Mersault, Antigone and Gregor as Outsiders

Mersault, Antigone and Gregor as Outsiders

In every society there is an outsider, a person who stands out amongst

the crowd, someone who does not fit in with the norm. Most of the time

it is obvious who the outsider in a group is, but sometimes it takes a

deeper look into the personality and characteristics of a person to

see the traits that make the person an Outsider. The characters that

will be compared are Mersault from Camus's "The Outsider", Sophocles's

Antigone and Gregor Samsa from Kafka's Metamorphosis. Each of these

characters is portrayed as an outsider in their own society. In some

of the texts it is obvious which ways make the characters an outsider,

in others there are more subtle ways that influence the reader into

seeing the character as an outsider. The authors combine their own

writing techniques, the characteristics of the characters and the

norms of the society to define the characters as outsiders. To compare

the ways in which Mersault, Antigone and Gregor can be defined by the

term, the outsider, we must first look at the writing techniques that

their creators use, then the personal characteristics that define

their personalities and actions and last of all the depiction of the

societies in which they live and how they impact the reader's

perception of characters.

The writing techniques differ throughout the texts especially since

Sophocles's Antigone is a play. One of the common techniques that the

authors use is contrasting their main characters with minor characters

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important. One of the most important things when defining characters

as an outsider is to look at what the author did not tell us. Leaving

a question mark, and thus stopping the reader from being able to

connect with the character. The last point is something that

indirectly affects the characters and the reader. The society in which

the text is set, has a background effect on the readers perspective,

when contrasting or comparing the character to the norm of the society

it is possible to see that they are outsiders. Antigone, Mersault and

Gregor it seem are defined by the term "the outsider" by their

creators and the readers. Consciously or not they all stand out, and

this makes the books and plays so intriguing in this aspect. They

question our own position in relation to others and society in

general.