Existentialism In The Stranger By Albert Camus

A suicide, an execution, and many conscious murders. The fate of existentialism seems lacking in hope and peace. This is because many existentialists believe that life is meaningless, but also that one must be responsible for his or her actions and decisions as well as accept the consequences of those actions. Macbeth in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Antigone in the play “Antigone” by Jean Anouilh, and Meursault in the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus all are characters who have taken the responsibility for their actions head on and have gone until death to deal with their own consequences. Macbeth kills King Duncan and many other men in his pathway to the throne, yet realizes that he has committed so many awful crimes that he

She ends up killing herself as the punishment for standing up for what she believes in. Meursault kills an Arab in what seems like cold blood. To free himself of his doomed punishment he accepts his fate of prison and execution in front of the town. These characters all represent Camus’ philosophy of the absurdity and an absurd man who “contemplates his torment” (Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus), yet they can still accept all responsibility for their actions and accept their torment. Camus writes the story of Sisyphus that explains how Sisyphus is an absurd hero accepting his consequences and his fate. He explains, “Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, know the whole extent of his wretched condition: It is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory” (Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus). This application of acceptance can be applied to Macbeth, Antigone, and Meursault in their punishments for their own wrongdoings throughout their life, and especially in their

Soon however, he understands all he has done, and feels guilty for his actions, as he says, “my soul is too much charged / with blood of thine already” (Shakespeare V.viii. 80). He loses his will to keep on with a life full of deceit and he wants to wash his hands free of the blood he has slain for eternity. He believes he deserves death as his punishment for his evil and decides, “I have lived long enough: my way of life / is fall’n into the sear, the yellow leaf, / And that which should accompany old age, / as honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have” (Shakespeare V.iii. 73). Macbeth’s victory is not his status of being king, but rather his ability to accept his own fate that he created for himself and the longing ofrretribution for his actions. Macbeth internally cannot keep of living like this, but externally will continue to fight on, “I ‘gin to be a-weary of the sun / and wish the estate o’ the world were now undone / Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack! / At least we’ll die with the harness on our back” (Shakespeare . The consequences that he faces and his acceptance in the face of adversity are the ideas of absurdity that Camus believes is the key point of an existential hero. Despite being a very tragic story, Macbeth takes the bad situation and uses his last moments as a time to take the responsibility for his