"For the first time in a long time I thought of Maman. I felt as if I understood why at the end of her life she had taken a 'fiance'... So close to death, Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again. And I felt ready to live it all again too... I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world" (Camus, 122).
Do you believe that at the end of his life, Meursalt was ready to start over and start new? To maybe express opinions and open up to a new way of life? Or do you believe that Meursalt just wanted to start again and live the same monotonus life as he did before?
2 comments:
At the end of Meursault’s life, he was okay with death. He said it was inevitable and it is going to happen sooner or later. Meursault was not upset that his life was going to end this way. He accepted the fact of the death penalty and was ready to move on. When Meursault becomes outraged at the chaplan at the end, he realizes that he would rather be doing this at peace then living and that he did not need false hope or illusions. Meursault felt free to live a simpler, less burdened life. He knew that the way he lived his life and his views on life made him an outsider. Meursault himself said that he wanted the crowd at his execution to cheer for him with hatred. Meursault’s eager anticipation of this moment shows he is content being an outsider and ending his life.
I do not feel that Mersault literaly wanted to start his life over again. I think that he had finnaly realized that he was satisfied with the life that he had lived and if he had to have lived it over again he would have done everything exactly the same. He was now so close to the end of his life that he now knew to enjoy what time he had left and to make the most of it. This is the same realization that Maman had come to towards the end of her life.
Post a Comment