ipl-logo

Marie And Meursault In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

776 Words4 Pages

Marie and L’Étranger Famous actor George Chakiris once said, “No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible”. He illustrates how there is a sort of heterogeneity between emotions of darkness and the feelings of hope and love. Similarly, in the existentialist novel The Stranger, by Albert Camus, the story is told of Meursault, an indifferent introverted man said to be on a quest for hope and purpose. Meursault takes on a love interest by the name of Marie. Whereas Meursault is cold and nonchalant, Marie tends to be hopeful and loving. Marie’s role in The Stranger is to provide hope for Meursault and an emotional contrast to him through their descriptions of each other and their dialogues about love. Camus hints at the theme of emotional meaninglessness through …show more content…

Camus says, “She asked me if I loved her. I said that sort of question had no meaning” (44). First Meursault barely blinks when his mom dies and now he won’t say I love you to his girlfriend. This also demonstrates the extent of the hopefulness of Marie versus the hopelessness of Meursault. Whereas even after this Marie continues to try to make her and Meursault work, Meursault is shown to be lost, cold, and angry. Marie pulls out of Meursault his internal darkness and it stands out so starkly against her own gentle nature. George Makari writes in his literary analysis The Last 4 Shots: Problems of Intention and Camus’s ‘The Stranger: Is Meursault trapped in an emotional prison of narcissistic love/ object indifference? His relationship with his lover, Marie, supports this contention. Meursault coolly informs Marie that marrying her would mean no more or less to him than marrying any other woman. Marie "murmurs some thing about my being a 'queer fellow '. 'And I dare say that 's why I love you ' she adds. 'But maybe that 's why one day I 'll come to hate you"

Show More
Related

  • Meursault Dialectical Journal

    395 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marie asks Meursault to marry her and continues to support him throughout his court trial even though he does not feel the same emotional connection. Raymond Sintes- Meursault's neighbor who enlists his help after he believes his mistress is cheating on him. A man who takes initiative through violence, Raymond seeks revenge to punish her and the mistress's brother for the wrongdoings she has committed against him. 2 more characters Thomas Perez-

    Read More

  • Albert Camus The Stranger

    1353 Words  | 6 Pages

    (3), suggest that Meursault was not very close to his mother. These two sentences are the first impressions of Meursault. This point it is where readers can notice something is indeed wrong with him. The disconnection between Meursault and his mother provokes a hatred towards Meursault, especially from the prosecutor. The prosecutor argues against Meursault for his relationship with his mother than for his actual crime.

    Read More

  • Nihilism In Holden Caulfield

    2595 Words  | 11 Pages

    Holden Caulfield has a Nihilist view on the world where he lives in the beginning of the novel but later develops a more ethical view. In the beginning of the novel, Holden believes that the world is out to get him, so he alienates himself for protection Holden brings forth his hunting hat as a method for protection, “‘This is a people shooting hat,’ I said. ‘I shoot people in this hat.’” (Salinger, 22) Holden’s hunting hat is the strongest symbol in the novel. It gives Holden protection from people who could be potentially harmful to him.

    Read More

  • Albert Camus 'The Stranger'

    433 Words  | 2 Pages

    Close Reading - The Stranger In The Stranger, Albert Camus depicts a man, Meursault, who is emotionless to the situations that surround him. After committing a murder, he gets put on trial and is deemed as a danger to society, and therefore, gets sentenced to a death sentence. However, this decision was not made due to rational reasons but from false accusations on Meursault’s character and motives. In the passage, Camus uses point of view to portray how the people in the courtroom perceived Meursault the way they wanted him to act.

    Read More

  • Diction In The Stranger

    932 Words  | 4 Pages

    What if life contributed to no meaning and the only point which matters is the existence happening during the present? To make things worse, as humans live, they breath, but as they die a salvation is received to their soul, and their existence is over. The Stranger by Albert Camus illustrates that the human soul exists in the world physically, therefore the presence or absence does not contribute to any particular event in life. Through, this thought the novel introduces Meursault, who alienates himself from society. He lacks concern for social conventions and is deprived of the physical bounding from people around him.

    Read More

  • The Stranger Rhetorical Analysis

    731 Words  | 3 Pages

    Taylor Smith Mrs. Fowler IB Language Arts 17 May, 2016 The Stranger: The Epiphany The Stranger is a novel written by Albert Camus and was published in 1942. It follows the story of Meursault, an indifferent French Algerian, and his actions leading to his eventual death. Camus, a French philosopher, author, and journalist most notably renowned for his philosophy of absurdism, distributes a recurring theme of existentialism and absurdism throughout the novel, and heavily does so in passages that serve the most significance to the story.

    Read More

  • Meursault's Journey Essay

    695 Words  | 3 Pages

    A full stream of emotional development takes place in Albert Camus book “The Stranger” and is demonstrated through the protagonist, Meursault. From the beginning the audience realizes the lack of empathy in Meursault and watches as his morals start to develop and take place. The book starts with his mother dying, a tragic event that normally puts people through great grief and pain. For Meursault though, it’s nothing more than an inconvenient take off work.

