The pointlessness of existence is uncovered and expounded upon with an approach such that the foundation of spirituality is disturbed in Albert Camus’ existential novel “The Stranger”. The conception that compels this novel is one Albert Camus named himself, the “absurd”. An absurd person lives simply to fulfill the obligation of existence. In addition, static tools of chance and coincidence govern all action. Camus uses Mersault, as the primary vehicle to relate this concept. Mersault, lives out a seemingly normal life of indifference until the central climax of the novel changes him. Here he concedes to the absurdity and begins the necessary acceptance of his own futile existence in order to find contentedness with his life before his death.
The conflict between the human tendency to seek and inability to find meaning is referred to as the “Absurd”. Camus’ character Mersault, in the stranger varies on this continuum.
Starting as a theme in existentialist works, the absurd branched out to form its own to stand alone as its own philosophy. Absurdism addresses the fact that huma...
In Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger, a young man named Mersault lives his life differently than the expectations of society and does not seem to see a purpose in life. His character implies that life is meaningless and living just like everyone else in society prevents individuals from discovering the true meaning of life. Camus famously stated: “You will never be able to be happy if you continue to search what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of lie. Most readers of the novel immediately misjudge Mersaults’ character as they begin to read the first paragraph of the novel, which begins with his being informed about his mother’s death and funeral. Due to the fact that Mersaults’ character seems unaffected emotionally by his mother’s death, he is immediately looked negatively by readers. There are possibilities that Mersault reacts this way such as him not seeing the point in life or death. He does not seem to care about anything around him and has not yet discovered the purpose in his life. Mersault’s indifference from the people around him makes him seem like a guilty man under certain circumstances. Because of his carelessness he ends up killing an Arab man for no reason and finding himself in jail. His character does not regret his actions and is immediately seen as a greater victim when the judge and jury hear witnesses testify about how he reacted to the death of his mother. After he is found guilty he spends the last few months of his life locked behind bars and surrounded by nothing but four walls. Camus is conveying that Mersault finally discovers his purpose in life right before it is about to end along with discovering his true self when he is isolated in the jail cell and away...
The Stranger by Albert Camus is a story of a sequence of events in one man's life that cause him to question the nature of the universe and his position in it. The book is written in two parts and each part seems to reflect in large degree the actions occurring in the other. There are curious parallels throughout the two parts that seem to indicate the emotional state of Meursault, the protagonist, and his view of the world.
The emotionless anti-hero, Monsieur Meursault, embarks on a distinct philosophical journey through The Stranger. Confident in his ideas about the world, Meursault is an unemotional protagonist who survives without expectations or even aspirations. Because of his constant indifference and lack of opinions about the world, it can be denoted that he undergoes a psychological detachment from the world and society. It is through these characteristics that exist in Meursault that Camus expresses the absurd. Starting from the very first sentence of the book, “Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.” (Camus 1) The indifferent tone from these short sentences convey a rather apathetic attitude from Meursault’s part. Not only does he not feel any sorrow, he also “felt like having a smoke.” (Camus 4) Communicating perfectly Meursault’s disinterest, “[he] hesitate, [he] didn’t know if [he] could do it with Maman right there. [He] thought it over; it really didn’t matter.” (Camus 4) The death of his mother prompts an absurdist philosophy in which he experiences a psychological awakening and begins to place no real emphasis on emotions, but rather on the physical aspect of life.
Camus’ philosophy of absurdism states that life has no inherent meaning, and that search for meaning will only result in confrontation with the absurd. His quote, “[life] will be lived all the better if it has no meaning”, perfectly exemplifies the meaning behind his philosophy. I believe this quote is describing what happens when one confronts the absurd head-on and embrace it, rather than evade it. This idea
...able option. Camus’s main character, Meursault, embodies this third option; by accepting his circumstances and being indifferent to them, Meursault is able to break free of all possible causes of anxiety and find happiness. Furthermore, Meursault’s rejection of religion as belief, his acceptance of the “benign indifference of the universe”, and his acceptance of his circumstances all leading to happiness personifies Camus’s take on Absurdism, the philosophy that Camus is trying to depict in The Stranger (76). By using foil characters to contrast Meursault in actions or personality, Camus creates several polarizing situations, making Meursault the extreme epitome of Absurdism in every contrasting relationship and thus, shining light on his ideology in the process.
When French Noble Prize winning author, journalist, and philosopher, Albert Camus, died in 1960 at the age of 46 his literary works that incorporated ideas of existentialism and absurdism were still studied and interpreted by scholars and his colleagues. Existentialism was one of the two philosophies Camus believed in and used in his works; existentialism is philosophical movement that focuses on the importance of the individual experience and self responsibility. The individual is seen as a free part of a deterministic and meaningless universe. The second philosophy Camus used and believed in was absurdism; a philosophy based on the idea that life and work are meaningless and looking for order causes inner and outer chaos. Camus had a dual culture as he was born in Algeria and lived most of his life in France, his cultural duality also is expressed in his works.
In Camus there is a precise use of the word "absurd". "Absurd" comes from the Latin surdis and in surdis we have a dual definition: it means irrational, insensible (from that side of it we still use the word in mathematics; a 'surd' is an irrational number). But Camus concentrates on the other meaning which comes from the root. That is, "deaf, silent". There are many examples in literature of this particular kind of silence. I think of Romeo and Juliet when Juliet has been ordered by her parents to marry the County Paris, and in one of Shakespeare's best scenes in that play, he has Juliet's father talking...
