Can we talk about Bernard Rieux being an undiscovered bisexual disaster? This man would be sick and tired of hearing good luck babe. I'm sure he loved his wife dearly, it shows, but was it in the way a husband loves his wife? I often think about Rieux being in his doctor-mode 24/7, so he hardly found time to spend with his wife and she understood everything and didn't complain. They were an average couple of two adults who are too busy to be romantic, and Rieux was sure that love is never strong enough to be expressed. For Rieux love was a habit. And when his wife became ill, it became worse. He started to see her as a patient and felt extremely guilty about it.
The scene at the train station feels like a canon event in every queer movie. When the main characters are not happy in their marriage and they say sorry to their spouses for not loving them properly. And they give up on love until they realize they are queer. I don't want to say the train station scene is only about it, it's undoubtedly not, but this interpretation is so obvious... Especially after Rieux denying some things and then doing them with Tarrou... (he wrote that people in Oran don't laugh until they are drunk or crazy, and then he laughs with Tarrou. And later he says that their night by the sea was his only moment of happiness. Bro laughs and cries just once because of his good friend, absolutely casual lol)
Rieux also told his wife to sleep, if she could. So she would not be exhausted by her illness. These are the same words he said to Tarrou when he was suffering from the plague. It's just his way to show love and affection. I'm sure he loved his wife but he also felt this way towards Tarrou, and it's literally what Camus wrote.
Btw I like to think that Rieux's wife's name was Catherine (because Albert Camus called his children Catherine and Jean) :>
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