    Read More

  • The Stranger Research Paper

    999 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout many parts of this book Meursault plays things off as if he doesn’t care what is going on around him and that he is just going through life with only the motions, without care or feelings to what happens to himself or to what is going on around him. Many monumental things were happening in Meursault’s life during the course of this book, including the possibility of marriage to the one person that seems to bring any sort of happiness into his life, the possibility of moving to Paris for his job, the murdering of an arab man for defense, and becoming new friends with many people. Though all of this is happening in his life, he always seems to find a way to pass it all off to just go with whatever is happening around him and have no wants or ties to happiness. It’s all just there and continuing on in his life. For example when Marie, Meursault’s lover, asks to get married he states, “Marie came that evening and asked me if I’d marry her.

    Read More

  • Meursault's Emotions In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

    724 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, It follows the story of our tragic hero, Meursault, shortly after his mother dies through the events that lead to him being sentenced to death. Camus uses the motif of weather to express Meursault’s emotions. The Stranger shows how even when a person does not explicitly express emotion they are shown in some way. How emotions are expressed is a window to a person's personality. I will first discuss how Meursault appears emotionless, than how Camus uses the motif of weather to express Meursault’s emotions for him and lastly what impact this makes.

    Read More

  • The Stranger Character Analysis

    1437 Words  | 6 Pages

    Meursault notices that during the trial, “there was a lot said about [him], maybe more about [him] than about [his] crime” (98). By having Meursault 's personality be the focal point of the courtroom 's dialogue, Camus implies that Meursault 's persona plays a crucial role in his trial. Instead of focusing on the murder of the Arab, the prosecutor repeatedly mentions Meursault 's "dubious liaison"(94), his "insensitivity" (99) during Maman’s funeral, and his friendship with Raymond, who is a man "of doubtful morality" (99). Through the emphasis on Meursault 's -according to society- 'immoral ' ways, the prosecutor eliminates any sort of sympathy the jury has for Meursault. Following Marie 's testimony, the prosecutor once again exhibits his confidence that bias against Meursault will stem from hearing about his behaviour.

    Read More

  • Meursault Quotes

    671 Words  | 3 Pages

    The battle for existence is what drives Meursault to connect more to the physical world. In The Stranger by Albert Camus, there’s a young, detached man named Meursault living in French Algiers. At the beginning of the novel, Meursault receives a telegram, which informs him of his mother’s death. He acts calm during and after the funeral and frolics around with his girlfriend, Marie. While on the beach with his friends, they are suddenly confronted by Arabs and get into a fight.

    Read More

  • The Stranger Meursault Character Traits

    842 Words  | 4 Pages

    James Kim Mrs. Natalia Grade: 9 2018.05.24 Character Analysis of Meursault in The Stranger One of the significant characters in Albert Camus’ short story, The Stranger is Meursault. Detachment and lack of emotion are the main traits of Meursault’s personality. Meursault is a character who is detached and unemotional as he is insensitive of everything that happens around him. Indeed, he disassembles the world around him as an ‘outsider’. This is shown in his mother’s death, phycological view of life and death, and prominent symbols in The Stranger which allows the readers to understand the circumstances where he finds himself at, where he belongs in and Meursault’s lack of emotions.

    Read More

  • Existentialism And Absurdism In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

    1021 Words  | 5 Pages

    In his novel The Stranger, Albert Camus creates an emotionally incapable, narcissistic, and, at times, sociopathic character named Meursault to explore and expose his philosophies of Existentialism and Absurdism. Throughout the story Meursault follows a philosophical arc that, while somewhat extreme - from unemotional and passive to detached and reckless to self-reflective - both criticizes the dependent nature of human existence and shows the journey through the absurd that is our world. In the onset of The Stranger, following his mother’s death, Meursault acts with close to utter indifference and detachment. While the rest of “maman’s”(9) loved ones express their overwhelming grief, Meursault remains unphased and, at times, annoyed at their

    Read More

  • The Themes Of Death In Meursault's The Stranger

    1232 Words  | 5 Pages

    The themes of death explored using absurdism in The Stranger is shown with a general disregard for death by Meursault and the strange way he sees life based on these existentialist views. The Stranger is a perfect example of an existentialist novel that was written for that time period, as during this time around the area of France and Europe there was an existentialist movement that Albert Camus, the author, was involved in.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Existence In The Stranger By Albert Camus

    1491 Words  | 6 Pages

    As the French, absurdist philosopher Albert Camus once said, “Being different is not a bad thing. It means you are brave enough to be yourself.” That summed up with our topic, which is absurdity through human existence, a human being should tolerate the absurd condition of human existence. Albert Camus introduces Meursault the protagonist and narrator of the book The Stranger, who is a stranger through society eyes and the title point out his personality in the world of absurdity. Meursault is indifferent and alienates young man to others.

    Read More

More about Marie And Meursault In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

Open Document