My Friend, Monsieur Antichrist

The later half of The Stranger humanizes Monsieur Meursault while simultaneously increasing the apparent divide between Meursault his emotions. This juxtaposition of two conflicting characterizations of Meursault made me change my mind about the morality and "goodness" of our protagonist many times throughout the second part of The Stranger. Although I do no believe that the murder of the Arab man was premeditated on the part of Meursault, I am not sure whether or not his lack of remorse is a sign of evil. 

On the more optimistic hand, the vivid description of Monsieur Meursault's transportation back to jail after the trial made me believe that I had looked at Meursault's internal dialogue the wrong way. His description of the "familiar sounds of a town I loved and of a certain time of day when I used to feel happy," made me think that I had misjudged Meursault, and that he was in fact a man capable of love (97). This analysis that emphasizes emotions was bolstered by the fact that Monsieur Meursault was "taken aback" by his lawyer talking for him, pretending to speak as him (102). In this more optimistic view, Meursault simply has the ability to analyze his situation sans emotions, a skill which distances himself from traditional morality but does not sever the connection.

However, the latter half of the book also brought about the examination of Monsieur Meursault's soul and some compelling arguments on the side of the prosecution. The details laid out by the prosecution, including the fact that Meursault did not know how old his mother was, and that he seemed to have moved on from her death at an alarmingly quick pace swayed me. They moved me onto the side of believing that the disconnect between Meursault and the world around him, a world that operates based on principles of morality, was dangerous at best. In these passages of the book, I concurred with the judge's assertion, that  Monsieur Meursault's true name is "Monsieur Antichrist " (71). 

 

However, I cannot reconcile the two characterizations at this time, and I am left with the oxymoron that  Monsieur Meursault is a friendly Antichrist.