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.The chronology ofthis chapter is blurred and the first page depicts events like Marie’s letter which take place after her visit.Since this is the chapter where Meursault repeats that there are things ‘I have never liked talkingabout’, we might conclude that Camus wishes to retain somethingof the doubt that lingered over the narrative form of Part 1.However, this chapter possesses a clear thematic progression, forit depicts Meursault’s evolution during his months in prison andtraces a growth in his awareness that prepares us for his attitudeduring the trial.Chapters 3 and 4 depict the trial, the former ending with Meursault’s attempt to distance himself from the court and thelatter with the imposition of the death penalty.So not only is Part 2, Chapters 1–4, more like an orthodox journal novel, but its subjectis authority versus dissidence.The outlines are set in Chapter 1.The first questions asked ofMeursault have to do with his civil state – his name, address, ageand profession.Such details appear arbitrary to him – ‘it all seemed like a game’ (100) – and the motif of the game versus nature recurs, although it is handled ironically, for Meursault describes the legal system as ‘natural’ (110).Another recurring motif is the sun whichis present in the magistrate’s office – ‘his office was full of light which58THE STRANGERwas barely filtered by a thin curtain’ (103) – and which will growstronger throughout the trial.Associated again with death, the sunhere regains its traditional masculine quality, for it is primarily the agent of the judges.Writing re-appears in the shape of the clerk who transcribesMeursault’s language in this other even more distorted form.Theverb ‘to understand’ is prevalent and, if on page 103 the lawyercannot understand Meursault, then on page 104 Meursault can-not understand the magistrate.Present too is the strategy of indif-ference, for Meursault thinks of explaining and defending his pointof view to the lawyer before concluding that ‘all that didn’t really serve much purpose and I gave up the idea out of laziness’ (103).The novelty of Part 2 is that Meursault’s indifference ceases to beinstinctive and becomes a reasoned world view.Major developmentstake place in Chapter 2, triggered by Marie’s visit, which has already been discussed twice.It remains only to add that, once he receivesMarie’s letter, Meursault starts to feel ‘that I was at home in my cell and that my life stopped there’ (115).Now he begins to have ‘only a prisoner’s thoughts’ (120).Learning how to do without cigarettesand sexual pleasure and how to while away the hours, he becomesa model prisoner and yet this adaptation to the world of power ismade with great alienation.This is the sense of the episode of the mess tin whose roundedand hence distorting surface serves as the second mirror of TheStranger.If on the first occasion Meursault constituted an image of his mother and had no conscious view of himself, he can here perceive himself but only as someone other than himself: ‘it seemed tome that my reflection remained serious even when I tried to smile at it’ (126).Awareness is thus accompanied by a form of schizophrenia: the separation of Meursault the model prisoner from another,freer Meursault.His true character is discovered a moment later: ‘But at the sametime and for the first time in months I distinctly heard the soundof my voice.I recognized it as the one that had been ringing in myears throughout long days, and I understood that for all that timeI had been talking to myself’ (126).This is the monologue whichcannot be written down and of which The Stranger is a faint echo.Its content is ‘the hour without a name’ (126), the horrors of eveningsThe Stranger59in prison as recognized by the Meursault who is still, in spite of what he said earlier, a free man.This unwritten text does find its way into Chapter 3, where Meursault will be able to describe the evenings ofhis former life, the value of which he is now better able to appreciate.During the trial chapters his sense of the conflict between hisfreedom and the power of the state grows.At the outset he has the‘bizarre impression that I was superfluous, a bit like a gatecrasher’(130).Then he finds an ally in one of the journalists who is con-spicuously unlike the others.As stated in Chapter 1, Camus was aself-critical journalist and in The Stranger he satirizes the reporters who have ‘played up’ (130) Meursault’s case [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.The chronology ofthis chapter is blurred and the first page depicts events like Marie’s letter which take place after her visit.Since this is the chapter where Meursault repeats that there are things ‘I have never liked talkingabout’, we might conclude that Camus wishes to retain somethingof the doubt that lingered over the narrative form of Part 1.However, this chapter possesses a clear thematic progression, forit depicts Meursault’s evolution during his months in prison andtraces a growth in his awareness that prepares us for his attitudeduring the trial.Chapters 3 and 4 depict the trial, the former ending with Meursault’s attempt to distance himself from the court and thelatter with the imposition of the death penalty.So not only is Part 2, Chapters 1–4, more like an orthodox journal novel, but its subjectis authority versus dissidence.The outlines are set in Chapter 1.The first questions asked ofMeursault have to do with his civil state – his name, address, ageand profession.Such details appear arbitrary to him – ‘it all seemed like a game’ (100) – and the motif of the game versus nature recurs, although it is handled ironically, for Meursault describes the legal system as ‘natural’ (110).Another recurring motif is the sun whichis present in the magistrate’s office – ‘his office was full of light which58THE STRANGERwas barely filtered by a thin curtain’ (103) – and which will growstronger throughout the trial.Associated again with death, the sunhere regains its traditional masculine quality, for it is primarily the agent of the judges.Writing re-appears in the shape of the clerk who transcribesMeursault’s language in this other even more distorted form.Theverb ‘to understand’ is prevalent and, if on page 103 the lawyercannot understand Meursault, then on page 104 Meursault can-not understand the magistrate.Present too is the strategy of indif-ference, for Meursault thinks of explaining and defending his pointof view to the lawyer before concluding that ‘all that didn’t really serve much purpose and I gave up the idea out of laziness’ (103).The novelty of Part 2 is that Meursault’s indifference ceases to beinstinctive and becomes a reasoned world view.Major developmentstake place in Chapter 2, triggered by Marie’s visit, which has already been discussed twice.It remains only to add that, once he receivesMarie’s letter, Meursault starts to feel ‘that I was at home in my cell and that my life stopped there’ (115).Now he begins to have ‘only a prisoner’s thoughts’ (120).Learning how to do without cigarettesand sexual pleasure and how to while away the hours, he becomesa model prisoner and yet this adaptation to the world of power ismade with great alienation.This is the sense of the episode of the mess tin whose roundedand hence distorting surface serves as the second mirror of TheStranger.If on the first occasion Meursault constituted an image of his mother and had no conscious view of himself, he can here perceive himself but only as someone other than himself: ‘it seemed tome that my reflection remained serious even when I tried to smile at it’ (126).Awareness is thus accompanied by a form of schizophrenia: the separation of Meursault the model prisoner from another,freer Meursault.His true character is discovered a moment later: ‘But at the sametime and for the first time in months I distinctly heard the soundof my voice.I recognized it as the one that had been ringing in myears throughout long days, and I understood that for all that timeI had been talking to myself’ (126).This is the monologue whichcannot be written down and of which The Stranger is a faint echo.Its content is ‘the hour without a name’ (126), the horrors of eveningsThe Stranger59in prison as recognized by the Meursault who is still, in spite of what he said earlier, a free man.This unwritten text does find its way into Chapter 3, where Meursault will be able to describe the evenings ofhis former life, the value of which he is now better able to appreciate.During the trial chapters his sense of the conflict between hisfreedom and the power of the state grows.At the outset he has the‘bizarre impression that I was superfluous, a bit like a gatecrasher’(130).Then he finds an ally in one of the journalists who is con-spicuously unlike the others.As stated in Chapter 1, Camus was aself-critical journalist and in The Stranger he satirizes the reporters who have ‘played up’ (130) Meursault’s case [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]