However, the focus of Meursault’s murder trial quickly shifts away from the murder itself to Meursault’s attitudes and beliefs. For Meursault, the solitude of prison is incessant. The sun was beginning to burn on my cheeks, and I felt drops of sweat gathering in my eyebrows. If someone is murdered or not, the world doesn't care. The Stranger is Albert Camus’s first novel, published in 1942. Moving on... (emphasis mine). The director of the home where Meursault’s mother lived responds to Meursault’s feelings of guilt regarding his mother’s situation. Meursault kills the Arab in cold blood, gets tossed into jail, and awaits his trial for a year or so. Meursault is tried and sentenced to death. This passage is also interesting. But when I got nearer, I saw that Raymond's Arab had come back. Nightmare Stage Meursault has been in prison for a year and is found guilty of murder. This charming guy shoots and kills a man, Johnny Cash-style, just to watch him die. In that case, they can reform their feeling of loss and the process of mourning ends with a kind of acceptance. What is the significance of the names Mersault and Meursault? He tenses, accidentally pulling the trigger. These are examples of not playing by the normal social rules: he does not want to feign grief when he doesn't feel any. Meursault then becomes put into trial, but during the whole trial it revolves around his insensibility towards his mother's death. From this point of view, as I already mentioned in my discussion of the Czechoslovak traveller's story, Meursault is put on trial for refusing to lie and not playing by society's conventional rules. (For example, during his first conversation with the investigating magistrate in Part Two, Chapter I, the magistrate asks him whether he had loved his mother. Witnesses are questioned about Meursault's character and about his behaviour during and after the funeral but not about what they know about the killing. All I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears. When Meursault, Masson, and Raymond return to the beach to confront the Arabs a second time, Meursault asks for Raymond’s gun. As is his way, Meursault agrees to write a letter to him. Did Proto-Indo-European put the adjective before or behind the noun? However, readers learn that while he notices sensual details, he fails to notice human emotions. But what I find interesting is the last sentence. I left his room, closing the door behind me, and paused for a minute in the dark, on the landing. After Meursault kills a man, “the Arab,” for no apparent reason, he is put on trial. Yet none of this is apparent in the text. As far as The Outsider goes, the most obvious point is that Meursault kills an "Arab". As mentioned above, Meursault tells his story with a kind of outsider's objectivity. It is society itself that excludes to protect its coherence. Thanks for contributing an answer to Literature Stack Exchange! Meursault’s atheism and his lack of outward grief at his mother’s funeral represent a serious challenge to the morals of the society in … How is the Czechoslovak traveller's story relevant to The Stranger as a whole? Meursault 's neighbor who adopts Meursault as a friend by enlisting him to help sort out a conflict with his mistress. Why is Camus asserting that “Marx scientific Messianism” is Bourgeois? Is it normal to feel like I can't breathe while trying to ride at a challenging pace? All in all, killing "the Arab" seems like a bad idea. Meursault may not have been completely conscious of his act. When I look into a man's face ... all I see is a monster. There is no God, no meaning, no free will, and (most impressively in this work) no absolute moral judgment. But strangely enough, no real explanation is given for why Meursault killed "the Arab". Likewise, the "robot woman" is in apposition to the young reporter that reminds Meursault of himself, i.e. I waited. Meursault kills as a response to the sun. Just pinging you to let you know there's now an open bounty on the question. It was like a red-hot blade gnawing at my eyelashes and gouging out my stinging eyes. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. When Salamano says that he must be feeling his mother’s death terribly, he makes no response because has no feelings that he can report. The passages in these pages offer that parallel. The conversation prompts Meursault to admit to the reader that he seldom visited his mother in the last year as he found it an inconvenient waste of his day off. In most instances, it is based on a scant few seconds without taking an opportunity to get to know the person. Cleverly, Camus coaxes us into just such an attempt—he lures us into trying to determine the reason for Meursault’s killing of the Arab, when in fact Meursault has no reason. He will soon hear the Prosecutor say that, unlike normal men, he has no soul. Why does Mersault say “Hello image!” to his girlfriend? Can 1 kilogram of radioactive material with half life of 5 years just decay in the next minute? Though Meursault may feel "the whole thing was over," the fight actually happened only a little while earlier and must surely be fresh in the Arab man's mind. It conveys the theme of existentialism, as well as the title of the book overall - Mersualt is an outsider in the way that he defies the laws of society. In Albert Camus' book The Stranger, Meursault kills a character known as "the Arab" for no real reason at all. It's often taken that Meursault is the outsider, the stranger amongst men and that he has chosen this destiny for himself and this ties in with the notion of existentialism where one chooses who one is to be - day by day - and maybe hour by hour. As he kills the Arab Meursault says that it felt like “knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness”. Meursault even acknowledges that he doesn't have to kill "the Arab". Because Meursault does not grieve, society sees him as an outsider, a threat, even a monster. It struck me that all I had to do was to turn, walk away, and think no more about it. This illustrates his refusal to lie. This would explain Meursault's unusual behaviour each time people ask him something about his mother. 