Previous
Symbols
In A Journal of the Plague Year, the Great Fire of London—a real, historical event in early September 1666 in which much of central and western London burned—represents different ways that societies can react to major catastrophes despite the catastrophes’ similar effects on individual psychology. When the novel first mentions the Great Fire of 1666, it parallels the Fire with the Great Plague of London by noting that a comet crossed the sky shortly before each disaster and that superstitious Londoners in hindsight interpreted the comets as omens of the catastrophes. Moreover, the novel later notes that both catastrophes caused individual Londoners to “Despair”: at the height of the plague, some Londoners became so convinced they would all die that they stopped taking measures to protect themselves, while during the worst of the fire, many citizens felt their attempts to fight the conflagration were so hopeless that they “gave over their Endeavours to extinguish it” (i.e., stopped trying to put out the flames).
Yet while the two catastrophes may have had similar effects on individual Londoners’ psychologies, leading to superstition and fatalism, the novel notes that the Great Plague and the Great Fire provoked very different large-scale social reactions. During the Plague, relief for poor Londoners (who were at risk of starving due to halted economic activity and widespread unemployment) was haphazard and relied substantially on private charity. By contrast, after the Fire, the government spent large amounts of public money to “re-edify the Buildings” and “beautify the city,” even reallocating money to rebuilding that had originally been intended for London’s orphans. In the same vein, whereas the Plague led people to stop non-essential trade and commerce, London reacted to the Fire with a burst of economic activity, buying an “infinite Quantity” of goods to replace items lost in the fire and spurring a manufacturing boom throughout England. Thus, in the context of the novel’s representation of the Great Plague, the Great Fire by contrast reflects how two catastrophes, occurring in the same place and within months of one another, can provoke starkly different political and social reactions despite their similar effects on the individuals who suffer from them.
The Great Fire Quotes in A Journal of the Plague Year
The A Journal of the Plague Year quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Great Fire. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Pages 3-80
Quotes
I shall not be supposed to lessen the Authority or Capacity of the Physicians, when, I say, that the Violence of the Distemper, when it came to its Extremity, was like the Fire the next Year; The Fire which consumed what the Plague could not touch, defy’d all the Application of Remedies; […] They endeavoured to do good, and to save the Lives of others; But we were not to expect, that the Physicians could stop God’s Judgments, or prevent a Distemper eminently armed from heaven, from executing the Errand it was sent about.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
It was a great Mistake, that such a great City as this had but one Pest-House […] I say, had there instead of that one been several Pest-Houses, every one able to contain a thousand People without lying two in a Bed, or two Beds in a Room, and had every Master of a Family, as soon as any Servant especially, had been taken sick in his House, been obliged to send them to the next Pest-House, if they were willing, as many were, and had the Examiners done the like among the poor People, when any had been stricken with the Infection; I say, had this been done where the People were willing, (not otherwise) and the Houses not been shut, I am perswaded, and was all the While of that Opinion, that not so many, by several Thousands, had died[.]
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A Journal of the Plague Year LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Great Fire Symbol Timeline in A Journal of the Plague Year
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Great Fire appears in A Journal of the Plague Year. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Pages 3-80
...comet appeared a few months prior to the plague (much as a comet preceded the Great Fire the next year), though the narrator, aware that comets have scientific causes, had trouble treating...
(full context)
...from taking quack cures that will harm them. The narrator notes that much as the Great Fire later destroys all attempts to extinguish it, so the plague “defie[s] all Medicines” and kills...
(full context)
Pages 80-161
...poor. (The narrator assumes that London’s government is rich, given how it rebuilt after the Great Fire .) Granted, people all over England send money to aid the poor in London during...
(full context)
Pages 161-238
...grieve as they used to. The plague’s intensity, like the intensity of the following year’s Great Fire , sends people into “Despair”—not religious despair for their souls, but a fatalistic despair that...
(full context)
...fewer goods during the plague, manufacturing suffers in other areas as well. Yet after the Great Fire the following year, London needs to rebuild or replace so many items that English manufacturing...
(full context)
...the plague. The narrator ironically notes that if the doomsdayers were to have predicted the Great Fire , people might believe in them more. Regardless, occasional small outbursts of plague cases do...
(full context)
