Selfish

Rambert, unlike the rest of the town at this point, continues to discount the gravity of the plague. He has exhausted the possibility of escaping the town illegally – last seen when he would sit listlessly at train stations. He now begins to look for an illegal way to escape. He is still selfish; he fails to understand that his leaving not only is unfair to the rest of the people confined within the city, but could possibly endanger a countless number of lives. His selfishness is even seen as an embarrassment to Cottard, who says he knows someone who could get him out of the city. Cottard arranges for a meeting with this man – Garcia – during which he informs him of Rambert’s situation. Cottard acknowledges that this is the Rambert's selfishness - to try and escape and put others in danger simply because he is frightened of the current situation and lusts for a girlfriend. So he lies and tells Garcia that Rambert has a wife waiting for him in an attempt to make Rambert’s case seem more substantial.  Even while Rambert listens to Cottard lie for him to try and make his case seem more legitimate, he never questions the necessity of his escape. He is completely blind to the truth of the situation and is far to self-absorbed in getting his own goals accomplished to even begin to be able to understand the larger picture: that the plague is a real threat to the world, as a whole, and must be contained at all costs. This section of the novel portrays Rambert as a continuously static character. Last time when the reader encountered him he was depressed and has just about given up hope, but he was still completely ignorant to the fact that his escape is simply not that important, and could also be potentially dangerous.  He now still continues to be completely self-centered and selfish -  never stopping even once on his quest to question if his escape is really worth the possibly threat, let alone acknowledge that there are people in far worse circumstances than him as a result of the closing of the town gates.