CHARACTER STUDY: MEURSAULT

In ‘The Outsider’, Meursault’s character is understood through events and relationships with the people around him. The protagonist of this story, Meursault, is the outsider, because his behavior is abnormal or different from the rest of the society.

We split these aspects of his life into parts to understand Meursault’s character better:

 

MEURSAULT’S RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS

In ‘The Outsider’, we begin to understand Meursault’s character through the relationships he has with the people around him.

One of Meursault’s neighbors, Salamano, is first mentioned in chapter three when Meursault sees him beating his dog. From here, we learn that Meursault likes to observe people, but there is no sign of judging. Salamano once again appears in the next chapter when his dog goes missing. Meursault tells him to check the pound. This seems like kind words coming out of Meursault’s mouth, but he simply says this because it seems logical to check the pound.

Meursault also becomes closer to his other neighbor, Raymond. He likes to listen to Raymond, just because he has nothing better to do, and because Meursault finds Raymond’s stories interesting. In chapter three, when Meursault and Raymond are having some wine at the latter’s place, Meursault ends up writing a letter for Raymond. We can get a feeling that Meursault is a bit of a pushover, After writing the letter, Raymond claims that they’re now ‘mates’, and Meursault doesn’t mind that. Although Meursault is actually indifferent, he prefers to satisfy people rather than disappoint.

Marie is first introduced to the reader in chapter two of part one. In chapter four, Meursault narrates that he “really fancied her because she was wearing a pretty red and white striped dress and leather sandals. You could see the shape of her firm breasts and her suntanned face was like a flower.” Meursault certainly finds Marie attractive, but there is an emotional detachment in his feelings for her. This relationship revolves purely around sex and physical pleasure. The coldness and the lack of emotion towards Marie are described well on page 24: “She had her leg against mine, and I was fondling her breasts. Towards the end of the show I kissed her, but badly. Afterwards she came back to my place.” Meursault simply lists a chronology of events, and does not mention any emotion towards her. Through these descriptions of Marie, he appears indifferent. At the end of the novel he assumes Marie was either ill, dead, or has moved on to ‘a new Meursault’; it didn’t matter at all to him. When Marie asked him if they should get married, Meursault doesn’t mind, but they “could if she wanted to.” To Meursault, being married or not made no difference to him. He also states that he probably would have accepted the same proposal if it had come from another woman.

 

REACTION TO HIS MOTHER’S DEATH

Meursault’s reaction towards his mother’s death is not a usual reaction you might express from most people. He is cold, distanced from the people around, and gives an impression that he doesn’t care about his own mother’s death.

At the funeral (direct reaction)

Since Meursault had to go to the funeral, he had to be absent from the work for two days. His boss wasn’t happy about it, so Meursault says, “It’s not my fault (p. 9) ” It gives an impression that the funeral is just becoming an “excuse” of being absent in work, than seeing his mother feeling grief for her and being emotional for her death. It shows that Meurasult is a cold character, and also shows that he is the character who doesn’t like to take blame, or feels blamed. He justifies himself a lot thought the novel.

Meursault refused to see his mother’s face at the funeral. When the caretaker asked him why not, he answered, “I don’t know. (p. 12)” because he didn't want to get the actual feeling of lost, and also trying to avoid being emotional.

Meursault also smoked at the funeral. He hesitates a little bit because he thought that he shouldn’t smoke in front of his mother. However soon after he said, “I thought it over, it really didn’t matter (p. 14)” and started to smoke. Meursault thought that “It didn’t matter” because his mother was dead, and this shows how he lacked grief and respect towards the death.

Meursault reflected the day of the funeral at the end of the chapter, “seemed so inevitable and natural that I don't remember any of it any more. (p. 22)” It gives a feeling that the funeral and his mother’s death didn’t affect Meurasault, because he spent his weekend like any of his other weekends, which is shown in the next chapter: “after all, nothing had changed. (p. 28)”, meaning that his mother’s death made no difference to his normal life.

At the police (how he talked about it later on)

Meursault gets arrested in Part 2 because he murdered an Arab. His Lawyer asks him about his unusual behavior at the funeral and asks him if he felt any grief at the funeral. Meursault answered, “I probably loved mother quite a lot, but that didn’t mean anything (p. 65)”. Like his response to Marie, he doesn’t really think love is good enough reason for doing something such as marrying and crying at the funeral. “I’d rather mother hadn’t died. (p. 65) ” His response is very calm, giving an impression that he is telling the truth, however he is lacking emotion.

