After months, the court finally made a decision on Meursault's case and Meursault is found guilty of killing the Arab. The death penalty might seem a big extreme but in that time period it was perfectly normal to sentence someone to death for comitting a murder. It is obvious that Meursault killed the Arab but did he kill him intentionally? Was it really murder? I guess one could argue that Meursault did mean to kill the Arab because Meursault shot him 5 times and I admit that's valid reasoning but I don't think it's enough.
When examining the way the court declares Meursault guilty, it's obvious that neither side is concerned with the truth. Both sides make up their own interpretation of what happened. The prosecutor argues that Meursault planned to kill the Arab because he has a "criminal soul" while Meursault's defense lawyer uses first person to recreate an event in which he knew nothing about. Meursault himself felt like an object, he states "In a way, they seemed to be arguing the case as if it had nothing to do with me. Everything was happening without my interpretation. My fate was being decided without anyone so much as asking for my opinion" (page 98).
Meursault himself does not know why he killed the Arab. When asked why he committed the murder, Meursault blurted out "because of the sun" (103). Although the people in the court room could have interpreted that as a lie, Meursault did not have a motive for killing the Arab. He simply pullled the trigger.
So with that, there are new questions that arise: How do you punish a man who doesn't know why he killed someone? And, is it okay to punish someone because they have a cold soul? But the most concerning question would be, was justice served?
I agree with you in the sense that there was no real sense of justice in the system, and that the death penalty was extreme. However, I believe that Camus was trying to prove a point about the justice system. He was trying to say that there is no justice, even in law, and that there is no real way to fight it.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that Meursault's punishment is extreme and unfair. I don't believe justice was served, Meursault obviously shouldn't have killed the Arab, but there was no malice behind his actions. It seemed as he just shot him because something overtook him.
ReplyDeleteThe questions you posed at the end were very striking to me. Especially the question "Is it okay to punish someone because they have a cold soul?" It made me wonder about the about of subjectivity that is present in a court of law, especially among the jurors. I can only assume that an apparent cold soul would in fact effect both the jury from Meursault's trial as well as juries going on today.
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