Absurdity of life

Its 5 o’clock in the morning. It’s been a couple of contemplating hours since I completed reading ‘The Stranger’ by Albert Camus. It contains a strong notion of Camus’s philosophical notion of absurdity. Just before ‘The Stranger’ I had finished ‘English August’. That too again advocated the meaninglessness of existence, through its protagonist Agastya Sen, an I.A.S. trainee having extreme lack of interest in his life as a civil servant, on a year long philosophical itinerary to discover himself, while detached from the worldly affairs around. Similarly the plot of ‘The Stranger’ swirls around Meursault, a man who is psychologically disconnected from the world around him. May be because I have read too much about absurdism these days or/and may be because semester exams are nearing and may be because I have little reasons to believe life holds something meaningful for me, the cynic in me is intensely engrossed.

Coming back to Meursault, Events like parent’s death, marriage proposal and death sentence which could be very crucial for others, do not matter to him on sentimental level. He is honest by not hiding his lack of emotional indifference. He implicitly challenges societies accepted moral standard which earns him a reputation of being an immoral character, a threat to society. In reality Meursault is neither moral nor immoral- he is just amoral. He is an atheist who simply does not makes the distinction between good and bad. Aside from his atheism he makes little assumption about the character of world. However when he is sentenced to death after a murder trial ( His emotional indifference to moral standards works against his case and he is sentenced to death for a murder done in self defense) his thinking began to broaden, in due course of events he concludes that the universe is just like him totally indifferent to human life. He decides that people's lives have no grand meaning or importance, and that their actions, their comings and goings, have no effect on the world. This realization is the culmination of all the events of the novel.

Few of the lines from the Novel reflecting the underline idea are-

1. “Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure. The telegram from the Home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday.”

---Spoken by Meursault, these are the opening lines of the novel. They introduce his emotional indifference, one his most important character traits. He does not express any remorse upon learning of his mother's death; he merely reports the fact in a straightforward manner. He implies that it does not matter that his mother died at all. Here Camus introduces the idea of the meaninglessness of human existence, a theme that resounds throughout the novel.

2. “When she laughed I wanted her again. A moment later she asked me if I loved her. I said that sort of question had no meaning, really; but I supposed I didn’t.”

---With characteristic emotional indifference, Meursault answers Marie's question completely and honestly. Always blunt, he never alters what he says to be tactful or to conform to societal expectations. Meursault's assertion that love “didn't mean anything,” asserts his belief in the meaninglessness of human life.

3. “It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I’d been happy, and that I was happy still. For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration.”

---These are the last lines of the novel. After being insisted to turn to God in the wake of his death sentence puts Meursault into a blind rage, he fully accepts the absurdist idea that the universe is indifferent to human affairs and that life lacks rational order and meaning. He realizes that the universe's indifference to human affairs echoes his own personal indifference to human affairs, and the similarity evokes a feeling of companionship in him that leads him to label the world “so brotherly.” He does not mind being a loathed criminal. He only wishes for companionship, “to feel less lonely.

Due to the effect of this feeling of absurdity, in which right now I am deeply convolved in, even a dazzling sunrise witnessed after months seems so forlorn. It is giving me the identical mournful solace which is a part of my daily evening’s schedule. I wonder how to spend the day, I know the gripped cynic in me is going to make this whole day miserable. I can figure out approximately how long this day is going to be, and unlike Meursault I have no silent companion to share my calm desolation and make me feel less lonely. I only wish this feeling will evaporate with the heat of the day as most of the optimist resolutions made in night for the next day are gone with the morning blues.