Meursault is motivated by his physical desires and comfort. He is motivated by normalcy and a lack of exertion emotionally, physically and mentally.
Before he killed the Arab or even decided to go back onto the beach he said, "We stared at each other without blinking, and everything came to a stop there between the sea, the sand, and the sun, and the double silence of the flute and the water. It was then that I realized you could either shoot or not shoot...To stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing" (56).
He has really no reason to go back into the heat. He has no reason to shoot. He does things seemingly arbitrarily. He strives for similar convenience in many aspects of his life which lead to a lack of real connection to other characters.
For instance, he doesn't want to extend himself into relationships either with his new girlfriend, Marie, or his mother (before she died). He never visited his mother. He won't commit to Marie and maintains that it does not matter whether he loves her or not.
Furthermore, he agrees with and testifies for Raymond because he has no reason not to, because it won't upset his current state of being. While he notices that Raymond now seems to consider him a friend, he never claims to reciprocate these feelings or even care about them.
It seems like Meursault can't be bothered to care about much, including the life of an Arab.
I completely agree with your thesis. It seems to me that his environment influence him more than his emotions ever do. Environment can be the physical environment (ie. the sun) or even society influences him. For example he agrees to do things like go to the beach house just because he should.
ReplyDeleteWhat really caught my eye on this post was the title- "Motivation of a Murderer"- because my first thought was, "there was a murder?". I've read the book,yes, and I got to the part where Meursault killed the Arab. Despite this, I didn't immediately recognize it as a murder. Meursault’s lack of a plan, any motivation, and remorse took the word “murder” out of my head. Murder is evil. Murder is a terrible thing done out of revenge or hatred or spite- not out of uncomfortability. Meursault's indifference towards both life and death seeped into my brain and briefly caused me to think like him. I think this is an aspect of extremely good story telling because the character's emotions and thoughts were so tangible to me, that I briefly believed them in non-literary context.
ReplyDeleteMeursault's apathy towards all aspects of his life really struck me as well. The question of 'why did he do it' really bothers me as well, because he had no reason at all to be involved in Raymond's whole messy situation in the first place. I think that the existentialist response would be that suffering and death exist without reason, which is kind of depressing. It's still hard to wrap my head around how Meursault is nearly only motivated by his environment and needs rather than morals or relationships.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Meursault's actions seem completely arbitrary. I found it almost frustrating to read. He just simply doesn't seem to care about anything. When his boss offers him a position in Paris, he responds blandly that he felt pretty much indifferent about the move. When Marie asks him if he wants to get married, he literally says "sure". He is just floating through life unbothered by anything except his physical comfort.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the thesis that Meursault seems to do things with seemingly no motivation. He also never seems to fully commit to anything or anyone. I liked how this post discussed his relationship with his mother, Marie, and Raymond- who are Meursault's most meaningful relationships in the book despite his unwillingness to fully commit to any of them. It seems that in relationships, Meursault never commits and waits for the other person to commit without ever caring about what the end result is. I liked how this post pointed that out.
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