In his Myth of Sisyphus, he said that the discovery and the disgust of this monotony - "rising, tram, four hours in the office or the factory - is absolutely essential for an understanding of the Absurd. But then comes Sunday, completely unstructured.ĭepicting this kind of mechanical, day-to-day living is important for Camus' purpose. Weekdays may be monotonous, but there are certain things to do at certain times Saturdays are for fun. He wanders around the apartment, reads an old newspaper, and cuts out an advertisement for a scrapbook that he keeps of amusing things.
When Meursault does get up, he doesn't know what to do. Remember, too, that Meursault had fleeting guilty feelings about dozing off during the ordeal of the vigil and during the funeral itself, but today, he stays in bed because it is pleasant to lie there and smoke. He lives rather like an animal if he's sleepy, he dozes. Recall that on the bus, traveling to his mother's funeral, Meursault was so sleepy he could hardly keep his eyes open in fact, he thinks he dozed off for a while. He falls asleep again and, when he wakes again, smokes in bed until midday. Yet he is responsive to the smell of the salt from Marie's hair. And he does not tell us how satisfying their lovemaking was.
He has awakened after having had sex with Marie, but he is not disappointed about Marie's not being there when he wakes up. There is nothing very exciting or special about Sundays, except for the fact that he dislikes Sundays. Next morning, Meursault awakens it is Sunday. Meursault's mother died, probably, Wednesday or Thursday she was buried "yesterday." Note, too, that Meursault tells Marie that his mother "died yesterday." It's of so little importance to him that he confuses, absently, the day of her funeral with the day of her death. Marie knows that Meursault's mother has just been buried because she asks him about his black tie, but she's unconcerned, for the most part. We have seen Meursault's casual reaction to his mother's death now, we see him manage a casual pickup. Right now, swimming would be pleasant.īy chance, on the swimming raft, Meursault meets a girl who worked for a short time in his office and they go to a film that night, a comedy of all things, and then they go home and have sex. There are no introspective feelings about his mother, about how she looked when she was alive, how she smiled, the expression in her eyes, the things which she and he talked about years ago, his childhood with her - or even her absence, forever. Meursault wakes up and realizes how exhausting the funeral has been, physically. After showing us Meursault's reaction to death, Camus shows us a day during which Meursault reacts to life.
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