Analysis of the work “The Stranger” (Albert Camus)

The story “The Outsider” is an artistic manifesto of existential philosophy, which expresses a complex system of worldviews in the language of fiction and thereby adapts it for a wide range of readers. Albert Camus wrote many scientific works, where he outlined all the principles and dogmas of existentialism, but many people could not master these treatises and would never know about their content. Then the philosopher turned into a writer and in his work reflected the reflection of the post-war generation, which perceived the world around so painfully.

History of creation

The idea for the work was formed in 1937, that is, it took about three years to write it. In his notebook, Albert Camus sketched out a schematic description of his future work:

Story: a man who doesn't want to make excuses. He prefers the idea that others have about him. He dies, content with the knowledge that he was right. The futility of this consolation

The composition of the novel (or story, there is no consensus on this matter) consists of three parts, the author mentioned this in his notes in August 1937. The first tells about the background of the hero: who he is, how he lives, what he does with his time. In the second, a crime occurs. But the most important part is the final one, where Meursault rebels against any compromise with the prevailing morality and prefers to leave everything as it is - not to try to save himself.

Many researchers find similarities between “The Stranger” and Camus’s first major work of art, “The Happy Death”: plot twists, names of characters, and some subtle details are repeated. Moreover, the writer transferred some fragments without changing either the content or the form. It should be noted that among the possible titles of the book there were such options as: “Happy Man”, “Ordinary Man”, “Indifferent”.

"The Stranger" was first published in 1942. It immediately captured the attention of the public and was loved by them. Now this book is the hallmark of French existential literature.

Camus used the composition of the novel “The Red and the Black” by Stendhal. The works are divided into two parts, climaxes and philosophical intensity - scenes in the cells. Meursault is the antipode of Sorel: he neglects his career and women, he kills, and does not attempt to kill, by accident, and not on purpose, he does not justify himself. But both of them are romantics, closely connected with nature and sensitive to it.

"The Stranger" by Albert Camus

The summary of the story can be conveyed in just a few words: this is the story of a strange young man who committed a murder because of the bright rays of the sun. A more detailed description, characterization of the hero and analysis of the work are presented below. Features of Albert Camus's book "The Stranger": the narration is told in the first person, the hero talks about events from his life impartially. Even when it comes to murder.

A writer once said: “In our society, anyone who does not cry at his mother’s funeral can be sentenced to death.” This is the idea of the book “The Stranger” by Albert Camus. The summary is presented according to the following plan:

At my mother's funeral.
Marie.
Raymond.
Indifference.
Murder.
Arrest.
On death row.

Meaning of the name

The title of the story is intriguing; it was not often that works, especially those of those years, were called only one adjective. The title of the work “The Outsider” is an indication of the peculiarity of the main character: he treats the world around him detachedly, separately, as if what is happening anywhere and by anyone does not bother him, as an outsider. He has somewhere to go, here he temporarily, idly and indifferently contemplates what is, and does not feel any emotions other than the consequences of physical sensations. He is a random passer-by who is not affected by anything.

His detachment is most clearly expressed in his attitude towards his mother. He describes in detail how hot it was on the day of her funeral, but does not reveal his sadness in a word. Meursault is not indifferent to her, he simply lives not by socially significant values, but by sensations, moods and feelings, like a primitive man. The logic of his behavior is revealed in his refusal of the promotion offer. It is more important for him to see the sea than to earn more. In this act, he once again demonstrates how alien to him is the consumerist and sometimes sentimental philosophy of modern society.

Brief Analysis

The story that Albert Camus wrote (“The Stranger”) was read greedily by a generation of readers deprived of a future and considered Meursault their own hero. The peculiarities of the existence of the author's contemporaries were the same: impersonality, rejection of lies even for their own benefit.

The story is clearly divided into two parts, which overlap with each other. The second part is a distorting mirror of the first. Reflected in the mirror, as Camus wanted, he is an outsider. A man without roots. A man who came from nowhere and goes to nowhere. Even the brief content makes it clear that the composition and plot are linear. Camus (“The Stranger” is a work that carries an idea, however, a very deep one) wrote his creation in such a way that it turned out to be understandable to many. The main character's reaction to what is happening is the absence of any reaction. That is, in terms of worldview, Camus’s hero is an outsider; there are no responses to events in him. He is not emotionally involved in any of them as an alien.

