Marie and Meursault: Meant to Be or Want to Be?

Marie and Meursault: Meant to Be or Want to Be? “It occurred to me that anyway one more Sunday was over, that Mamam was buried now, that I was going back to work and that really, nothing had changed.”(1.1.15) These are some of the words that ran through Meursault’s mind after his mother’s death. He was very isolated from her so he felt as if nothing had changed. He was not the most outgoing person but the same cannot be said about his love interest, Marie. Throughout the novel, The Stranger, Meursault and Marie reveal just how many similarities and differences they share in the topics of emotion, actions and mannerism. To begin with, emotion was most certainly one of the main factors of the book. Emotion played such a big impact it potentially caused a death. Marie and Meursault very both similar and different in their ways of emotion. They were both very physically bonded to one another. They might not have always seen eye to eye, but when it came to contact, their emotions were hand in hand. Recently after Mamam lost her life, Meursault made a quick connection with Marie. “Together again, Marie and I swan out a ways, and we felt a closeness as we moved in unison and were happy.”(1.6.7) Just from a line of Meursault’s thoughts, you could tell he had a serious emotional connection with Marie. For most of the novel, this couple seemed as they were formed together into one person, but on the other hand, their everyday feelings about common things were as different as black and white. Marie was a very energetic, romantic and passionate
Mann 2 woman, while her other half rarely every showed any kind of emotion other than physically. Later on in, the Stranger, Marie asked Meursault if he loved her. By responding that it did not matter if he loved her, it put it right out in the open that he did not have a very wide emotion range. Meursault also never really showed any grief for the loss of his mother, especially while at her funeral. ”Soon one of the women