73 pages • 2 hours read
Albert CamusThe Stranger
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1942A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Meursault
Meursault is the central figure in The Stranger, but he is defined by his detachment from others. Emotional events involving those close to him, such as the death of his mother or a discussion of marriage with a romantic partner, fail to elicit any response other than mild indifference. Meursault’s most important trait is that he views the entire world as an exercise in meaninglessness. That is not to say that he dislikes the world, simply that he is indifferent to it. The story of The Stranger revolves around Meursault, but he fails to demonstrate any emotion until the very end of the novel.
Meursault’s indifference makes him a brutally honest person. When Marie asks whether he loves her, he honestly responds that does not. Meursault does not pause to consider Marie’s feelings or how his answer might make him appear to others. Instead, he simply states his exact emotions. Likewise, the portrayal of insincere emotions makes him feel uncomfortable. Meursault does not force himself to cry at his mother’s funeral because he feels such a display would be wrong. Meursault does not adhere to society’s expectations. On some occasions, this makes him come across as rude or uncaring. At other times, he appears insightful. Meursault’s indifference is a blessing and a curse for him, but it also confuses other people.
The way Meursault flaunts society’s expectations becomes his downfall. The trial that condemns him to death is not necessarily about proving that he murdered a man. Meursault confesses that he murdered the young Algerian. Instead, Meursault is on trial for failing to express emotion in the expected manner. His mother’s funeral and his strange behavior are used as evidence against him. Meursault is put on trial for being abnormal, not for murder. His death sentence is justified by his strange behavior, not by his callous murder of a young man. The Algerian youth is barely mentioned at the trial but Meursault’s mother is a constant reference point.
Meursault is never cured of his indifference. Instead, he realizes that the world as a whole is more like him that he ever realized. Meursault opens himself up to the gentle indifference of the world and concludes that the universe does not truly care about humanity. Determining that there is no meaning or justification for any life, Meursault finds peace in his own indifference.
Marie Cardona
Marie is a young woman who once worked with Meursault. They reunite at a swimming pool and become romantically involved. Though they are only together for a short time, Marie sees long-term potential in their relationship. She quizzes Meursault about love and marriage, even though he rarely gives her a satisfying answer. Marie adheres to many of society’s expectations, viewing a typical heterosexual relationship through the prism of social conventions. A man and a woman get together, she reasons, and then they fall in love and get married. Marie’s conventional mindset is evident in her projection of the future of the relationship, which contrasts with Meursault’s refusal to entertain such ideas.
However, Marie and Meursault are alike in some ways. Both of them are tactile people, and they depend on physical touch to confirm their emotional states. Both characters touch and kiss frequently, with Marie even criticizing Meursault for his failure to show her the requisite amount of physical attention. They satisfy one another in a physical sense, even if Meursault’s emotional and intellectual idiosyncrasies confuse Marie. Her affection for Meursault is also evident in her reaction toward Sintes. Sintes is a far more typical reflection of social expectations than Meursault, but despite his obvious attraction to Marie, she refuses to look at him. Marie is more interested in Meursault and his strangeness than Sintes’s conventional immorality.
One of Marie’s key traits is her loyalty. Even after Meursault repeatedly tells her that he does not love her, she stays with him. She is one of his only friends to visit him in jail, and she weeps in court when he is on trial. Her loyalty reflects the book’s themes of absurdity. Marie has only been with Meursault a short time, and he is in jail far longer than they are in a relationship. However, she dedicates herself to him. Marie is adamant that Meursault should never give up hope. When Meursault does not react to this, she holds on to hope on his behalf. She is emotionally attached in a way that Meursault is not. While she cannot imagine abandoning him, Meursault is perplexed by her loyalty and emotional commitment. Their closeness reveals how different they really are.
Raymond Sintes
Raymond Sintes is a criminal who lives in the same building as Meursault. His neighbors believe that he is a pimp, though he denies this. However, Sintes quickly reveals his lack of morality. He lies, beats women, and threatens young men with guns. Sintes is a distorted reflection of Meursault, in that he similarly chooses not to live by society’s rules. However, Sintes also flouts the law at every opportunity. Meursault is amoral (unconcerned with morality), but Sintes is immoral (aware of morality and choosing to ignore it).
Sintes views people only in terms of how they can help him. Women, like his mistress, exist to provide him with physical pleasure, while men only have value when they can help him. Meursault is regarded as an intelligent man, so Sintes enlists Meursault to help him write a letter. Sintes sees value in Meursault and embroils him in a violent situation that eventually leads to murder. Sintes causes Meursault’s downfall by manipulating and exploiting him. However, Meursault is entirely complicit in his own failures. Meursault never declines any of Sintes’s offers, happily embracing the criminal’s ideas because he struggles to come to terms with a meaningless, indifferent world. This reflects another key difference between the characters: Sintes is an active person, while Meursault is passive. Sintes is the catalyst for the events around him, while Meursault is often left to react to the behavior of others. Sintes exists to highlight the passive amorality of Meursault’s character.
The Arab
The Arab is the name Meursault gives to the young Algerian boy he kills for no apparent reason. The nameless youth is an extension of the racial subtext that is felt throughout the novel. Meursault, Sintes, and Marie are all French Algerians. They are defined by their membership in the French colonial empire. The Arab, however, is an Algerian citizen, one of the colonized people who seemingly resent France’s presence in Algeria. By not giving the Arab a name, Meursault conflates him with the strange masses of irrelevant Algerians who, from a French perspective, serve no real purpose in Algeria. The Arab seeks revenge for Sintes’s attack on his sister. As a result, he is the subject of extreme violence. The Arab’s fate reflects the colonial struggle fought by the Algerians against the French. The Algerians want to fight back against the more powerful French forces, but they lack the power to do so. They only have knives, while the French have pistols. The Arab’s death becomes a metaphor for the violence inflicted on the Algerians by the French. The murder is random, meaningless, and always viewed through the French perspective. The suffering and the pain of the nameless young Arab represents the suffering and the pain of the colonized people in Algeria.
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