IS MEURSAULT CONDEMNED TO DEATH FOR EVENTS, WHICH TOOK PLACE PRIOR TO THE MURDER?  DO THESE EVENTS JUSTIFY THE SENTENCE?

ESSAY PLAN:
There are three prior events made relevant at the trial:

Introduction.

(1) The relevance to the trial of the Meursault 's relationship with his mother: (p 112):
The prosecutor seeks to prove his case in two ways:
(i) The actual events of the murder.
(ii) The grim revelation of the psychology of Meursault.
Page 112 –
J’en ferai la preuve, messieurs, et, je la ferai doublement. Sous l'aveuglante clarté des faits d'abord et ensuite dans l'éclairage sombre que me fournira la psychologie de cette âme criminelle.

A major aspect is his supposed callous treatment of his mother.  At his first interview with Meursault, his defending lawyer sees this as an issue:
Page 80 –
Les instructeurs avaient appris que j'avais fait preuve d'insensibilité le jour de l'enterrement de maman.
In fact, the prosecutor spends more time talking about Meursault's mother than about the crime:
Page 114 –
Mais il a été beaucoup, plus long que lorsqu' il parlait de mon crime, si long même que finalement, je n'ai plus senti que la chaleur de cette matinée.

The prosecutor speaks of Meursault's insensitivity, accusing Meursault of a crime compatible with the crime of parricide, which the court is to try the following day.

Previously Meursault's Defending Counsel had asked:
Page 109 –
Enfin, est-il accusé d'avoir enterré sa mère où d'avoir tué un homme?

 

To this the prosecutor had had a ready reply:
Page 109         
j’’accuse cet homme d'avoir enterré une mère avec un coeur de criminel­

THE QUESTIONS RAISED AGAINST MEURSAULT
(a) Was Meursault callous to put his mother in the home?

(i) We know from Salamano that there was some criticism from neighbours.  (P 10 my summary notes) - but Salamano acknowledges that Meursault loved his mum.
(ii) The first witness is the director of the old folks home, who testifies that Madame Meursault had at first complained about her son putting her in the home, -- he qualifies this however by saying that most old folk did blame their children.  However, the president of the court gets this statement repeated without the qualification –this to the disadvantage of Meursault
(iii) Meursault feels uneasy himself about having put his mother in the home but believes he had had no choice.  In fact, when Meursault meets the director of the old folks home before the funeral, the latter says there is no need to explain: his mother needed nurses to look after her and Meursault could not afford it.  Besides, she was better off there with people of her own age.

(b) Meursault’s conduct at the funeral

The case for the prosecution (see page 17 of my summary notes)
(i) The director of the old folks home says that he was surprised by Meursault's composure at the funeral and also to hear from an undertaker's man that Meursault did not know his mother's age.
(ii) The concierge tells how Meursault had not wished to see the corpse, had smoked, slept and drunk café au lait.
(iii) The prosecutor tries to exploit the testimony of Perez that Meursault did not weep at the funeral.

How Meursault explains his conduct at the funeral.

In his own account of the funeral Meursault had conveyed to the reader his sense of fatigue and physical disorientation e.g.
(i) The light in the white room as he keeps vigil
Page 27 –
Devant moi, il n'y avait pas une ombre et chaque objet, chaque angle, toutes les courbes se dessinaient avec une pureté blessante pour les yeux.

 

(2) The blinding sun and the oppressive heat distract him on the day of the funeral
Page 34 -:
J'étais un peu perdu entre le ciel bleu et blanc et la monotonie de ces couleurs, noir gluant du goudron ouvert, noir terne des habits, noir laque de la voiture. Tout cela, le soleil, l'odeur de cuir et de crottin de la voiture, celle du vernis et celle de l'encens, la fatigue d’une nuit d'insomnie me troublait le regard et les idées.

(c) Did Meursault love his mother?
The fact that Meursault had put his mother in the home and his conduct of the funeral is presented by the prosecution as proof that Meursault did not love his mother and was an unnatural son.  Yet, is this fair?

