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Flora Meursault's Existentialism In The Stranger, By Albert Camus

900 Words4 Pages

Flora Mehdi
Albert Camus ' book The Stranger, is a first-person account of the life of Meursault, an emotionally detached and excessively blunt man living in the French Algiers in the 1940 's. He describes his endeavors realistically and directly with no mercy for others or himself. The novel begins with Meursault receiving a letter explaining his mother 's death, he immediately expresses that he finds the trip to her funeral as an "inconvenience". Rather than cry or grieve at the service he smokes a cigarette and is distracted by the heat. After the funeral, he goes swimming and meets Marie, a woman whom he then attends comedy movie with as if his mother hadn 't just died the day before. The couple 's relationship seems somewhat one-sided …show more content…

He is an existentialist who believes that life has no real meaning and that nothing matters: "All alike would be condemned to die one day" (Camus 75) He does not realize the repercussions of his actions, therefore, although he acts with no emotion, his intentions are …show more content…

Meursault does not see meaning in love or marriage while Marie is somewhat romantic. Marie does not need an epic love story, but she is desperate to get married. When Meursault and Marie get together the couple display an interesting dynamic. Meursault is brutally honest with Marie on his ideas about love and his feelings for her. Marie wants the relationship to move fast towards marriage so she constantly asks Meursault questions to see how he feels about her: "A moment later she asked me if I loved her. I said that sort of question had no meaning, really; but I supposed I didn 't. She looked sad for a bit" (Camus 24) Meursault truthfully does not think love means anything so he explains that to Marie. He also does not think he is being insensitive by telling her he probably does not love her because that is his truth. After he explains his beliefs he shows his humanity by observing that she indeed looks sad. Meursault is not in love but often compliments Marie 's body, smile, and laugh and conveys that it makes him want her palpably: "I wanted her so bad when I saw her in that red-and-white striped dress..." (Camus 34) Even though Meursault is not very emotionally invested he definitely appreciates the physical aspect Maries presence and the convenience of their relationship. Meursault 's only pays attention to the physical things in

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No matter the strong pull of love though, Meursault escapes its grasps though his lack of empathy and basic human connections. This ideology is shared by those around Meursault: such as how Salamano lost his wife and “He hadn’t been happy with his wife, but he’d pretty much gotten used to her (1.5.44).” Meursault knows that love is only temporary and knows that love means nothing in life and cannot change anything: “That evening Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to (1.5.44).” He does accept that love is something tangible but understands that there is no significance to it, how it has no reason, and is not required for living.

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