The Stranger

“I saw her point; either way one was in for it.”

The nurse points out to Meursault that, in the hot weather, he can move neither too fast nor too slow. Whatever he chooses to do, he will suffer. Meursault’s inability to adjust to hot weather is a reflection of the nature of existence. Whatever Meursault does, he worries that he will suffer as a result. His decisions and actions have no real meaning, as he feels no investment or satisfaction from the world. Whatever he does, in the heat of the day or in life in general, he expects the results to be equally as negative.

“So I turned my head and lazily sniffed the smell of brine that Marie’s head had left on the pillow.”

Meursault’s dislocation is emotional rather than physical. Sensory feedback, such as smells and images, helps him feel things. The scent of Marie on his pillow or the sight of her in a dress elicit a reaction from him, whereas more emotional, abstract ideas do not. Meursault reacts to Marie’s lingering perfume in a way he does not react to family bereavement, indicating how much more he values physical, tangible information over emotional concepts.

“Really, nothing in my life had changed.”

Meursault buries his mother and returns to work. More than anything, he is surprised by how little has changed. Meursault is caught in a rut where he struggles to engage with the world, but he is aware that he should be moved in some way by his mother’s death. However, Meursault’s capacity to feel nothing occasionally surprises even himself. He recognizes the disparity between his own reaction and the reaction that might be expected from a typical person. Meursault compares himself to this imagined normality and is shocked by his lack of a reaction. He is correct in that nothing in his life has changed, but he is still surprised by how little has changed.

“Twice a day, at eleven and six, the old fellow takes his dog for a walk, and for eight years that walk has never varied.”

The novel’s characters are caught in the same cycles. Meursault goes to work and feels nothing, Sintes seduces women and then abandons them, and Salamano walks his dog every day. All the characters resent these cycles and do not enjoy them, but they cannot escape. The old man walking the dog complains and curses constantly, but when his dog runs away, he is dejected. The repetitious cycles may seem meaningless and unsatisfying, but they are all these characters have. Without this repetition, their lives are even more pointless.

“I didn’t care one way or the other, but as he seemed so set on it, I nodded and said, ‘Yes.’” 

Meursault’s natural detachment leads him into difficult situations. He only thinks about those in his immediate presence, and the idea of lasting repercussions does not occur to him. He agrees to write a letter for Sintes that will have serious consequences for Sintes’s mistress. At the time, Meursault has no particular feelings on the matter but recognizes that he might make Sintes happy. Meursault’s apathy does not only affect himself. In moments such as this, his inability to comprehend cause and effect in the world affects other people, resulting in violence against Sintes’s mistress. Meursault’s callous disregard for the pain of others is a slight against his character and an example of why he is not a good person.

“I said that sort of question had no meaning, really; but I supposed I didn’t.” 

Meursault and Marie are the romantic heart of the novel, but Meursault can barely comprehend the idea of love. Marie asks whether he loves her, and Meursault cannot commit to an answer, just as he cannot commit to anything in life. The scenario illustrates how Meursault’s detachment extends beyond negative emotions like grief or suffering; he cannot bring himself to conceive of a world in which he has the potential to love. Marie’s questions try to make Meursault feel positive about the world, but even she cannot overcome his apathy.

“But she hadn’t any appetite, and I ate nearly all.”

Marie’s capacity for empathy has direct physical consequences. After Marie and Meursault see Sintes beating his mistress, Marie cannot each the food she has prepared with Meursault. The experience of violence sickens her and she loses her appetite. Meursault, however, continues to eat a big meal because the violence has no impact on him. Even in these subtle moments, Meursault’s apathy and detachment are evident.

“For some reason, I don’t know what, I began thinking of Mother.” 

Meursault hears Salamano weeping through the walls of the apartment building. The sound reminds him of his mother, but he cannot figure out why he has this response. Meursault does not investigate this feeling as he cannot comprehend of a world in which he has an emotional reaction to a loss. The sound of crying triggers Meursault’s guilt, and he recognizes the emotion, realizing that he should have felt something similar even if he cannot understand the depth of this sentiment. Meursault thinks about his mother because, deep within himself, he worries that he should have wept at her funeral.

