Understanding the Great Plaque of London 1665 through the diary of Samuel Pepys

The work of Samuel Pepys it can be said offers one of the best contemporary accounts of the Great Plague of London in 1665. Through the study of his extracts dating from the 30th of April to the 30th of November one is able to understand the sheer scale of the Plague. However the extract allows us to learn more about human reactions to disease, not only in the context of the 1665 Plague but with other …

…in the hope of escapism. People always want to blame some person or someone for something they can not explain and it is usually the case that minority groups are targeted for this, as is seen by the three examples above. So in effect human nature and reaction to disease has not really changed greatly from the past in the 14th century to nowadays in the 20th century and one suspects that it never will.