Marie Cardona

Marie Cardona is perhaps the most mysterious of all the characters presented in Camus' novel The Stranger. Not much is known about her thoughts, feelings, and motivations given that she is only depicted to the reader through the notoriously detached Meursault. It may seem that Marie simply is not an important character with her only real value being a representation of a joyous and pleasurable life that Meursault could have had and for the most part, this idea of Marie seems to be true. Marie is deemed a "natural woman"- being generally uncaring about society and being somewhat carefree and fun-loving. Yet, despite the obvious oversimplification of her charecter on the part of Camus, Marie shows some agency in regards to her sexuality. One of Marie's most notable characteristics is her sexuality. Like Meursault, Marie is depicted as enjoying carefree sex. She is not shown as a prop to Meursault's sexuality, but instead as enjoying the act in her own right. Although the text is vague on Marie's thoughts on sex, she is shown to have initiated her and Meursault's romance by often coaxing Meursault out due to his passive nature. This shows at least some agency on Marie's part in a text that often completely ignores the agency and roles of women. Although Marie stands alone in a heavily masculine and patriarchal text as the only major female character, she does display at least some female agency that is severely lacking in the rest of the book.