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Feb 28, 2019 · The Stranger demanded of Camus the creation of a style at once literary and profoundly popular, an artistic sleight of hand that would make the complexities of a man's life appear simple. Despite appearances, though, neither Camus nor Meursault ever tried to make things simple for themselves.
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Dec 31, 2014 · In the story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sun-drenched Algerian beach, Camus was exploring what he termed the...
A short summary of Albert Camus's The Stranger. This free synopsis covers all the crucial plot points of The Stranger.
- Meursault
- Marie Cardona
- Raymond Sintes
- The Chaplain
- Céleste
- Meursault’s Mother
- Thomas Perez
- The Examining Magistrate
- The Caretaker
- The Director
The protagonist and narrator of The Stranger, to whom the novel’s title refers. Meursault is a detached figure who views and describes much of what occurs around him from a removed position. He is emotionally indifferent to others, even to his mother and his lover, Marie. He also refuses to adhere to the accepted moral order of society. After Meurs...
A former co-worker of Meursault who begins an affair with him the day after his mother’s funeral. Marie is young and high-spirited, and delights in swimming and the outdoors. Meursault’s interest in Marie seems primarily the result of her physical beauty. Marie does not seem to understand Meursault, but she feels drawn to Meursault’s peculiarities ...
A local pimp and Meursault’s neighbor. Raymond becomes angry when he suspects his mistress is cheating on him, and in his plan to punish her, he enlists Meursault’s help. In contrast to Meursault’s calm detachment, Raymond behaves with emotion and initiative. He is also violent, and beats his mistress as well as the two Arabs on the beach, one of w...
A priest who attends to the religious needs of condemned men, the chaplain acts as a catalyst for Meursault’s psychological and philosophical development. After Meursault is found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to death, he repeatedly refuses to see the chaplain. The chaplain visits Meursault anyway, and nearly demands that he take com...
The proprietor of a café where Meursault frequently eats lunch. Céleste remains loyal to Meursault during his murder trial. He testifies that Meursault is an honest, decent man, and he states that bad luck led Meursault to kill the Arab. Céleste's assertion that the murder had no rational cause and was simply a case of bad luck reveals a worldview ...
Madame Meursault’s death begins the action of the novel. Three years prior, Meursault sent her to an old persons’ home. Meursault identifies with his mother and believes that she shared many of his attitudes about life, including a love of nature and the capacity to become accustomed to virtually any situation or occurrence. Most important, Meursau...
One of the elderly residents at the old persons’ home where Meursault’s mother lived. Before Madame Meursault’s death, she and Perez had become so inseparable that the other residents joked that he was her fiancé. Perez’s relationship with Madame Meursault is one of the few genuine emotional attachments the novel depicts. Perez, as someone who expr...
The magistrate questions Meursault several times after his arrest. Deeply disturbed by Meursault’s apparent lack of grief over his mother’s death, the magistrate brandishes a crucifix at Meursault and demands to know whether he believes in God. When Meursault reasserts his atheism, the magistrate states that the meaning of his own life is threatene...
A worker at the old persons’ home where Meursault’s mother spent the three years prior to her death. During the vigil Meursault holds before his mother’s funeral, the caretaker chats with Meursault in the mortuary. They drink coffee and smoke cigarettes next to the coffin, gestures that later weigh heavily against Meursault as evidence of his monst...
The manager of the old persons’ home where Meursault’s mother spent her final three years. When Meursault arrives to keep vigil before his mother’s funeral, the director assures him that he should not feel guilty for having sent her to the home. However, by raising the issue, the director implies that perhaps Meursault has done something wrong. Whe...
Read the full book summary, an in-depth character analysis of Meursault, and explanations of important quotes from The Stranger. Or, learn more by studying SparkNotes guides to other works by Albert Camus.
The Stranger (French: L'Étranger [letʁɑ̃ʒe], lit. 'The Foreigner' ), also published in English as The Outsider, is a 1942 novella written by French author Albert Camus. The first of Camus's novels published in his lifetime, the story follows Meursault, an indifferent settler in French Algeria, who, weeks after his mother's funeral, kills ...
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Get all the key plot points of Albert Camus's The Stranger on one page. From the creators of SparkNotes.
