The women in The Stranger are almost all seemingly minor questions. Meursault's mother is dead as the novel starts, Marie is his lover, and then Mason's wife and Raymond's mistress are never even given names. At first glance, it seems like the women are just secondary characters and don't add much to novel. I disagree. To me, the women, and especially Raymond's nameless mistress, are some of the most important characters in the novel.
Let's start with Meursault's mother. Her death starts the novel, and it's through her funeral that we first get a glimpse at who Meursault is. We see him not reacting to the situation in a way that is deemed socially acceptable. It seems off to us, and makes some people say that Meursault doesn't have any emotions at all. Meursault's mother's death is not just the starting point of the novel, it is also the starting point of our understanding of Meursault as well. Her death is a window to his soul, in a way, because it's through his lack of proper emotional response at her death that we start to know who and what kind of a person Meursault is.
Meursault's mother is also very important because it's because of her that Meursault is thrown in jail and then executed. Ok, yeah, it's not super directly, but again it's his lack of proper emotional response at her death that causes him to be deemed less than human by the prosecutor. That's a crucial part of the case against Meursault. He doesn't show emotion towards his mother's death, and so he is accused of "burying his mother with crime in his heart" and that is why he is executed.
Marie is also important for a similar reason. Meursault's relationship with her is used against him in his trial, as a piece of supporting evidence to show that Meursault has no emotions and is less than human. Because Meursault and Marie went swimming, went to a comedic movie, and had sex the day after Meursault's mother's funeral, the prosecutor makes the claim that Meursault didn't care about his mother at all. Once again, he buried "his mother with crime in his heart."
It really is something that Meursault is basically on trial for who is, not for what he has done. He is basically executed because he doesn't show the proper emotional response, not because he killed a man. But let's look further into that. If Meursault hadn't killed the Arab, he wouldn't have been on trial, wouldn't have been convicted of "burying his mother with crime in his heart," and wouldn't have been executed. So what led to Meursault killing the Arab? Raymond's feud with the Arab. And what was that feud about? Raymond's (abusive?) relationship with the Arab's sister.
And that's where Raymond's mistress comes into play. She seems to me one of the most important characters in the novel, even if she doesn't seem like it. It is because of her that Raymond and Meursault become "pals" and it is because of this involvement in Raymond's relationship with his mistress that Meursault is drawn into Raymond's feud with the Arab. Would Raymond and Meursault have become buddies if Raymond had never asked him to write that letter for him, or testify for him? If there was no mistress, I don't think their "friendship" would have ever happened. And without that friendship, there'd be no trip to the beach. And even if they did go to the beach as friends, if Raymond wasn't involved with his mistress, then the Arabs wouldn't have been there, and thus Meursault couldn't have killed the woman's brother. And without that murder, there would have been no trial, and thus no execution.
It's a complicated game of "what ifs" but it's very striking that if this one seemingly minor character did not exist, then The Stranger could have turned out very differently.
No comments:
Post a Comment