It's easy to think of Mersault as abnormal, apathetic, or even sociopathic. But sometimes I feel that we focus so much on Mersault's abnormalities that we forget about the other characters. Most of the other characters don't seem very normal either. Mersault is just easy to fixate on because he is the narrator and main character. But if you take a look at the other characters, you'll find that it's just as easy to analyze their abnormalities as it is to analyze Mersault's.
Mersault's somewhat love interest Marie seems pretty normal at first glance. Her relationship with Mersault is pretty typical and healthy. It's very understandable that Marie wants Mersault to be committed to her. But she's willing to marry him even if he doesn't love her. He clearly says that marriage doesn't make a difference to him, and that it doesn't matter if he loves her or not. And she decides that she's okay with that and that she's excited to marry him. I just doubt that Marie's mind is very sound, because she's willing, even excited to make a huge commitment to someone who doesn't reciprocate her excitement or even her feelings.
Raymond is another abnormal character, but the audience figures that out pretty quickly. He's extremely sadistic towards his (ex)-mistress, probably as a result of feeling hurt and/or losing control. He doesn't just want to hurt her physically; he wants to mess with her mind so much that she won't know what to do with herself. Mersault may have written the sadistic letter to Raymond's mistress, but Raymond was the one who asked him to. Raymond has several unhealthy personality traits, which definitely seem to manifest themselves when his mistress comes up.
The chaplain isn't sadistic like Raymond or a little too impulsive like Marie, but he is extremely passionate. He's so passionate that Mersault makes him explode with emotion by barely saying anything. He thinks that Mersault has the power to make his life meaningless. I understand that Mersault can be a perplexing character, but the chaplain seems to be driven crazy by Mersault, not just perplexed by him. While he seems to get used to Mersault throughout the trial process, he still seems unnerved by him. I just get the impression that it doesn't take much to make the chaplain crack, and by crack, I mean go postal.
Ironically, I think Old Salamano might be one of the more normal characters of the novel, which is definitely saying something. He has the same routine with his dog every day. Before that, he had the same routine with his wife every day. He's definitely not completely healthy, though. He treats dog like shit, but I definitely think he loves his dog. He has a natural reaction to his dog running away. Many of the other characters in The Stranger have abnormal reactions to significant events in their lives. But Salamano is just very sad, as most people would be if their dog (who had been with them for a long time) ran away. I really don't like the way Salamano treats his dog, but I'd probably say that he's my favorite character. It's not because I find his reactions normal; it's because I think he's a very relatable character in the way that he loses a routine aspect of his life and doesn't know what to do about it.
I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with bizarreness; it's often something to be appreciated. But remember that Mersault is not the only character worth analyzing in The Stranger.
Mersault's somewhat love interest Marie seems pretty normal at first glance. Her relationship with Mersault is pretty typical and healthy. It's very understandable that Marie wants Mersault to be committed to her. But she's willing to marry him even if he doesn't love her. He clearly says that marriage doesn't make a difference to him, and that it doesn't matter if he loves her or not. And she decides that she's okay with that and that she's excited to marry him. I just doubt that Marie's mind is very sound, because she's willing, even excited to make a huge commitment to someone who doesn't reciprocate her excitement or even her feelings.
Raymond is another abnormal character, but the audience figures that out pretty quickly. He's extremely sadistic towards his (ex)-mistress, probably as a result of feeling hurt and/or losing control. He doesn't just want to hurt her physically; he wants to mess with her mind so much that she won't know what to do with herself. Mersault may have written the sadistic letter to Raymond's mistress, but Raymond was the one who asked him to. Raymond has several unhealthy personality traits, which definitely seem to manifest themselves when his mistress comes up.
The chaplain isn't sadistic like Raymond or a little too impulsive like Marie, but he is extremely passionate. He's so passionate that Mersault makes him explode with emotion by barely saying anything. He thinks that Mersault has the power to make his life meaningless. I understand that Mersault can be a perplexing character, but the chaplain seems to be driven crazy by Mersault, not just perplexed by him. While he seems to get used to Mersault throughout the trial process, he still seems unnerved by him. I just get the impression that it doesn't take much to make the chaplain crack, and by crack, I mean go postal.
Ironically, I think Old Salamano might be one of the more normal characters of the novel, which is definitely saying something. He has the same routine with his dog every day. Before that, he had the same routine with his wife every day. He's definitely not completely healthy, though. He treats dog like shit, but I definitely think he loves his dog. He has a natural reaction to his dog running away. Many of the other characters in The Stranger have abnormal reactions to significant events in their lives. But Salamano is just very sad, as most people would be if their dog (who had been with them for a long time) ran away. I really don't like the way Salamano treats his dog, but I'd probably say that he's my favorite character. It's not because I find his reactions normal; it's because I think he's a very relatable character in the way that he loses a routine aspect of his life and doesn't know what to do about it.
I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with bizarreness; it's often something to be appreciated. But remember that Mersault is not the only character worth analyzing in The Stranger.
It seems as though everyone in The Stranger has their weird little quirks and oddities, but they don't always seem out of place. Raymond is a gangster or something with very violent tendencies and friends. Salamano has a very odd relationship with his dog, and Marie is in love with a man who has some very odd mental characteristics. I think it is important to recognize the oddness of the other characters in the book, but because Meursalt is so unconventional and somewhat scary to our perspectives on life, it is easy to forget about them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, all of the characters prove to be quite strange themselves, perhaps even stranger than Meursault, but in their own unique ways. Something that I wanted to point out was that it's interesting to see how these odd qualities about them don't intimidate the jury/ magistrate, but Meursault's indifference/ lack of emotion does. Marie's weird acceptance of Meursault's indifference in general, specifically on the serious topic of whether or not they should marry is fine, but his indifference itself is so awful.
ReplyDeletePart of the point here might be that, contrary to how the court depicts him, Meursault is actually received by the people he lives around as a totally acceptable and not especially disturbing guy--they even seem to confide in him more easily, taking his silence as something like empathy. It's not a matter of "normal"--no one who is at all interesting is "normal," right? So why when reading novels like this do we suddenly want everyone to conform to some vague, bland standard of how "normal" people behave?
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