Mersault Character

673 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Life of an alien essay

In Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger, a young man named Mersault lives his life differently than the expectations of society and does not seem to see a purpose in life. His character implies that life is meaningless and living just like everyone else in society prevents individuals from discovering the true meaning of life. Camus famously stated: “You will never be able to be happy if you continue to search what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of lie. Most readers of the novel immediately misjudge Mersaults’ character as they begin to read the first paragraph of the novel, which begins with his being informed about his mother’s death and funeral. Due to the fact that Mersaults’ character seems unaffected emotionally by his mother’s death, he is immediately looked negatively by readers. There are possibilities that Mersault reacts this way such as him not seeing the point in life or death. He does not seem to care about anything around him and has not yet discovered the purpose in his life. Mersault’s indifference from the people around him makes him seem like a guilty man under certain circumstances. Because of his carelessness he ends up killing an Arab man for no reason and finding himself in jail. His character does not regret his actions and is immediately seen as a greater victim when the judge and jury hear witnesses testify about how he reacted to the death of his mother. After he is found guilty he spends the last few months of his life locked behind bars and surrounded by nothing but four walls. Camus is conveying that Mersault finally discovers his purpose in life right before it is about to end along with discovering his true self when he is isolated in the jail cell and away... ... middle of paper ... ...hen he was asked a series of questions about the murder he had no opinion or a reasonable answer to why exactly he had killed the man. In addition , the fact that he was not emotionally affected by his mother’s death resulted in all the people in the jury to see him as a guilty man responsible for the death of the Arab. A few witnesses who saw Mersault on the day of his mother’s funeral attend the trial and notify the judge of what they saw the day of the funeral. A caretaker for Mersault’s mother attended the funeral with Mersault. He describes what events took place the day of the funeral such as the fact that he was drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes in the mortuary with Mersault. This immediately changed his image of how he was portrayed by society because it is considered a unordinary act to smoke and have small talk while attending your mother’s funeral.

Show More
Related

  • Light In Camus's The Stranger

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    Finding Enlightenment in the Dark: An analysis of light in Camus’s The Stranger. In The Stranger, the protagonist Mersault becomes ostracized from his society due to his emotional separation and unwillingness to play by societal rules. His continual apathy and expression that everything “didn’t matter” eventually led to his death sentence (8). Mersault focuses on his physical surroundings, commenting on the light and the heat around him. He perceives the world through his senses, not through his emotions.

    Read More

  • Existentialism in The Stranger by Albert Camus

    529 Words  | 2 Pages

    Originally released in French, The Stranger by Albert Camus (published in 1942) follows the story of Meursault whom is a French man living in Algeria prior to the 2nd World War and gives his own unique perspective of the events between when he receives a telegram stating that his mother had recently pass away to when he is executed for the murder of a man only referred to as “The Arab” whom he had shot. Meursault had an interesting outlook on life and it is unclear why he feels the way he does but his tone is constantly detached, plain, and at times subtly ironic. That is the key reason this book is referred to as a panicle example of existentialism and also corresponds with the quote;

    Read More

  • The Stranger Rhetorical Analysis

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mersault ends up shooting the Arabian brother and is tried in court. Mersault’s insensitivity and ignorance regarding his mother’s death, Raymond’s abuse, and the murder leaves the reader in a bleak mood after experiencing such a dry, emotionless tone.

    Read More

  • The Stranger Loss Of Innocence Essay

    1435 Words  | 3 Pages

    An analysis of a potentially innocent, middle-aged sociopath and how being alienated lead him to committing a murder in Albert Camus’ The Stranger. Albert Camus presents The Stranger, a story where the line between innocence and guilt becomes almost unrecognizable. Meursault, a middle-aged man whose mother has recently passed away, gets put on trial for the murder of an Arab man because he became angered by the sun. While the reasoning behind the killing is frivolous and weak, it does not make him completely guilty.