In the experimental novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, he explores the concept of existentialism and the idea that humans are born into nothing and descend into nothingness after death. The novel takes place in the French colony of Algiers where the French-Algerians working-class colonists live in an urban setting where simple life pleasures are of the upmost importance in the lives of working class people like the protagonist of the novel Meursault. What is fascinating about this novel is that it opens up with a scene of perpetual misfortune for him through the death of his mother although he seems to express otherwise. The reader perceives this nonchalance as a lack of care. Maman’s death and its impact on Meursault appear in both the very beginning and very end of the two-part novel, suggesting a cyclical pattern in the structure. This cyclical pattern suggests not a change in the moral beliefs of Meursault but rather his registering society’s systems and beliefs and craft meaning in his own life despite the fact that he meets his demise in the end. Camus uses Maman’s funeral to characterise both Meursault and the society and customs created by the society Meursault lives in in order to contrast the two while at the same time reveal how while society changes, Meursault does not. Rather, Maman’s funeral becomes of unprecedented importance in Meursault’s life and allows him to find that nothing means anything in his meaningless world at the time of his death. He finds peace in that.
Finding Enlightenment in the Dark: An analysis of light in Camus’s The Stranger. In The Stranger, the protagonist Mersault becomes ostracized from his society due to his emotional separation and unwillingness to play by societal rules. His continual apathy and expression that everything “didn’t matter” eventually led to his death sentence (8). Mersault focuses on his physical surroundings, commenting on the light and the heat around him. He perceives the world through his senses, not through his emotions.
He has said that “ ….[I]n a man’s attachment to life there is something stronger than all the ills in the world. The body’s judgement is as good as the mind’s, and the body shrinks from annihilation…. (An Absurd Reasoning, Albert Camus, pg. 8). What he means in this passage, is that we find meaning in life, an attachment to living by neglecting the suffering in the world. Rather, we hide from things that can harm us physically, yet we acknowledge our mental suffering in hopes to overcome it. Camus, in my opinion, believes in the meaning of life being derived from overcoming personal issues. For him, the suffering of the world is pointless, and there is no reason for us to acknowledge it for it is beyond our control. Rather we should become like Sisyphus, the “absurd hero”, and acknowledge our own demons whilst living the roles with which we have been dealt. This situation is ideal, for we are in a situation where we have full
But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and the wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the world. ”[1] He continues that there are specific human experiences evoking notions of absurdity. Such a realization or encounter with the absurd leaves the individual with a choice: suicide, a leap of faith, or recognition.
Oxford Dictionaries defines religion as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Religion is important in life because it not only gives humanity order, but it also gives people a reason for life. Without religion, perhaps society would be one big pile of corrupt, evil, and selfish human beings. This is something that Meursault struggles with the concept of religion the entire novel because he has a strong belief in the truth, which opens up a wide spread of issues. Some of his beliefs about life include that it is absurd because he thinks it’s just a game, and that it is mankind’s responsibility to look over oneself because death is a traveling burden. Even during his trial he is at a disadvantage because of his inability to connect with the conventions of society. In Albert Camus’ The Stranger, Meursault loses his faith in life, God, and society because of his lack of understanding and comprehending his feelings and emotions. If the purpose of religion is to bring people together in unity and also give them a sense of hope, then why is Meursault so uninterested and unaffected by any of the events that took place during the novel such as his mother’s funeral, his relationship with Marie, or even his trial? The real purpose Meursault acts the way he does is because he loses is faith in himself and humanity. This feeling of nothingness inside Meursault is most evident in the first line of the novel, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know,” showing no sign of grief or mourning for the loss of his mother (1). The death of his mother serves as a disruption of the status quo in his life, it is the beginning of his emotional journey of deterioration and separation from...
Existentialism is defined as "a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining his or her own development through acts of the will”. In other words, existentialism it emphasizes individual freedom. Throughout The Stranger, the amount of existentialism views is abundant. The use of Mersault’s experiences covey the idea that human life has no meaning except for simple existence. The idea of existentialism in Albert Camus' The Stranger reflects through Mersault's life experiences with his relationship with Marie, the death of his mother Maman, the murdering of the Arab, and Mersault's trial and execution, all these events show that Mersault’s life of no meaning.
Camus showcased to his readers the 4 examples of an Absurd Life. He begins with The Seducer, who lives his life in pursuit of evanescent passion. The one next in line is The Actor, who always assumes new roles, he has an awareness of his act and knows that it is all for the “show”.
In 1962, writer Mark Esslin took pleasure in composing the novel Theatre of the Absurd and quickly became a major influence on the works of many inspired writers. Esslin subsequently made ensuing plays and stories which focused on nonspecific existentialist concepts and which did not remain consistent with his ideas, rejecting the “narrative continuity and the rigidity of logic.” As a result, the protagonist of these stories is often not capable of containing himself within his or her disorderly society (“Theatre”). Writer Albert Camus made such an interpretation of the “Absurd” by altering the idea into his view of believing it is the rudimentary absence of “reasonableness” and consistency in the human personality. Not only does Camus attempt to display the absurd through studied deformities and established arrangements; he also “undermines the ordinary expectations of continuity and rationality” (“The Theatre”). Camus envisions life in his works, The Stranger and “The Myth of Sisyphus,” as having no time frame or significance, and the toiling endeavor to find such significance where it does not exist is what Camus believes to be the absurd (“Albert”).