Meursault’s Emotions in the Novel The Stranger by Albert Camus

The novel The Stranger by Albert Camus is about a troubled man, Meursault, who is perceived as unemotional and unaware of the situations he is in. After closely analyzing the book, more is revealed about Meursault. The fact that Meursault is more aware and emotional becomes more apparent. This is proven by his interactions with characters, his internal and spoken dialogue, and his experiences throughout the book. The biggest turning point in the story is Meursault’s altercation with the Arab. Inner dialogue from Meursault reveals to readers that he was aware that something might occur. Readers see that Meursault could have avoided the whole situation when he says, “It occurred to me that all I had to do was turn around and that would be the end of it.

But the whole beach, throbbing sun, was pressing on my backt” Meursault's awareness and emotions are made clear. Meursault reveals a bitter side of himself when he says, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don‘t know I got a telegram from home: “ Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” In this case, his tone seems very dull and almost bothered. Showing in his own way that he is actually bothered by the fact that his mom is gone. The underlying event that Meursault is bothered by is his mom's death. There are certain events that remind Meursault of the day that his mom died that are triggers for bad reactions. These feelings are derived from when he had to walk during his mother’s funeral. We first see this discomfort with the sun when he says,“ All of it - the sun, the smell of leather and horse dung from the hearse, the smell of varnish and incense, and my fatigue after a night without sleep - was making it hard for me to think straight.”

From this point on, whenever the sun was involved or it got too hot Meursault was overwhelmed. One main example of him getting overwhelmed is his encounter with the Arab which flustered Meursault so bad it drove him to shooting and killing the Arab, After his arrest for the murder of the Arab, Meursault displays even more emotions of longing for a woman while in jail. He says, “The first months were hard. But in fact the effort I had to make helped passed the time... I was tormented by my desire for a woman." Slowly breaking down, Meursault is progressively is showing more emotion. Meursault is a very independent person, His relationship with his mom and other people in his life was never very personal. Meursault has a hard time being vocal about what he is feeling, but his inner dialogue tells readers what he is truly feeling.

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When he goes swimming with Marie, Meursault's happiness is shown from his inner dialogue When he says, “We swam a few strokes and she reached out and held on me, I felt her legs wrapped around mine and I wanted her”. It is revealed that being with Marie has changed him and he wants her. Surprisingly toward the end of the book, and Meursault’s life as he sees it, Meursault starts to relate himself to his motheri When he says, “For the first time in a long time I thought about Maman. I felt as if I understood why at the end of her life she had taken a 'fiancé,‘ why she had played at the beginning again. Even there, in that home where lives were fading out, the evening was a kind of wistful respite. So close to death, Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again.

Nobody, nobody had the right to cry over her. And I felt ready to live it all again too” he is finally connecting with his mom This is a big development in Meursault’s character because his emotions are becoming very obvious. Meursault's denial of his emotions led him to ultimately hurting himself and his incarceration. Throughout the book, readers see Meursault‘s emotions appear from his dialogue to himself and with other characters, his experiences and events that happen to him, and his emotions about other characters, Each example validates the idea that Meursault does have emotions and the examples show the wide range of feelings he is actually capable of feeling.

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