Existentialism, unlike cubism, surrealism, or impressionism, was not a French creation. The pioneers of existentialism were mostly Germans, Danes, and Spaniards. However, the credit of the present popularity of the philosophy rests mostly to the French writers. Mostly existential literature has been scarred with the brand of being pessimistic and abstract. Existentialist literature is often characterized by the absurdity of the existence of man, and how a man often dwells on the ugly and dark sides of things.
Further, existentialist literature contends that life is more often than not is marked by pain and misery. These literature are often found to demonstrate scathing anger vented against God or Fate, and constantly denouncing the existence of either. This essay argues that existentialist literature, usually adorned with fear and pessimism, is a place where one demonstrates indifferent or escapist protagonists. The paper will first discuss various existentialist literature and then analyze Albert Camus’s The Stranger as an existentialist novel.
Before we start an inquiry into existentialist literature, it is essential to understand what is existentialism as a philosophy. Existentialism as philosophy begins from the point of individual existence. Everything in and around man stems from this single, beginning idea.
Hence, the potent of the idea is that the philosophy is based on the individual and not the universe. Existentialist thought and philosophy are based in the literary vein as those by Nietzsche Kierkegaard. The fundamental questions that an existentialist asks are – who and what I am and how I shall live my life. These basic questions reverberate in the novels and literary creations of the existentialist genre.
The existentialist novel does not paint a rubicund picture of life. The protagonists of the novel are often indifferent and accept the sordidness of life with an unusual complacency. Nothing is depicted with intensified or glorified energy like evil in the works of Proust or love in novels of Lawrence. Instead, existentialist literature aims at describing the man at his basest instincts. The beginners of the existentialist school of thought were Balzac and Baudelaire (Peyre 21).
The ideals of existentialism could have been observed in writings of Sophocles and Seneca who have often described the “nothingness” of man after their “brief existence” (Peyre 21). From these writers, we may pass on to more modern writers like Fredrick Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, and William Faulkner, who were the pioneers of the tradition of existentialists as we know today. Existentialist literati like Sartre, Borges, Kundera, Pamuk, and others have followed similar depiction of the life that is pessimistic and desolate, and the protagonists are escapist cynics.
The novel The Stranger written by Albert Camus is an example of existential novel. The characters of existential novel that are explicitly found in the novel are discussed in the following paragraphs. First, the essay looks into the character of the protagonist, Meursault. Conventionally, the protagonist of an existential novel, is depicted as an indifferent, jaded, complacent, person who is cynical and shows abject dejection of any kind of institution.
Protagonists in existential novels play a crucial role in exhibiting the main theme of the novels. Similar has been the case of Meursault in Camus’s The Stranger. Meursault’s status as a stranger arises from his being detached, not only from his own emotions but also from that of others. This state of dispassion makes Meursault unable to feel any humane connections. His detachment from anything social is apparent in his inability to engage in conversation with others or in his inability to adjust to social situations.
The reader is acutely aware of Meursault’s inability to forge bonds with others; however, in the initial part of the novel, the other characters show no sign of astonishment at his behavior, which they perceive to be normal. Both Raymond Sintès and Marie Cardona consider Meursault as a desirable friend and fiancĂ© correspondingly.
Hence, Camus deliberately creates a divergence in the understanding of Meursault’s character between the reader and the characters. This becomes apparent with the absence of verbal communication of Meursault with other characters.
For instance, Meursault’s relation with Marie is marked with non-conversation. Marie asks Meursault if he loves her: “I told her that it didn’t mean anything but that I didn’t think so” (Camus 35). However, Marie somehow brushes off this negativity in Meursault’s character and engages in her cheerfulness. The reader is surprised to find Marie seeking a proposal of marriage from Meursault in their next encounter.
The scene described by Camus is a remarkable example of existentialism – the marked disinterest so characteristic of existential protagonists – Meursault not attempting to please Marie and her on the hand, trying to induce expression of love and commitment in him. The lack of rhetoric or flattery in his conversation demonstrates the typical sense of detachment:
I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her. … Then she pointed out that marriage was a serious thing, I said, “No.” she stopped talking for a minute and looked at me without saying anything. She spoke. She just wanted to know if I would have accepted the same proposal from another woman, with whom I was involved in the same way. I said, “Sure.” (Camus 41-42)
Meursault agreed to marry but was reluctant to feign enthusiasm even to impress Marie. The conversation described by Marie shows her continuous failure to evoke a minimal expression of interest or passion from Meursault in favor of marriage, as he remained emotionally reticent. Meursault’s answers are always in single words or silence.
To Marie’s repeated expression of her love and passion for him, Meursault says that this attraction as just momentary and would fade with time and adds, “I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t have anything to add” (42).
The pattern of communication with Raymond was marked with Meursault’s disinterest silence. Meursault writes a letter to the latter’s former mistress. The whole point of the scene was to demonstrate Raymond’s intention to strike up a conversation with Meursault. Raymond’s real intention was to induce Meursault to support him in his plan:
Then he told me that he wanted to ask my advice about the whole business because I was a man, I knew about things, I could help him out, and then we’d be pals. I did not say anything, and he asked me again if I wanted to be pals. (Camus 29)
Even to this note of friendship, Meursault’s reply was neutral: “I don’t make any difference to me” (Camus 29). Raymond interprets this to be his consent and “seemed pleased” (29). Then, after Meursault had written the letter, Raymond repeats his question, if they were friends, and this time Meursault speaks his assent and simply says, “yes.” It is hard not to notice that even in this relation, Meursault simply remains neutral, and it is Raymond, like Marie, who takes the initiative to forward the relation.
Meursault is the best possible example of an existentialist protagonist. He does not lie or feign but simply does not feel. That is why, when he is arrested for murder, his unfeelingness infuriates others and makes them question his humanity. The lawyer assigned to defend Meursault interrogates him and is infuriated due to his indifference to everything, including God. He shouts at Meursault, “Do you want my life to be meaningless?” (Camus 69)
The only reply he could garner from Meursault as a reply to his enraged outburst was, “As far I could see, it didn’t have anything to do with me, and I told him so” (Camus 69). The jury and the judges condemned him to death only due to his indifference to everything, and not because he had committed a murder.
Overall, Meursault is an existential character, has no interest in worldly life, and does not adhere to conventional social customs. The very first line of the book demonstrates the extent of his disassociation with customary life: “today mother died. Or perhaps yesterday, I don’t know, I have received a telegram from the nursing home.” (Camus 1) The whole novel moves with the same lifeless monotone of Meursault creating an existential novel. Meursault epitomizes.
Works Cited
Camus, Albert. The Stranger. London: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012. Print.
Peyre, Henri. “Existentialism-a Literature of Despair?.” Yale French Studies 1 (1948): 21-32. Print.