In Camus’s story “The Stranger,” analysis of the text is possible at two semantic levels—social and metaphysical. The first reflects reality and the emerging reaction of others, while the second breaks away from reality and floats into the inner world of the protagonist. Who is an outsider for Camus? A brief mention that Meursault loves to look at the sky already makes the hero close to the reader, who is not alien to romanticism. This means that the author understands and loves his hero.

What is this book about?

The scene is Algeria, at that time a colony of France. Office worker Meursault receives notice of his mother's death. She lived out her life in an almshouse, and he goes there to say goodbye to her. However, the hero does not experience any special feelings, as his indifferent tone eloquently communicates. He mechanically performs the necessary rituals, but cannot even squeeze out tears. Afterwards the man returns home, and from the description of his life we learn that he is absolutely indifferent to everything that is dear to the average person: career (he refuses a promotion in order not to leave the sea), family values (he doesn’t care if he gets married with Marie or not), friendship (when his neighbor tells him about her, he doesn’t understand what they’re talking about), etc.

The lack of emotion is expressed not by the narrator himself, but by the style of his presentation, because the story in “The Outsider” is told from his point of view. Immediately after his mother's funeral, he gets a girlfriend and takes her to the cinema. At the same time, he builds relationships with his neighbor, who shares with him the most frank details of his personal life. Raymond supported a local woman, but they had a disagreement about money, and her lover beat her. The victim's brother, according to the customs of his ancestors, vowed to take revenge on the offender, and since then the impulsive man has been under surveillance. He enlists the support of Meursault, and together with the ladies they go to the dacha of a mutual friend. But even there the pursuers did not retreat, and the main character just met one of them under the scorching rays of the sun. Just the day before, he borrowed a pistol from a friend. He shot the Arab with it.

The third part takes place in captivity. Meursault was arrested and an investigation is underway. A judicial official interrogates the criminal with passion, not understanding the motive for the murder. In prison, the hero understands that it is useless to make excuses, and no one will understand him. But the reader learns the true meaning of his behavior only in the part where the sinner had to repent to the priest. The spiritual father came to the prisoner with a sermon, but he began to become inflamed and categorically deny the religious paradigm of thinking. His ideology is concentrated in this confession.

"The Stranger", analysis of Camus' story

Albert Camus' story "The Stranger" was written in 1940 and published in 1942. Analysis of this work, as the most striking and famous, helps to trace all the main ideas of the author’s work.

The plot line of “The Outsider” (as, by the way, the composition) is linear. The story consists of two parts. In the first part, the Frenchman Meursault, who lives in Algeria, receives news of the death of his mother and arrives at the funeral. The hero spends the next day in Algeria with a lady named Marie, who becomes his girlfriend. Neighbor-pimp Raymond invites Marie and Meursault to spend the weekend on the seashore, but on the way they notice that they are being followed by Arabs, one of whom is the brother of Raymond's former mistress. On vacation, a strike occurs between the Arabs and Meursault's friends, which ends in nothing. After some time, the hero, seeing one of the Arabs on the beach, kills him. The second part is the case of Meursault, which dragged on for 11 months, as a result of which he was sentenced to death.

Despite the simple plot, the author's idea is very deep. What is important to us is not the storylines, but the reaction of the main character to what is happening around him, or rather, the absence of any reaction. Camus paints a person who does not experience traditional, socially accepted emotions. He doesn't cry at his mother's funeral, he doesn't care about Marie's proposal to get married, he doesn't feel anything during the murder. The trial seems dreary and drawn out to the main character; he does not pay attention to what is happening.

The story has two semantic levels - social and metaphysical. The first level is reality and the reaction of others. The second level is divorced from the real component; it reveals Meursault’s inner world.

