Victims of Modern Existentialist Absurdity - Essay Example

Meursault and Gregor: Victims of Modern Existentialist Absurdity Introduction Both Meursault in Albert Camus’ novel “Stranger” and Gregor in Franz Kafka’s novella “Metamorphosis” are the victims of modern existentialist absurdity that forces them to resort to self-alienation from the societies in which they live. But these two characters are problematic in the sense that they are responsible, to a great extent, for letting themselves be engulfed by their alienation. The extents to which Meursault and Gregor are responsible for their situations are different. Whereas Meursault’s alienation evolves from a self-invoked shrinkage from the society, Gregor’s discomfiture forces him to be isolated from the surroundings. Therefore Gregor’s alienation is less deliberate than Meursault’s alienation, as Rossignol says, “GREGOR’S alienation is slightly less deliberate. Used as a tool for money and for control by his family, yet has been indoctrinated in only seeing their good side (if it exists). This however also stems from self-denial and self-alienation.” (56) Apparently Gregor seems to be the poor victim of the society, in which he lives, that cruelly has robbed him of all of the opportunities to survive decently on his own worth, gradually restricting him within the periphery of a room. Ironically the way how Gregor views others in his family and orientates himself in the society essentially shows that Gregor’s psychological inertia has reached the height that prevents him from looking into his discomfiture and from identifying the causes. He cannot -more appropriately, does not want to- search for the underlying reasons of the discomfiture. Gregor simply takes the discomfiture as it is. Such non-resistive acceptance of the situation as well as the humiliation inflicted by his family members is reminiscent of Meursault’s disinterest in the ‘well and woe’ of life and other social affairs. Whereas Gregor’s self-alienation is illusive and evading, Meursault’s self alienation is more obvious. Indeed the psychological inertia of Kafka’s protagonist is camouflaged in his apparently innocent stance that invokes the readers’ sympathy towards him against the hostility of the family members. The root of Meursault’s alienation lies in his disinterest in social affairs. Again his disinterestedness evolves from the meaninglessness or the absurdity of life. Meursault and Gregor as self-deceiving Self-alienators Both Meursault and Gregor deceive themselves and subsequently their deceptions result their isolation from their societies. In this regard, Rossignol says, “In L’Étranger (Camus) and The Metamorphosis (Kafka) however, the characters of Meursault and Gregor deceive themselves, leading to self-alienation as well as alienation from society” (43). Meursault’s obsession with the inescapable reality of life affects his mind only to turn it into something inert and incapable of thinking and being emotional. For him, his lover Merie is simply an object of sex because only his body reacts to his physical sexual impulse and because his mind does not react to the emotionality of love. If one guesses that love is an emotion that is something like the yearning of mind with the hope of being together with his beloved one in the future, Meursault does not feel love because the hopeful portion of his mind has been scratched by his obsession of the inevitability of reality. This obsession prevails over him in every step of life. For example, in Part One of Chapter I during the long, hot funeral procession, when the nurse says, “If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church”, he comments, “She was right. There was no way out” (Chapter 1, Part 1). Therefore, Meursault’s approach to this absurd world is full of contradiction. Though he thinks that in an absurd universe, love, emotion and other social institutions are meaningless, other activities such having sex, eating, any reasoning etc should have been meaningless. But he responds to his carnal hungers that are necessary for him. On the other hand, he simply ignores to pay respect to others’ rights such as ‘not to deprive anybody of his or her life’, ‘the responsibilities that having sex with a woman infers upon’, ‘respecting others’ value,’ etc and the social institutions that uphold theses rights of human beings. If responding to carnal hungers gives a man temporal reliefs, then other social institutions and customs such as marriage, religion, judicial system, respecting others’ values and rights, are necessary for another types of reliefs. Ironically, the absurdity of life provokes Meursault to respond to his own interests, whereas he ignores Marie’s and others’ interests. Since he fails -or more accurately deceives himself- to view the importance of social relationships and responsibilities like the importance of fulfilling the carnal hungers. Like Meursault, Gregor also deceives himself. In this regard, Rossignol comments, “Gregor’s alienation in The Metamorphosis is more visible than that of Meursault, and certainly less subtle. Where Meursault’s alienation occurs from the inside out (character to society), Gregor’s alienation is the opposite.” (47) An astute reader will note that how Gregor accepts his life as a metamorphosis in a troubled posture is essentially the revelation of the absurdity of Gregor’s life and his disinterest in the meaning of life. In his troubled poster of a metamorphosis, Gregor reflects upon his career as a travelling salesman who suddenly finds himself stuck in the awkward situation upon getting up in one morning. Indeed though the use of magical realism in order to trap and draw the readers’ attention to the crisis of Gregor’s inner being, such magical transformation may deceive them (readers) since it may divert their attention from the crisis of Gregor’s inner being, keeping them engrossed in his external and physical appearance. Any astute reader will note that it is completely impossible for a man, who has turned into a metamorphosis during his sleep, to retain a calm and cool manner of narration. Indeed the reserve attitude of Gregor is reminiscent of Meursault’s reserved reaction to his mother’s death. Both Meursault and Gregor are haunted by the absurdity and meaninglessness of life. The magical transformation of physical appearance in the “Metamorphosis” often confounds Kafka’s readers regarding the question whether Gregor’s transformation is something like a schizophrenic psychological illusion. Rather a reader can purport that Gregor, in fact, deceives himself thinking that he has turned into a metamorphosis that is stuck on its back down. The troubled posture of the metamorphosis is the symbolic representation of one’s inevitable death. Indeed the perception of this inevitability of death also paralyzes Meursault, in Camus’ novel, from finding any meaning in life. Thinking that in the metamorphosis’s posture, life is destined to embrace the inevitable death, he gradually withdraws from his outdoor activities throwing his family into poverty. Consequently the family members react to his withdrawal from social activities by leaving him in the old house. Meursault and Gregor as the Victims of Absurdity of the Universe and Ennui of Life Life of an ‘upside down metamorphosis’ is as absurd as the inevitable death itself. Gregor’s perception of his life as the metamorphosis prevents him from the money earning activities that, to a great extent, determines the relationship among family members in the post industrial and early modern society in which Kafka lived. Indeed the absurdity of Gregor’s metamorphosis like life is not wholly the result of the perception of the inevitability of death. Rather through Gregor’s life, Kafka tells the anomic absurdity of the early modern society. In a society where the individual becomes marginalized, Gregor’s lack of attention to his own condition and his obsession with his work refers to his boredom or ennui of modern life that verges on the meaninglessness or absurdity, of life, that Meursault himself is a victim of. Failing to cope with the ennui of modern individual self, Gregor as a metamorphosis feels comfortable to hide himself in darker corner of his room. It basically reveals that when Meursault can be considered as a fully grown victim of the ennui of absurd life, Gregor is the victim of modern anomic absurdity. Like Gregor’s tendency to get relief from the absurd ennui of life in early modern society, Meursault’s failure to extract any meaning out of life results in his obsession with inevitability of death. He realizes that since all men will die inevitably, they are all alike. But this realization makes him more passive and inert both mentally and physically. He cannot feel the necessity of a mother as well as a lover. Therefore he does not have any emotional attachment to his mother and also lover Marie. This lack of emotion is vivid in his reaction to his mother death. Even the telegram bearing the message of his mother death is not worthy of much attention. This disinterestedness to his mother’s is revealed in his indifferent description, as he says, “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the home: “Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow, Faithfully yours” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” (Chapter 1, Part 1) Growing individualism in the process of modernization and, disintegration and decay of the preceding feudalistic social bond etc contributed to his alienation from his society as well as his close relatives. Such anomic alienation is vividly evident in his novella, “Metamorphosis”, “the Hunger Artist” and a number of other literary works. Critics mark Kafka’s portrayal of this alienation as the corruption of human relationship, as Robert W. Stallman notes, “The Hunger-Artist" is one of Kafkas perfections….Its theme of the corruption of inter-human relationships.” (117) Indeed his novella “Metamorphosis” can be considered as the revelation of his lack of adequacy in his society, as Daniel Honrek notes, He began writing her long letters about everything, although mostly about himself and his feelings of inadequacy. In this first flush of love he wrote "The Judgment" on the night of 22-23 September, which he dedicated to her. He considered it his first mature work, and proudly read it to his family and friends. In November and December he wrote "The Metamorphosis." (Honrek 4) Indeed what critics mark as the corruption of human relationship was the typical anomic characteristic of the decay of the social bond and the earlier stage of the growth of individualism that were greatly induced the increasing division of labor in an industrialized society. Such decay of family bond and corruption of human relationship are also embryonic in his novella “Metamorphosis” with a new dimension of the ennui of a modern man. In Kafka’s modern society, inadequacy of a son to do anything decent was not taken lightly, as Gregor is treated by his own father. He is assaulted with “apples” by his father when he ventures into the living room, as the narrator describes the moments, “something or other thrown casually flew close [to Gregor] and landed in front of him. It was an apple. Immediately a second one flew after it” (Kafka 64). Kafka’s real life ennui is reflected at the ennui of Gregor in “Metamorphosis”. In the same way, perceiving life as something meaningless and absurd, Meursault also isolates himself from society and indulges himself into activities that the society does not support. Camus clearly draws the attention of his readers to the fact that Meursault’s perception of the universe as something absurd facilitates him to develop an amoral view, of the society and its members, that is as irresponsible as killing the Arab or writing a letter that is intended to torment Raymond’s wife. Upon Raymond’s request to write a letter that would torment his wife, he agrees because he “didn’t have any reason not to.” (34) Thus Meursault appears to be a destructive figure. He appears to be a passive observer in the world. Therefore, a constructive role in the society cannot be expected from him. For him, since death is inevitable, he accepts it along with all other ordeals of life and he seems to be happy with the passive acceptance of these ordeals. This satisfaction of accepting the ordeals, as they are, is evident in his following comment, “I said that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn’t dissatisfied with mine here at all” (Chapter 3). He says that he is not dissatisfied with present life, because life in a better position offered by his boss in Paris and his present are the same and both of them have to the same reality of death. Again in the last Chapter, he comments on his satisfaction for his condition, “I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone,” (Chapter 5) Surprisingly, what he calls happiness is his hopelessness to alter his death. Ironically he is happy because he accepts the reality of death. Conclusion The common problematic feature that both of these characters possesses is that though they live in a society, they, self-deceivingly think that the absurdity of life relieves them of the duties and responsibilities to their families and societies. Though Meursault perceives death as the ultimate truth of life, ironically he fails to perceive other truths of life, such as love and responsibility, in a society. Meursault murders the Arab without thinking of what death means to others. He cannot think of others in his world because he is extremely self-oriented. This self-orientation or self obsession can also be perceived in his sexual activities that are void of any emotion like love. Indeed the meaninglessness of Gregor’s metamorphosis like life is not completely the consequence of the perception of the inevitable death. Pretty through Gregor’s life, Kafka narrates the anomic absurdity of the early modern society. In such society where the individual has been marginalized, Gregor’s lack of awareness of his own condition and his obsession with his career refers to his the ennui of modern life that tentatively verges on the absurdity, of life, which Meursault himself is a victim of. Failing to cope with the ennui of modern individual self, Gregor as a metamorphosis feels comfortable to hide himself in darker corner of his room. Works Cited Camus, Albert. The Stranger. trans. Matthew Ward. London: Bentham Publishers, 1988 Honrek, Daniel. “Franz Kafka Birth and childhood”, 13 December, 2010. available at Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Nanaimo: Planet PDF, 1999. Rossignol, Alice. “A Comparison of the Process of Alienation of Meursault and Gregor from L’Étranger and The Metamorphosis”, Journal of Literature Research.2007 Read More