Corporal Influences on Meursault’s Existence
Within The Stranger, a serious fiction written by French author Albert Camus,
Meursault’s actions are completely dependent on his physical state and highly reflect the
principals of an existentialist. For example, while at his mother’s funeral he seems less
concerned with the demise of his mother than of the fatigue resulting from his lack of rest.
Also, while attending his mother’s vigil, his behavior is quite peculiar in that he is
extremely nervous and tense. Lastly, the scene where he kills the Arab is largely affected
by his physical sway.
While at his mother’s funeral he is apparently more distraught over his fatigue and
at some points even his level of annoyance than of the recent death of Maman. Camus
notes that “ When she’d gone, the caretaker said, “I’ll leave you alone.”... Having this
presence breathing down my neck was starting to annoy me... I could feel myself getting
sleepy”(7). Meursault, as well as many other existentialists, views death as something
which is very absurd, which has evolved into the idea of absurdism. This corresponds
perfectly with the fundamental beliefs of most existentialists. A quote from an
existentialist website very clearly relates this absurdity through theatre, thus explaining it:
“The two dramatists who best reveal this process of evolution are Samuel Beckett and Tom
Stoppard. Using Beckett as a starting point and Stoppard as an ending point, one gets a
small sense of the ways in which absurdist theater has changed and keeps changing. In
comparing and contrasting these two dramatists' works, specifically changes in structure
and metaphorical intent, the evolution of absurdism ventures beyond its original borders
into a new and distinct realistic theater. Of the three plays which clearly reveal this
evolution, Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot will be addressed first, followed by another
one of his plays, Endgame, and finally a discussion of Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Are Dead. All of these plays metaphorically address the issue of "ending"
or "dying" and through such a focus offer us a clear example of one way in which
absurdism has evolved.” The death of his mother doesn’t bother him emotionally
whatsoever, and clearly, he only cares about the way in which he feels during the present
time. Hence, he experiences no mourning process as a typical person would. However, the
way in which he acts is very typical of an existentialist.
While staying overnight at his mothers vigil, he displays very odd behavior. This is
once again due to the fact that he goes through no mourning process. He respects his
mother and feels grateful towards her for raising him as anyone would, however, the loss of
her is very insignificant dealing with his daily life. It is also to be found that during the
vigil, Meursault smokes a cigarette. “Then I felt like having a smoke. But I hesitated,
because I didn’t know if I could do it with Maman right there. I thought about it; it didn’t
matter. I offered the caretaker a cigarette and we smoked.” (Camus 9) Once again he
reacts to his physical feelings rather than any emotions that he may be experiencing or a
social standard. The vigil makes him very tense, his anxiety builds which produces a
certain nervous tension causes him to smoke the cigarette. “ I’d never noticed what huge
stomachs old women can have... When they’d sat down, most of them looked at me and
nodded awkwardly, their lips sucked in my their toothless mouths, so that I couldn’t tell if
they were greeting me or if it was just a nervous tic. I think they were greeting me... For a
second I had the ridiculous feeling that they were there to judge me.” (Camus 10)
A very critical aspect of the novel, the murder of the Arab also deals with the bodily
needs of Meursault. Most significantly the sun, as it plays a key role in his actions concerning this portion of the book. When he confronts the Arab on the beach for the final
time, he is very exhausted and sweating profusely from the radiant heat of the sun. The
drop of sweat into his eye is what actually causes him to fire the gun which in turn kills the
Arab. “ All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my forehead and,
indistinctly, the dazzling spear flying up from the knife in front of me. The scorching blade
slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes. That’s when everything began to
reel. The sea carried up a thick, fiery breath. It seemed to me as if the sky split open from
one end to the other to rain down fire. My whole being tensed and I squeezed my hand
around the revolver. The trigger gave; I felt the smooth underside of the butt; and there, in
that noise, sharp and deafening at the same time, is where it all started.” (Camus 59)
Certainly Meursault was contemplating over whether or not he should murder the Arab, but
the extreme heat from the sun, the reflection off of the Arab’s knife, and finally the drop of
sweat from his brow all combined to produce an absolutely unbearable situation for
Meursault. This forced his body to tense, and the gun to fire.
Basic existentialism agrees with the way in which Meursault acts entirely.
Repetitively through the novel, Meursault’s actions depend specifically on how he is
feeling physically at any given time. Whether it is the situation of his mothers vigil, where
his is concerned about how others are viewing him, causing him to be nervous and
annoyed. Even if is the killing of the Arab where the overbearing heat from the sun causes
his body to break down. Consistently he is acting purely based on physical needs and
attributes. Noted by Thody “Meursault, the central figure of The Outsider, is characterized
by his complete indifference to everything except immediate physical sensations. He
receives the news of his mother's death merely with faint annoyance at having to ask for
two days' leave of absence from the office where he works. At her funeral he has no sadness
or regret, and feels only the physical inconveniences of watching over her body and
following the hearse to the cemetery under the burning sun. He notes automatically and
objectively everything which strikes his eye: the bright new screws in the walnut-stained
coffin, the colours of the nurse's clothes, the large stomachs of the old ladies who had been
his mother's closest friends, the whiteness of the roots in her grave.”