Who Is Meursault In The Stranger By Albert Camus

If someone goes up to a devout person, and says that there is no such thing as god, that devote person, of course would be threatened. The devout person is threatened because he believes that without god, there is nothing. If there is nothing, that devout person’s life would not be in existence. After reading The Stranger, by Albert Camus, one wonders why Meursault, the main character, is so threatening to the Chaplain and the Magistrate. Meursault threatens the Chaplain and the Magistrate, with his beliefs.

Meursault is truthful to himself and others throughout The Stranger. Unlike most, he doesn’t feel it necessary to lie in order to make others feel better. He is truthful, regardless of whether or not the truth may hurt. For example, in chapter four Marie asked Meursault if he loved her. Instead of lying to her or giving a vague answer Meursault told her that he probably didn’t love her, but it wasn’t important anyway.

In the novel The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, Meursault, who works in an office, and Raymond, who says he works in a warehouse, end up getting involved with a few atrocious incidents. The main character, Meursault, is foiled by his friend and neighbor Raymond. A foil is someone who gives contrast to another. These two have many similarities and even some differences that enhance one another. Meursault and Raymond have some similarities that make it easy for them to get along with each other.

 In one of his later interviews, Camus made the somewhat irritated comment that Meursault is the “only Christ we deserve.” While this seem to be a pithy, witty comment, we need to figure out how Meursault is like Christ. Christ taught his disciples and had them go and teach others, yet Meursault has no disciples and chooses to say little. Meursault murders while Christ brings a man back from the dead. Most drastically, Christ ”died for our sins” in order to make all those who follow free from original sin. Meursault just dies.

Raymond typifies the beast-character in Camus' The Stranger (The Outsider). He is like Stanley from A Streetcar Named Desire (T. Williams), emotional and manly. Physical solutions come naturally to him, as we see when he mistreats his ex-girlfriend. Ideally, society is exactly the opposite; law and order attempt to solve things fairly and justly. I propose that Meursault is somewhere between these two extremes and that this is the reason why he is a societal outcast. This metaphor explains his major actions in the book: as he struggles to keep his identity, his personality comes in conflict with the norms of society and he is shut down.

The language in The Stranger (The Outsider) is strikingly simple. The sentences are molded to fit their function. They state what Meursault, the narrator believes. More importantly, their structure conveys Meursault’s feelings. His feelings are a prominent focal point of the novel. With all of the varying emotions and feelings he has throughout the story, there is one general term that can be applied to them all: indifferent. Meursault delights in simple pleasures, but never fully indulges himself into any of his endeavors. He is always reserved, taciturn, lacking an abundance of emotion. The only passionate surge that emanates from his mind and body comes in the form of his

He did not believe in an afterlife, so he has no purpose to worry about the consequences after death. Meursault is “sure about [himself], about everything, surer than he could ever be,” (Camus 120). The only thing left he is sure of is the rest of his life and his near death. He is so sure that “nothing, nothing matter[s],”

In response to the inquiry, Meursault is "The Stranger," (AKA outsider) because his actions deviate from the social norms. Meursault's deviations are shown frequently throughout the novel. The most noticeable one is his lack of empathy during his mother's funeral. While many people mourn and demonstrated sorrow, Meuralt remained apathetic. Incidentally, that lack of emapthy led to his demise in the trial. In addition to that, Meursault's lack of ambition and drive is another sign of his deviations from society. Whereas it is good to have a good pay and a good job, Meursault rejected such opportunities from his superior. Then when he had a chance to marry Marie, Meursault showed no exuberance, but instead, he was nonchalant. Concerning the social

For Meursault life decisions are based on what is most convenient to him, not based on emotions that he may or may not feel. When Marie asks Meursault if he had any feelings of love towards her he “said that sort of question had no meaning” (Camus 24) but that he probably didn’t really feel any love

Kumari, Department of Psychology; Iqbal, PhD Clinical & Health Psychology; and Khan, Applied Social Counseling, Health & Wellbeing Psychology from New Delhi stated that although habitual criminals are usually more emotionally unstable than first time criminals (Kumari et al., 2017), both types suffer from different psychological disorders, with neuroticism being one. In these criminals, neuroticism causes anxiety, stress, and emotional instability that can increase the person’s risk of mental health problems (Kumari et al., 2017). This trait in criminals differs from the traits of Meursault from The Stranger by Albert Camus because, throughout the novel, Meursault is emotionless towards all the other characters—even his girlfriend. Singh, Department

In the novel “The Stranger” by Albert Camus, Meursault is in situations which involve the sun a lot. When Meursault is around the sun for too long he starts to feel as though he’s about to faint. “ After, that everything seemed to happen so fast, so deliberately, so naturally that I don’t remember any of it anymore” ( Camus 17) at this point Meursault has to endure the sun while walking through the village to get to the church. Meursault feels like his head is pounding with blood. In this particular situation he doesn’t have to make an actual decision because he’s just walking. Throughout the novel Meursault had a lot to deal with, like talking to his neighbors and having to listen to the horrible things his neighbors did like Raymond who beats his girlfriend and Salamano who was old but also beat his dog. Meursault is put into these situations where he has a chance to say something to both his neighbors but none of it seems to bother him.

However, Meursault seems to be an antagonist to his self because he himself causes his own death. One negative quality he possesses is that he's an existentialist. Meursault is too caught up in planning for the future instead of focusing on the present. This prevents him from feeling any have remorse for anything that has happened in the past. He so strongly believes in the cycle of life to a point where things can become pointless. "

Later on in the book, after he kills an Arab, not once does he show any

Meursault says this when he comes back from his mother’s funeral and is able to convey the meaningless of life and reflect on his mother’s death. Meursault still lacks remorse or grief and fails to reminisce about his mother in a typical or normal way. Instead, Meursault feels that since now his mother is gone, his apartment is too big for him. He doesn’t express how her death affects him emotionally, but spatially and abstractly. This signifies just how alone he is and how he views himself to be too small when inhabiting such a big world. Even though Meursault fails to display any signs of distress due to his mother’s death, this scene is probably the closest he gets to somewhat admitting he misses his mother enough to notice that she

The title of the novel “The Stranger”, written by Albert Camus, connects appropriately to the novel’s main character, Meursault. Meursault is a stranger in this novel, nobody really knows too much about him and his personal life. It seems as if not even his own girlfriend knew much about him. Meursault is more of an observer than a sharing type of person. This can be part of the reason of why he is such a stranger to other people.