Sunday, January 5, 2020

What are examples of dread and anxiety in The Stranger?

For a good chunk of The Stranger, the protagonist Meursault has absolutely no dread or anxiety in any regards of his life. After killing an Arab man, Meursault shows neither satisfaction nor remorse. He certainly isn't a sadist who enjoyed the crime, nor is he empathetic enough to regret it.
It isn't until Meursault faces his own death that dread and anxiety set in. Slowly, the realization of the brutality of capital punishment (particularly by guillotine) creeps into Meursault's consciousness. He begins to fantasize about escape, freedom, and acquittal. In one passage, Meursault sits in jail and thinks,

It was a stupid thing to let my imagination run away with me like that; a moment later I had a shivering fit and had to wrap myself closely in my blanket. But my teeth went on chattering; nothing would stop them (139).

While Meursault's absurdist philosophy originally gives him some comfort—for none of his actions hold any consequential value—the same philosophy quickly begins to haunt him. After ranting about the meaninglessness of life to the pastor who aims to absolve Meursault before his death, Meursault falls into a deep anxious dread; others may just have well killed the Arab man while Meursault was allowed to live the rest of his life as a free man. Yet, as Meursault realizes, his seemingly meaningless actions ultimately led to a similarly meaningless death.

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