The Mersault And Meursault And The Stranger

In Molière's Tartuffe, translated by Richard Wilbur, the central character, a man named Orgon, has been completely brainwashed and taken advantage of by the title character, a lecherous and parasitic "holy man." Tartuffe has made use of one of the oldest scams in human history to insinuate himself into Orgon's household; he appeals to Orgon's desire to be a good, upstanding, and pious man by appearing to be the same. Tartuffe's manipulations are evident to everyone but Orgon, and seem to the reader to be blatantly obvious. His use of religion to manipulate Orgon is consistent throughout the play. In his religious zeal, Orgon is blind to the truth about Tartuffe's character. As a result,

With the major differences in these works of writing, there are also many similarities among the two. Both Shakespeare and Frost are trying to say death is inevitable. It takes place at different times and under different circumstances for everyone, but none-the-less, it cannot be avoided. Everyone also deals with death in their own way. Macbeth almost discards the news of his wife’s death, as he talks about life itself and how he feels about it. The people in Frost’s poem are also unfazed about the death of the boy. Another similarity is that in both poems, the people move forward with their lives. This is a reflection of human nature; most of us don’t grieve forever, but eventually find a point where we’re able to accept the death a loved one.

In The Stranger, Albert Camus describes the life of the protagonist, Meursault, through life changing events. The passage chosen illustrates Meursault’s view during his time in prison for killing the Arab. In prison, one can see the shifts in Meursault’s character and the acceptance of this new lifestyle. Camus manipulates diction to indicate the changes in Meursault caused by time thinking of memories in prison and realization of his pointless life. Because Camus published this book at the beginning of World War II, people at this time period also questions life and death similar to how Meursault does.

Antoine Watteau’s La Perspective (View through the Trees in the Park of Pierre Crozat) uses many elements of the Rococo style of painting to instill a sense of intimacy. In this painting, members of the elite society gather unceremoniously in a wooded clearing. The people make casual exchanges as they mingle in the park. Trees and foliage dominate a majority of the painting. A small white building can be seen in the background through a clearing in the trees. Watteau uses color, composition, setting, and pose in the painting to create intimacy.

After only a few days of trial, the jury in The Stranger declares that the main character, Meursault, is to be executed by guillotine in the town square. The trial and its verdict are one of the important parts of the novel, as Albert Camus uses them as a metaphor to summarize the two main tenets of absurdism. Camus uses the trial and persecution of Meursault to express his belief that the justice system is flawed because of his absurdist ideals that truth does not exist, and human life is precious. In order to reform the justice system, Albert Camus believes that capital punishment needs to be abolished.

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere wrote Tartuffe during the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment. One of the main characteristics of the Age of Enlightenment was a push towards using reason over emotions to make decisions. The leaders of the enlightenment truly believed that the world could be made a better place if people did this. In Tartuffe, when the characters use their emotions to make their decisions they find themselves in undesirable situations. While those who let their emotions rule them find their lives spinning out of control, there are other characters in the play who try to approach them with reason and logic. Out of these characters the lady’s maid Dorine stands out as the voice of reason.

 In one of his later interviews, Camus made the somewhat irritated comment that Meursault is the “only Christ we deserve.” While this seem to be a pithy, witty comment, we need to figure out how Meursault is like Christ. Christ taught his disciples and had them go and teach others, yet Meursault has no disciples and chooses to say little. Meursault murders while Christ brings a man back from the dead. Most drastically, Christ ”died for our sins” in order to make all those who follow free from original sin. Meursault just dies.

The idea of social status is one that assumes a pivotal role in Middle Age European culture. Social status was, in essence, a tool used by society to differentiate and label the population into their appropriate classes. Therefore, the elite would mingle with other members of their class, and the poor would associate themselves with other poor people. Social status had almost a sacred aura surrounding it. Obtainable only by rite of birth, it was not given out nor obtained overnight. Everyone respected the caste system and one’s position in it, and because of the respect for social status, the nobles received the respect of other noblemen, middle class merchants, peasants, and anyone

Meursault is truthful to himself and others throughout The Stranger. Unlike most, he doesn’t feel it necessary to lie in order to make others feel better. He is truthful, regardless of whether or not the truth may hurt. For example, in chapter four Marie asked Meursault if he loved her. Instead of lying to her or giving a vague answer Meursault told her that he probably didn’t love her, but it wasn’t important anyway.

Furthermore, she mentioned when Harold and she were talking about the funerals that, “They’re such fun. Burials and births. The end to the beginning and the beginning to the end,” which clearly shows how she is not affected by normal human emotions and death is something that can be fun and absolutely natural to her.9 In addition, when she told Harold that she took the pills, she mentioned, “I am happy, Harold. Ecstatically happy. I couldn’t imagine a lovelier farewell,” which, of course, an expression of happiness about her decisions and she did not even show any pities or sadness towards Harold.10 She goes on saying that, “Harold, we begin to die as soon as we are born. What is so strange about death? It’s part of life,” which can be, with no doubt, a sign of her firmness and it supports the idea that her suicide plan was firm and unbreakable.11 Lastly, when she said, “it’s been all such fun” at the end, it concludes that there were no hard feelings and Maude was happily embracing her death without thinking about Harold. Therefore it cannot be said that he ruined her peacefulness of her demise.12

Although Meursault is the title character and narrator of Albert Camus’ short novel The Stranger, he is also a somewhat flat character. His apparent indifferent demeanor may be a convenience to Camus, who mainly wanted to display his ideas of absurdism. And as a flat character, Meursault is not fully delineated: he lacks deep thought and significant change. His purpose is that of a first-person narrator whose actions embody the absurd, even before he has any awareness of the fact. Since Meursault is embodied absurdism, it is not necessary that he be hyperaware of his thoughts and intentions. His truth has already been built into his character by the

Jean-Baptitste Poquelin Moliere’s Tartuffe, is undoubtedly a satirical comedy. In Moliere’s description of a satire, he was very direct as to the function and objectives of one are. The function is to correct men’s vices, using satire to ridicule them and expose them to public laughter (Moliere, p.14). Although this satire is making fun of many things in the church and organized religion, which is not the only objective Moliere had in mind. Tartuffe has many themes that reoccur through out the play. The time period, in which this play was written, was known as the Age of Reason. One of the main ideas and attitudes during this time was, reason must always control passion. Due to this

Camus describes in detail the street scenes yet never does Meursault become involved in them. Meursault is distant from the messiness of plans, ambitions, desires, hatreds, even love. Marie's protestations of love only puzzle him. When she asks him if he wishes to marry her he agrees only because he sees no real reason to refuse. He helps in Raymond's nefarious schemes for equally bland reasons, and also because Raymond plies him with food, drink, and cigarettes. He is even distant from his own trial. It interests him because he has never seen a trial before.

“Mother died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours. That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday” (Camus 1). This opening sentence of the novel embodies Mersault’s absurdist outlook in life. His emotional and detachment to people, and his alienation from the rest of society show the absurdity in the novel. This specific quote I chosed makes the reader acknowledge that our protagonist is unaware and apathetic. He does not know which day his mother died and to him it did not even matter. This is pretty unexpected from a person; giving the fact that a different human being would react totally different. In the other hand Mersault seemed to not really care as much or even show some emotion toward the news he received.

     In Moliere’s description of a satire, he was very direct as to the function and