A Comparison of the Heroes Of The Stranger (The Outsider) and The Myth of Sisyphus

In Albert Camus’s fiction novel, The Stranger, the main character, Meursault is an absurdist who is does not develop emotional bonds to those around him, and because of this, is looked at by society as an outsider. Camus uses the relationship between Meursault and Marie, Meursault’s belief in the meaninglessness of the individual person, and the symbol of the courtroom to show that the world is absurd, and that society can not accept the lack of order in the world.

The Myth of Sisyphus tells of a mortal who was punished by the gods to push a rock to the top of a mountain which would then roll back to the bottom where he was to start pushing again. Sisyphus was to continuously repeat this task or all of eternity. Many similarities in philosophies can be seen between this myth and The Stranger, both authored by Albert Camus. In The Stranger, Meursault often noted what interested and disinterested him, similarly, the narrator of the myth mentions that Sisyphus return trip down the mountain peaks his interest. Additionally, Meursault never developed any faith in a higher power which correlates to the narrator of the myth stating, “...there is no higher destiny” (Camus, paragraph 9). Next, Meursault clearly

In The Stranger, Camus employs lucid imagery, emblematic metaphor, and the personification of nature to demonstrate the transformatively humanizing effect that the murder had on Meursault, both revealing the pent-up troubles throughout his life and illustrating the true lack of emotion and care that has been a highlight of his existence. This passage exhibits the culmination of Meursault’s disposition throughout the first part of this novel. From the opening line of the novel that references his mother’s death with a notable lack of feeling or sorrow, it is apparent to the reader that Meursault outwardly expresses his lack of emotion or purpose in his life – a motif that carries throughout Part One. As this section comes to a close, Camus uses

[Odyssey, Book 11]” This myth symbolizes the concept of futility, and highlights how many things in life can feel endless and pointless. This classic naturally drew attention from philosophers throughout the years as a way to describe the meaning of life. Albert Camus viewed that Sisyphus had a deeper symbolic message to tell us. As Fieser puts it, “French philosopher Albert Camus (1913-1960) believed that the story of Sisyphus had another symbolic message. Yes, many of life's specific tasks certainly feel futile, but what is more discouraging is that the sum of a person's life efforts may seem pointless.

Another great example of chaos in this play when Romeo and Juliet are married and Lady Capulet tells the “great” news to Juliet that she will be marrying Paris early Thursday morn at which she is not proud of and does not want to marry Paris even though the father rules the family, so as a result Juliet’s heart was not considered here's to give. Although Juliet does not want to marry Paris, she and Friar Laurence made a plan that she will agree to get married and will “die” from a drink, then wake up in the chapel with Romeo’s lips on hers and run far away with her Romeo. However, the result of the plan did not work the way Juliet and the friar expected. When Romeo goes to Juliet’s chapel and found her ‘dead’, he poisons himself because he

With everything going on with the upcoming presidential election, the political community has been very prominent in society the past several months. While doing research on myths, I came across The Myth of Sisyphus and immediately made many connections between the two subjects. Both of these topics have a lot to do with manipulation and deception. With politics especially, people today have a lot of opinions on the dynamics of that community. They both deal with continuous repetition and constantly giving your all to make accomplish a task. What is interesting though is exactly to what extent can The Myth of Sisyphus be related to our modern day political community?

Juliet said to Lady Capulet on the subject of marriage, “It is an honour that I dream not of…” She is telling her mother that she does not want to get married. Lady Capulet then persuades Juliet to meet Paris, hoping to change her mind on marriage. Juliet agrees to look at Paris at the party to make her mother happy. Later at the party Juliet falls in love but not with the handsome Paris, but from the opposing household of their families ancient feud, Romeo Montague. The next day, Romeo and Juliet are wed in secret and Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence for help on the subject of Paris, “Tell me not, friar, that thou hear’st of this, Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it…. God join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands….” Friar Lawrence then helps Juliet by giving her remedy to fake her death but she fails to get word to Romeo thus sealing fates ultimate demise.

Camus explanations of the Myth of Sisyphus, presented the concept of the absurd by outlining the beliefs that an individuals life has worth but only his live in a world that denies such worth to survive. Therefore, the absurdity in the statement, explains the fact of a clash between the orders through which an individuals mind hard for, likewise the lack of order that we as humans find in the world.

Philosophically speaking, I’m not terribly knowledgeable. I suppose I should consider myself lucky that Lesione already has me self-aware enough to note that hole in my higher reasoning skills. At the same time, I’m not convinced that even if I did have a strong grasp on philosophy that I’d know what it is Camus is going on about. The texts starts off well enough, with Camus highlighting several details and variations on Sisyphus’ life and crimes against the gods that I’ve never read before or realized even existed. Using the mythos he previously describes, Camus then applies the absurdist viewpoint to Sisyphus’ actions and punishment fairly reasonably. Unfortunately, it's after Camus

The Unique Creation of Albert Camus. Donald Lazere. Yale University Press, 1973. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism.

Modern society is plagued by incessant monotony. However, Albert Camus’s existential story The Myth of Sisyphus, Joseph Campbell’s interview “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth”, and David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech “This is Water” postulate possible solutions to societal ennui. Albert Camus conveys, in The Myth of Sisyphus, that acceptingf tedium as impermeable, more effectively.

When Juliet has a conversation with her mother she displays dramatic irony. Juliet states “Villain and he be many miles asunder. God Pardon him I do, with all my heart; And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart” (3.5.81-83). Lady Capulet understands Juliet words different from how she intended to say them. Lady Capulet thinks that Romeo has caused Juliet terrible grief by killing Tybalt, but Juliet is really grieving over Romeo who has been banished and therefore that's what breaking her heart. The audience knows that Juliet is grieving for Romeo, but her mother doesn’t. Because Lord Capulet has no idea of Juliet and Romeo, she assumes that she is willing to marry Paris. Juliet disagrees marriage with Paris and her parents become infuriated. Lord Capulet reaction is extraordinary. He yells at her, he curses her, he calls her names, and he vows to disown her if she doesn’t marry. Juliet being trapped she goes to Friar Laurence for guidance. Juliet’s plan is to fake her death, so she can run away with Romeo. Friar helps her and gives Juliet a potion to drink that puts her in a sleep-like

The myth of Sisyphus focuses on a king who was said to be deceitful and spiteful in nature. He was supposedly

The Myth of Sisyphus is the most revealing commentary on Albert Camus’ reasoning. Defining the absurd as arising from the meeting of two elements:

The purpose of Richard Taylor’s, “The Meaning of Life,” is to portray the life of Sisyphus in Albert Camus’s, “The Myth of Sisyphus,” as a meaningless life, in which Taylor portrays as a “perfect image of meaninglessness.” In Camus’s story, Sisyphus has committed certain crimes that got him into trouble with the gods. Hence, receiving a punishment by being forced to push a rock up a hill. However, to make it even worse, once he reached the top of the hill, the rock would just roll back down to the bottom, therefore having to repeat this labor for eternity. The motivation behind this discipline was to demonstrate the pointlessness of life since there was no want to demonstrate his life will never end. The question of what’s the meaning of life is compelling to think about, but the more time spent doing it the more fascinating it gets. There are ways to avoid having a meaningless life, but Taylor’s theory sticks to either living a happy life or a meaningless life.