The main characters and their characteristics

Meursault is the main character of the novel “The Outsider,” a young man, an office worker living in a French colony. His last name can be read not as Mersault, but as Meursault - which translated means “death” and “sun”. He is rejected and misunderstood by society as a romantic character, but his loneliness is a proudly conscious choice. In addition, he is united with romanticism by unity with the natural world: they act and live in unison, and for the sake of feeling this harmony, he does not want to leave the sea. Camus believed that man is absolutely alone in this world, and his life path does not have the meaning laid down by God. Nature is not for him, not against him, she is simply indifferent to him (and Meursault is likened to it). There is no higher mind, there is only the will of the individual to recognize the chaos and randomness of the universe, and also to find meaning for oneself in action or reaction, in general, to diversify one’s existence. This is exactly what Sisyphus, the hero of a philosophical essay by the same author, did. He dragged the stone up the mountain in vain and knew it, but he received satisfaction from his rebellion against the gods, not pacified by their punishment. The writer put the same idea into the image of the Outsider: he is content with the knowledge that he is right and meets death with indifference. This is a logical ending, because all his actions occur as if automatically, dispassionately and unconsciously. Automatism in the work is divided into the reasons that gave rise to it: physiological habit and social tradition. It is precisely the main character who has reason number one, he accurately records natural phenomena and reacts with it, like a domino element. Instead of reasoning, he describes in detail and monotonously the heat, the coolness of the sea, the pleasure of contemplating the heavens, etc. Camus aggravates the protocol style with a demonstrative tautology: in the second paragraph “I’ll leave by a two-hour bus and still be there before dark”; in the third paragraph: “I left on a two-hour bus”). But the narrator’s bare, dry enumeration means not only the absence of meaning, but also what is given to a person instead of meaning - automatism - what is the apathy that binds him. He writes like an automaton: unartistically, illogically and without trying to please. He is best characterized by the repeated quote “I don’t care.” The only thing he cares about is the joys of the flesh: food, sleep, relationships with Marie.
Marie is an ordinary pretty girl, a colleague of the main character. She meets him on the beach, and later they begin an affair. She is pretty, slim, and loves to swim. A young woman dreams of getting married and building her life; traditional values dominate her worldview. She clings to Meursault, tries to cling to him, she does not have the courage and intelligence to admit to herself that her lover is one with nature in a state of indifference to people and passions. Therefore, Marie does not notice the oddities of her boyfriend and, even after the murder he committed, does not want to let go of her rosy illusions about marriage. In her image, the author showed how limited, petty and ordinary human aspirations are, suppressed by a conservative paradigm of thinking, where an imaginary order is nestled in a sand castle.
Raymond is the “friend” of the main character. He gets along with people easily, but not strongly, he is sociable, active and talkative. This is a reckless, frivolous man with criminal inclinations. He beats a woman, buys her love, carries a weapon and is not afraid to use it. His protest behavior, violating all the canons and rules of the country where he is located, also expresses a certain thought. The author sees in him Meursault's double, who, unlike the original, has dulled intuition and no connection with nature. He fills the void created in an apathetic friend who does not recognize anything with base passions and forbidden entertainments. Raymond is embedded in society and plays by its rules, although he contradicts them. He is not aware of existential nausea and does not openly rebel, since there are still barriers in his mind that contain the essence.
A priest is a religious idea embodied in a purely symbolic image. The spiritual father preaches divine predestination, imposes a clear distinction between good and evil, indicates the existence of a fair heavenly court, the gates of heaven, and the like. He calls on Meursault to repent and believe in the possibility of atonement for sin and eternal salvation, which infuriates the prisoner. An orderly world order, where everything is weighed and thought out, does not fit in with what Camus experienced and saw in his lifetime. Therefore, he believed that the idea of God had lost its relevance, and it was no longer possible for humanity to deceive itself by his “God’s will.” In support of this idea, the philosopher describes an accidental murder, not motivated or planned in any way, moreover, not mourned and not causing repentance and justification.
Image of the sun . Among the pagans, the sun (horos, hors or yarilo) is the god of fertility. This is a very capricious and cruel god, who, for example, melted the Snow Maiden in a folk Slavic legend (which Ostrovsky later played in his play). The pagans were highly dependent on climatic conditions and were afraid of angering the luminary, whose help was necessary for a good harvest. It was this that forced Meursault to kill; the hero is also attached to nature and dependent on it: he is the only one who watches it. Existentialism is closely related to paganism in the thesis “existence is primary.” At the moment of the fight, the sun became, as it were, an illumination for a person, a borderline state that shed light on his worldview.

