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Religion vs. Superstition and Quackery
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Journal of the Plague Year, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The narrator of A Journal of the Plague Year, a fictional memoir of London’s 1655 bubonic plague epidemic, suggests that there are three main types of reaction to crises like the plague: rational foresight, excessive hysteria, and excessive complacency. Hysteria and complacency are extreme reactions in different directions—too much fear or too little—whereas rational foresight involves being afraid to the right degree and acting to protect oneself accordingly. The narrator repeatedly criticizes a hysterical fear of the plague that leads people to take irrational actions such as consulting fortune tellers to determine whether they will survive or avoiding meat markets where people died (possibly of other causes) for fear the meat itself is infected. Yet at the same time, he harshly condemns inadequate fear leading to complacency, (e.g., the tendency of Londoners who lived in neighborhoods not affected early on during the plague to assume that their area would never see infections). In contrast with either hysteria or complacency, the narrator praises foresight: for example, he repeatedly admires people who, early in the plague, thought to stockpile supplies and then self-quarantine on ships anchored in the Thames for the plague’s duration. The narrator suggests that these people showed rational foresight, fearing the plague enough to act early but not fearing it so much they lost their heads. Thus, the narrator implies that fear requires a happy medium: while too much fear leads to hysteria and too little leads to complacency, just the right amount of fear leads to foresight and self-protection.
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Foresight vs. Hysteria and Complacency ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Foresight vs. Hysteria and Complacency appears in each chapter of A Journal of the Plague Year. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Foresight vs. Hysteria and Complacency Quotes in A Journal of the Plague Year
Below you will find the important quotes in A Journal of the Plague Year related to the theme of Foresight vs. Hysteria and Complacency.
Pages 3-80 Quotes
For all that could conceal their Distempers, did it to prevent their Neighbours shunning and refusing to converse with them; and also to prevent Authority shutting up their Houses, which though it was not yet practised, yet was threatned, and People were extremely terrify’d at the Thoughts of it.
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The narrator is explaining the rising London plague deaths in the first half of 1665. He claims that “all that could conceal their Distempers” (i.e., everyone infected with plague who could hide their symptoms) did hide their symptoms, to avoid social ostracism and “to prevent Authority shutting up their houses” (i.e., to keep officials from forcibly quarantining them inside their homes). This claim illustrates two major themes in A Journal of the Plague Year. First, it introduces the sometimes conflicting relationship between public health and individual interests. Second, it suggests that hysterical fear that can make people act badly or Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima au
These Terrors and Apprehensions of the People, led them into a Thousand weak, foolish, and wicked Things, which, they wanted not a Sort of People really wicked, to encourage them to; and this was running about to Fortune-tellers, Cunning-men, and Astrologers, to know their Fortune[.]
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The narrator is explaining how Londoners’ hysterical fear of the plague, which he calls the “Terrors and Apprehensions of the People,” causes them to seek out various “Fortune-tellers,” “Cunning-men” (i.e., folk healers or magicians), and “Astrologers” in hopes that these people will foretell what the plague will bring. The narrator condemns the people’s behavior on two possibly contradictory grounds. On the one hand, he thinks their behavior is “foolish,” which indicates that he doesn’t believe in fortune-telling, folk-healing, magic, or astrology but scorns these practices as mere superstition. On the other hand, he thinks their behavior is “wicked” or immoral, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium
I must here take farther Notice that Nothing was more fatal to the Inhabitants of this City, than the Supine Negligence of the People themselves, who during the long Notice, or Warning they had of the Visitation, yet made no Provision for it, by laying in Store of Provisions, or of other Necessaries; by which they might have liv’d retir’d, and within their own Houses, as I have observed, others did, and who were in a great Measure preserv’d by that Caution[.]
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Here the narrator criticizes the “Supine Negligence”—the apathetic or passive failure to plan ahead—of Londoners who didn’t stockpile “Provisions” or other “Necessaries” in their homes, a stockpile that would have allowed them to have “liv’d retir’d, and within their own Houses” for the duration of the plague rather than needing to go outside and interact with other, potentially infectious people to buy food. This passage illustrates the narrator’s investment in common sense and rational foresight as tools to survive the plague: he believes people who planned ahead and took strong precautionary measures against infection were more likely to be “preserv’d Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis.
