A Journal Of The Plague Year

The narrator explains that, in July, the Bills of Death from the Western parts of London continued to list an increase in deaths by causes other than the plague. He begins to go into detail about why the shutting up of infected houses was considered a “cruel and Unchristian method” (47). In response, people began to break out by force via windows or backyards, or by bribing the watchmen. The narrator describes several incidents: in one, a watchman was asked by the family he guarded to run an errand, and in his absence, the whole family left, leaving a sick young woman to die by herself. He reports that 18 or 20 watchmen were killed, and that this is unsurprising: there “were just as many Prisons in the Town, as there were Houses shut up” (52), and it was only natural the that prisoners try to break free. He also notes that the watchmen had an impossible task, as homes had more than one entrance/exit. As the “infected” families broke out, people began to believe that the infected did not care about infecting others. According to the narrator, shutting oneself up voluntarily protected some families from the plague.