“If you see him hanging round the house when you come back, pass me the word.” 

The group of young Algerian men follow Sintes around as a physical embodiment of his guilt. He knows that he savagely beat his mistress and now her brother wants revenge. Sintes understands this motivation and, on a fundamental level, recognizes that he is in the wrong. However, he is happy to dismiss other people’s vendettas. Sintes is self-centered and immoral. He is aware of the guilt that follows him through life, but he does not care that it exists, just as he is aware of the young Algerians but is ready to dismiss their existence.

“By and large it wasn’t an unpleasant one.” 

The standards by which Meursault judges his life exist only in a negative sense. Meursault does not strive toward a pleasant life. Instead, he is happy enough that his life in not unpleasant. This particular perspective reflects the inherent pessimism of Meursault’s worldview. As he is unable to envision a better world for himself, he is unwilling to work toward one. Meursault will never achieve happiness because he is content enough that he is not unhappy.

“I found him rather boring, but I had nothing to do and didn’t feel sleepy.” 

Meursault does not engage with the world, even when the world comes directly to him. He sits and listens to Salamano’s distressing tale about his dead wife and his missing dog, and he feels nothing. Salamano opens his heart and reveals his most private emotions, but Meursault is only present because he has “nothing to do” (37). The conversation is just a means to pass the time, as Meursault is bored and has nothing better to do.

“Marie told me I looked like a mourner at a funeral.” 

The novel begins with Meursault attending a funeral at which he does not look like a grieving son. However, he gradually grows into this role, almost by accident. A bad night’s sleep and a particularly hot day finally bring about the appearance of mourning, illustrating how Meursault’s physical environment has more of an impact on his mood than a death in the family. Marie is shocked enough to comment on Meursault’s appearance, as though he is finally demonstrating an emotion that she thought he could not.

“It would be a lowdown trick to shoot him like that, in cold blood.” 

Meursault’s comment to Sintes highlights his inherent morality but foreshadows his later crimes. Meursault wants to defuse the standoff between Sintes and the mistress’s brother, and so he tries to convince Sintes that simply shooting someone is an act of cowardice. The argument is enough to convince Sintes to hand over his pistol. However, Meursault fails to live by the same logic. Later, he shoots the same person “in cold blood” (45) and never really explains why he does it. Meursault can voice moral ideas, but these ideas are not necessarily something he believes himself. Meursault is a hypocrite who does not listen to his own words.

“And each successive shot was another loud, fateful rap on the door of my undoing.” 

Meursault does not just fire one shot. After the first shot, he pauses and then fires four more times. The pause and subsequent second volley show that Meursault is not defending himself. He has no regrets, even as he feels the weight of each gunshot. He knows that the murder will be his “undoing” (48), but he cannot stop himself. Meursault’s detachment from reality makes him feel as though he is not truly involved in his own actions, even murder.

“I was tired of repeating the same story; I felt as if I’d never talked so much in all my life before.” 

Meursault is referring to the constant cycles in which he and others are trapped. Meursault spends his life living out the same routine. He goes to work, answers Marie’s same questions, and feels the same lack of emotion. Given his level of apathy, no experience truly distinguishes itself, so he feels as though he is repeating the same day, over and over. The prison represents the end point of this process. Meursault is tired of living the same routine, particularly now that he is in jail. Meursault’s apathy is starting to grate, but he is not yet self-aware enough to break free from his cycle.

“Well, Mr. Antichrist, that’s all for the present!” 

The magistrate is a religious man who refers to Meursault as “Mr. Antichrist” (57). The comment speaks to the heretical nature of apathy. Meursault does not believe in evil in the way that the magistrate believes in God. However, to the magistrate, belief in nothing is essentially evil. The magistrate cannot comprehend of a world without religion, and to him, such a world seems to be the work of the devil. Meursault is the antichrist not because he murdered a man but because he does not believe in God. This is framed as an absurd and hypocritical perspective, revealing the flaws in the magistrate’s worldview and the social order he represents.

