It's Getting Hot in Here.....
The other day in class, my group and I discussed the article ,”Psychological Interpretation of the novel The Stranger by Camus” by R.Gnanasekaran, in which the author provides several psychoanalytical ideas to explain Mersault as a character in The Stranger. In this article, he described many interesting psychological and philosophical ideas, such as absurdism, existentialism, and commitment phobia, but there were some we were not able to discuss. Therefore, I want to pinpoint and build on the idea of phobic neurosis that the author mentions in his article.
To quote the author’s explanation of phobic neurosis directly, “phobias result from anxiety that is produced by id impulses. This anxiety is displaced from the id impulses to an object or situation that has some symbolic connection with this fear. These objects or situations then become the phobic stimuli.” When I read “phobic stimuli”, I immediately thought of Mersault’s difficulties of coping with the sun and its heat, and how that has impacted him in (very!) negative ways. We first are introduced to his uncomfortableness with heat when he describes the beating rays of the sun as “inhuman and oppressive” during his mother’s funeral, and calling the glare from the sun “unbearable”. This whole section of his mother’s funeral focuses on his discomfort caused from the hot sun more than any topic, and we see that he gradually is losing his ability to see or think straight as he spends more and more time outside in the face of the sun.
Of course, another crucial and controversial scene where he is affected by the sun and its heat is his murder of the Arab. Even before his one-on-one encounter with the Arab, he finds himself distracted by the “overpowering” of the heat and rays of the sun. All of this discomfort is already built up inside of him before he walks alone on the beach and sees the Arab. Mersault explains, “The sun was the same as it had been the day I’d buried Maman (...). It was this burning, which I couldn’t stand anymore, that made me move forward. I knew that it was stupid, that I wouldn’t get the sun off me by stepping forward. But I took a step, one step, forward.” We can see here that the effect of the sun on Mersault causes him to approach the Arab, and the sun seems to take over his consciousness in a way that he has to give in to his impulses - he is unable to control himself, even though he knows that taking a step to avoid the sun is stupid.
So what does all this mean? Based on Gnanasekaran’s explanation, Mersault seems to suffer from a phobic neurosis, with his phobic stimuli being the sun and its heat. Every time that he encounters hot air and beating rays, he loses the ability to think straight or act on his consciousness. The sun takes over his mental and physical state, and he is unable to control himself. I am unsure as to whether or not it was his situation at Maman’s funeral that caused the sun to become his phobic stimuli, but I lean more towards the idea that he has been dealing with his discomfort in severe heat for a long time. Maybe Mersault had a traumatizing childhood experience with severe heat that made him unable to control himself against the sun for the rest of his life.
I’m interested to see if anyone has another idea as to why he is so affected by the sun, and if you think that the idea of Mersault dealing with a phobic neurosis of the sun is legitimate!
Based on your description of the condition, I think it's plausible that he was suffering from phobic neurosis. But I think in the end, we can never firmly conclude why Meursault had such a strong reaction to the sun, or what the author's rationale for including that detail was. As you mentioned, the novel seems to deal with absurdism. The fact that sun affected Meursault so much emphasizes that idea-- it's a bizzare, ridiculous behavior, that might not be able to be fully explained.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It was a very interesting read.
That psychoanalysis of Meursault was really captivating and a nice theory. I think that although Camus probably didn't intend for his character to be interpreted this way, it adds a lot of intrigue to Meursault's character. His condition also would absolve him of the guilt of the murder, as he is no longer completely in control when he pulls the trigger.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting way to look at Meursault. By the end of the novel, I was thinking of Meursault less as the subject of the novel and more as sort of Camus's vector to look at ridiculousness in society (so like absurdism but from a sociological rather than psychological perspective). Yet Meursault definitely matches the aspects of neurosis you detail. The fact that I'm not exactly sure what Camus is getting at makes the book even more interesting.
ReplyDeleteVery analytical way of looking at Meursault! From the beginning I suspected some sort of mental illness that caused a lack of empathy. I'm not sure there is a better explanation as to why he is so affected by the sun. I guess the book's events are so random they it encourages us to dig deeper to come up with a plausible answer. good blog post!
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