Emotional Detachment in The Stranger (The Outsider) In The Stranger (The Outsider), Albert Camus portrays Meursault, the book's narrator and main character, as aloof, detached, and unemotional. He does not think much about events or their consequences, nor does he express much feeling in relationships or during emotional times. He displays an impassiveness throughout the book in his reactions to the people and events described in the book. After his mother's death he sheds no tears; seems to show no emotions. He displays limited feelings for his girlfriend, Marie Cardona, and shows no remorse at all for killing an Arab. His reactions to life and to people distances him from his emotions, positive or negative, and from intimate relationships with others, thus he is called by the book's title, "the stranger". While this behavior can be seen as a negative trait, there is a young woman who seems to want to have a relationship with Meursault and a neighbor who wants friendship. He seems content to be indifferent, possibly protected from pain by his indifference. Meursault rarely shows any feeling when in situations which would, for most people, elicit strong emotions. Throughout the vigil, watching over his mother's dead body, and at her funeral, he never cries. He is, further, depicted enjoying a cup of coffee with milk during the vigil, and having a smoke with a caretaker at the nursing home in which his mother died. The following day, after his mother's funeral, he goes to the beach and meets a former colleague named Marie Cardona. They swim, go to a movie, and then spend the night together. Later in their relationship, Marie asks Meursault if he wants to marry her. He responds that it doesn't matter to him, and if she wants to get married, he would agree. She then asks him if he loves her. To that question he responds that he probably doesn't, and explains that marriage really isn't such a serious thing and doesn't require love. This reaction is fairly typical of Meursault as portrayed in the book. He appears to be casual and indifferent about life events. Nothing seems to be very significant to him. Later on in the book, after he kills an Arab, not once does he show any remorse or guilt for what he did. Did he really feel nothing? Camus seems to indicate that Meursault is almost oblivious and totally unruffled and untouched by events and people around him. He is unwilling to lie, during his trial, about killing the Arab. His reluctance to get involved in defending himself results in a verdict of death by guillotine. Had Meursault been engaged in his defense, explaining his actions, he might have been set free. Meursault's unresponsive behavior, distant from any apparent emotions, is probably reinforced by the despair which he sees open and feeling individuals experience. He observes, for example, Raymond cheated on and hurt by a girlfriend, and sees his other neighbor, Salamano, very depressed when he loses a dear companion, his dog. Meursault's responses are very different, he doesn't get depressed at death nor does he get emotionally involved. He appears to be totally apathetic. Thus, he seems to feel no pain and is protected from life's disappointments. Sometimes a person like Meursault can be appealing to others because he is so non-judgmental and uncritical, probably a result of indifference rather than sympathetic feelings. His limited involvement might attract some people because an end result of his distance is a sort of acceptance of others, thus he is not a threat to their egos. Raymond Sintes, a neighbor who is a pimp, seems to feel comfortable with Meursault. Sintes does not have to justify himself because Meursault doesn't comment on how Sintes makes money or how he chooses to live his life. Even though Meursault shows no strong emotions or deep affection, Marie, his girlfriend, is still attracted and interested in him. She is aware of, possibly even fascinated by, his indifference. Despite the seemingly negative qualities of this unemotional man, people nevertheless seem to care for him. There are individuals who, because of different or strange behavior, might be outcasts of society, but find, in spite of or because of their unconventional behavior, that there are some people who want to be a part of their lives. Meursault, an asocial person is such an individual. His behavior, while not antagonistic or truly antisocial, is distant, yet it does not get in the way of certain relationships. While there are some people who might find such relationships unsatisfying and limited, Meursault and those he is connected to seem to be content with their "friendships". His aloofness, though, may not have saved him from suffering. It might actually have been the cause of the guilty verdict at his trial for killing the Arab. Withdrawing from involvement with people or life events might not mean total isolation or rejection but it does not necessarily protect an individual from pain or a bad end.
Meursault is a fairly average individual who is distinctive more in his apathy and passive pessimism than in anything else. He rarely talks because he generally has nothing to say, and he does what is requested of him because he feels that resisting commands is more of a bother than it is worth. Meursault never did anything notable or distinctive in his life: a fact which makes the events of the book all the more intriguing.
Meursault resists being typecast into an archetypal moral category in many of his deeds and actions. Many of his actions in Part One of the novel help contribute to the fuzzy picture of the character. For example, at his mother's funeral, Meursault does not cry or weep in the typical mourning fashion, but rather sleeps during the vigil and entices one of the other mourners present to smoke a cigarette with him. This would be typically considered "evil" behavior, in the context of the story. He could easily been seen as disrespectful and seditious toward his mother and the established procedures of mourning, which seem to be fairly definite at that era in France. However, this "evil" mold can easily be shaken if one considers that Meursault may be more shaken than anyone else present at the funeral. Considering the other events in the novel, it seems as though he does not have a large capacity for emotion. Based on this, it is not unreasonable to assume that the events leading up to and including his mother's death may have overtaxed his limited scope of emotion, and he was therefore nearly incapable of mourning in the "normal" or expected way for his mother, but rather had to resort to his own, more c...