Meursault is a cold character, however he seems to be a really honest man. He answered, “To a certain extent all normal people sometimes wished their loved ones were dead. (p. 65)” to the Lawyer’s question, which is quite odd to say this when you are arrested and talking to the lawyer who is trying to commute your sentence. Also the lawyer asked him if he could say that he’d controlled my natural feeling at the funeral. However, Meursault said “No, because it’s no true (p. 65)” shows that he values honesty than being declared not guilty. He didn’t really care about his reputation, and didn’t care about hiding his lack of emotion by crying at the funeral untruthfully.

Magistrate asked him if he loved his mother, and Meursault answered, “Yes, like everyone else. (p. 67)” He is quite an odd man, however he tries to be a normal person, just like everyone else.

 

REACTION TO HIS ARREST

Meursault keeps on observing what is going on around him. He is not panicking, and it seems like he is not that worried about him. He says, “I thought my case was very simple. (p. 63)” shows that he is calm, and quite objective about what he’d done. Examining magistrate told him how the law worked, but Meursault thought “At first I didn’t take him seriously (p. 64)” shows that he is not that interested in laws.

Talking with Lawyer

When Meursault meets his lawyer, he was about to shake his hand, but he decided not to, “but I remembered just in time that I’d killed a man. (p. 64)” shows that he is feeling guilty about what he’d done. He felt faith towards this Lawyer, and Meursault thanked him, showing that he is polite and respects him.

However after questioning about Meursault’s mother’s death, Lawyer was angry because he wasn’t pleased with Meursault’s answer. Meursault didn’t want that, but soon he said “But it was all really a bit pointless and I couldn’t be bothered. (p.66)” He didn’t really care about what lawyer thought about him.

Talking with magistrate

Magistrate tells him that God will forgive him if he believes God. However Meursault thought, “I realized at the same time that his was ridiculous after all, I was the criminal. ”  He felt meaningless being forgiven by someone or god, because he killed someone and admits that it is bad thing to do.

 

INSIDE HIS NEW CELL

In chapter five of part two, Meursault gets moved to a new cell, where he does a lot of thinking. He suddenly remembers the only thing his mom had told him about his dad – that his dad had once gone to see a murderer being executed. His dad coming home and feeling nauseated disgusted him at first, but now Meursault understands it was completely natural. Now he realizes that executions “were the only thing a man could really be interested in! If I ever got out of prison, I’d go and watch all the executions there were.”  He then realizes that he is being irrational because he knew that he was not getting out of prison to see an execution.

We also learn that Meursault doesn’t mind dying. No matter when you die, even if it’s twenty years later, you’re going to die eventually. In fact, the thought of having to live for another twenty years scared Meursault.  However, when the chaplain came to talk to Meursault about believing in God, but Meursault has no interest. It doesn’t matter to Meursault whether he dies now or years later. He will face death in the belief that he will die outright, and he didn’t want to waste the last minutes of his life listening about someone he didn’t believe in.

Meursault is sure of himself, sure of everything, sure of his life, sure of the death that was imminent. This was his truth – that he’d been right, is right, and was always right. To Meursault, nothing mattered, and to him, everyone was condemned no matter how they lived their lives. He is satisfied with this life, and he doesn’t regret anything he’s done.

 

Narrative Style&Linguistic Features

Narrative Style

Camus chose to write this novel as a first person narrative. It is Meursault who recounts what happens, what he feels, and what he sees, expressing himself in short, compact sentences. This makes the character of Meursault believable to the reader as we get insight into his reasoning. Meursault is considered as an observer, where he sees the surface but does not analyze the undercurrents. Unlike many first-person narrators, Meursault makes no attempt to filter his account through an awareness of its meaning.

