In Albert Camus ' The Stranger, Meursault, a detached young man, floats through his life without any emotion. Meursault 's first name is never given in the novel. It does not matter; Meursault 's name, age, his physical characteristics - none of these things matter. Meursault lives in a hollow, empty world, with no set beginning and no defined end. Nothing for him exists in this life and he feels nothing. Meursault demonstrates traits of a sociopath; having a lack of conscience and containing a personality disorder manifesting itself in his extreme antisocial attitudes. By the same token, M.E Thomas, the author of Confessions of a Sociopath, is also a sociopath. The psychological book, Confessions of a Sociopath, contains quotes from anonymous …show more content…
When Meursault hears about his mother 's death, he shows no emotion and no sadness. The event has no affect on Meursault and he attends the funeral without showing any feeling (#7) of depression, sadness, or remorse. Meursault, even when recalling the event of his mother 's passing, does not remember the day she died even when it was only one day prior. Most people would remember a day they lost a loved one for the rest of their lives. Meursault, exhibiting sociopathic traits, has an ability to control other people using his calm. Meursault was able to convince Raymond to not shoot the Arab and put the gun down. (#16) Meanwhile, Meursault shows another trait of sociopathy that resulted in a radical action: a murder of one of the Arabs. Even after Meursault shot the Arab dead, he fired four more rounds into the Arab 's dead body. One may infer that Meursault thought to himself: the Arab was not anymore dead after the first round than the last four rounds. Once again, Meursault has no feeling of regret, remorse, or grief. At the end of his life, Meursault is condemned to death. Meursault accepts this and towards the very end, actually looks forward to death. It seems as if the only thing that made Meursault happy in his life, was awaiting his death. Meursault is like white noise in the background of life. The noise plays in the background, yet has no actual effect on anything. Meursault has no first name, without an age, without any features. He has no identity. Meursault, is indeed, The
Meursault shows very little love or sorrow at the fact of his mother's death. A normal man would feel pain and regret for not being by her side while Meursault does not even care much about the date she passed away. Immediately on the first page in the novel, we confront the situation where Meursault's mother dies, and he does not care about it. "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: `Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.' That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday" (3). Meursault does not bother to call back and find information about his mother. Meursault shows no emotion or care for his mother because he sends her away for someone else to take care of her. During the last years of an elder person's life, they are invited to stay with the family in order to become closer with one another. Meursault could care less as he shows no sign of pain, and goes off to do something else. He resembles a figure where an issue as important as death does come as a priority. "We are the hollow men/ We are the stuffed men/ Leaning together/ Headpiece filled with straw" (Lines 1-4).
Since he cares little for the affairs of the world, claiming they do not mean anything, then justice—a major concern of the world—also means nothing to him. His actions both before and after his decision to kill a man without provocation demonstrate his apathetic view of the world, and his indifference to justice. Therefore Meursault’s search for justice, culminated by the court’s decision to execute him, remains an example to all of the inability of society to instill justice in criminals. Meursault’s perpetual refusal to acquire a sense of morality and emotion instigates skepticism in all who learn of his story of society’s true ability to instill justice in the
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...
The title The Stranger sums up the novel into two words. Meursault acts mentally, physically, and emotionally strange to the reader. Only because Albert Camus made Meursault so isolated. Many humans show emotions on everyday things, and that is why Meursault would be considered strange because he does not act as we would say a normal human should.
In “The Stranger”, the protagonist, Monsieur Meursault, is characterized as cold, uncaring, and emotionally detached. Throughout the novel, Meursault expresses no emotions toward the death of his very own mother, the proposed marriage between the woman, Marie Cardona, who became his lover, and to the actual murder of a man he didn’t know. While the jury at his trial sees him guilty because his uncommon and disassociated demeanor shows that he willfully intended to murder the Arab on the beach, a variety of psychologists would instead diagnose Meursault with Major Depressive Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Asperger’s Syndrome in order to characterize his indifferent thought patterns. If Meursault is suffering from Major Depressive Disorder, he is unable to function as a normal person would which ultimately leads the jury to believe that he is actually a cold blooded killer. Antisocial Personality disorder, like Major Depressive Disorder, causes Meursault to communicate a disregard for the lives of others and lacks remorse when he harms and even kills the Arab.
