Answer:
1. Atheist and humanist, Rieux is more interested in healing than in intellectual or theological questions. Rieux continues to fight the disease despite his exhaustion and the evidence that his efforts are having little effect, despite his considerable tiredness.
2. Even though Rieux has been separated from his wife at the beginning of the story, he refuses to let his own sorrow, or even his personal empathy for the plague victims, get in the way of his struggle against it itself!