Linguistic Features

Structure

The Outsider is separated into two parts: Part One and Part Two

Part One opens with the death of mother and ends with the murder of the Arab. By separating the story in to two parts, the reader can see how Meursault is affected by various deaths. There are three major deaths in this novel, at the beginning, middle and the end;

1. Meursault's mother dies
2. Death of Arab
3. Meursault is executed

By including the image of death throughout the novel, the reader can predict, or foreshadow what is going to happen to Meursault at the end of the novel. It can also be seen as a way for the reader to distinguish if Meursault is actually an outsider. At the beginning of the novel, when Meursault's mother had died, it is possible to see Meursault as an ordinary person, who does not want to show his feelings, therefore hiding his sadness within him. The lack of emotion or ambition throughout Part One does not greatly represent that Meursault is an outsider. He wrote the letter because his friend asked him, and he has desire to be with a woman. If the story was not titled "the Outsider", it is probably hard to tell that Meursault is abnormal. However, in Part Two, the reader notices a clear difference in Meursault. Everything he claims seems to prove that he was guilty for the murder, and he does not regret in killing the Arab. Camus separated the novel into two parts to emphasize the abnormality of Meursault compared to ordinary people.

The sentences used in this novel are short, unconnected statements, which emphasize the boredom or the lack of enthusiasm in Meursault's actions. The style used emphasizes the narrative style, which contribute to creating Meursault's character. Even though there are no jargon used, his description is very detailed, which reflect the character of Meursualt. 

The sentences gets even shorter towards the ends of the book, especially in page 102.

• The judges returned. The jury was very rapidly read a series of questions. I heard 'guilty of murder...', 'premeditation...', 'extenuating circumstances.'

This passage shows that Meursualt is eager to hear the punishment put on him. The short sentences represent rush or impatience of Meursault. It can also represent the built up of tension before Meursualt is being taken away.

The story is chronological, which allows the reader to follow the order of events, especially because of Meursault's descriptions. Meursault does not seem to care much about the time, or anything around him in Part One, however, during his imprisonment, he becomes more aware of the time. 

Repetition

There are words or phrases that are being repeated several times in the novel. Some examples include:

• "It's not my fault"
• "I couldn't be bothered"
• "it annoyed me"

By repeating the same phrase several times in the novel, it creates the character of Meursault, and makes his character believable. 

 

Another technique used by Camus is creating snap shots of scenes in page 66:

• "Raymond, the beach, the swim, the fight, the beach again, the little spring, the sun and the five shots."

By listing out what has happened to Meursault before the murder, it creates an image that he is confused about what has actually happened and trying to think back at what he has done. To the reader, this list of events create snap shots, (that we can visualize in our heads) which is like one scene of a movie. 

Diction

Camus uses wide range of vocabulary to describe the situation that Meursault is in, making him an observer. 

• "The Arabs were advancing slowly and they were already much nearer" (page 54)

By using the word "advancing", it sounds as though the Arabs are an army, approaching Meursault. This can also create a thought of a fight, building the tension before the gunshot. 

English translation & Significance of the title

The Outsider is originally written in French, and has been translated into English by several authors. There are three main translations of The Outsider:

1. Stuart Gilbert
2. Joseph Laredo
3. Matthew Ward

Three translations differ much in tone (for example Gilbert's translation is much formal) but more importantly, the opening of the story is different for each translation.

1. Gilbert's translation: "Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure. The telegram from the Home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday."
2. Ward's translation: "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know. I got a telegram from the home: Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours. That doesn't mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday."
   
3. Laredo's translation: "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know. I had a telegram from the home: 'Mother passed away. Funeral tomorrow. Yours sincerely.' That doesn't mean anything. It may have been yesterday."
   

Not only the translation affects the way the story is written, but the title differs depending on where the story is translated, and who it is translated by. The Outsider, originally L'Étranger can be translated in three different titles:

1. The Foreigner
2. The Stranger
3. The Outsider

The Foreigner

• Meursault is a French Algiers
• He is a foreigner to the land , but text establishes that in fact his family has lived there fore several generations
• Anti-heroic protagonist is culturally foreign to Algeria
• Meursault is detached - foreigner to society, to human customs
• Most fitting considering the time it was written and existential nature of the novel

The Stranger

• Meursault is a stranger among other people because he is so isolated from them - mentally, emotionally, spiritually and by the end of the text, physically (because he is imprisoned)
  
• Implies that Meursault has been viewed as a "strange" or "odd" person
• Meursault is a stranger even to those who think they know him
• But this can be seen as a wrong interpretation - Meursault is, if anything, ordinary - because he works like every one and goes out with his friends and girlfriend like everyone else
• He is not really a stranger, but rather an observer without an emotion connection to the world

