Bubonic Plague Analysis

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The Bubonic Plague was an epidemic pestilence obliterating a mass number of lives during the Middle Ages. The malady would start with a fever, and excruciating bumps would later form on the epidermis. Moreover, the Black Death claimed approximately 20 million lives. It contaminated people in a rapid manner, and often killed individuals in a matter of days. Boccaccio, an Italian writer, wrote that the plague’s victims “ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise” (Deeringer 28-30). In the midst of the pandemonium, many people experienced an alteration in personality. Thus meaning, some people either changed to help those in need, or they turned their backs on those who required the most comfort. The plague brought …show more content…
However, in doing so parents would desert their children. The newly orphaned kids were left to fend against the world and the disease on their own. Not to mention, husbands would flee from their wives. People lost their sense of love and humanity in the duration of the contagion. To say nothing of, Flagellants would abuse themselves. They believed the illness was a punishment from God. Therefore, they would inflict pain on themselves, and consider this action their repentance. Flagellants thought that by repenting through suffering, they would not be taken by the plague. Tragically, the idea Flagellants had, spread and caused a multitude of people to harm themselves (Deeringer 28-30). Thereupon, bringing out the cruelest in people. In the historical novel, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, as esteemed family abandoned their servants in fear of the plague. Those they left behind were considered family to the Bradford’s. For instance, “they are taking none of us, not even Mrs. Bradford’s maid, Jane who you know has been with her since a girl” (Brooks 109). The family was frightful that their servants have already encountered the pestilence. Henceforth, the Bradford’s were not taking …show more content…
To enumerate, in an attempt to contain the plague, Mr. Mompellion requested the villagers to remain in town. “Dear friends, here we are, and here we must stay. Let the boundaries become our whole world” (Brooks 102). For the sake of Europe and the future, the citizens of Eyam reluctantly agreed to the rector’s entreaty. Albeit the villagers knew the chances of being contaminated by the illness was high, the citizens recognized their duty and stayed. The more people traversed, the farther the plague spread. Therefore, to prevent the disease from dispersing further, the village quarantined themselves. In an act of selflessness, the villagers of Eyam took upon themselves the responsibility of ceasing the

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