“I told them I’d killed an Arab, and they kept mum for a while.” 

Meursault confronts a group of Algerian Arabs in prison and tells them that he murdered someone who looks just like them. The comment is not really a brag or an attempt to intimidate the other prisoners, but it does suggest that Meursault acknowledges the racial hierarchies that exist in Algiers. He is French Algerian, whereas as they are Algerian Arabs; he is a colonizer, while they are the colonized people. Meursault murdered one of them, but they still provide him with help and assistance in the jail cell. No Algerian Arab is given a name or a great deal of narrative attention, but these small gestures—especially given the harsh treatment from the European residents of Algiers—paint the Algerian Arabs in a more sympathetic light than those who hold the power in the city.

“No, there was no way out, and no one can imagine what the evenings are like in prison.”

Meursault complaining about the dull nature of prison evenings is an example of dramatic irony. The reader has witnessed Meursault’s life as a free man, and Meursault was frequently bored, so much so that he sat and listened to dull stories until he was tired enough to fall asleep. Meursault’s life outside of prison was hardly any more exciting than his life in prison, so the complaints ring hollow. Ironically, Meursault would happily stay in his apartment all day but resents staying in his prison cell every evening. He is unable to recognize how his previous state of existence was simply a different kind of prison.

“For a moment I had an odd impression, as if I were being scrutinized by myself.” 

The presence of the journalists adds an extra dimension to Meursault’s experiences in the courtroom. He learns that a journalist has come from the newspaper in Paris to write up his story. Now, Meursault’s guilt is not limited to the peripheral town of Algiers. Meursault killed an Algerian Arab in a French colony and, by operating at the periphery of the French empire, he feels less guilty about his actions. But the idea of his murder being covered in France—and, by extension, his case receiving the judgment of white Europeans—means that he suddenly feels as though he is under real scrutiny. The opinions of the locals mean less to Meursault than the opinions of the people in Paris.

“But no one seemed to understand.”

Salamano insists that people have “got to understand” (75), but no one seems able to understand him. The old man struggles to make himself understood in the courtroom, and he fails to garner sympathy for Meursault. The lack of understanding speaks to the general meaningless of existence. None of the jury, the judge, or anyone else in the courtroom necessarily have to understand. In fact, they often struggle to understand Meursault’s behavior. This fundamental lack of understanding is a death sentence in its own right. Nothing means anything because people are unable to understand one another and cannot communicate their ideas to each another. Life is only given meaning through mutual understanding, which is why men like Meursault and Salamano struggle to find purpose in their lives.

“This man has, I repeat, no place in a community whose basic principles he flouts without compunction.” 

The prosecutor focuses on Meursault’s failure to adhere to society’s rules rather than the murder, so more time is spent discussing Meursault’s mother’s funeral than the facts of the case. As such, the trial is not a means to find Meursault guilty of murder but a means to find him guilty of being separate from social order. Meursault’s actions are not on trial; rather, his ideology is being examined. Meursault flouts society’s basic expectations in every way, so the court finds him guilty and sentences him to death.

“The futility of what was happening here seemed to take me by the throat, I felt like vomiting, and I had only one idea: to get it over, to go back to my cell, and sleep...and sleep.”

The death sentence handed down by the court does not have an emotional impact on Meursault. Instead, he feels the sentence as a physical reaction. He is suddenly nauseous and exhausted, as though his detachment from the world means he does not know how to process the emotional ramifications of his punishment, so his body cannot help but react. Even inside his apathetic, detached body, there is a part of Meursault that recognizes he will be put to death for his crime and finds this to be abhorrent.

“Still, obviously, one can’t be sensible all the time.”

This quote has a double meaning. Meursault does not just mean that a person cannot act with sense at all times, but also that they cannot be sensitive at all times. “Sensible” here refers to the ability to feel sensory information. Meursault finds such an idea to be overwhelming and illogical. Meursault is the opposite of a sensitive person. His emotional state never dictates his actions, as he is completely removed from his emotions and from society. By speaking in the third person, Meursault applies his condition to everyone else.