The Outsider

• Meursault feels alien to the Arab (Muslim) society in which he lives as a colonist
  
• As he is oblivious of the motifs he lives, he is not restricted by any meaning exterior to his sensory experience, a character trait rendering him foreign to his contemporaries: thus, most English translations are rendered as The Stranger and infrequently The Outsider

Themes

Absurdity of Life:

‘Absurdity’ = ‘the quality of being absurd or inconsistent with obvious truth, reason, or sound judgment; a logical contradiction’

‘Absurd’ = ‘The condition or state in which humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe wherein people’s lives have no purpose or meaning’

(Definitions from www.dictionary.com)

The definition is relevant because it reflects the situation that Meursault is in against the society. It is paradoxical how the society views Meursault as an ‘outsider’ and criticizes him for being indifferent because the truth is that Meursault is only being sincere to his feelings and unlike the rest, he accepts the irrationality of the society.

Regarding Meursault, this is the absurdity of life because the society does not understand his indifference that he challenges to pursue. It is absurd in the sense that we ostracize him from the society when he is being honest to his feelings. It is also absurd how the society immediately thinks of him as extraordinary not because of the crime that he committed, but mainly because of the way he acted after his mother's funeral. This is evident during the trial that decides upon the sentence of the incident, as first of all, the courtroom is astonished by the fact that Meursault had offered a cigarette to a caretaker and had recieved a cup of white coffee at the funeral. The jury claims, "A stranger may offer a cup of coffee, but that a son must refuse it beside the body of the one who brought him into the world," indicating that this behavior was unethical. Secondly, the jury pronounced that, "One the day after the death of his mother, this man was swimming in the sea, entering into an irregular liaison and laughing at a Fernandel film," as if this was almost an illegal thing to do after such an event as the funeral. Ever since, the entire courtroom viewed Meursault as the criminal not because of the actual murder, but because of his irregular behavior which lead him to a death sentence. 

Throughout the novel, Camus inserts the notion of ‘absurdity of life’ as he himself believed the universe was completely irrational and meaningless. He conveys this theme through the protagonist, which is emphasized due to the juxtaposition of the behaviors and reactions of the society as explained before. The society attempts to impose rational orders to everything in order to make life meaningful, which is exactly what the lawyer and the prosecutor did on the case for Meursault. Meursault had simply no rational reasons behind killing the Arab, or dating Marie, thus he had accepted the irrationality of the society. On the contrary, the society is scared of facing this truth so they tend to fabricate everything in order to make it 'rational'. 

In addition, towards the end of the novel Meursault seems happy and rather satisfied with the death sentence because he had accepted the absurdity of life. He realized that death is inevitable so whether he dies of old age or dies by execution, it does not matter to him because death is death and it is all the same. In fact, this was another philosophical idea that Camus had- that life has no meanings or purposes, but the only certain thing is that death is inevitable because all lives are equally meaningless. 

The Physical world

The novel emphasizes the importance of the physical world. The reader can notice that Meursault focuses more on the physical aspects than on the emotions. For example at the beginning of the novel Meursault observes the physical aspects of Marie, however when he is asked if he loves her he simply replies that he doesn’t think so. Here it can be noticed that Meursault gives more importance to the physical aspects than the emotional ones. As the reader isn’t used to this kind of behavior we perceive him as strange. This relates to the plot of the novel where Meursault is condemned for having a different character. It can be understood that the source of happiness for Meursault isn’t a balance in the emotional life but rather a balance in the physical world, as it is evident from the line “the perfect silence of this beach where I’d been happy’. 

In addition the reader can understand that the reason why Meursault shot the Arab was because of the sun tormenting him,“ the sky seemed to be...sheets of flame”. This shows how physical aspects affect Meursault greater than emotions. 

Overall if we look at the way in which Meursault describes physical aspects compared to the way in which he describes emotional aspects, it can be noticed that Meursault describes in great detail the physical apects whilst pays little attention to the emotional ones. 

Values of Society VS An Outsider

Noticeably, the character is ostracized against the values of the society. This is shown especially in the second part of the novel where we find the protagonist being judged for acts against the values of society rather than for the crime he actually committed.   “On the day after the death of his mother, this man was swimming in the sea”. In this example the main character is being judged for acting in an unconventional manner after his mother’s death, rather than for the actual crime he committed.  This relates to the title of this novel as its showing how anyone who acts against the conventional manners of society is deemed as an “Outsider” and will be treated differently.

