The Stranger is narrated by Meursault: a stereotypical masculine character with little interest anything concrete or meaningful, let alone a woman’s point of view, her value, or equality between the sexes. Everything the reader gleans about a woman’s feelings is through that male lens. Women are depicted as an accessory, to be abused or had in bed. In the portrayal of Raymond’s relation to the woman he abuses and Meursault’s relationship to Marie, women are shown as objects, always less than then men. In terms of Benjamin’s theory of mutual recognition, the binary is undoubtedly set at MAN:woman.
Meursault’s thoughts on how Raymond abuses the woman are slim to none. He is completely unphased. When Marie and Meursault witness the abuse, he notes, “The woman was still shrieking and Raymond was still hitting her. Marie said it was terrible and I didn’t say anything. She asked me to go find a policeman, but I told her I didn’t like cops” (36). After this episode when Raymond comes into Meursault’s room and they discuss it, Meursault goes onto say, “I told him it seemed to me that she’d gotten her punishment now, and he ought to be happy” (37). Meursault completely normalizes the victim blaming that seems to be so pervasive in the book. Not only does Meursault condone the abuse he witnesses, he supports it by agreeing to lie for Raymond and testify that the woman cheated on him. There is no legitimate reason to ever abuse another human being, but throughout The Stranger, the unequal power dynamic between the sexes perpetuates the binary and supports the abuse.
Furthermore, in terms of love, it’s only thing that truly matters to Meursault is sex. He is indifferent about companionship and marriage with Marie - the physical elements of the relationship that yield immediate pleasure is all Meursault cares about (41-42). When he is in prison, he doesn’t even think personally about Marie, just about women in general. Even if he does loves her, he loves her body more. Meursault comments, “I never thought specifically of Marie. But I thought so much about a woman, about women, about all the circumstances in which I had enjoyed them, that my cell would be filled with their faces and crowded with my desires” (77). This representation of women barely surprised me as a reader though, because women are so much on the sidelines of this novel, that in this masculine oriented world I could see how women would only be seen as necessary for only what they can give men. Abuse and objectification of women are prevalent throughout The Stranger, and through Meursault’s very masculine narration the reader gets a first hand account of how not caring at all could make a man happy, but it does no good for his female counterpart.
I also noticed the women in this book were always on the sidelines, seen as nothing more than objects. I was outraged and quite frustrated when Meursault could not even agree with Marie when she commented on Raymond's abuse of the women. It is clear that, to Meursault, the only purpose of Marie is for sex because during the trial, he didn't even look at her. Clearly if he had any affection he would have at least tried to make eye contact with her. Whether or not Camus' portrayal of women in this novel is a reflection of his thinking of women, to the reader it is clear the opinions of men toward women in that region and time.
ReplyDeleteThe treatment of women in this book actually reminded me a lot of Freud (not to mention a whole slew of others we view as "experts" of "important figures"). When confronted with the fact that none of his theories made any sense for women, Freud dismissed this, saying women just didn't make sense. If someone's philosophy dismisses women, then it obviously doesn't universally apply. Any way of life that can only apply to the most privileged group is inherently flawed.
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