Is Meursault in Albert Camus' "The Stranger" an antihero?

Meursault can be viewed as an antihero, but with the proviso that there are certain striking differences between his behavior and that of other well-remembered antiheroes in literature.

Usually an antihero is a character who commits misdeeds or crimes but still has some claim on our sympathy and admiration. His acts can often be rationalized by the fact that the enemies against whom the antihero acts are even worse people than him and that they are the ones who deserve justice or punishment more than he does. In some cases even this rationalization is lacking. In Macbeth, for example, Macbeth is an antihero not because the ones he kills are evil but because he kills regretfully, with the knowledge that his acts are wrong and that even if his motive is lust for power, those acts are in some sense imposed upon him from the outside. He becomes driven on by prophecies, Lady Macbeth's prodding, and the fact that once he has become "stepped in blood" so far, it is impossible for him to turn back.

In the case of Meursault in The Stranger, these elements are mostly absent. He kills the Arab man for no reason that can be explained with reference to ordinary human values and concerns, even negative ones like Macbeth's power hunger. Another famous antihero Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment kills as an expression of his will in an unfair and hostile world. Meursault's motives can be said to resemble Raskolnikov's, but if so, in such a way that the act of killing lacks even the meaning Raskolnikov attributes to murder.

That said, Meursault is still a man with whom the reader can sympathize, but he is without the titanic, larger-than-life qualities with which Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and many other writers endow their antiheroes. Meursault is a man alone in a senseless world. He appears indifferent to the death of his mother and to anything else, carrying out one action or another because it is just as good, or bad, as anything else. Typically an antihero has the quality of both a hero and villain. But Meursault has neither, unless, in this twentieth century existentialist world, man is a hero just for being able to survive and act, even indifferently, in a world without meaning.

Camus stated that one of the models for The Stranger was, unexpected as it might seem, James M. Cain"s crime novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. At the end of Cain's story the antihero Frank seems to recognize the moral wrong of the murder he committed. The close of The Stranger parallels this epiphany, but in a different way. Meursault's final wish is that at his coming execution there will be a huge crowd that will greet him with howls of hatred. In his ultimate moment Meursault has created the "meaning" previously lacking in his world. This scene, more than any other in the novel, raises him to the level of an antihero, though still in a rather different sense than that of the other more "traditional" characters we have discussed.

The qualities expressed by an antihero are opposite of those expressed by a true hero. Where a true hero is brave and resourceful, an antihero (also spelled anti-hero) is weak and limited. Where a hero is personable and honest, an antihero may be annoying and manipulative. A hero succeeds in his quest through virtue and valor and the help of friends. An antihero may succeed or he may fail. He is often alone but, when he has friends, his friends are of the ignoble sort. The list of qualities and antithetical qualities goes on, but this gives a foundation for examining Meursault.

Meursault annoys people: "I had an idea [my employer] looked annoyed.". Meursault is not personable: "But maybe that’s why one day I’ll come to hate you." Meursault is weak, which is part of why he comes to be condemned on trial, and has no resources--he killed a man "because of the sun." He has no virtue: he agreed to write Raymond's letter knowing the purport and intent of it. He has no valor: "but I spoke too quickly and ran my words into each other. I was ... nonsensical, ...."

In one sense, he fails at his task in that he is convicted of the crime he commits. It may be argued that in another very different sense he succeeds in his task because he proves with his life that the world that he sees is senseless and without meaning--that the only things that matter, either for good or for ill, are physical sensations: "I explained that my physical condition at any given moment often influenced my feelings." Yes, Meursault fits the definition of an antihero.

How is Meursault in The Stranger considered a "hero" despite his sociopathic traits?

I read Camus' The Stranger in French many years ago. I was having a horrible time getting through French 4 because, unlike the first three French courses which I had taken at a different school, everything was in French. The teacher lectured in French, asked questions in French to which we had to reply in French, gave essay exams in which the questions were in French and we were supposed to answer entirely in French.

I had to write a final essay exam about L'Etranger in French, and my poor teacher must have been appalled by the blue book I turned in. But the question I was trying to answer was very similar to yours, and the answer I was trying to express was also very similar to yours.

I couldn't sympathize with Mersault at all. I didn't understand why he should have gone back to kill that Arab in cold blood or why anyone should offer excuses for him. Mersault's motive, it seemed to me, was just to curry favor with the man who had been treating him as a buddy. Camus was opposed to capital punishment, but he could have thought of a better plot to illustrate his thesis. I agree with you completely. Mersault was guilty of first-degree murder and got exactly what he deserved. It is surprising that the novel has remained so popular over all these years.

The most heroic achievement of Mersault is to be himself in the face of a world that demands compromise. He is unwilling to compromise, though this unwillingness means he will be sentenced to die. This could be one way to read heroism into this text.

Personally though, I don't read this as a book about heroism. I read this as an exploration of awareness of one's interior world - or the lack-there-of. Mersault denies that he has been affected by his mother's death, yet all evidence points to the contrary. The legal system gives him every opportunity to "realize" that he has been under stress and has experienced grief. It seems entirely plausible, to me, that it was the connection of the sunlight to his mother's death is what caused Mersault to act out in violence (as Mersault's subconscious mind at least is aware that it was sunny at his mother's funeral).

Mersault never becomes fully aware of the workings of his own mind, his own emotions. He is subject to these dark forces without being fully aware of them. There is a complex interplay between this lack of personal awareness and Mersault's personal explanatory narrative as to his reasons for his behavior. And we should include religion in this interplay as well, considering it as a meta-narrative meant to explain the whole world, yet out of touch with that world's inner-workings.

A literary hero, according to Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, is not necessarily someone who ends up doing good, but is the protagonist or narrator of the story who goes through some sort of life change over the course of the plot.  Meursault is an "absurd hero" by Camus's standards of Absurdism which means he is characterized by the following:

1.  He exhibits Revolt: He has accepted that he is condemned to live a short time in an unreasonable world and rather than fighting against it, he has succumbed to the reality.

2.  He exhibits Freedom:  Man is entirely free to think and behave as he wishes, and through that he finds freedom.

3.  He exhibits Passion:  This does not refer to emotional passion, but rather the desire to experience physical pleasure as much as possible (hedonism).

In the novel The Stranger, is Meursault a hero?

I actually *just* reread this book two days ago - one of my all-time favs.

Meursault is complicated; he'd be a horrible protagonist if he wasn't.  Deciding whether or not you think he's a hero will mean that you need to put parameters on what you think being a hero is.  Is he a yank-a-man-from-a-burning-building-type hero?  I can't really argue that he is.  But if you define heroism differently, then he can easily be a "hero".

eNotes has a great mini-analysis of him and some of his inner workings.  Camus himself actually spoke of his intentions with Meursault.

I've included three links below directly, and I'm pasting one more in here I think you'll find helpful.  All of them will help you get a clearer idea of who Meursault is supposed to be and perhaps what Camus was trying to accomplish.  Make sure you brush up on basic existential philosophy, too, if you're still having troubles.  Good luck

http://www.enotes.com/stranger/camuss-letranger-reconsidered