Another example is when Meursault is asked to say that he regrets his crime, he refuses to do so although he is condemned to say yes. This shows how the main character is independent from society, as he does not behave in the way that he is expected to.

In this novel Camus tries to portray the absurdity of the society we live in and how we may behave in different manners just to fit the behavior which society deems "acceptable". 

Symbols and Motifs

Motifs

='a recurring subject, theme or idea' (www.dictionary.com)

Observation:

It appears that Meursault is constantly observing what is going on. Observation is a motif because it reflects the absurdity of life- how life is meaningless. Thus, the observation could symbolize that humans are in everlasting search to find purpose. This also displays Camus' absurdist philosophy that highlights the importance of the physical universe that does not have much significance. 

There is a juxtaposition that contrasts two major scenes:Meursault observing from his balcony and people observing Meursault in the courtroom. When Meursault is watching people on the street from his balcony, he is passive as he makes no judgments. On the contrary, the atmosphere in the courtroom is exactly the opposite and people are very judging about Meursault due to the facts that were revealed about him. Therefore observation is a significant motif that portrays that humans in general are in search for purpose. 

Death:

A recurrent motif in the novel is death. At the beginning of the novel the reader is presented with the funeral of Meursault’s mother. Meursault is emotionless and what bother him the most are the heat and the sleepiness whilst society believes that he should be in grief. Another example of death is the one of the Arab, which the society believes that he should regret his crime and yet again he only feels “annoyance about it”. Finally the idea of death is shown once again in the final chapter, where the chaplain tries to convince Meursault that there is a God and an afterlife, “In that case, God would help you”,while Meursault believes the complete contrary.  In all the examples where death was present Meursault acts against the way in which society would want him to act. This motif has great significance as it allows the reader to understand what kind of character Meursault is and how he acts against the conventional manner that is imposed by society.

Symbols

Salamano’s dog:

Salamano’s dog is a prominent symbol which helps convey the society’s perspectives. The dog symbolizes Meursault in the way that they are both unique and are ostracized by the surrounding people. The dog is peculiar to other breeds because it has a skin infection called ‘mange’, which makes all of its hair fall out and forms brown blotches all over the body. Not only is this dog physically different, but also is distinctive because of the poor treatment that is given by Salamano, which causes him to be in constant fear.  Similarly Meursault is deemed different due to the indifference and lack of ambitions. Even at his mother’s funeral he shows neither grief nor affection. Instead, he “wasn’t sleepy, but was tired”, and he was irritated by the silence. Nevertheless, he replies to his boss saying, ”About Sixty,” when he asked of Meursault’s mother’s age which verifies that he does not know much about his own mother and that he is peculiarly different. In addition, the dog could foreshadow Meursault in a sense that they both disappear from the society. The reason why the dog ran away is unspecified, however we do know that no one has seen the dog ever since. Likewise, Meursault vanishes from the society because he receives a death sentence for being responsible of the murder, which erases his presence physically from the eyes of the society.  Perhaps both the dog and Meursault ‘vanished’ from the society because neither of them could adapt in the society. 

The sun & heat:

The sun is a significant symbol in the book as it is referred in the end of part 1, which is the climax of the novel. It is the sun that made Meursault commit the crime: “ All I could feel were the cymbals the sun was clashing against my forehead” which conveys the intensity of the sunlight. The sun and heat could symbolize the pressure in society since in the beginning of the novel it is the heat that annoys Meursault in the procession of his mother’s funeral rather than the actual fact that he is burying his mother. The sun and heat representing the pressure of society would explain why Meursault is always bothered by it. 

Here Camus is telling the reader how someone who behaves differently from the conventional manner imposed by society will be pressured to change his values and the way he behaves into a more "acceptable" one.

The Chaplain:

The Chaplain signifies Christianity. At the end of the novel the Chaplain offers a chance for salvation "God would help you". The fact that Meursault refuses to do so is viewed as peculiar from the reader. From this the reader can understand that Christianity signifies rational order and something that all society has to follow, and since Meursault refuses to do so he is deemed as irrational and is condemned as an "outsider" to the society. Therefore, Camus conveys a message that anything the society views peculiar is a threat to the society.