Meursault Physical Setting

Often the physical aspects of the world are for more interesting than its social or emotional aspects. This is true for the protagonist Meursault in the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus. Meursault experiences physical settings and his sensations much more acutely than his psychological, which is shown through Camus’ craft of detailed imagery. Descriptions of social situations are offered to the readers in a concise and curt manner with little to no development. In great contrast, when Meursault begins to describe a physical setting he uses vivid vocabulary and provides extreme detail. It seems that Meursault is more connected to nature than he is to other humans, often it is his emotions that are aligned with changes in the natural world.

He often only takes note of physical details during encounters with other people, and is unaffected by the emotional events which others would be. This is clearly seen through his mother’s death. When Meursault first hears of his mother’s death, he responds with a stream-of-consciousness monologue in which he simply states what will be the following events, and nothing concerning how he feels or any indication of sadness. Upon entering the home where Maman lived, Meursault immediately begins describing what he sees, particularly the bright lights. He repeatedly mentions the lights saying “I was blinded by a sudden flash of light,” “glare on the white walls,” “the whiteness of the room seemed even brighter than before,” and the blinding light” (8, 9). He also takes note of Maman’s friends, who seem to irritate him with their sounds. Later on when Meursault walks to the funeral, he complains about the unbearable heat. The climate appears to give him more pain than the notion of his Maman’s death. This idea translates into Part Two of the novel, during Meursault’s trial. There he is more focused on the light and the sounds than the actual development of his own trial. He even states that the heat he feels there is the same heat he felt at Maman’s funeral. This signifies the unique kind of emotions which Meursault experiences, because rather than feeling angry

It was during his mother’s funeral where he felt he understand her better than he ever had, he says “Seeing the rows of cypress trees leading up to the hills next to the sky, and the houses standing out here and there against that red and green earth, I was able to understand Maman better... a kind of sad relief” (15). Meursault feels this simply because he is experiencing the same physical setting which she had experienced for many years. Meursault’s relationship with his girlfriend Marie Cardona is also affected by his frequent manner. Though it appears that he and Marie have a close connection, Meursault only ever focuses on her physical body and beauty. He consistently takes note of the way she looks, “I saw her in that pretty red-and-white striped dress and leather sandals. You could make out the shape of her firm breasts, and her tan made her face look like a flower” (34). Because of the purely physical connection he has with her, Meursault does not think he truly loves her, but to him that doesn’t matter. Meursault carries the physical aspects of Marie through his trial, where he sees her “flame of desire” (119) in the walls of his prison. While in the cell he also realizes that the desire for a woman was one of the freedoms he missed the most. Meursault not only recognizes Marie’s beauty, but constantly takes note of the appearances of others rather than their emotional