The steady passage of time is usually something the reader can depend on in any novel, and the foundation upon which the author erects his or her narrative. The familiarity of linear, even time mollifies the audience, and eases the reader into the world the writer has created. Time has an enormous impact on the nature of a story, but we only truly take note of it when its passage is abnormal. Take, for instance, Cloud Atlas or The Bone Clocks, two macro-novels by David Mitchell where the concept of chronology is thrown out the window, which gives the reader a wholly new relationship with the characters and the setting. While much more subtle in his manipulation of time, Camus lends a greater depth to his main character by suggesting that Meursault does not perceive time as the rest of us do.
Throughout the first section of The Stranger, time seems to be distorted for Meursault, rushing past him at first, while barely inching by mere moments - at least, what we perceive as moments - later. While at his mother's funeral, Meursault struggles to maintain an interest in the proceedings which seem to drag on indefinitely, when suddenly "everything seemed to happen so fast, so deliberately, so naturally that I don't remember any of it anymore" (17). Meursault seems to accelerate as the day draws to a close: "Then there was the church and the villagers on the sidewalks, the red geraniums on the graves in the cemetery, Perez fainting (he crumpled like a rag doll), the blood-red earth spilling over Maman's casket, the white flesh of the roots mixed in with it, more people, voices, the village, waiting in front of a cafe..." (18). Moreover, this flexibility of the fourth dimension does not bother our protagonist in the slightest, which suggests either that he has become accustomed to this peculiarity or that he is not even aware of it, which seems entirely possible, since the manner in which time passes, a fundamental component of any person's quotidian life, does not present itself as a topic which is up for interpretation. I suspect the latter is more accurate; Meursault does not question how time passes, because he has never suspected that his perception of it is anything other than ordinary. This conclusion has major ramifications for our understanding of the character's motives and tendencies, and may even provide an explanation for his lack of empathy and general ambivalence. If Meursault is at peace with his perception of the passage of time, he must never have had reason to question it. Therefore, his unique interaction with time must have been present for as long as he was capable of complex thought - nearly his entire life. Could this inability to comprehend the rigidity of time have resulted in an indifferent adult who believes that the choices he makes will have no significant effect on his life as a whole?
I'm eager for feedback and ideas of your own. What circumstances do you guys think have shaped Meursault into the man he is in Camus' novel?
Yours is a really fascinating point! I think the idea of "time flies when you're having fun" is a good lens through which we can infer bits and pieces of Meursault's personality. For someone who shows as little emotion as Meursault, measuring his experience of time could be a valuable tool for understanding what things he enjoys (if you can call it enjoyment) vs what things he dislikes.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the fact that time generally moves at a constant pace in literature- I think generally it moves event to event, in order to maintain an engaging storyline. Your point about emphasizing what events move slowly and quickly to Meursault are interesting, that definitely could be an insight to his character. But I think in this case, the difference is not in how he perceives time (event to event with some things moving slowly because he's bored), but why he feels the way he does about certain events.
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