Existentialism is the individual freedom of choice; in
other words man is a conscious subject, rather than a thing. Of the many
existentialistic themes, Camus strongly believed in absurdity.
Camus’ opinion is that absurdity lies in the basic
discord in the relationship between the human being and the universe. Thus,
the human being discovers the absurdity of existence when he correctly
perceives the universe.
The absurdity of the human being is in its insecurity,
rejections, agony, and also it’s disappointments. In most of Camus’ works the
recognition of the absurdity of the human existence is a main theme. For
Camus, the absurd is not a negative thing, but a real state of existence.
Accepting the perspective that life is absurd is to embrace a true view of
life.
The Stranger, is the first work of Camus’ dealing with
absurdity. It portrays the main character as an honest, atheist, who lives
life as best as he knows how. In the beginning of the novel, the main
character Mersault’s mother dies. His mother’s death has no effect on him
because he feels death is the end, there is no God in his mind, and because
the two were not close.
At the funeral people view him as strange for not crying,
not wishing to have an open casket, and sleeping. They believe he is void of
any feelings for his own mother. While he really just wasn’t that close with
her, the people later show up to testify against Mersault saying exactly what
they saw at the funeral.
A day later Mersault runs into a woman he used to work
with by the name of Marie. Marie and Mersault go on a date and spend the
night together. They continue to do so throughout the novel.
When she asked him if he wishes to marry her he agrees,
only because he sees no real reason to refuse. When she asks if another women
were to ask him the same thing he replies “ I would have no real reason not
too”. Confused by this Marie just accepts it.
Similar with his answer to Marie’s question, Mersault
helps a neighbor Ray with a letter to trap Ray’s Arab girlfriend into going
to Ray’s apartment. Ray goes to bed with her then proceeds to spit on her and
beat her. The cops show up and Mersault defends Ray, again stating he had no
real reason not to.
For fear of the girl’s brother, Ray asks Mersault if he would
like to go to his friend’s house with Marie. At the house the brother shows
up and Ray fights with him.
A while later, confused Mersault
goes to the beach with Ray’s gun. Upon seeing the brother and his blade and
the sun beating down on his head he shoots him four times.
Mersault murdering Ray’s
girlfriend’s brother, with no real reason to murder him then changes the
easy-going plot. He never shows the slightest bit of remorse for the Arab man
during his trial.
During his trial the prosecutor
uses the people from his mother’s old age home as his defense, explaining how
Mersault did not cry or show sadness at his mother’s funeral.
The trial then proceeds to focus
on the fact that Mersault did not properly mourn his mother, not the fact
that he killed the Arab, which given the times is not very unlikely. “The
Arabs were at war with the French over their independence”, as stated in
Algeria 1958.
Mersault begins to be viewed as
an extremely emotionless person because he does not believe in God, which
seems to be strange in their society. Clearly, Camus was reflecting a piece
of himself in the novel because he also does not believe there is a god.
When Mersaults attorney asks him
to embellish the truth, he cannot because he sees nothing wrong with blatant
honesty. As expected he is condemned to death. Besides the murder, his other
crime seemed to be his honesty.
Mersaults only real objective
was not to escape the consequences of which he is, but to accept them with
willingness. A priest confronts him 3 times and 3 times Mersault told him I
don’t wish to be forgiven because I don’t believe in absolution or life after
death. He faces reality for the first time; he is condemned for thinking life
and death are meaningless.
Sitting in his cell Mersault
comes to believe that life and death is just a human cycle and in the end he
would wish to be greeted with cries of hatred.
When asked about The Stranger,
Camus described it “as a novel about what happens to a man who refuses to
play the game… refuses, that is, to pretend to be something he is not”.
However, in the end is Mersault's execution, his absurdity.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment