Asking Meursault if he felt any grief at all during the funeral, the lawyer is distraught when Meursault replies that the question is terribly odd. Meursault would have been embarrassed to ask anyone such a personal question. He admits that he doesn't think much about his feelings and that his "detachment" has increased in recent years.
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The Stranger. Meursault is psychologically detached from the world around him. Events that would be very significant for most people, such as a marriage proposal or a parent’s death, do not matter to him, at least not on a sentimental level. He simply does not care that his mother is dead, or that Marie loves him.
Raymond Sintès. A young French Algerian living in colonial Algiers and working as a shipping clerk, Meursault is passionless, disaffected, and without ambition. His primary priority is his own physical comfort. Convinced of the world's indifference to him and to everyone else, Meursault himself is indifferent towards those around him and has ...
He will soon hear the Prosecutor say that, unlike normal men, he has no soul. Meursault expresses a tenet of existentialism here: Each individual possesses only the present moment in which to act. The concepts of past and future are essentially irrelevant to meaning. And I, too, felt ready to start life all over again.
Meursault refuses to say that he had repressed natural feelings of sadness because it is not true. Although those details have little to do with the present case, the lawyer it explains it will come up in court. He leaves angrily and Meursault wishes he could tell him that he is just like everyone else but is too lazy to stop him.
They are disgusted by Meursault's lack or grief about his mother's death and that he killed the Arab. He tries to talk about Meursault's mother's death.
Summary: Chapter 1 The lawyer asks if Meursault was sad at his mother's burial, and Meursault responds that he does not usually analyze himself. He says that though he probably did love his mother, “that didn't mean anything.” The lawyer departs, disgusted by Meursault's indifference to his mother's death.
if Meursault felt any sadness the day of the funeral. The attorney asks him because it's very important and it would be a strong argument for the prosecution if he can't come up with some answers.
Meursault has so little comprehension of what is happening that he is surprised when an examining magistrate asks him if he has obtained a lawyer. Meursault's answer is succinct and honest: no, of course not.
What about Meursault upsets and frustrates his lawyer and the magistrate? He reveals that he does not believe in God. What does the magistrate use to try to break through to Meursault's feelings of remorse? He tries to use the death of his mother.
When the lawyer first meets with Meursault, he tells him that he has a good chance of getting off, if Meursault follows his advice. 5. Meursault tells the lawyer that he had been “quite fond of Mother.” 6.May 5, 2015
What does Meursault's lawyer ask him not say in front of others? That people sometimes wish that their loved one's were dead.
The last line -- "I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate" (123) -- underscores the freedom Meursault found in death.
Meursault's attorney tells him that it wouldn't last more than two or three days because a more interesting parricide (the murder of a family member) case is coming up after his trial. Trial opens with the sun glaring outside (surprise) and the air stifling inside.
Meursault describes acclimating to prison. At first "the hardest thing was that my thoughts were still those of a free man." He wants to go to the beach, to have sex. Meursault befriends the head guard who explains the whole point of prison is to take away men's freedom, that that is the punishment.
Meursault is found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to death by guillotine.
What does Meursault conclude about life as a result? Your answer should be at least 250 words. Meursault starts out by saying that it is always interesting when people talk about him. He is annoyed however that his lawyer will not allow him to interject anything.
The The Stranger quotes below are all either spoken by Meursault or refer to Meursault. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ).
The timeline below shows where the character Meursault appears in The Stranger. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.