Albert Camus Emotions

In Albert Camus’ The Stranger, main characters Raymond Sinters and Meursault possess vastly different personalities and mindsets: one is indifferent to everyone and everything while the other is full of intense emotions. Despite being totally opposite mentally and emotionally, both Raymond and Meursault are guilty of committing heinous crimes. In this essay, I will argue that Meursault’s lack of emotion coupled with his lack of concern over anything make him a more dangerous individual than Raymond, who actually experiences emotion and concern unlike Meursault. Meursault’s inability to feel emotion makes him a more dangerous individual than Raymond. When Meursault’s mother passes away in the beginning of the novel, Meursault does not display any sort of grief and does not seem to …show more content…
Later on, as the vigil and funeral are held for his deceased mother, Meursault does not shed a single tear and is more concerned with getting out of the sun than saying goodbye to his mother. For one, these two instances demonstrate how Meursault does not care about the well being others, including his family members, as it does not matter to him whether they are dead or alive. In addition and more importantly, these two instances demonstrate how Meursault lacks emotion. Meursault’s inability to experience emotions strongly suggests that he does not experience remorse over his actions either. Without remorse, there really is not anything to prevent Meursault from acting however he pleases, regardless of whether it be harmful or not. Meursault’s inability to experience regret becomes glaringly apparent during his murder trial. He displays no sense of guilt for murdering a man and when the prosecutor asks if he feels sorry for his crime, he replies that he is more irritated with the whole thing than anything else (70). He may demonstrate that he is capable of feeling irritation in this instance,