Metaphysical and social meaning of A. Camus’s novel “The Stranger”

In literary terms, the 20th century became the century of spiritual search. The abundance of literary movements that emerged at that time is closely related to the abundance of new philosophical doctrines throughout the world. A striking example of this is French existentialism, represented by the outstanding thinker and writer, 1957 Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus. Existentialism (from the Latin existentia - existence) is one of the directions in the philosophy of subjective idealism. The main category in existentialism is the concept of existence, which is identified with the subjective experiences of a person and is declared primary in relation to being. Existentialism opposes society to a person as something alien, hostile, which destroys his individuality and limits personal freedom. According to existentialists, the main goal of scientific progress should not be the development of intelligence, but emotional education.

The story “The Outsider” is a kind of confession of the main character. All the space in it is occupied by a single choice, which is made by the only hero of the novel. Meursault talks about himself all the time. This constant “I” emphasizes the lack of community of people, “collective history”, and the need for other people.

Camus’s hero is “not of this world” because he belongs to a completely different world - the world of nature. It is no coincidence that at the moment of the murder he feels himself to be part of the cosmic landscape, suggesting that his movements were directed by the sun itself. But even before this moment, Meursault appears as a natural person who can look at the sky for a long time and without any reason. Meursault is like an alien on our planet, an alien, and his home planet is the sea and the sun. Meursault is a romantic, but a “romantic existentialist.” The blinding sun of Algeria illuminates the actions of the hero, which cannot be reduced to social motivations for behavior, to a rebellion against formal morality. The murder in The Outsider is another "unmotivated crime." Meursault is on a par with Raskolnikov. The difference between them is that Meursault no longer asks about the boundaries of the possible - it goes without saying that for him everything is possible. He is absolutely free, “everything is permitted” to him. “Everything is permitted” by Ivan Karamazov is the only expression of freedom,” Albert Camus himself believed (from his youth he was engrossed in Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Malraux).

The title of Camus' story is symbolic. It captures the protagonist’s attitude. And the narration, conducted in the first person, gives the author the opportunity to acquaint readers with his way of thinking, to understand the essence of his “outsiderness”. The fact is that Meursault is indifferent to life in its usual sense. He discards all its dimensions except the only one - his own existence. In this existence, the usual norms do not apply: telling a woman that you love her; cry at your mother's funeral; think about the consequences of your actions. Here you can not pretend and lie, but say and do what existence itself leads to, without thinking about tomorrow, because only psychological motivations are the only true motivations for human behavior. Camus's hero does not solve any social issues; does not protest against anything. For him there are no socio-historical circumstances at all. The only thing Meursault is sure of is that death will soon come to him.

“Meursault does not recognize the most important commandments and therefore has no right to expect mercy.” But he is absolutely indifferent to this, because he knows that nothing matters, that life is not worth “clinging to”: “Well, I’ll die. Earlier than others, that's for sure. But everyone knows that life is not worth clinging to... In essence, it doesn’t matter much whether you die at thirty or at seventy - in both cases, other people, men and women, will live, and this has been going on for many millennia.”

Meursault does not live - he exists, without a “plan”, without an idea, from case to case, from one moment to another. In “The Stranger Explained” (1943), J. P. Sartre emphasized how the narrative is constructed: “Every phrase is a momentary moment... every phrase is like an island. And we move in leaps and bounds from phrase to phrase, from non-existence to non-existence.”

Death as a manifestation of the absurdity of existence is the basis for the liberation of Camus’s hero from responsibility to people. He is liberated, does not depend on anyone, and does not want to associate himself with anyone. He is an outsider in relation to life, which seems to him an absurd collection of all kinds of rituals; he refuses to perform these rituals. Much more important than any principles and obligations, duty and conscience for Meursault is that at the time he committed the murder it was unbearably hot, and his head hurt terribly, that “the sun sparkled on the steel of the knife... and Meursault seemed to have been hit in the forehead with a long sharp blade, the beam burned his eyelashes , dug into the pupils and it hurt my eyes.” Thus, the conflict in Camus’ story is located on the axis of the collision between human automatons performing rituals and a living being who does not want to perform them. A tragic outcome is inevitable here. It is difficult to reconcile one’s own egoistic existence and the movement of the human masses making history. Meursault resembles both a pagan liberated personality who fell out of the bosom of the church, and an extra person, and an outsider, who took shape in literature in the second half of the 20th century.

