Albert Camus, a French writer, wrote two pieces of writing in the 1940s that were very similar to one another. These writings were novel called The Stranger, written in 1942, and a play called The Misunderstanding, which was written in 1944. The novel The Stranger is a story about a character named Meursault and his perception on the outside world. Within this story, Meursault finds a newspaper article about anther story in which a man is murdered by his own mother and sister, and The Misunderstanding is a play, that portrays this story in the article with further detail and description. In both Albert Camus� novel and his play, there are recurring themes such as the theme of isolation, and the theme of a harsh, holistic, or indifferent universe, that are carried on.
In Albert Camus novel, The Misunderstanding the themes of isolation and a harsh, holistic, or indifferent universe are portrayed through a character named Meursault. Meursault displays this theme of isolation in many different ways. One way Meursault displays that he is isolated is that he lives alone in his apartment. When the story begins, Meursault�s mother had just passed away, so he returns to the apartment tat they once shared and decides to live there. Meursault used to think that this apartment was just the right size, but now that he lost his mother he decided to move all of his furniture into one room, and isolate himself from having any contact with anyone else. �It was just the right size when Maman was here. Now it�s too big for me, and I�ve had to move the dining room table into my bedroom. I live in just one room now, with some saggy chairs, a wardrobe whose mirror has gone yellow, a dressing table, and a brass bed. I�ve let the rest go� (21). Besides Meurault�s physical isolation, he is emotionally isolated as well. After Meursault�s mother passed away, it seemed to have little or no effect on Meursault at all. He had no feelings towards the situation, and remained indifferent towards it throughout the book. In fact, the day after his mother had died, Meursault went out on a date with his friend Marie, in which he went swimming and saw a movie. Marie even asked about his mother, and Meursault displayed no emotion. Because of his lack of emotion, Meursault is isolated.
In Camus� play The Misunderstanding, the two themes of isolation and a harsh universe are displayed in many different ways. One of the ways the theme of isolation is displayed is through the character of Jan. Jan is a young man from Africa who is trying to get reconnected with his mother and sister, who he hasn�t seen in many years. Jan tries to make contact with them by going to the hotel that they own together, but when he arrives there, he is unrecognized by both his mother and his sister. The fact that Jan is not recognized by his own mother and sister, who he spent his whole childhood being around, makes him isolated. Once Jan realizes that his relatives do not recognize him, he decided to play a little game with them by renting out a room in their hotel, hoping that eventually they would realize who he really was. Unfortunately for Jan, his sister and his mother had planned to murder him once they met him. They kept Jan faceless for the entire time he stayed at the hotel, so they didn�t even give him a chance to be recognized. Eventually Jan realized that he was going to remain unnoticed and he decided to leave, but before he could do so he was murdered. This is an example of a harsh universe because, Jan made his decision to play this game, despite the strong feelings of his wife Maria telling him not to, and it ended with his death. Also, the fact that Maria lost her husband who she loved very much, due to a silly game that Jan wanted to play, is another example of this theme. Another character in the play who displays the two themes is Jan�s sister Martha. After Jan�s murder, Martha realizes what she had just done, and has to face the fact that she had just murdered her own brother. It was the harsh universe that Martha was living in, that caused her to be so hungry for Jan�s money, and blind her from seeing the truth. Also, after Martha and Mother realized what they had just done, Mother broke down, left Martha to live alone, and later killed herself. Martha had lost everything, and was left live by herself. The irony in the whole play is that Jan�s purpose for returning to his relatives was to give them money and bring them back to their homeland in Africa, and returning to their homeland was the reason why Martha and Mother killed Jan and wanted his money. All of these events display the theme of a harsh universe. None of the main characters in the play come out with a happy ending.
In Albert Camus� writings, the recurring themes of isolation and a harsh or indifferent universe have different effects on the ending of each story. In The Stranger, it wasn�t until Meursault was isolated alone in his jail cell for him to have the realization that he was living in an indifferent world, and that the life people live is meaningless, for him to find happiness. In The Misunderstanding, it was the isolation of Jan that led to his death, as well as the unhappiness of his wife Maria. It was also Martha�s isolation at the end of the story, as a result of the harsh universe forcing her to kill her own brother out of greed, resulted with her being miserable. Although in both of Camus� stories it was the choices made by the main characters that displayed these themes as well as lead to either their joy or their sadness.
Writer's Response
Wriing this peice was a ittle difficult because it was a little hard to develop my controlling idea between the two pieces of writing by Camus. I was trying to convey that the themes of isolation and the absurd were both conveyed in the novel The Stranger and The MIsunderstanding. I am pretty confident that I accomplishd what I set out to do.
Once I had my controlling idea between the two peices of writing, the essay was relatively easy write. Based on the peer editing sheets I recieved on my essay, I feel that I was successful.
I feel that the peice is complete, although I could have used a little more time to write it because i expereienced some difficulty with the computers in which I had to rewrite some of my essay. Besides that I feel that I had enough time.
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