(1) The first two sentences of the book do not suggest any great emotion at the loss of his mother:
Page 21 –
Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.

 

(2) Meursault's answers to questions about his love for his mother are not enthusiastic: he tells his lawyer
Page 81 –
Sans doute, j'aimais bien maman, mais cela ne me voulait rien dire. Tous les êtres sains avaient plus ou moins souhaité la mort de ceux qu'ils aimaient
He answers the Examining Magistrate's question whether he loved his mother with:
Oui, comme tout le monde.
However, what Meursault is saying is that human love is always inadequate and  ineffective.  (This is a point which Camus makes in other books.) Thus as his mother aged, Meursault found that they had little to say to each other:

Page 23 –
C' était vrai. Quand elle était à la maison,   
maman passait son temps à me suivre des yeux en silence

It was for that reason that he had hardly visited her in the last year.  (See later notes about the picture of human love in L’étranger)

As Meursault is reticent about his feelings and even when asked directly is afraid to make claims about them, which he cannot justify, we will have to look for indirect evidence of his love.  There is probably poignant emotion in this recollection from the funeral.:
Page 35 –
la terre couleur de sang qui roulait sur la bière de maman, la chair blanche des racines qui s’y mêlaient

The lonely Sunday when Meursault stays at home, avoiding lunch at Céleste’s, because he will be asked questions about the funeral, is possibly the day when the bereaved son was reconciling himself to what had happened.  Meursault's words at the end of the day suggest this:

Page 41 –

J'ai pensé que c'était toujours un dimanche de tire, que maman était maintenant enterrée, que j'allai reprendre mon travail et que, somme toute, il n'y avait rien de changé.

The view taken by the court of Meursault’s attitude to his mother.

The prosecutor’s presentation of Meursault's attitude to his mother and his conduct at the funeral, proves to be the turning point of the case against Meursault. He feels then something in the court ruled which tells him he is guilty:
"Page 103 –
J'ai senti alors quelque chose qui soulevait toute la salle et, pour la premiere fois, j'ai compris, que j'étais coupable.'

 

(2) Meursault’s love affair with Marie.
(page 18 my summary notes) Uder cross-examination at the trial, Marie has to reveal that her liaison with Meursault began the day after the funeral.  Also, that on that day, she and Meursault had swum together.  Afterwards they had gone to the cinema to see  a comedy -- a film of Fernandel and that same night, she had returned to Meursault's apartment to sleep with him.  The courtroom it is stunned with disgust as these details emerge and the prosecutor sums up:
Page 107 –
Messieurs les jurés, le lendemain de la mort de sa mère, cet homme prenait des bains, commençait une liaison irréguliere, et allait- rire devant un film comique: Je n'ai rien de plus à vous dire.

He describes Meursault's love affair with Marie has most shameful debauchery.

Points to be made a Meursault's defence with regard to his conduct with Marie:
(i) Meursault and Marie had known each other and had been attracted to each other before the Saturday when they met on the beach.  Marie had, in fact, worked at the same office as Meursault but had not stayed long and they had lost track of each other. 
(ii) the love they shared could be genuine.
When Marie asks Meursault if he loves her, he says he does not think so.  But Meursault’s reply is reply is based on his doubts about the validity of human love:

Page 52 –

Un moment après, elle m'a demandé si je l'aimais, Je lui ai répondu que cela ne voulait rien dire, mais qu'il me semblait que non. Elle a eu l'air triste.

However, to most men, the joy of which Meursault feels at the touch of Marie, the admiration which he feels at her sight and the need which he has for her, would be described as "love".
They shared a passionate physical relationship.  We see his desire of her such when they are together at the beach:
Page 52 –
Je l'ai tenue contre moi et nous avons été pressés de trouver un autobus, de rentrer, d'aller chez moi et de nous jeter sur mon lit. J'avais laissé ma fen être ouverte et c'était bon de sentir la nuit d' été couler sur nos corps bruns.