Camus himself pointed out the double—metaphysical and social—meaning of the novel, explaining Meursault’s strange behavior primarily by his reluctance to submit to life “according to fashion catalogues.”

Camus saw the plot of “The Stranger” in “distrust of formal morality.” The clash of a “just a person” with a society that forcibly “catalogs” everyone, places everyone within the framework of rules, established norms, generally accepted views, becomes open and irreconcilable in the second part of the novel. Meursault went beyond this framework - he is tried and condemned.

The image of the “outsider”, created by Albert Camus, gave rise to many different interpretations in his time. In the circles of the wartime European intelligentsia, he was perceived as a new “Ecclesiastes” (this was facilitated by the author’s statement about his hero: “The only Christ we deserve”). French criticism drew a parallel between the “outsider” and the youth of 1939 and 1969, since both were a kind of outsiders and in rebellion they were looking for a way out of loneliness.

Parallels can be drawn endlessly, because history contains many examples when a person acutely felt his loneliness and restlessness, suffering from the “irregularity”, “curvature” of the world around him. These feelings arise whenever there is general alienation in society, when human existence is reduced to the indifferent implementation of certain norms and rules, and anyone who refuses to follow the established order, not accepting selfishness, indifference and formalism, becomes a “stranger,” an outcast, “ to outsiders."

Issues

The questions of the search for the meaning of life and nihilism in the novel “The Outsider” are the main problems raised by the author. Camus is a thinker of the 20th century, when the collapse of moral norms and values in the minds of millions of Europeans represented the facts of our time. Of course, nihilism, as a consequence of the crisis of religious tradition, manifested itself in different cultures, but history has never known such an acute conflict, such a global destruction of all foundations. Nihilism of the 20th century is the derivation of all consequences from the “death of God.” Promethean revolt, heroic “self-overcoming”, aristocracy of the “chosen” - these themes of Nietzsche were picked up and modified by existentialist philosophers. The Thinker gave them new life in The Myth of Sisyphus and continued working with them in The Stranger.
Crisis of faith. The author considers religious faith to be a lie, justified only by the fact that it is supposedly for the good. Faith reconciles a person with the meaninglessness of existence dishonestly, taking away the clarity of vision, closing his eyes to the truth. Christianity interprets suffering and death as a person's debt to God, but does not provide evidence that people are debtors. They are obliged to take at their word the dubious assertion that children's children... are responsible for the sins of their fathers. What did the fathers do if everyone pays, and the debt only grows over the years? Camus thinks clearly and distinctly, rejecting the ontological argument - from the fact that we have the idea of God, we cannot deduce his existence. “The absurd has much more in common with common sense,” the author wrote in 1943. “It is associated with nostalgia, longing for a lost paradise. From the presence of this nostalgia we cannot derive the lost paradise itself.” The requirements for clarity of vision presuppose honesty with oneself, the absence of any tricks, the rejection of humility, and loyalty to direct experience, into which one cannot bring anything beyond what is given.
Problems of permissiveness and authenticity of choice. However, from absurdity follows the denial of moral and ethical standards. Camus concludes: “everything is permitted.” The only value becomes the completeness of the experience. Chaos does not need to be destroyed by suicide or a “leap” of faith, it needs to be eliminated as completely as possible. There is no original sin in man, and the only scale for assessing its existence is the authenticity of choice.
Problems arising from the absurdity of reality: the unfair and frankly stupid sentence of Meursault, based on the fact that he did not cry at the funeral, the absurd revenge of the Arabs, which led to the death of innocent people, etc.

Option 2

Today we will talk about a more iconic writer - Albert Camus, who with his debut novel made the Nobel Commission shudder. In the novel "The Stranger", Camus touches on the problems of existentialism. Under the influence of thoughts about his own existence and the hostility of those around him, the main character slowly falls into the abyss of his own thoughts, without even imagining how to get out of such a crisis.

The feeling of loneliness, the victory of death over life, the absurdity of what is happening are just small themes that Camus puts forward in opposition to modernity. In this work he pushes his hero to the fore, forcing him to speak with his own ego. Observing the whole absurd picture, we understand that the youthful maximalism of the existentialists is not going anywhere, but is only acquiring forms that are more hostile to society.

