The magistrate gets very frustrated because he does not understand this worldview. Meursault does not even feel sorry for what he did. It was an inconvenience to him to be taken from his pleasurable life and dropped into the monotonous dirty cell.
The magistrate breaks this self-delusion when he escorts him to the door, calls him Mr. Antichrist, and hands him back to his jailers. Meursault repeatedly reveals a lack of a sense of reality.
He does not place any value judgment on his act, and writes the letter mainly because he has the time and the ability to do so. At the novel’s outset, Meursault’s indifference seems to apply solely to his understanding of himself. Aside from his atheism, Meursault makes few assumptions about the nature of the world around him.
Meursault reacts to the Prosecutor’s closing argument that he did not show the least bit of regret for his actions. 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.
However, Meursault makes it clear that such criticism doesn’t bother him at all. He referred to her as “your poor mother,” and was afraid I must be feeling her death terribly.
The magistrate states that his own life would be meaningless if he doubted the existence of God, and concludes that Meursault has an irrevocably hardened soul. During the course of the eleven-month investigation that ensues, the magistrate takes to calling Meursault “Monsieur Antichrist,” with an almost cordial air.
Meursault says, "He rather alarmed me." How does Meursault react to the magistrate when the magistrate starts talking about God? He feels hot, uncomfortable, and bothered by annoying flies.
Meursault feels that his lawyer defended him during the trial as best he could. he wants to spend his last minutes on earth alone and in quiet reflection. he doesn't believe in God, so this life is it.
What does the magistrate want to hear from Meursault? Ehy is he upset with Meursault's responses? He wants to hear that he is mourning for his mother He wants to know if there is regret or if Meursault feels sad. Meursault isn't showing any responses, so the magistrate is out of cards to help.
What question does Meursault's lawyer ask him about the day of the funeral? If he had felt sadness about his mother's death. What does Meursault's lawyer ask him not say in front of others? That people sometimes wish that their loved one's were dead.
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.
What's the BIG question the magistrate finally asks Meursault? No, no conscience, he has no emotions. He does not want to be bothered with religion when he doesn't care about it and he has limited time left on earth. In your opinion, does Meursault feel complemented when referred to as Monsieur Antichrist?
The magistrate's next question causes Meursault to pause before he answers. He emphasizes that he did not shoot five consecutive shots. He tells the absolute truth. He fired one shot, killing the Arab, and then, after a short interval, he fired four more shots.
Meursault is unwavering and the magistrate tires, claiming never to have seen a criminal with "a soul hardened as yours." When asked whether he feels sorry about the murder, Meursault responds: "more than sorry I felt kind of annoyed." All subsequent meetings with the magistrate are civil, disinterested, and calm and ...
Meursault becomes irritated by the chaplain's insistence that he spend the rest of his life thinking about God. He feels he has no time to waste with God. The chaplain tells Meursault that his “heart is blind.” Meursault suddenly becomes enraged.
What does Meursault feel about his lawyer's and the prosecutor's summations? Meursault thinks the prosecutor is a better lawyer than his own. They feel that they are almost the same because they both say he is guilty.
Monsieur AntichristThe novel's second part begins with Meursault's pretrial questioning, which primarily focuses on the accused's callousness toward his mother's funeral and his murder of “the Arab.” His lack of remorse, combined with his lack of sadness expressed toward his mother, works against him and earns him the nickname “Monsieur ...
At the novel’s outset, Meursault’s indifference seems to apply solely to his understanding of himself. Aside from his atheism, Meursault makes few assumptions about the nature of the world around him. However, his thinking begins to broaden once he is sentenced to death. After his encounter with the chaplain, Meursault concludes ...
Because Meursault does not grieve, society sees him as an outsider, a threat, even a monster. At his trial, the fact that he had no reaction to his mother’s death damages his reputation far more than his taking of another person’s life. Meursault is neither moral nor immoral.
Meursault is also honest, which means that he does not think of hiding his lack of feeling by shedding false tears over his mother’s death. In displaying his indifference, Meursault implicitly challenges society’s accepted moral standards, which dictate that one should grieve over death.
After his encounter with the chaplain, Meursault concludes that the universe is, like him, totally indifferent to human life. He decides that people’s lives have no grand meaning or importance, and that their actions, their comings and goings, have no effect on the world.
Rather, he is amoral—he simply does not make the distinction between good and bad in his own mind. When Raymond asks him to write a letter that will help Raymond torment his mistress, Meursault indifferently agrees because he “didn’t have any reason not to.”.
Meursault expresses a tenet of existentialism here: Each individual possesses only the present moment in which to act.
Meursault explains his response to his employer who offers to transfer him to Paris. Readers imagine that the employer might be hurt by Meursault’s completely ambivalent response to such an offer as he accuses Meursault of lacking ambition, a grave defect for a businessman.
Meursault describes his physical reactions to details he notices in the world around him. Sights, smells, and motion combine to cause a change in consciousness that he can neither identify nor understand. However, readers learn that while he notices sensual details, he fails to notice human emotions. These moments of heat, glare, and sleepiness ...
When Salamano says that he must be feeling his mother’s death terribly, he makes no response because has no feelings that he can report. It is only when Salamano recounts the criticism the neighbors felt when Meursault sent his mother to an institution that he defends himself.
The magistrate’s dream of living out his last years of service with relative ease and little disruption , however, is thwarted by the circulation of rumors in the Empire’s capital about the nomads beyond the nation’s frontier settlements.
Then, in the middle of the night, Colonel Joll returns. The magistrate looks upon Joll’s company of men with dread: they’ve brought back a group of prisoners... (full context) After Colonel Joll takes a day to rest, he begins his interrogations.
After a couple of days pass, the magistrate notes that the prisoners “seem to forget they ever had another home,” as they are... (full context) The magistrate notes that after a few days of the “barbarians’” captivity, he and the guards begin... (full context) Then, in the middle of the night, Colonel Joll returns.
The magistrate therefore has the makings of an outcast within him from the start of the novel, and his willingness to vocalize his dissent to the various executors of the Empire’s military will ultimately solidifies him in that role.