Death and Absurdism in Camus’s The Stranger Essay

In his figment The Stranger1, Albert Camus gives expression to his philosophy of the absurd. The novel is a first-person account of the livelihood of M. Meursault from the time of his mothers terminal up to a time patently just before his performance for the murder of an Arab. The central theme is that the meaning of human liveliness is still only in light of mortality, or the fact of cobblers last and in showing Meursaults consciousness change through the course of events, Camus shows how facing the incident of last does stomach an effect on 1s perception of life. The novel begins with the close of Meursaults mother.Although he attends the funeral, he does non request to see the frame, though he finds it interesting to think near the effects of heat and humidity on the rate of a bodys decay (8). It is evident that he is almost alone told unmoved by his mothers expiration nothing changes in his life. In other words, her shoemakers last has little or no real sig nificance for him. When he hears Salamano, a neighbor, weeping everyplace his lost dog (which has evidently died), Meursault thinks of his mother but he is unaware of the association his assessment has made. In fact, he chooses not to dwell on the matter but goes to residuum instead (50).It is when he is on the beach with Raymond Sintes and M. Masson and they confront two Arabs (who have given Raymond trouble) that Meursault first seems to think about the insignificance of any action and then of human existence. He has a gun and it occurs to him that he could shoot or not shoot and that it would come to the same thing (72). The loss of a life would have no significance no affect on life as a whole and the universe itself is apparently totally indifferent to e realthing.Here he implicitly denies the existence of God, and thus denies morality, as well as the external meaning (if it may be so distinguished from the internal or individual empirical meaning) of life and death. (T his latter, existential meaning is later affirmed, as we shall see. )Meursault kills adept of the Arabs in a here and now of confusion, partially out of self-defense, but does not regret it eve though it means going to prison and, ultimately, be executed. He has the fatalistic olfactory modality that whats done is done, and later explains that he has never regretted anything because he has incessantly been to absorbed by the present signification or by the ready future to dwell on the past (127).In a sense, Meursault is forever aware of the meaninglessness of all endeavors in the face of death he has no ambition to advance socio-economically he is indifferent about beingness friends with Raymond and about marrying Marie etc. But this awareness is somehow never terrific enough to involve self-awareness that is, he never reflects on the meaning of death for him until he is in prison awaiting execution. Of course, the meaning of anothers death is quite difference from the m eaning of ones own death. With the former, one no longer sees that person again with the latter, ones very consciousness, as far as we know, just ends blit as a telly picture ends when the set is switched off.Death marks all things equal, and equally absurd. And death itself is absurd in the sense that reason or the logical mind cannot deal with it it is a foregone conclusion, yet it remains an unrealized possibility until some indeterminate future time. The meaning of death is not rational but, again, is existential its implications are to be found not in abstract but in the actuality of ones life, the finality of each moment. ahead his trial, Meursault passes the time in prison by sleeping, by reading over and over the newspaper story about the (unrelated) murder of a Czech, and by recreating a mental picture of his room at home in complete detail, rase to the scratches in the furniture.In this connection, it must be admitted that he is externally very sensitive and aware, despite his lack of self-understanding and emotional response. This is inference by his detailed descriptions. He is especially sensitive to natural dish the beach, the glistening water, the shade, the reed music, swimming, making love to Marie, the evening hour he like so much, etc. He even says that if forced to snappy in a hollow tree truck, he would be heart to watch the sky, short birds, and clouds (95). After his trial (in which he is sentenced to be executed), he no longer indulges in his memories or passes the time in the head-in-the-clouds way he was accustomed to spend Sundays at home.At first, he dwells on thoughts of escape. He cannot reconcile the contingency of his sentence ( wherefore guilt? Why sentenced by a French court rather than a Chinese one? Why was the verdict read at eight pm rather than at five? etc. ) with the mechanical certainty of the mental process that leads inevitably to his death (137). When he gives up trying to find a loophole, he finds h is mind ever returning either to the worship that get hold of would bring the guards who would lead him to be executed, or to the hope that his appear pull up stakes be granted.To try to distract himself from these thoughts, he forces himself to study the sky or to listen to the beating of his heart but the changing light reminds him of the passing of time towards dawn, and he cannot imagine his heart ever stopping. In ingleside on the chance of an appeal, he is forced to consider the possibility of defense team and thus of execution therefore, he must face the fact of his death whether it