PLAGUE AS METAPHOR AND MIRROR OF SOCIETY: CULTURAL MEMORY IN ALESSANDRO MANZONI’S THE BETROTHED AND ALBERT CAMUS’S THE PLAGUE

Abstract

The paper demonstrates that both Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed and Albert Camus’s The Plague employ the epidemic not merely as a historical or medical fact, but as a narrative framework through which social, moral, and existential dimensions of crisis are revealed. In The Betrothed, the calamity of the plague in seventeenth-century Milan serves as both a catastrophe and a moral trial. Manzoni vividly uncovers the systemic moral rot of the ruling class, deep social inequality, superstition, and collective hysteria alongside a counter current of robust faith, genuine compassion, and Christian charity which, in his view, is indispensable for human survival and societal renewal.
In contrast, Camus makes the plague universal, turning it into a philosophical metaphor. The epidemic in Oran becomes an allegory for absurdity, totalitarian oppression, and the human condition in a world devoid of any higher meaning. Human responsibility, the need to resist, and the urge to stand in solidarity with others becomes the only answer to an indifferent menace. The novel's conclusion offers no comforting resolution, but instead asserts that the “plague bacillus never dies” and that vigilance against evil must be eternal.
Taken together, the findings indicate that plague narratives in both novels do not simply recount historical trauma but actively shape cultural memory. They reveal that epidemics function as catalysts that expose pre-existing virtues and flaws, forcing societies to confront issues of justice, solidarity, and moral responsibility. In this sense, Manzoni and Camus confirm that literature can preserve and reinterpret collective experiences of suffering, providing enduring insights into the ethical demands of crisis.