Icarus has always been extremely jealous of his perfect brother. Daedalus and Icarus, being twins, were at the point when they were about to graduate high school. Icarus didn’t have
Just think about that for a second. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, part of the Trinity, and the one God gave the world over to as a gift, became mortal, defied temptation, and ended up dying in a very painful, humiliating, and shameful way, in which God had to turn away. Just try and prove that we mere humans don't matter to God if He did all of that just so we could live with Him in heaven when we die! The love He showed us through that sacrifice was great. A sacrifice no human-being would be able to do because the cost was just too
Monsieur Meursault speaks when he has something he feels he should say. Otherwise, he remains the receiver of other people's communications. It is this innocent reservedness that begins to build the image of him in the reader's mind. At first he may seem dull, unintelligible, even unfeeling; the reader is soon taken in by his casual persona however, and empathizes deeply with his plight by the end of the novel. Meursault perceives his world as extremely indifferent--he does not believe in God or seem to believe in anything higher than pure human existence, and pure human non-existence when death ends life. Meursault is himself indifferent to all of the things throughout his life, except when he is finally met by the specter of death. However, even this fear and anxiety ceases after he accosts the Chaplain. At the end of the novel this young Frenchman comes to realize his similarities to his universe. He feels things are almost "consummate", only a few ...
Meursault is a character with little to no feelings. When asked to see his mother, Meursault said no and when he was asked why he said, “I don’t know.” Also, at the trial Meursault was told he “had no soul, and that nothing that makes a man human, not a single moral principle, could be found within me. we cannot complain that he lacks what is not in his power to acquire.
On the day of the funeral Meursault immediately notices details such as, “the screws on the casket had been tightened and that there were four men wearing black in the room.” Throughout the day he does not display any signs of grief, and hardly seems to pay any attention to the fact that he is at his own mother’s funeral.
Every character that revolves around Meursault seems to be in direct contrast to him. Meursault is an amoral person who does not seem to care passionately about anything. He acts in accordance with physical desires. In other words, Meursault is a sensualist person. At this particular time in his life, his path crosses with his neighbor, Raymond, who feels as though his girlfriend is cheating on him. He decides to take revenge with minor aid form Meursault. Meursault helps him only because he thinks he has nothing to lose if he does. As things lead into one another, the first major violent act of the book is committed.
Meursault’s character is understood through his relationships with other people. The first thing that the readers notice about Camus’ protagonist is his abrupt, seemingly unemotional approach to people in his life. He is often interested in trivial details instead of seeing the true meaning of
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In The Stranger, Camus writes about a man named Meursault, who one day is notified that his mother passed away. Shockingly, Meursault does not show any tears of sorrow or grief as the funeral of his own mother. A week later, Meursault develops a romance with the lovely Marie, who, like him, enjoys the beach and swimming in the ocean. On one sunny day, Meursault, shoots and murders an Arab man. He then spends the rest of his time in the court, in order to prove his innocence and thus prevent execution. Throughout the story, Meursault depicts his nature- “a man who will not permit himself to be comforted by the illusions and emotions which ordinary screen men from the cold, bitter stone of their actual condition” (Scott 127).
When a loved one dies, a normal reaction is to cry and grieve. Meursault gave off the perception of having no feelings about the
Right from the start of the novel, Meursault is introduced to the reader as a person that is distant. For one, he doesn't even know the day his own mother died[1]. Normally, when a close relative such as a mother dies, that person is supposed to feel grief. Meursault, however feels nothing, because when he hears of this through telegram, he is unattached. He wishes that she hadn't died, but her death doesn't make a real and lasting impact on him as he travels to the town where she was to be buried.
Meursault is viewed as an outcast because he doesn 't weep at his mother 's funeral or feel guilty because he put her into a nursing home. Society has developed patterns of behavior for given moments in our lives. Meursault’s insensitivity doesn’t match up with societal expectation of showing some sense of grief. Meursault says that the funeral itself happens “so fast, so deliberately, so naturally” that he can’t remember it. He has only a few fragmented memories, including the “the sun bearing down, making the whole landscape shimmer with heat, it was inhumane and oppressive” and the nurse saying “there is no way out” (Camus
Meursault is distant from set plans, ambitions, desires, love, and emotions in general. He has a difficult time with emotions such as regret and compassion. The reader sees the nature of his personality in the first few lines of the novel: "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know." When he hears of the death of his mother through a telegram, he is unattached, and can be considered uncaring.