Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill!
There was a lot to discuss when it came to Meursault, but something (or rather someone) that was quite overlooked in my opinion was Marie. I felt as though her reaction to Meursault, both initially and after the murder, was a bit odd, and it contradicted those around him. I interpreted Marie as the opposite of the rest of the characters in the book, who in my mind represented normalcy amongst Meursault's unique perception of life. With this polarization between the rest of the characters and Marie, I found it interesting to think about her interpretation of love and relationships, and why she stayed by Meursault’s side.
The main talking point of Meursault seemed to be his reaction to his mother’s death and funeral over him killing a man. Of course, it was an effective way to judge his character, but to focus primarily on that was misguided. The question at one point was even posed as to whether he was “‘on trial for burying his mother or for killing a man,’” but nonetheless remained the topic of discussion many times later (Camus 96). Marie, however, had quite the opposite reaction to Maman’s death. Although she was a bit startled after hearing that Maman had only died the day before, Meursault said that “by that evening Marie had forgotten all about it” (Camus 20). Given the countless number of times Meursault displayed this forward-moving personality, it’s not that surprising that he moved on so quickly, but I was shocked at how Marie disregarded it so quickly. They went and watched a comedy later, and she didn’t pay any mind to his mother’s death again. Contrary to the people at Meursault’s trial, she didn’t find it odd that Meursault could forget Maman so fast (though forget might not be quite the right word for it).
What stuck out to me even more was her reaction to Meursault not wanting to marry her out of love, but rather out of necessity:
“That evening Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her. “So why marry me then?” she said. I explained to her that it didn’t really matter and that if she wanted to, we could get married.” (Camus 41).
Marie expressed some pushback to Meursault’s jarringly indifferent view on marriage and love itself, but later in the passage eventually accepted it and happily asked him to marry her, to which he agreed (Although he says all he told her was “Sure.”). Most people, if they were in her shoes, would probably question if they’d want to stay with Meursault, someone who just told Marie that he did not love her. She calls him peculiar and tells him marriage is a serious thing, but other than that, she doesn’t express much against Meursault and just marries him anyway.
She also did not shy away from defending Meursault after he had killed a man, especially a murder that came seemingly out of nowhere. (And to the reader’s understanding, the sun of all things was his final straw.) In tears, she said it “wasn’t like that, there was more to it, and that she was being made to say the opposite of what she was thinking, that she knew me [Meursault] and I hadn’t done anything wrong” (Camus 94). She was so adamant that their relationship and the murder weren’t how they were being depicted in court. And although I do acknowledge the court’s faults in handling the case, what could someone say to convincingly defend Meursault? How had he not done anything wrong when someone had been killed, and more incriminating, shot at four more times? I just can’t begin to try to imagine what she was thinking in that moment, especially if she truly thought he was innocent and wasn’t just trying to free Meursault.
Even worse, I don’t think Meursault appreciated her at all. Obviously, he did say outright that he probably didn’t love her, but I also found it telling how little he thought about her in prison. He was talking about the little games he played in the cell and his other pastimes, but I can’t really recall a moment where he was thinking about Marie, at least in a meaningful way. He did talk about being touch-starved if that suffices. It’s upsetting to me how much she cared for someone who likely did not think about her the same.
To each their own, but that’s definitely not mine!!
Works Cited
Camus, Albert. Translated by Matthew Ward. The Stranger. Vintage Books, 1988.
I think you bring up an interesting point in The Stranger: Meursault's supposed love. Although there are times he things is beautiful or is interested in how she feels at court, I do agree that it's almost as if he doesn't care for her like he should. I personally found these scenes to be a little comical that this person who loves him so much is mostly one-sided. However, I also agree that Marie should be discussed further. Overall, good post.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is definitely a different take on the main theme of The Stranger. Though I cannot disagree that throughout the novel, Marie seems to be adamant about a happy marriage with Meursault who constantly reflects an indifferent perspective on the ordeal. Ultimately, she continues to defend him in court. I can't tell whether that's emotional irrationality or we should explore the mind of Marie as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Marie is an interesting and overlooked character. She seems to be the opposite of Meursault in many ways, but also strange in her own way, for all the reasons you mentioned. She gets extremely emotionally attached to Meursault in just a few days, while he lacks an emotional connection to his own mother whom he as known for his whole life. I wonder what happened to Marie at the end of the book because we hear from Meursault that she stopped sending him letters. He assumes that she either died or moved on with someone else, but that either way it does not matter. As a reader I think it would be interesting to know though.
