Why does Meursault get so angry at the chaplain?

    Throughout The Stranger, Meursault is characterized as someone who doesn’t really care about anything and goes with the flow. During class discussions, he was often described as “emotionless," as he shows no signs of emotion during extremely stressful times, such as his mother's death and after killing the Arab. However, near the end of the book, when Meursault is nearing his death, he has an outburst of rage when talking to the chaplain.

    To understand Meursault's reactions to the chaplain, we have to look at the change in his state of mind after he learns that he is going to be executed, which is when he first starts to show signs of emotion. First, Meursault tries to bargain with the situation, thinking of ways he could escape his fate. He desperately tries to think of a way to escape the prison and wishes for the machinery to fail, but he quickly realizes that neither of those are feasible options for him. He then accepts his situation and sits around, dreading the footsteps that would signify his inevitable execution. Then, against his wishes, the chaplain comes to his cell to visit him and tries to help him repent for his sins so he can smoothly transition to the afterlife. In the beginning, Meursault tries to calmly explain that he does not believe in God and does not wish to talk to chaplain anymore. However, when the chaplain insists on making Meursault believe in God, he loses his temper and starts yelling at the chaplain.

    I believe the reason Meursault had such a strong reaction to the chaplain is because he was forced to think about his future for the first time in the book. Prior to learning about his execution, Meursault lives in the present, only thinking about his primal needs in the moment. He never stops to think about the implications of the things he does, and just does what pleases him in the moment. Even in the prison, Meursault eventually falls into routine and he has no thoughts of what will happen to him in the future. The news of his execution forces Meursault to think about the rest of his life and what he will do before his death. This makes him extremely uncomfortable and he starts to show slight signs of emotion, trying to revert back to his comfortable life of living in the present. When the chaplain comes to talk to Meursault, he tries to get Meursault to think his life after his execution. For a man like Meursault who doesn't even like thinking about the next day, this is unimaginable. Therefore, all the emotion he bottled up after learning about his execution is released in a violent outburst of rage against in the chaplain, manifesting in the form of cursing, screaming, and insulting. 

Comments

  1. Yan LNovember 21, 2022 at 12:10 AM

    Really interesting observation, when I read the novel, I felt like Meursault wasn't expressing his emotions because he didn't know what they were, and when he finally expressed it in anger towards the chaplain it was due to him finally connecting the dots. This is a bit different but I definitely see this making sense and honestly, makes the story a bit more sad for me.

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  2. MitchellNovember 21, 2022 at 11:24 AM

    I agree that the chaplain forces Meursault to think about his future, and to really grasp and eventually embrace the "absurd" nature of his predicament. He is emotionally triggered by the chaplain's refusal to take "no" for an answer, and this sort of forces the question of Meursault's imminent death and the "meaning" of his life--the chaplain offers him a conventional way to make that life "meaningful," as a story of a criminal who repents and asks forgiveness and receives eternal life. Meursault rejects this offer so forcefully that it sort of compels him to *affirm* his own life as he's been living it all this time. As I see it, he already has been living with a more or less "existentialist" view of life as "meaningless," but the chaplain making him painfully aware of the fact of his own mortality forces him to *actively affirm* the life he has lived, to double down on his "I'd do it all again even if it is meaningless" view.

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