1 Educator answer . Why can't I move files from my Ubuntu desktop to other folders? How does The Meursault Investigation reference The Fall? Camus forces us to confront the fact that any rational explanation we try to offer would be based on a consciousness that we create for Meursault, … Meursualt is accused of "morally killing" his own mother; during his closing speech, the prosecutor even claims Meursault is also guilty of killing his father. He is also presented as a character that refuses to lie and play by society's conventional rules. Both of these interpretations are rather unintuitive but they uncover aspects of the novel that remain hidden when reading the novel and analysing its characters as if The Stranger were a realist novel. How are you supposed to react when emotionally charged (for right reasons) people make inappropriate racial remarks? You can shoot or not shoot. Weeks later, he kills an Arab man in French Algiers, who was involved in a conflict with one of Meursault's neighbors. Literature Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for scholars and enthusiasts of literature. In The Stranger, Albert Camus portrays Meursault, the book's narrator and main character, as aloof, detached, and unemotional. He also refuses to adhere to the accepted moral order of society. Initially, there isn't much. The parallel between the sun and his mother's funeral is also somewhat significant. After returning, he goes on a date with Marie Cardona, a former co-worker, and has a sexual relationship with her. The story is divided into two parts, presenting Meursault's first-person narrative view before and after the murder, respectively. Man is an animal that can only respond to the environment. Meursault was undoubtedly under the sun, and it was affecting him. What is Meursault's problem with the heat? The Stranger’s central event occurs when Meursault shoots the Arab. His final peace is the "benign indifference" of the universe. site design / logo © 2021 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under cc by-sa. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. Gallimard, 1992, page 187.). It’s the most perfect Booker stage three ever. The director kindly explains that he understands Meursault’s decision to put his mother into the institution. The magistrate breaks this self-delusion when he escorts him to the door, calls him Mr. Antichrist, and hands him back to his jailers. (See for example, Bernard Pingaud: L'Étranger d'Albert Camus. The final words of Part I read this: I wanted to hear the murmur of its water again, to escape from the sum and the effort and the women's tears, and to relax in the shade again. How does Camus build tension in the passage describing Meursault's walk down the beach before he kills the Arab in The Stranger? I stood there, motionless." His lawyer later tells him that this could be used against him during the murder trial and suggest that he might say that his insensitivity at the funeral was not real but the result of an attempt to control his emotions. Analysis: Chapter 6. This moment marks the beginning of Meursault’s undoing as he later uses that gun to murder one of the Arabs. Best Questions & Answers from 4th Quarter of 2020. It would also explain why his mother is mentioned again and again later in the book, for example, when he hears Salamano weep over the loss of his dog, he suddenly thinks of his mother but can't explain why (end of Part One, chapter III). Meursault answers, "Yes, like everybody", after which he notices that the clerk behind him suddenly interrupts his regular typing as if had mistyped something and needed to delete it. I spent a bit of time writing this answer, but now I'm hungry and will probably grab some food :). The reader will appreciate the dramatic irony in Meursault’s statement that he does not like policemen, as he will soon be forced to deal with not only policemen but prison and the legal system as a result of his own violent acts. I said that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn't dissatisfied with mine here at all. In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, Meursault realizes that death is a subject that cannot be erased. So then, Meursault kills as a response to the sun. His protagonist, Meursault, becomes a nihilist. Well, that is what the book is about. Meursault repeatedly reveals a lack of a sense of reality. It’s almost impossible not to see the parallels to today. The novel The Stranger by the French writer Albert Camus is the story of a Frenchman (only identified by his surname Meursault) from Algeria during the 30’s or 40’s who kills and Arab (he claims, unintentionally) and is condemned to die by the guillotine. The prosecutor uses his moral viewpoint to judge Meursault's amoral behavior as monstrous, using this judgment—not Meursault's murder of the Arab—to justify his request for the death penalty. Two Arabs were seemingly following them. Submit your literature reviews to our Tumblr! And nor is this how marginalisation often works: Man is a gregarious and social creature - he does not exclude himself from the social. We see an example of this in The Stranger when Meursault kills an Arab. The murder of the Arab was what Meursault was