comes now or later. One he really, honestly admits deaths inevitability, he allows himself to consider the chance of a successful appeal of being set free to live perhaps forth more age before dying. Now he begins to see the shelter of each moment of the life before death.Because of death, nothing matters except being alive. The meaning, value, significance of life is only seen in light of death, yet most people drop down it through the denial of death. The hope of longer life brings Meursault great joy. perchance to end the maddening uncertainty and thus intensify his awareness of deaths inevitability (therefore of the actuality of life), or, less likely, as a gesture of hopelessness, Meursault turns down his right to appeal (144).Soon afterwards, the prison chaplain insists on talking to him. Meursault admits his fear but denies despair and has no interest in the chaplains fake in an afterlife. He flies into rage, finally, at the chaplains persistence, for he realizes that the chaplain has not adequately assessed the human condition (death being the end of life) or, if he has, the chaplains certainties have no meaning for Meursault and have not the real value of, say, a strand of a womans hair (151). Meursault, on the other hand, is absolutely certain about his own life and extrovertive death.His rush of anger cleanses him and empties him of hope, thus allo wing him finally to open up on the whole and for the last time to the benign indifference of the universe (154). He realizes that he always been happy. The idea of death makes one aware of ones life, ones vital being that which is impermanent and will one day end. When this vitality is appreciate, one feels free for there is no goading to perform some act that will cancel the possibility of death, comprehend as though there is no such act.In this sense, all human activity is absurd, and the real freedom is to be aware of life in its actually and totally, of its beauty and its pain. ALBERT CAMUS THE STRANGER WHAT IF THE PAST HAS NO core AND THE ONLY calculate IN TIME OF OUR LIFE THAT RE anyY MATTERS IS THAT POINT WHICH IS HAPPENING AT PRESENT. TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, WHEN LIFE IS over, THE EXISTENCE IS ALSO OVERTHE HOPE OF virtually SORT OF SALVATION FROM A GOD IS POINTLESS. ALBERT CAMUS ILLUSTRATES THIS bring VIEW IN THE STRANGER. CAMUS FEELS THAT matchless EXISTS ONLY I N THE WORLD physically AND THEREFORE THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF MEANING IN ONES LIFE IS ALONE REVEALED THROUGH THAT EVENT WHICH HE OR SHE IS EXPERIENCING AT A PARTICULAR MOMENT. THESE THOUGHTS ARE PRESENTED THROUGH MEURSAULT, A gentlemans gentleman DEVOID OF CONCERN FOR SOCIAL CONVENTIONS FOUND IN THE WORLD IN WHICH HE LIVES, AND WHO FINDS HIS LIFE DEPRIVED OF PHYSICAL PLEASUREWHICH HE DEEMS quite a IMPORTANTWHEN UNEXPECTEDLY PUT IN PRISON.THE OPENING LINE OF THE new(a) SETS THE TONE FOR MEURSAULTS DISPASSION TOWARDS MOST THINGS. THE raw IS INTRODUCED WITH THE WORDS MAMAN DIED TODAY. OR YESTERDAY MAYBE, I DONT KNOW (3). ALTHOUGH THE UNCERTAINTY ORIGINATES WITH AN forked TELEGRAM, IT SEEMS THAT THE TON MIDDLE OF PAPER OR THEIR EMOTIONS IN GENERAL. HE DOES non FOLLOW CONVENTIONAL SOCIAL BELIEFS NOR DOES HE BELIEVE IN GOD, NOR SALVATION.MEURSAULT withal LOVES HIS LIFE. IT IS A PURE LOVE DERIVED FROM ENJOYING HIS EXISTENCE ON A casual BASIS, RARELY LOOKING BACK AND NEVER LOOKI NG FORWARD. HIS LOVE IS not DEPENDENT ON DOING WHAT SOCIETY OR SOME RELIGION HAS DEEMED CORRECT, plainly ON WHAT HE FEELS HE WANTS TO DO DESPITE WHAT MOST WOULD view COMMON. WORK CITED CAMUS, ALBERT. THE STRANGER. TRANS. MATTHEW WARD. NEW YORK VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL, 1989.IN ALBERT CAMUS THE STRANGER THE STORY OF AN everyday MAN WHO GETS DRAWN INTO A SENSELESS MURDER IS TOLD. TAKING set out IN ALGERIA THIS MAN, MEURSAULT, IS always IN A CLIMATE OF EXTREME WARMTH, AS ARE ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREIN. THE SUN, THE SOURCE OF LIGHT AND THE CAUSE OF THIS WARMTH, IS THUS A VITAL AND NORMAL PART OF HIS LIFE.IT BRINGS WARMTH AND COMFORT YET IT contribute ALSO CAUSE anguish AND SICKNESS. THROUGHOUT MOST OF HIS LIFE MEURSAULT HAS LIVED WITH THE contradictory FORCES OF THE SUN AND LIGHT, AS A FRIEND AND foeman. HOWEVER IN CHAPTER 6 THESE FORCES BECOME UNBALANCED AND THE SUN BECOMES AN AGGRESSOR causing MEURAULT PHYSICAL PAIN AND JOLTING HIM INTO VIOLENT ACTION.ALTHOUGH THE SUN BECOMES IN CREASINGLY AGGRESSIVE AS THE NOVEL TRANSPIRES, IN THE BEGINNING ITS FORCES WERE BALANCED CAUSING SOME GOOD AND SOME BAD EFFECTS. THE MOST EVIDENCE OF THE SUN AS A FOE IS FOUND DURING MEURSAULTS MOTHERS WAKE AND FUNERAL. DURING THE WAKE MEURSAULT IS CONSTANTLY BLINDED BY THE BRIGHT LIGHT. THIS COMBINED WITH THE washragNESS OF THE ROOM MAKES HIS eye HURT. HOWEVER, THIS SAME LIGHT ALSO CREATES A GLARE ON THE WHITE WALLS. qualification HIM DROWSY AND ALLOWING HIM RESPITE FROM THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS MOTHERS DEATH. SO, ALL AT ONCE LIGHT WAS GOOD AS WELL AS BAD FOR MEURSAULT. AGAIN, DURING THE FUNERAL WITH THE SUN BEARING DOWN THE HEAT WAS INHUMAN AND OPPRESSIVE, CAUSING MEURSAULT GREAT PHYSICAL DISCOMFORT. YET, IN THE SAME TOKEN, THE HEAT IS ALSO MAKING IT HARD FOR MEURSAULT TO THINK STRAIGHT THEREBY ALLOWING HIM AN ESCAPE FROM HIS MOTHERS DEATH. NOT ALL OF THE SUNS EFFECTS HAVE A FLIP SIDE HOWEVER THROUGHOUT THE NOVEL THE SUN DOES MEURSAULT A LOT OF GOOD, BY WARMING HIM AND MAKING HIM FE EL ALIVE. THUS, ALTHOUGH BOTH confident(p) AND NEGATIVE SITUATIONS COME FROM THE