Meursault is eventually convicted and sentenced to death because of his inability to conform to the societal expectations of French Algeria in the 1940’s. 3. Characters: Meursault- the protagonist and narrator of the novel, Meursault is a young shipping clerk who has detached himself from the world around him. He is indifferent
In the novel, at a point in time he kills a man without any concrete motive to do so, and this leads to him being sentenced to death. The sun is a very powerful symbol in the work, it is omnipresent. At the funeral, at the beach when he is with Marie, at the time he kills the Arab, the sun is always there. It may be argued that the symbolism of the sun leads to Meursault's downfall. In this Written Assignment I will discuss the fatal flaws of Meursault, the symbolism of the sun and how this affects the
Through the use of diction, Meursault perceives life is meaningless, which leads him to have the absence of strong bonding with acquaintance around him. He indicates that he lacks empathy from personal and social level. Meursault is a simple man who lives his life in a stickler type and changes annoy him. As the novel introduces Meursault mother being dead, he shows lack of concern and a burden to visit his mother for the last time. “Maman died today...
Meursault stops being a passive observer. In fact, he's "sure about [himself], about everything, surer than [the chaplain] could ever be, sure of [his] life and sure of the death [he has] waiting for [him]” (Camus 131). He went from not caring about anything that happened to him, to understanding and accepting the consequences of his actions and having an opinion on his death sentence; “Man cannot escape death” (Camus 141). He also states that he knows that he has left his life in the hands of others for too long. Edna also shares this problem with Meursault.
His own personal understanding of justice has been so twisted his entire life without his quite grasping its true meaning that when he finally confronts it, he is stunned into rethinking his own beliefs. Meursault does not wish to die, and when he is sentenced to the guillotine, he
He shows no grief or regret. The intensity of the emotions that the heat and sun evokes on him is shown as he pours with sweat: “Sweat was running down my face…I tried to fan myself with my handkerchief” (30). The sun is the only thing that can get a reaction out of Meursault; in this case, he gets out his handkerchief. His emotions evoked by the physical world, by the heat, light, and sun, bar him from experiencing the real feelings such as grief for his mother.
It is in these bizarre acts that the others deem Meursault a stranger. His disregard for social constructions presents the views of the existentialist philosophy. Love is known to be deception by existential theory due to one’s desire to have someone else love him or her. Also, as mentioned before, Meursault’s conviction in God’s nonexistence makes him detached not only concerning death, but also to love, morals (Meursault also befriends his neighbor, who is also thought to be a pimp by others), and other basic human conceptions. When new friend-the pimp- asks for his help to embarrass his ex-girlfriend, Meursault again with any consideration agrees to something that would have normally been thought of as insane, and does not contemplate that there may be consequences for this agreement.
During the beginning of the novel, Meursault goes to his neighbor Raymond’s house. The visit results into a physical fight due to insults made towards Meursault. Relating to aspects on violence, this scene was made to show simple
Meursault is not an emotional person. Meursault often seems not to react to major events that happen to him. For example when his mom dies, he says, “Really, nothing had changed”(24). There is an obvious emotional disconnect. Either he was not close to his mother or her death had little to no effect on him.
You know, it's funny how a middle aged sociopathic anthropomorphic character can be somewhat indistinguishably compared to an older military-imprisoned man, but both Meursault and Luke bear the qualities of bravery, redemption, and their attempt to create credibility amongst their peers. Meursault, who feels as if his life is at an end with no other resort due to his rebellious retribution, is unable to seek out any encouraging factors in his life. Luke finds his way past society condemning him and seeks out his blurry succeeding. Clueless. Uninterested.
Neurotic traits such as anxiety, stress, and emotional instability describe habitual criminals as well (Kumari et al., 2017); however, Meursault does not fit these descriptions. An example of Meursault acting differently from these descriptions is his reaction to his mother’s death. During Meursault’s trial, the warden of his mother’s care home was called as a witness. He stated that Meursault “hadn’t wanted to see Mother’s body, or shed a single tear, and that [he’d] left immediately the funeral ended, without lingering at her grave” (Camus, 1989). Meursault’s calmness to such a tragic event shows that he does not feel anxiety, stress, or even the slightest emotional instability.
Now lastly we will see how a person can be good with their actions. In “The Stranger” , Meursault says, “ I went to the movies twice with Emmanuel, who doesn’t understand what is going on the screen.” On page 34 it states how Meursault helps Emmanuel , “...You have explain things to him.” As we see , and read we learned that both times that Meursault had gone to the movies with Emmanuel, Meursault was nice enough to explain what was going on, on the screen so Emmanuel could also enjoy the movie. As we see Meursault can be a good person with good intentions helping Emmanuel despite what he had done to the Arab later on in the
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.
It is inferred that this man may be God. From the play, the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, have totally different characteristics from Meursault. They are much more emotional than normal people. They believe in each
At the beginning of the novel, the reader gets a tone of emptiness from Meursault’s reaction to the death of his mother. People would offer him condolence, but his way of interacting with others made Meursault seem a bad guy and unusual. When he explained to his boss the reason of taking two days off, Meursault even said, “It’s not my fault.” (Camus 3). Meursault stating that shows the significance of the death of his mother to him.