Meursault, the main character of the book, lives in his own world, which is fenced off from other people, because he tries not to get close to people, so as not to lose the last remnants of a person in himself. For Meursault, the physical world has no meaning. All these people seem stupid and funny to him, so he turns his attention only to nature, to the divine reality surrounding him. And he wanders around it like a terribly oppressed energy.

Such a young man is not interested in relationships, and does not care at all about politics. Because he understands perfectly well that he exists only in his thoughts and images. Because of his detachment and “outsideness” to the world, it is difficult to even call him a person, because he lives only in his personal space. The space of burdened thoughts.

This novel certainly opened the door to many other areas of art. Albert Camus can certainly be considered a master of his craft, because he sensitively understood the mood of that time, as if foreshadowing imminent tragedies on the world stage.

Prehistory

If we consider the historical line in culture, we can distinguish three concepts that classify all works of art:

Pre-modern - covers the period before the Renaissance. The creators of that era placed great emphasis on the divine power, which, in the opinion of many, controlled human lives.

Modernism - when European society began to introduce into fashion various directions that were radically different from the previous ones, an emphasis on one’s own “I” became established in art trends.

Postmodern - at the beginning of the twentieth century, Friedrich Nietzsche began work on his works “As Spoke Zarathustra” and “Antichrist”, he emphasized that everything inside a person had long since died and absolutely nothing remained. It is worth noting that Nietzsche adopted most of his ideas from Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.

When the tendency arose in art to expose one’s spiritual problems and intrigues, eminent and iconic personalities entered the arena of writers - Albert Camus, Hermann Hesse, Jean Paul Sartre and many others.

What is the meaning of the story?

If Nietzsche offered a myth of “eternal return” to humanity, which had lost its Christian faith, then Camus offers a myth of self-affirmation - with maximum clarity of mind, with an understanding of the fate that has fallen. A person must bear the burden of life without resigning himself to it - dedication and the fullness of existence are more important than all peaks, an absurd person chooses rebellion against all gods. This idea formed the basis of The Outsider.

Albert Camus' anti-clerical rebellion and polemic with Christianity are expressed in the final scene, where we do not recognize Meursault: he almost attacked the priest. The confessor imposes on the criminal a different understanding of the universe - ordered and mythological. He preaches traditional religious tenets, where man is a servant of God who must live, choose and die according to his commandments. However, the hero, like the author, opposes this value system with his absurd consciousness. He does not believe that in the accumulation of incoherent and scattered elements there is some kind of providence, and even translated by people into feelings. No force punishes or rewards, there is no justice and harmony, all these are just abstractions invented by a helpful brain in order to diversify the aimless earthly path to nowhere. The meaning of the story “The Outsider” is the affirmation of a new worldview, where man is abandoned by God, the world is indifferent to him, and his very appearance is an interweaving of accidents. There is no predestination, there is existence, a tangled knot that guides the threads of life. What happened here and now is what matters, because we will no longer have another place and time. We must accept it as it is, without creating false idols and vale of heaven. Fate does not make us, we make it, as well as many factors that do not depend on each other and are controlled by chance.

The hero comes to the conclusion that life is not worth fighting for, since sooner or later he is still destined to leave the world into oblivion, and it doesn’t matter when this happens. He will die misunderstood, alone and in the same cell, but named differently. But his thoughts have become clearer, and he will face death calmly and courageously. He has achieved an understanding of the world and is ready to leave it.

The author himself commented on the main character in the novel as follows: “He is the Jesus that our humanity deserves.” He draws an analogy with Christ, because society does not accept both heroes and takes their life for this. In essence, their verdict is the unwillingness of people to understand their idea. It’s easier for them to kill the mission than to strain their brains and souls. However, the biblical martyr is too ideal for our world and is not worth it. He is divorced from reality to the same extent as his utopian ideas about equality and justice, bequeathed by the Heavenly Father. The one who really suits fans of public execution is Meursault, because at least he doesn’t care what happens to them, and this is worse than the sacrificial love of Christ, but better than the cruelty and aggression of the executioners. He brings to humanity not bright hopes of resurrection, but a harsh and uncompromising destruction of his way of thinking, which does not bring any joy other than clarity of vision, existential insight. Therefore, his tormentors are quite rightly angry and indignant, trying to strangle the harsh truth of life.