    Read More

  • The Stranger: Changes in Meursault

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Stranger, Albert Camus describes the life of the protagonist, Meursault, through life changing events. The passage chosen illustrates Meursault’s view during his time in prison for killing the Arab. In prison, one can see the shifts in Meursault’s character and the acceptance of this new lifestyle. Camus manipulates diction to indicate the changes in Meursault caused by time thinking of memories in prison and realization of his pointless life. Because Camus published this book at the beginning of World War II, people at this time period also questions life and death similar to how Meursault does.

    Read More

  • Maman’s Funeral Characterises Meursault And the World of The Stranger

    1659 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the experimental novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, he explores the concept of existentialism and the idea that humans are born into nothing and descend into nothingness after death. The novel takes place in the French colony of Algiers where the French-Algerians working-class colonists live in an urban setting where simple life pleasures are of the upmost importance in the lives of working class people like the protagonist of the novel Meursault. What is fascinating about this novel is that it opens up with a scene of perpetual misfortune for him through the death of his mother although he seems to express otherwise. The reader perceives this nonchalance as a lack of care. Maman’s death and its impact on Meursault appear in both the very beginning and very end of the two-part novel, suggesting a cyclical pattern in the structure. This cyclical pattern suggests not a change in the moral beliefs of Meursault but rather his registering society’s systems and beliefs and craft meaning in his own life despite the fact that he meets his demise in the end. Camus uses Maman’s funeral to characterise both Meursault and the society and customs created by the society Meursault lives in in order to contrast the two while at the same time reveal how while society changes, Meursault does not. Rather, Maman’s funeral becomes of unprecedented importance in Meursault’s life and allows him to find that nothing means anything in his meaningless world at the time of his death. He finds peace in that.

    Read More

  • The Stranger Injustice Analysis

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    Albert Camus’ The Stranger offers one man’s incite into the justice of society. Monsieur Meursault, the main protagonist in the novel, believes that morals and the concept of right and wrong possess no importance. This idea influences him to act distinctively in situations that require emotion and just decision, including feeling sadness over his mother’s death, the abuse of a woman, and his killing of an innocent man. In these situations Meursault apathetically devoids himself of all emotion and abstains from dealing with the reality in front of him. When confronted by the court over his murder, he reiterates his habitual motto on life that nothing matters anyways, so why care? His uncaring response inflames the people working within the

    Read More

  • Existentialism And Symbolism In The Stranger By Albert Camus

    1438 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Next came Raymond, who was the last witness. He waved to me and all of the sudden blurted out that I was innocent” (95). This scene is ironic because prior this trial, Raymond doesn’t express any sense of loyalty. But in this scene, Raymond shows loyalty towards Meursault. He says that the Arabs hated him and Meursault was there by chance. This scene is important because it shows how everything that occurred was indirectly caused by Raymond and Meursault’s friendship under the pretense of “chance.”

    Read More

  • Meursault's Philosophy In Albert Camus The Stranger

    267 Words  | 1 Pages

    One of the main points stressed in the stranger is that people have no meaning to life. It is stressed that all lives will come to an end guaranteed and that all of their actions are meaningless. This expresses that he believes that all life is equally meaningless. Late in the story after a dispute with the chaplain is when Meursault realizes this. He notices that just as he had no effect to the world the world had no effect on him. He was going to die anyways just like everyone else. He was born and will die with no importance to the world and so will everyone else.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Stranger And Sisyphus

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    First off, both Mersault and Sisyphus made mistakes and then only realized them once it was the end of their existence. In Part II of The Stranger, at the trial is where Mersault had some sense into his wrongdoings. The trial describes and even represents the act of absurdity where there is rational order in an irrational surrounding (the trial). Irrational order is meant to be a threat to society so that is why Camus created these characters that try to find the rational order. Sisyphus tries to find his own happiness but in the end, he doesn’t find happiness because he has achieved nothing. Although, Camus argues, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy” (Camus). But one must disagree with this because like it was said, Sisyphus has achieved nothing in his lifetime other than his crimes. Moreover, Camus describes the same happiness motif and applies it into The Stranger coincided with Mersault and his death. Mersault thinks he is not relatable to the world, but then the world is also different from him. As he was about die, “I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate” (123). After his death, he will acquire peace and joy through his pain and struggle. But also, it allows him to enjoy his life because he knows that his mistakes cannot hold him back. With that mentality, he becomes happy and fulfills Camus’

