@saltwithoutsoda made a comment on one of my post and said "Rieux is a man who had to take care of everything and everyone for years and then it's just Tarrou taking care of him and his duties without even saying it out loud." and it made me think about this more because YES, Rieux absolutely has this internalized belief that he has to care for everyone - here i need to mention his wife because at the beginning of the book he apologizes that he didn't care for her well enough and i'm like, man you work full time AND additionally help some people for free there's only so much you can do😠and she clearly doesn't blame him for anything. i believe that they genuinely loved each other but over the years of being the CaretakerTM Rieux's love started to fade, but he never developed negative feelings for her, he always wanted the best for her. and then comes Tarrou - the guy who "takes care of him and his duties without even saying it out loud" and imo it's SO important that he doesn't say it. when Tarrou drives Rieux around he accepts it and it just becomes a part of their lives because it's a gesture that's not very straightforward, it's not Tarrou saying "you have to sleep more", it's him giving Rieux an opportunity to do so. i'm sure that if Tarrou tried to really talk to him about the way he overworked himself Rieux would get this "animal backed into a corner" instinct because he doesn't know how to react when receiving care. someone telling him to rest more is just a pleasantry to him, not something genuine that he actually should take into consideration. if they had a conversation about this Tarrou would not let Rieux bullshit his way through it and we'd probably get an actual outburst from Rieux that he'd be VERY ashamed of but he just cannot process his own feelings for the life of him and would become so defensive you couldn't even try to talk to him calmly
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