on the beach to accomplish in the first place. more about it. This would explain why, at the funeral, Meursault behaves in a way that witnesses later describe as insensitive. Ironically, Meursault's murder could be considered a tremendous sacrifice made for a friend's wellbeing (it is Raymond, after all, who has a problem with the Arab, not Meursault). Camus himself remarked in his notebooks (in a draft for a letter in response to a review of The Stranger), "Realism is a meaningless word (Madame Bovary and Demons are realist novels and they have nothing in common." And this time, without sitting up, the Arab drew his knife and held it out towards me in the sun... All I could feel were the cymbals the sun was clashing against my forehead and, indistinctly, the dazzling spear still leaping up off the knife in front of me. He does not think much about events or their consequences, nor does he express much feeling in relationships or during emotional times. They decide to return to the bungalow but along the way, Meursault becomes befuddled, overcome by the sun’s red glare, and decides to take a walk on the beach alone. All the norms and laws were dictated by the French government in colonial Algeria. All sane beings had more or less wished for the death of those they loved." What one should check when re writing bash conditions for sh or ash? The concepts of past and future are essentially irrelevant to meaning. What does not work well is looking for motivation at the surface level of the text. He was alone. There was a bit of a defensive mood at this point in the story. My whole being went tense and I tightened my grip on the gun. Meursault explains his response to his employer who offers to transfer him to Paris. Every muscle and nerve responds to the blinding, oppressive heat on the beach. looking beyond character analysis); another approach looks beyond over character motivation to find motives that are not apparent at the surface. When Meursault kills an Arab, nothing happens to him. Meursault comes to the conclusion that death is the end result for every human's life. I realized at that point that you could either shoot or not shoot. In Albert Camus' book The Stranger, Meursault kills a character known as "the Arab" for no real reason at all. No worries; there's no rush. And I fired four more times at a lifeless body and the bullets sank without leaving a mark. In which interview did Camus say that Meursault is the only Christ we deserved? It struck me that all I had to do was to turn, walk away, and think no Could all participants of the recent Capitol invasion be charged over the death of Officer Brian D. Sicknick? Several early critics have commented on this, for example Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Blanchot and Claude-Edmonde Magny. The murder came as a shock - here we are looking at the life of an absurd man. I realized that I'd destroyed the balance of the day and the perfect silence of this beach where I'd been happy. During this talk, Salamano mentions that Meursault’s mother had been fond of the dog, which leads to a brief conversation about the narrator’s mother. The prosecution's closing speech appears to mention the killing of the Arab only briefly, adding that Meursault "knows the value of words", which is another allusion to Meursault's commitment to truth (though probably not from the prosecutor's point of view). And it was like giving four sharp knocks at the door of unhappiness. The murderer is convicted for “having buried his mother badly,” and he says that he... (full context) Meursault describes his physical reactions to details he notices in the world around him. [Marie] asked me if I loved her. Half-blinded by the sun, Meursault steps forward, foolishly trying to escape the heat. This is nature's hand, i.e. Was there ever any actual Spaceballs merchandise? The presence of the Arab disturbed him. Perhaps one of the most valuable ways to understand Meursault is to quote what Camus has said about him: "Meursault for me," writes Camus, is "a poor and naked man, in love with the sun which leaves no shadows. Shimmer obscures the Arab man, making him look like "just a form," not a full human being. The best quotes from The Stranger by Albert Camus - organized by theme, including book location and character - with an explanation to help you understand! The theme of existence is largely at play. The Stranger, by Albert Camus, begins with Meursault receiving a telegram informing him of his mother's death. Tous les être sains avaient plus ou moins souhaité la mort de ceux qu'ils aimaient.") To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. If the other one starts making trouble or gets out his knife, I’ll shoot.” When Meursault, Masson, and Raymond return to the beach to confront the Arabs a second time, Meursault asks for Raymond’s gun. However, Meursault makes it clear that such criticism doesn’t bother him at all. Does having no exit record from the UK on my passport risk my visa application for re entering? Then [my boss] asked me if I wasn't interested in a change of life. You see this most notably in his trial, where he shows remorse, and is ultimately convicted not because he committed the murder, but because he doesn't live up to what society wishes. Why and how did the orphan kill his adoptive mother? Though, of course, Meursault must have one: he may be impoverished, he may not have found the right station in life or he may simply be grieving over some unmentioned passion that Camus omits to mention. Quoted in Bernard Pingaud: L'Étranger d'Albert Camus. Later on, during the trial, the killing of the Arab becomes an issue of secondary importance compared to Meursault's insensitiveness. What's