...immediately gives an impression of a lack of emotion towards the demise of his mother. This lack of emotion highlights the existentialist ideal that we all die, so it doesn't matter what life we have while we are alive. We simply exist, as did Meursault. It becomes apparent, as the novella unfolds, that Meursault has acquired an animal like indifference towards society. His interactions with his neighbour Raymond are an example of his indifferences. It never dawns upon Meursault that society does not condone his interactions with the pimp, avoided by his community. Meursault simply acts to fill his time. Being a single man, he has a lot of time to fill, and finds the weekends passing particularly slowly.
... mother, he does not react in a way most people do. He does not cry but instead accepts what has happened and realizes that he can not change it. He goes back and does physical things he would do on a normal day. When the caretaker offers him coffee, he accepts it, he smokes a cigarette and has sex with a woman he just met. Meursault also does not lie to escape death. He refuses to conform to society and lie. He would rather be seen as an outsider than do something that he does not believe in. Finally, Meursault, will not believe in G-d or Christianity just because it is the only thing to turn to before he is put to death. When Meursault decides not to cry at his mother’s funeral, he accepts himself as an outsider. When he is considered an outsider, it does not matter if he is guilty or innocent; at the end of the day he guilty just for being different.
“But from the moment he knows, his tragedy begins.” Meursault is not unlike Sisyphus. In the novel, The Stranger, by Albert Camus, we watch this character change from a carefree man who loves being alive and free to a man who is imprisoned for a meaningless murder he commits but who eventually finds happiness in his fate.
His beliefs began to form during his experience of World War II and after the terrors of the war; many other people believed that the human existence had no meaning. The Stranger could be classified as an existentialist novel because the protagonist of the story, Meursault, also seems to have existentialist beliefs. Meursault is a character that is very out of touch with the world. His attitude and morals were not accepted by the people of the society in the story, which leads to his death sentence. When people deal with a death, they grieve by crying or showing some type of sad emotion.
In The Stranger, Albert Camus describes the life of the protagonist, Meursault, through life changing events. The passage chosen illustrates Meursault’s view during his time in prison for killing the Arab. In prison, one can see the shifts in Meursault’s character and the acceptance of this new lifestyle. Camus manipulates diction to indicate the changes in Meursault caused by time thinking of memories in prison and realization of his pointless life. Because Camus published this book at the beginning of World War II, people at this time period also questions life and death similar to how Meursault does.
The Stranger written by Albert Camus is an absurdist novel revolving around the protagonist, Meursault. A major motif in the novel is violence. There are various places where violence takes place and they lead to the major violent act, which relates directly to the theme of the book. The major violent act of killing an Arab committed by Meursault leads to the complete metamorphosis of his character and he realizes the absurdity of life.
All in all, the influence of Raymond is negative towards Meursault and leads to Meursault’s death sentence. The peer pressure put on Meursault to testify against Raymond’s mistress sets Meursault up and was the first of many instances where Meursault was manipulated into doing something. The aggression of Meursault to use violence against the Arab is a forced demand that Meursault is to fight for Raymond in times of hardships, as if Raymond owns Meursault. Finally, the declaration of Meursault as “a pal” influences the jury heavily because Raymond runs a whorehouse and the people one hangs out with have strong affects. Together, these three things lead to Meursault’s downfall, the death sentence, and Raymond is the one to blame.
It is true that Meursault was different from the rest of society. However, he changes throughout the trial and eventually becomes an existentialist hero. This is because he finds meaning in life. It is ironic, though, that he learns to appreciate life after his is effectively over. His apathetic approach to life is made clear from the first page: “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” This foreshadows his approach to everything else in the book. His indifference to Maman’s death contrast’s significantly to Salamano’s distress at losing his dog. Many of the characters in this book also function to highlight his qualities through contrast.
The Absurdist notion that an individual needs no external value to survive is portrayed by Meursault’s lack of remorse shown toward his crime and lack of compassion shown toward Marie. Rather, he is an end to himself, his life being justified by his sole existence. Meursault does not view prison as a punishment for killing the Arab; ins...
Albert Camus wrote The Stranger during the Existentialist movement, which explains why the main character in the novel, Meursault, is characterized as detached and emotionless, two of the aspects of existentialism. In Meursault, Camus creates a character he intends his readers to relate to, because he creates characters placed in realistic situations. He wants the reader to form a changing, ambiguous opinion of Meursault. From what Meursault narrates to the reader in the novel, the reader can understand why he attempts to find order and understanding in a confused and mystifying world.