, since my mind thought it would never reach that climax of him escaping, and I was just wasting time by reading his parts while he was trying to get out.
ReplyDeleteI sort of like how Rambert changes his mind. It shows empathy, for although he could be happy with his wife, he chooses to stay and help out. Him not going also minimizes the risk of the plague spreading out of the town even more.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Even though Rambert could be annoying, he was kind of the only character that seemed somewhat human to me when I was reading The Plague. I found it odd that the other citizens of Oran were just kind of staying put and chilling whereas he was the only one who seemed itching to get out of there. Personally, I thought a lot more people would be attempting to get out like him.
ReplyDeleteI like Rambert, his indecision and moral conflict is what makes him more compelling than the other characters who are slightly bland in my humble opinion. I sympathize with his plight and his desire to leave a plague-stricken town to be with the woman who he loves. Although that might be selfish, I don't fault him for it.
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