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In Albert Camus' The Plague, several characters are introduced and analyzed to represent a specific ideal eternal to the novel. The character Paneloux is used to express the controversy between the reality of existentialism and an alternate belief based on the faith in religion. In the novel, we see Father Paneloux, a religious figure who seems to ignore the plague (representing the existentialist side) with his reverent faith towards religion. Father Paneloux uses his faith in religion and God to avoid accepting the reality of the lack of purpose in humanity represented by the plague.

Paneloux expresses his feelings towards the plague within the first religious sermon that he gives to the town of Oran. In it, he narrates how the people of Oran deserve the plague that has been cast upon them by god, and just like it has been unleashed upon...