A JOURNAL OF A PLAGUE YEAR

BY: DANIEL DEFOE

Summary
Daniel Defoe does not divide A Journal of the Plague Year into chapters or sections.
This study guide breaks down the text into nine parts based on the
narrator H.F.'s changing focus.

Part 1, An Introduction to Events

The journal's author H.F. notes that Londoners believe that the plague might
return to London when newspapers report cases in nearby Holland. The first
cases in London appear in December 1664. The city experiences relatively few
cases until May 1665. H.F. considers fleeing the city to live with H.F.'s elder
brother in the countryside. A Bible passage convinces him to stay. Deaths by
July reach 1,700 per week. H.F. notices that people's temperaments are
changing. Fewer people go out and many start to shutter up their homes.

Part 2, The Plague Arrives

H.F. steps back to recall how people react to the news of the plague. Londoners
believe as early as fall 1664 that a calamity is coming. They believe this because
they see a comet over the city. They turn to soothsayers and fortune-tellers to
find out if they will survive the plague. Soothsayers are people who claim to be
able to see the future. Londoners also buy up dubious cures and treatments. H.F.
does not believe in this superstition. He is a devout Christian.

The plague's arrival in December 1664 sets off a panic. Wealthy Londoners
including the English royal family flee to the countryside. Many doctors and
nurses also flee so there are fewer people to treat the sick. H.F. has great
respect for the medical professionals who remain.

Part 3, Magistrates' Orders and Their Effects

London's Lord Mayor and magistrates publish orders to prevent the plague's
spread on July 1, 1665. These orders restrict daily life severely. People who fall
ill must remain in their homes. The city employs watchmen to make sure that
infected persons and their family members do not go outside. Men known as
"rakers" clean the city's streets regularly. Also city officials kill all domestic
animals that they can find.
These orders result in the plague spreading quickly within households.
Londoners dupe or kill watchmen to escape. Approximately 20 watchmen die as
a result.

Part 4, Life and Death on London's Streets

H.F. visits a mass grave during the night. Watching men toss dead bodies into
the pit shakes him to the core. However, he believes that the plague is God's
will. He then reflects that the city should create additional sick houses to house
the infected. Making people stay home causes more infections.

H.F. decides to store provisions in his home in August 1665. He does this so that
he, his servants, and workers do not have to venture outside as much. His
reasoning is that many households catch the plague when their servants go out
to buy food or perform other chores. However, H.F. continues to see and hear of
multiple examples of human misery when he goes outside. Losing loved ones
causes people to go mad and commit suicide.

Part 5, Londoners' Reaction to the Plague

H.F. meets Robert, a man trying to provide for his sick family. Robert is a
dedicated husband and father. Their conversation inspires H.F. to give Robert
and his family some money.

Robert's story contrasts with the heightening misery Londoners experience.

Sailors quarantining in their ships along London's River Thames still catch the
plague. The survivors throw the dead overboard. Also medical professionals are
few and far between. Mothers kill their sick children to put them out of their
misery.

Part 6, The Story of the Three Men

John and Thomas are brothers who cannot find work in London during the
plague. They and a mutual friend Richard pool their limited wealth and flee to the
countryside in July 1665. They band together with other travelers and use their
intelligence and wit to force villages to give them provisions. However, the
plague soon spreads to these country towns. No one will do business with the
men or other people who flee London. They feel defeated and return to London in
December.

Part 7, Further Reflections on Daily Life

London appoints H.F. an alderman (Elected municipal council). This position
allows him to oversee the watchmen's work supervising quarantined houses. He
realizes that his earlier suspicions were correct. The city's decision to
quarantine houses is ineffectual. People either infect their family members or
escape into the community. The latter is especially frightening because people
with the plague who escape their homes often attack innocent Londoners.
Part 8, The Plague at Its Height
The plague reaches its height in August and September 1665. Thousands die
each week. The Lord Mayor's and magistrates' new orders are ineffective in
stopping the plague's spread. H.F. considers the events of the past few months
and hypothesizes how the plague spread so fast and killed so many.

Part 9, The Plague Ends

H.F.'s physician Dr. Health predicts that the plague will start to end in late
September 1665. He is correct. Londoners' moods improve. Yet many people
become ill when they let down their guard. However, fewer and fewer people die
in the following months. H.F. declares the plague officially over in February 1666.
He praises God for sparing him.