ReplyDeleteYou are making me question the sanity of Marie as well; she went forth with a relationship seeing that he had a mourning band on, how he had no feelings of love, and fought for him in court after he just disappeared and talked so little over that vast amount of time he was locked up. Meursault thought not often enough about Marie while in prison, she was only mention a few times when he came to see her. She cared and was so attached to him when he felt little of the same, it was such a shame and I wish we got to have something from her point of view.
ReplyDeleteYou make a really good point that Marie is easily overlooked but plays an interesting role in the story. I feel like, of all the characters, she understands Meursault the most, but at the same time, she is so far from him as she cares for him so genuinely and he doesn't seem to care for her much at all. I'd love to go even deeper into analyzing Marie. Even though she seems rather unimportant to the plotline, I think in such a concise book by a philosopher, there must be more reason behind her character.
ReplyDeleteMarie and her feelings about Meursault are indeed a mystery in this novel. Remember, too, that their whole relationship, before the shooting of the Arab, takes place in a week--and she's talking about marriage by about Thursday! And she never seems all that put off by his "it doesn't mean anything" anti-romantic replies to her suggestions that they take their romance to the next level. Of course, the reader can easily connect Meursault's ambivalence about long-term commitment (marriage) to his ambivalence about getting a promotion at work--he doesn't think of his life in terms of ambition for the future, and he only agrees that it might be possible for him and Marie to marry because he thinks it's what she wants to hear, and it's easiest for him if she is happy.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds harsh, and maybe it is, but he views Marie much as he views other sensual, immediate, present-tense pleasures in the world--like swimming. Their relationship is full of moments where they swim together, playing rather childlike splashing and spitting games, and in these moments Meursault seems fully in the present, fully content, not thinking about the past (his mother's death) or the future (marriage). His characteristic and crude phrase is that he "wanted her," and indeed he "wants" her the way he "wants" a cigarette at the funeral. But it's out of sight, out of mind, as once she is no longer present, he no longer "wants" her in the same way. He's able to kick cigarettes while in prison, even though it's a struggle at first--he "gets used to it." And he's also able to quit thinking about Marie or wishing they could be together--he finds that, in her absence, he no longer "wants" her. And he's perfectly fine with the assumption that she no longer wants him.
I agree that this is an important aspect of the book that is not explored as well. Marie is a constant presence throughout the book, but as Meursault's lover has to have a more tolerant attitude to his actions than someone less involved (like Salamano, for example). The way Marie also seems to be very in the present, only momentarily shocked by his actions, makes us believe she might be like him in some ways too.
ReplyDeleteYou're totally right about the fact that Marie seems to have a similarly apathetic attitude, and while I don't have a concrete answer for why she acts the way she does (i don't really think we get to see enough of her to come to any concrete conclusions), I do think it was an interesting addition on Camus' part, adding a character who almost seems just as weird as Meursault. Usually in a book like this the author would make everyone else strikingly normal to convey the contrast between the main character and the general public, but Marie kind of disrupts that norm. Great post!
ReplyDeleteWhile also feeling sympathy for Marie, I found myself constantly confounded that she would insist on staying with a man who barely spared her a thought, who responded more unfavorably to the idea of marriage than she would have liked, and who did not share a single look with her throughout the entire trial. To Meursault, Marie seems to be just another one of life's fleeting material pleasures, who he pays little attention to but still wants to please. Great blog post, and interesting topic! I also didn't give Marie enough thought throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think you are entirely right that she is bizarre and apathetic, I thought that Marie was one of the more human characters that Meursault surrounds himself with. She feels love, lives freely, and disagrees with people. Her strange qualities, when examined next to ourselves, seem extreme, but next to Meursault, the qualities are more normal. Maybe Camus incorporated Marie to contrast Meursault's unflinching apathy and inhuman qualities to just a generally bizarre person? Then again, I just strongly dislike him, and they might be mutually alien-like. Marie makes mistakes and falls for the wrong men way too quickly, but is that tendency as voluntary and purposeful as Meursault's cruelty? I loved this post and it has the best name by far!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Marie is very overlooked within The Stranger. I'm really curious about why she chose to defend Meursault after everything she stood by and watched him do. It's not that Meursault never wronged her; he told her he didn't believe in marriage and said he didn't love her, then agreed to marry her anyway if she would pretty much just leave him alone. I like how you pointed out that anyone else would probably rethink their relationship with Meursault thus far, but Marie just goes on to defend him at court, under oath, saying "He never did anything wrong" and "This isn't him." I wonder if Marie and Meursault are similar in their outlooks on life, although she does dwell on Meursault's behavior after his mom's funeral for slightly longer than he does, before ultimately brushing it off. This was a great post and it raised a topic that definitely needs more attention in the novel!
ReplyDelete