“That doesn’t mean anything”: An analysis of the protagonist’s lack of emotional connections in Camus’s The Stranger.
The Stranger contains numerous characters who interact with the main character, Meursault, revealing his emotionless personality. Meursault is characterized as a man who is apathetic and heartless to the world around him, identifying himself as an individual who is apart from society. Society does not affect his reaction and motives as he is separated from the rest of the world. Maman and Marie illustrates the lack of familial and emotional connections from Meursault’s perspective, while the robot woman is a parallel to Meursault. Albert Camus displays apathy throughout the novel, The Stranger, using minor characters and ideas …show more content…
As Meursault stated that “[He] didn’t love her” (41) illustrates how he regarded their relationship as mere lust instead of love, as she was only just an object in Meursault’s point of view. This relationship does not affect him on a sentimental level and only creates a physical desire within him with a passionless drive to continue on. Meursault contains the trait of a person who is closed off to the whole world, feelings are nonexistent to him and do not affect any of his actions or thoughts, regardless of the impact the reaction creates. He lives a life with no emotion and no care in his everyday rituals in regards to interactions with other characters, as only “[Meursault] wanted her” (51) to create a lesser importance to the relationship that Marie cherishes. Even though Marie only wants a deeper and emotional connection between themselves, Meursault is proven to be indifferent to her idea. Meursault apathy towards others, including his lover, shows the overarching concept of his connections to society, opposing all of society rules as he cannot be conformed to the laws. This individual displays an attitude of individualism as he does not want outside factors affecting his own ideas and thought processes. Meursault wants to only focus on the physical aspect of the relationship and discard any emotion that coincides with the whole idea of love. He is only detached from the idea and replaces it with lust to fuel his relationship with Marie. As she only encompasses the idea of pleasure for Meursault, the lack of passion for a real connection is the problem with the indifference that he
The Stranger contains numerous characters who interact with the main character, Meursault, revealing his emotionless personality. Meursault is characterized as a man who is apathetic and heartless to the world around him, identifying himself as an individual who is apart from society. Society does not affect his reaction and motives as he is separated from the rest of the world. Maman and Marie illustrates the lack of familial and emotional connections from Meursault’s perspective, while the robot woman is a parallel to Meursault. Albert Camus displays apathy throughout the novel, The Stranger, using minor characters and ideas …show more content…
As Meursault stated that “[He] didn’t love her” (41) illustrates how he regarded their relationship as mere lust instead of love, as she was only just an object in Meursault’s point of view. This relationship does not affect him on a sentimental level and only creates a physical desire within him with a passionless drive to continue on. Meursault contains the trait of a person who is closed off to the whole world, feelings are nonexistent to him and do not affect any of his actions or thoughts, regardless of the impact the reaction creates. He lives a life with no emotion and no care in his everyday rituals in regards to interactions with other characters, as only “[Meursault] wanted her” (51) to create a lesser importance to the relationship that Marie cherishes. Even though Marie only wants a deeper and emotional connection between themselves, Meursault is proven to be indifferent to her idea. Meursault apathy towards others, including his lover, shows the overarching concept of his connections to society, opposing all of society rules as he cannot be conformed to the laws. This individual displays an attitude of individualism as he does not want outside factors affecting his own ideas and thought processes. Meursault wants to only focus on the physical aspect of the relationship and discard any emotion that coincides with the whole idea of love. He is only detached from the idea and replaces it with lust to fuel his relationship with Marie. As she only encompasses the idea of pleasure for Meursault, the lack of passion for a real connection is the problem with the indifference that he