    Read More

  • "The Stranger" - Meursault's Trial

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    The trial portrays the absurdist ideal that absolute truth does not exist. This ideal destroys the very purpose of the trial, which seeks to place a rational explanation on Meursault’s senseless killing of the Arab. However, because there is no rational explanation for Meursault’s murder, the defense and prosecution merely end up constructing their own explanations. They each declare their statements to be the truth, but are all based on false assumptions. The prosecution itself is viewed as absurd. The prosecutor tries to persuade the jury that Meursault has no feelings or morals by asking Perez if “he had at least seen [Meursault] cry” (91). The prosecutor then continues to turn the crowd against Meursault when he asks him about his “liaison” with Marie right after his mother’s death. Though Meursault’s relationship with Marie and his lack of emotions at his mother’s funeral may seem unrelated to his murder, the prosecutor still manages to convince the crowd that they are connected to one another. The jury ends up convicting Meursault not because he killed a man, but because he didn't show the proper emotions after his mother ...

    Read More

  • Choice and Individual Freedom in The Stranger (The Outsider)

    442 Words  | 1 Pages

    Choice and Individual Freedom in The Stranger Camus's The Stranger is a grim profession that choice and individual freedom are integral components of human nature, and the commitment and responsibility that accompany these elements are ultimately the deciding factors of the morality of one's existence.   Meursault is placed in an indifferent world, a world that embraces absurdity and persecutes reason; such is the nature of existentialist belief, that rationalization and logic are ultimately the essence of humanity, and that societal premonitions and an irrelevant status quo serve only to perpetuate a false sense of truth. Meursault's virtue, as well as his undoing, lies in his unique tendency to choose, and thereby exist, without computing objective standards or universal sentiment.   His  stoic, de facto existentialism is a catalyst for endless conflict between his rationalization- and logic-based existence and that of others, which focuses on an objective subscription to "the norm" ; such is evident in heated discussions with the magistrate and prison minister, who are seen as paragons of invalid logic and the quixotic, quasi-passionate pursuit of hackneyed conformity. No windmills are slain1 in this simulated existence; absurdity of a different ilk dominates the popular mentality, one which would alienate a man based on his perceived indifference towards the mundane, and try, convict, and execute a man based on his lack of purported empathy towards the irrelevant.

    Read More

  • Happy Face Killer Research Paper

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I did it because deep inside me somewhere along the way I wanted to do it” This is what Keith Jesperson answered when he was asked why he commited crimes. We could figure out that he is one of the murderer without guilty and conscience. When police put two people in the jail for conviction of Keith Jesperson’s first crime, his reaction was “I though

    Read More

  • Meursault as Sisyphus in Albert Camus',The Stranger

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the opening of the novel, Meursault receives word that his mother has passed away. While keeping her vigil, he smokes a cigarette. He hesitates at first, because he doesn’t know if he should smoke with his mother right there, but, he says, “I thought about it, it didn’t matter.” He is not sad about her death. Therefore he sees no reason to act as if he is.

    Read More

  • The Character of Meursault in The Stranger (The Outsider)

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    Albert Camus wrote The Stranger during the Existentialist movement, which explains why the main character in the novel, Meursault, is characterized as detached and emotionless, two of the aspects of existentialism. In Meursault, Camus creates a character he intends his readers to relate to, because he creates characters placed in realistic situations. He wants the reader to form a changing, ambiguous opinion of Meursault. From what Meursault narrates to the reader in the novel, the reader can understand why he attempts to find order and understanding in a confused and mystifying world.

    Read More

More about Mersault Character

Open Document