Unjust Trial

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Recommended: The stranger by Albert Camus analytical essay

In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, the main character Meursault was convicted of murder and as a result was sentenced to death for his questionable character and wrongdoings. It can be argued that the verdict was just or unjust but in the end, the unjust assumptions and invalid connections outweigh the severity of the crime. Meursault’s is justly put on trial because murder is a severe crime that must be dealt with in court. During the trial, Meursault is able to recognize his wrongdoings but blames his actions on the sun. His lack of motive for the murder could be seen as a hazard to society; to let a man go out and kill other people for frivolous reasons like the sun is cumbersome. Also, it was just to bring out witnesses …show more content…

In the beginning of the trial one of the reporters says to Meursault, “we’ve blown up your case up a little. Summer is the slow season for the news. And your story and the parricide were the only ones worth bothering about”(84). The publicity of the trial may have affected the final verdict by making the punishment intriguing to the public eye. Also, the prosecutor’s arguments had little affiliation with the murder itself. When the prosecutor asked the director about Meursault, he asked about Meursault’s relationship with Maman which has no correlation to the murder. The director talks about Meursault at Maman’s funeral and says, “[he] hadn’t wanted to see Maman, that [he] hadn’t cried once, and that [he] left right after the funeral without paying [his] last respects at her grave”(89). Meursault’s lack of grief was an ongoing point that the prosecutor wanted to somehow link to the murder. The prosecutor was able to manipulate the facts to perceive Meursault as someone who is inhuman and has “no place in society whose fundamental rules he ignores”(102). Lastly, the prosecutor accused Meursault of the parricide case. This is obviously unjust because there was no evidence that linked the two cases together. The prosecutor states that “a man who is morally guilty of killing his mother severs himself from society in the same

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