Meursault,
in Camus' short novel,
, is a very unusual man. His life reflects a
inordinate
lack of concern, to the positive or negative, about almost anything. He enjoys
the
repetitive nature of his existence, sees no need to change anything, will
go along with what
others want in order to avoid any crisis or discomfort,
and passes from one day to the next
without truly becoming passionate or
caring about anything or anyone in his life.
When his
mother dies and he goes to her funeral, Meursault shows no grief
whatsoever.
When his boss offers him a chance to open a new office in
Paris,
he really doesn't care that this would be a fine opportunity for
him.
...he wanted to know if Id like a
post there.
Youre a young man, he said, and Im pretty sure
youd enjoy living in Paris. And, of
course, you could travel about France for
some months in the year.I told him
I was quite prepared
to go; but really I didnt care much one way or the other.
Regarding Marie:
Marie came
that evening and asked me if Id marry her. I said I didnt
mind; if she was keen on it, wed get
married.Then she
asked me again if I loved her. I replied, much as before,
that her question
meant nothing or next to nothingbut I supposed I didnt.
And...
Then she
remarked that
marriage was a serious matter. To which I answered:
No.She kept silent
after that, staring at me in a curious
way. Then she asked: Suppose another girl had asked you
to marry herI mean, a
girl you liked in the same way as you like mewould you have said €˜Yes to
her, too?Naturally.
It is
easy to
see that Meursault will go along with whatever Marie suggests, but he
does not take marriage
seriously, and would have said yes to anyone girl who
had asked if he liked her as much as he
liked her. And he cannot tell her he
loves her because he does not. That
would be a
passionate response, and he seems to have no emotional responses other than to
get
annoyed occasionally.
When Raymond gets into trouble
with the police for
beating his girlfriend, he asks Meursault to be his
witness about her infidelity, and Meursault
readily agrees, though he has no
idea if she was unfaithful or not. He simply agrees to do so,
and when he
goes to the police station to give a statement, no one checks it
out.
When Meursault, through a combination of illness and
seeming confusion, kills the Arab,
he admits that he is sad that the man is
dead, but shows no remorse for his part in
it.
He feels
equally disinterested in whether there is a God, even though the
magistrate,
and later the chaplain speak to him about it with great passion. He doesn't see
the
need to believe in God. It makes no difference to him.
This lack of passion,
of caring, of being involved in the world
around him and paying more attention is what gets him
into trouble. By the
time the court case comes around, there are very few who can stand up for
him
to attest to his sincere concern for others, his willingness to be a dedicated friend,
to be
a devoted and caring son, or a man of God. His routine of repeating
each day without dedication
to anything but maintaining the status quo paints
him as a self-centered, uncaring, Godless man
with criminal tendencies, and
he is sentenced to death.
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