Pages 80-161 Quotes
Their Story has a Moral in every Part of it, and their whole Conduct, and that of some who they join’d with, is a Patern for all poor Men to follow, or Women either, if ever such a Time comes again; and if there was no other End in recording it, I think this a very just one, whether my Account be exactly according to Fact or no.
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Here the narrator introduces a long anecdote about three working-class men who escaped the plague in London by fleeing into the countryside: John, a former soldier and current baker; his brother Thomas, a former sailor and current sailor-maker; and their acquaintance Richard, a joiner. The narrator’s introduction makes clear that he is trying to address an unstated problem that cropped up earlier in his narrative: the narrator criticized for lack of foresight those Londoners who didn’t flee the city or stockpile provisions for a long self-quarantine earlier in the plague—but fleeing the city to a safe location and stockpiling a Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto vo
Pages 161-238 Quotes
[…] they would say, if it pleas’d God to strike them, it was all one whether they went Abroad or staid at Home, they cou’d not escape it, and therefore they went boldly about even into infected Houses, and infected Company[.]
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The narrator has just argued that people with plague can be infectious before their plague cases become symptomatic. As a result, superstitious people come to believe not in natural asymptomatic infectiousness, but in God supernaturally “strik[ing]” people with plague without the intermediate natural cause of person-to-person infection. According to the narrator, the superstitious belief that God’s direct intervention (rather than person-to-person infection) causes plague leads superstitious people to go “boldly about even into infected Houses, and infected Company,” on the assumption that it didn’t matter what they did—God could strike them anywhere and “they cou’d not escape it.” In this Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic te
Many Persons in the Time of this Visitation never perceiv’d that they were infected, till they found to their unspeakable Surprize, the Tokens come out upon them, after which they seldom liv’d six Hours; for those Spots they call’d the Tokens were really gangreen Spots, or mortified Flesh in small Knobs as broad as a little silver Peny, and hard as a piece of Callous or Horn; so that when the Disease was come up to that length, there was nothing could follow but certain death[.]
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Here the narrator is arguing for the possibility of plague victims’ asymptomatic infectiousness. As evidence for his position, he describes specific plague symptoms he calls “Tokens.” According to the narrator, Tokens are “really gangreen Spots” (i.e., spots of dead soft tissue caused by lack of blood flow to the affected area). Implicitly arguing that plague is causing the development of gangrenous areas before the “Tokens” become visible, the narrator concludes that plague can remain asymptomatic until a mere “six Hours” before it kills a victim. “Tokens” and the previously asymptomatic plague cases they symbolize are important supporting evidence for two Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in.
Upon the foot of all these Observations, I must say, that tho’ Providence seem’d to direct my Conduct to be otherwise; yet it is my opinion, and I must leave it as a Prescription, (viz.) that the best Physick against the Plague is to run away from it.
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Here the narrator argues that all his “Observations” lead him to conclude that “the best Physick” (i.e., medicine) “against the Plague is to run away from it”—even though, as he notes, his “Conduct” (i.e., course of action) was “otherwise” due to his belief that God’s “Providence” encouraged him to stay in London during the plague. Why does the narrator advise other people to flee the plague even though he himself stayed in a plague-stricken city? By implication, the narrator seems to believe two things. First, it is generally best to apply one’s human rationality and common sense to protect oneself Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissim
But no Body can account for the Possession of Fear when it takes hold of the Mind.
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The narrator has just recounted how, as the plague was dying down in London, two people mysteriously died in a meat market—which caused a rumor that the meat itself was infected with plague, leading people to shun meat for a while. Then he notes that while the rumor seemed obviously false, “no Body can account for the Possession of Fear when it takes hold of the Mind.” By this, the narrator essentially means that fear can make people hysterical and irrational, leading them to believe in foolish superstitions or behave in bizarre ways. As such, the quotation is, in essence, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. R
