Father Paneloux

The Father uses the plague to his advantage, much like the theater and café entrepreneurs. He preaches in his infamous sermon during the Week of Prayer that the plague is the result of continuous sin; the punishment is death. However, the Father gets caught up in the means of death and doesn't really understand what the fatality of the plague is.

Death is inevitable no matter how you live your life, whether you get the plague or not. Paneloux knows this as all people do, just subconsciously. It is human instinct to survive, to fight death. Paneloux clearly illustrates this desire to live in the message of his sermon. He tells the people of Oran to repent and live sinless lives; that way they will be saved from the plague and saved from death.

The Father's primal instinct to survive is not unlike the attitude of the rest of the people in the town. Paneloux simply draws heavily on what he knows best, which is religion. The way he presents his method of survival, by ignorantly attempting to elude death completely, causes a shortage in attendance at his next sermon.