Chapter 3: The Stranger.
One of the characters we meet in chapter 3 is Raymond, one of Monsieur Meursault's neighbor. Raymond invites Meursault to his apartment for dinner. As Monsieur Meursault and Raymond bond over sausage, Meursault notices Raymond's injured hand. Raymond acknowledging this, explains that his mistress had been the root to his hand problem. He says that his mistress and him had gotten into a "little" fight, and as a result, the mistresses brother hunted Raymond down to avenge his sister.
Raymond goes on to say that his fight with his mistress was motivated by the belief that she was cheating on him. He goes on to describe the physical fight they had. He says on page 31, "I'd smack her around a little, but nice-like, you might say. She'd scream a little. I'd close the shutters and it always ended the same. But this time it's for real. And if you ask me, she still hadn't gotten what she has coming."
Is Raymond a psychopath? The way he describes the beating is so ordinary. He makes it seem like it was no big deal. To me, this bring up the question whether or not Raymond and Monsieur Meursault's friendship will last, or if Meursault will feed into Raymond craziness. At the end of the chapter, Meursault ends up agreeing to writing a revenge letter to Raymond's mistress. This leads me to believe that Meursault will become Raymond's evil minion, unconsiously, as a distraction to his own miserable reality.
Your point here relates to the point I wrote about in my first entry because although your point about Raymond being a psychopath is not what I wrote about, I wrote about treatment and development of female characters in the beginning of The Stranger. Raymond's mistress is never even named and definitely not developed. In fact, her whole character exists to demonstrate how Raymond's character could be exhibiting psychotic tendencies.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about Meursault becoming the subject of Raymond, but I remember reading the almost mundane description of the beating and feeling stunned. The overall tone of the book so far is objective, so I think the style accounts for the detachment from such violent actions.
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