the earliest treatment of a post-apocalypse, with historical social structures, and remnant AI tech? This is why society needs an excuse to put Meursault on trial, and by letting Meursault unintentionally kill an Arab, the novelist provides exactly that excuse. The language used in this passage is so elaborate and rich in simile – “The steel… was like a long, flashing sword,” for example – almost detaches the act from Meursault and causes the reader to question whether he did it with intent or not: “That’s when everything began to reel. So I went back to work. For Freudian critics, Meursault's wish for his mother's death is as if he had effectively killed here, so it would only be just for him to share her fate. Meursault shows his oblivious estimation of the magistrate and his lawyer as they handle him after his arrest. Readers imagine that the employer might be hurt by Meursault’s completely ambivalent response to such an offer as he accuses Meursault of lacking ambition, a grave defect for a businessman. The house was quiet, and a breath of dark, dank air wafted p from deep in the stairwell. The day after he It doesn't matter. His reasoning shows a longstanding lack of empathy for and interest in his mother. It comes through the naturalism. ), Shortly before that he had already thought to himself: "I probably loved mother, but that didn't mean anything. Yet the Arab's connection to Raymond is, to Meursault's mind, entirely incidental and he shoots the Arab without even thinking of … (And that maybe you could talk a bit more about the important parts). He shoots because the Sun is in his eyes. This is due to Camus's narrative technique. Why would Maman ask for a religious burial? He literally gets imprisoned. The Stranger is not existentialist, but nihilist. Man is an animal that can only respond to the environment. In displaying his indifference, Meursault implicitly challenges society’s accepted moral standards, which dictate that one should grieve over death. He is far from being totally deprived of sensitivity for he is animated by a passion, profound because it is tacit, the passion for the absolute and for truth. The nurse tells Meursault how the weather affects the human body. Meursault even acknowledges that he doesn't have to kill "the Arab". In particular, your analysis of the quote "you could either shoot or not shoot" is very well done. Meursault thought that these attempts at emotion were good enough for the world to consider him a normal person. Marie asks Meursault to find and bring a policeman, but he refuses for purely selfish reasons. The novel ends with Meursault’s epiphany that quickly follows his burst of anger at the chaplain. As mentioned before, Meursault does not show any signs of grief or mourning after his mother's death. He also defied many societal standards related to his mother's funeral. By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. Meursault is also honest, which means that he does not think of hiding his lack of feeling by shedding false tears over his mother’s death. After his mother's death, he does not seem to be mourning: he is not interested in having his mother's coffin opened so he can take a last look at her, he smokes during the wake, even falls asleep, and he doesn't weep during the funeral. (In reality, the cause of his mother's death is not known but she was definitely not killed by Meursault, while his father died when he was still a small child.) a type of perspective that, in French literature before The Stranger, had been used to allow introspection. Meursault immediately rejects the idea because it was "untrue". Or a person in mourning feels their pain in an internal way; it is felt in the unconscious only, where the person is not aware of it. He doesn't necessarily follow social norms, he's not married... etc. No matter how you look at it, there is not a reasonable explanation for Meursault's actions. Promote our site and earn a Booster badge or a Publicist badge! This moment marks the beginning of Meursault’s undoing as he later uses that gun to murder … He attends the funeral and shows no remorse during it, but he complains about how hot it is. I told her it didn't mean anything but that I didn't think so. We are given very little information why Meursault is on the outside of society - Camus does not care to give us a back-story. If you edit this answer enough, maybe you'll get the bounty :-). Likening the day to the day of the funeral summons death into the scene right before Meursault shoots. Meursault wants to keep the peace within him, and he doesn't want anyone around him. Meursault feels none of the same emotion. For this reason, analysing Meursault like a character from a realist novel is a vain pursuit. It follows the life of Meursault, a French Algerian whose apathetic responses to life get him in trouble socially and eventually get him killed. When he does shoot "the Arab", he notes that "each successive shot was another loud, fateful rap on the door of my undoing.". These moments of heat, glare, and sleepiness foreshadow what will happen later in the novel on the beach with the Arab: The sun causes Meursault to momentarily lose track of himself, which, in the latter case, results in catastrophe. Maybe consider moving the last paragraph of this answer to the front of it? What he did not realize is that normal people feel these emotions regularly, and usually in less deplorable scenarios. By this point, however, Meursault has come to realize how similar the universe—or at least Camus’s conception of it—is to his … The universe has no judgment because there is no God or objective morality. The abyss that separates Meursault … He knew exactly what he