However, there is also a spiritual harmony.  On the day of the murder of the Arab, marie was again with Meursault on the beach.  He tells us that:
Page 66 –
L'eau était froide et j'étais content de nager. Avec Marie, nous nous sommes éloignés et nous nous sentions d'accord dans nos gestes et dans notre contentement.

When Meursault sees Marie laughing with Mme Meursault, he thinks, the first time, that he is going to marry her.
___________________________________________________________________________
In prison, at the start of his imprisonment, it was the face of Marie that he had sought in the walls
Page 130 –
Peut-être, il y a bien longtemps, y avais­-je cherché un visage. Mais ce visage avait la couleur du soleil et la flamme du désir: c'était celui de Marie. Je l'avais cherché en vain.

 

(3) The events with Raymond before the murder

The account of Meursault’s relationship with Raymond proves very damaging to Meursault:
The prosecutor gets Raymond to admit to the following facts:
(a) That Meursault had written the letter by which Raymond wished to attract back his mistress, the sister of the murdered Arab.  Once in his apartment, he intended to abuse her and beat her up. 
(b)  That Meursault had not intervened when Raymond, was beating this woman.
(c) That Meursault had given false testimony on Raymond's behalf that the Arab woman had let him down.
(d) That Meursault had been with him on the beach. 

The prosecutor sarcastically dismisses the defence that all this was pure chance.
Finally the prosecutor accuses Raymond on being  (what all the neighbourhood say he is) a pimp.
Page 108 –
de notoriété générale le témoin exercait le métier de souteneur...J’étais son accomplice et- son ami.  Il s'agissait d'un drame crapuleux de la plus basse espèce, aggravé du fait qu'on.avait affaire a un monstre moral

Meursault's only defence will be to deny such a friendship with Raymond, but when Raymond says that he is Meursault's pal, Meursault merely confirms it.

 

Points in Mersault’s defence concerning his friendship with Raymond

The cruel  irony is that the sequence of events leading to the murder was indeed pure chance:

(1) Meursault had gone into Raymond's apartment for something to eat, because he did not fancy cooking a meal himself.  Raymond had asked to Meursault to write the letter to his mistress because Meursault was educated.  Meursault, who had drunk some glasses of wine accepted merely to avoid offending his host, but he did it in a very haphazard way.

(2) Meursault went out with Raymond not because he was involved in his shady activities, but because he enjoyed the moments he spent with him.  They go out for drink and the game and billiards:
Page 55 –
il me disait combien il était content d'avoir réussi à punir sa maitresse. Je le trouvais très gentil avec moi et j'ai pensé que c'était un bon moment

(3) Meursault does not approve of Raymond.
(i) Meursault is reluctant to interfere in the lives of his fellows and to pass judgment on them e.g..  When Raymond asked him his views about the plans to get his Arab mistress back, Meursault was noncommittal:
Page 49 –
il voulait savoir ce que je pensais de cette histoire. J'ai répondu que je n'en pensais rien mais que c'était intéressant.           

(ii) However, indirectly, we can guess the disgust that Meursault feels e.g. his description of Raymond's pathetic performance when faced by the policeman.  Then Raymond was trembling with fear.
(iii) The physical distaste, which Meursault feels when he looks at Raymond as they set off to the beach together.  He is disgusted to see the white skin under the dark hair and of his arms.
(iv) Far from being Raymond's accomplice, Meursault, in fact, dissuades Raymond from murdering the Arab.  Meursault has taken to gun into his possession to prevent Raymond from killing the Arab in his anger.
(v) Meursault compares Raymond unfavourably with the kindly good Céleste:
Page132-
Qu’importait que Raymond fût mon copain autant que Céleste qui valait mieux que lui.
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Conclusion to the essay

In considering the justice of Meursault’s death sentence we have to note:
(1) That the majority of the trial was devoted to events which had taken place prior to the murder
(2) That these did not have the connection with the murder which the prosecution maintained.
(3) That the interpretation of these events, provided by the prosecution was largely unfounded