Digital Object Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n5.4
https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4108-7815This paper examines the relationship between public health measures and human rights in Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year (1722). It analyses how the narrative depicts the plague not only as a medical emergency but also as a social experience regulated by public health measures such as quarantine, surveillance, restrictions on movement, and the shutting up of infected houses. While the government introduces these measures to control the spread of the plague, they result in separation from family members, trauma, loss of livelihood, displacement, and social inequality among the people. The study explores how these measures affect people’s basic human rights at the social, psychological, and economic levels in 17th-century England.
The paper also uses Michel Foucault’s idea of biopolitics to examine how the government controls people’s movement and affects social behaviour, mental health, and economic activities during the plague. The study shows that the authorities often confine healthy people with infected family members, restrict burial practices, and closely monitor public movement during the plague. The paper further examines how poor people suffer more because they lack food, medical care, employment, and shelter during the outbreak. These actions limit personal freedom and affect the dignity and rights of individuals. The paper also connects the experiences described in the novel with the COVID-19 pandemic, when governments across the world imposed lockdowns, quarantine, and restrictions on movement to control the spread of the disease. The study concludes that Defoe’s narrative shows how public health measures can protect society during a pandemic but can also interfere with basic human rights. It encourages governments to adopt more humane and balanced responses to public health emergencies.
Singh, Mamta. “Public Health Measures and Human Rights in Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 5, Oct. 2026, pp. 38-54, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n5.4.
© 2026 The Author(s). Published by the Research Centre for English Language and Literature (RCELL) under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
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