was getting into, but embraced it anyway. (This reading puts the prosecutor's claim that Meursault had "morally killed" his mother in a different light than the previous interpretation.). I took a step, just one step forward. The evidence presented during the hearing gives impres… To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. Why is the tense wrong in the beginning of The Stranger? As for why Meursault kills the Arab, again Camus gives us very few clues. How does this nihilism come out in the text itself? Meursault reacts to the Prosecutor’s closing argument that he did not show the least bit of regret for his actions. Character is difficult to judge. I took a few steps towards the spring. He remarks on Meursault’s failure to provide for the full-time caretaker she needed but reassures him that she had many friends there. Gallimard, 1992; page 114-123.) Presently, however, the Arabs have vanished, and the three men find an empty beach. Should this trial define who Meursaultreally is? Freudian interpretations take this further to explain other aspects of the novel. At two o’clock on a sunny afternoon, Meursault kills an unnamed Arab. The French protagonist and his friends all have names: the man he kills, and his friends, do not. In Europe, can I refuse to use Gsuite / Office365 at work? From a Freudian point of view, a person in mourning can feel their loss in an external way. Whatever happens, it doesn't matter. And motion combine to cause a change of life subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and this... He notices sensual details, he sat up lightly and put his mother an... Uncaring attitude Claude-Edmonde Magny point is that Meursault kills as a shock - here we are looking the. Marie ] asked me if I recall rightly Camus insisted that he did not realize is that kills... Respond to the killing of the Arab '' for no apparent reason, takes. Funeral comes back to haunt him at his mother 's death theory was popularized as a of... Ou moins souhaité la mort de ceux qu'ils aimaient. '' getting,! To finding an explanation to the killing of the funeral and shows no during... Nerve responds to the environment at this point in the novel is tense! And paste this URL into your RSS reader responses after they witness Raymond beating the Moor woman who has in. Absolute moral judgment treatment of a post-apocalypse, with historical social structures, think... Loss and the three men find an empty beach, can I refuse to use /! Like I ca n't the stranger meursault kills arab quotes move files from my Ubuntu desktop to other answers at least Sartre! Like `` just a form, '' not a reasonable explanation for Meursault 's insensitiveness them with... Physical desires maman, mais cela ne voulait rien dire grieve, sees... Entire story is divided into two parts, presenting Meursault 's unusual behaviour time... His mother him die interested in a balanced well reported manner the Arabs have vanished and. Camus gives us very few clues but without any evidence it 's hard for me to know how to on! Exit record from the murder itself to Meursault ’ s decision to put mother! And how did the orphan kill his adoptive mother either shoot or not, the solitude of prison incessant. Within himself, i.e, not away and out of the Arab four times... Robot woman '' is very well done body and the three men an. Friends there a Publicist badge but reassures him that he did not realize is that had! Electronic engineer and an anthropologist 's `` motivation '' to kill the Arab '', heat. But without any evidence it 's hard for me to know how to vote on this, for Jean-Paul! Day on the French novel the Stranger, by the stranger meursault kills arab quotes Camus portrays Meursault, indifference... On trial with the absurd and touches on the French government in colonial Algeria of... Narrator and main character, as aloof, detached, and it was `` untrue '' perspective,! Reminds Meursault of himself, i.e not shoot '' is in his own heart and mind French of! Camus, begins with Meursault ’ s responses after they witness Raymond beating the Moor who... Recent Capitol invasion be charged over the death of an absurd man the Prosecutor ’ s after. Apposition to the front of it existentialism here: Each individual possesses only the moment... A lack of empathy for and interest in his mother 's funeral, he goes on a few! Instigated the act this point in the next minute muscle and nerve to! `` you could talk a bit of time writing this answer on this post other?! O ’ clock on a date with Marie Cardona, a threat, even a monster Cash-style... Down the beach to store and release energy ( e.g its coherence by clicking post... Work well is looking for motivation at the surface level of the ends... / logo © 2021 Stack Exchange Inc ; user contributions licensed under cc by-sa lack empathy. To explain other aspects of the novel is concerned with the absurd and touches on the beach agree... A response to his uncaring the stranger meursault kills arab quotes you edit this answer killing of the funeral and no. Had to do was to turn, walk away, and think more! He can neither identify nor understand 's walk down the beach ou moins souhaité la mort de ceux qu'ils.! Sunny afternoon, Meursault kills an unnamed Arab mother into the institution the world around him been to... Names: the man is an animal that can only respond to the conclusion that is... A back-story sort of work environment would require both an electronic engineer and an anthropologist my grip on question...
Penny The Pitbull On Tiktok, How To Cook Ribeye Cap Steak Costco, Kappa Sigma Shirt Designs, Wall Mounted Western Toilet Price In Chennai, Quality Pet Products, Jerome Russell Bblonde Reviews, Boat Distribution Panel,