Albert Camus and Jean-Paul

Sartre/ Camus and the Death

Penalty

Santos Reyes, Khiem Huynh, David Hildebrand, Julian Stanley

Overview

● Background
● Jean- Paul Sartre
● Camus and Sartre’s Relationship
● Camus’ Thoughts on Death Penalty
● Reflections of the Guillotine
● Video
● Discussion Questions
Background (leading up to Camus meeting
Sartre)

● 1940- Left algeria because he was a national security threat due to his
writings being published (went against the war)
● Camus went into exile with his return to Paris, where he was editor of
newspaper calling for strong moral actions
● During this time, Camus met Sartre at a dress rehearsal of Sartre’s play
● Camus went into politics after seeing the Algerian poor; Sartre got
involved in politics after seeing WW2 prison camps
● Liberation of France made the 2 men the country’s new intellectual heralds
that led the belief existentialist
Jean- Paul Sartre(biography/known for)

● French philosopher, playwright, novelist, political activist

● Had philosophical view of atheism “loss of God is not mourn”
● Believed in existentialism
● Once man realizes freedom, man has to make this meaning himself
● Best work was “The Flies”
Camus and Sartre: The Beginnings
● Met in June of 1943 during Sartre’s play The Flies
● Met simply by saying “I’m Camus”
● Sartre “found him a most likeable personality”
● Camus and Sartre bonded because they were both readers for the same
publisher
● Sartre offered Camus the lead role in his upcoming play [No Exit], and the
friendship was cemented.
Similarities Between Camus and Sartre

● Both lost their fathers as children and were raised by struggling mothers
● Both went to university to study philosophy
● Both believed in existentialism and portrayed the idea through their novels
● Both were activists through journalism
Camus and Sartre’s Portrayal of Existentialism

● Camus portrays existentialism in The Stranger through Meursault’s choice

to please the spectators at his execution in the end. It was the one time he
gave himself a purpose.
● Sartre portrays existentialism in Nausea through Roquentin’s questioning
of his existence and his journey to find his purpose.
Influences of Sartre on Camus’ Writings

● Camus praised Sartre for his novel, Nausea, because of the way he
portrayed the absurdity of life.
● “I am alone in the midst of these happy, reasonable voices. All these creatures spend their time
explaining, realizing happily that they agree with each other. In Heaven's name, why is it so important to
think the same things all together ” (Nausea).
● “I want to leave, to go somewhere where I should be really in my place, where I would fit in . . . but my
place is nowhere; I am unwanted” (Nausea).
● He admired Sartre’s honesty about the existence of man.
● He hailed Sartre’s lucidity and his depiction of characters whose freedom
was useless to them
● Camus started to pick up his style of writing.
Tensions Between Camus and Sartre

● At first, Camus and Sartre were united by common experience in the Resistance,
to promote social change- Wanted Algerians to have rights as French citizens
○ Shared belief that universe is apart from reason; unlike Sartre Camus did see life as valuable, worth
defending
● Tension came from different beliefs towards Communism
○ Sartre supported Stalin and Marxism (along with the terror that came with it)
○ Camus did not like the violence of the Soviet Regime, didn’t like the “ends justify the means”
mentality of the communist revolutionaries
● The company of women also split the men
○ Sartre was jealous of Camus’s good looks.
○ Camus was a loner, while Sartre was in the company Parisian intellectuals
How the Relationship Ended

● While at first it was easy to observe the two being friends, it becomes
obvious that Camus and Sartre were almost destined to be rivals.
● They had both been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and both
philosophers.
● Both Camus and Sartre preferred the company of women over men, and
Sartre’s lifelong friend and companion had once shown interest in Camus
● Camus had seemingly triumphed over Sartre with his extremely popular
work, The Plague, which sold thousands of copies followed by The Rebel.
● After his rejection of Camus’s essay, Sartre wrote a letter to Camus that
ultimately dismissed their friendship.
Relationship End (Continued)

● When Camus won his Nobel Prize for literature, he was questioned about his
relationship with Sartre
● Previously, Camus had felt ripped apart by his friend’s critique of his book, however
he responded differently.
● “The relationship is outstanding, monsieur, because the best relationships are those
in which we do not see one another.”
● Showing his resentment of Sartre once again, Camus said, “A writer could not evade
the tragedies of his time.”
● Ultimately when Camus had died, Sartre felt remorse, which he showed through his
tribute for Camus. “For all those who loved him, there is an unbearable absurdity in
that death.”
Philosophical Differences

● Jean Paul Sartre focused mainly on Existentialism

● Existentialism: A philosophical theory that focuses on a person determining
everything for themselves by their own free will
● Albert Camus was an Existentialist as well, though many argue that he is an
absurdist instead.
● Absurdism: the belief that the efforts of humanity to find meaning to life will always
and absolutely fail
● According to purely their respective philosophies, Sartre and Camus appear
extremely similar; however Camus appears as Absurdist while Sartre is purely an
Existentialist.
 Death Penalty: Camus’ Father
● Father, Lucien Camus, personally viewed a public execution while in
Algiers
● “I remembered a story Mother used to tell me about my father. I never set
eyes on him...One of these was that he’d gone to see a murderer
executed”(110).
● At first he fully supported the death penalty because of his hatred for
murderers of children
● After the execution, Lucien was in a state of shock, disgust
● “He had just discovered the reality concealed beneath the great formulas
that ordinarily serve to mask it. Instead of thinking of the murdered
children, he could recall only the trembling body he had seen thrown on a
board to have its head chopped off” (Reflections on the Guillotine).
Camus Thoughts on Death Penalty

● Hated the death penalty

● Death by the guillotine was a common public attraction in Algiers, Algeria
in the mid 1950s
● Humanitarian view, diligent
● The death penalty is just another irrational aspect of the world
● Aimed at the poor
● Affiliated with religion makes the penalty even more repulsive
Reflections on the Guillotine

● Extended essay by Camus written in 1957

● Argues for the abolition of the death penalty
● Camus' main point in his argument against capital punishment is its
ineffectiveness. Camus points out that in countries where the death penalty
has already been abandoned crime has not risen.
● “He needs, most of all, a reasonable society, not the anarchy into which his
own pride and the State's inordinate powers have plunged him… It is my
conviction that the abolition of the death penalty will help us advance toward
that society.”
● “In short, capital punishment cannot intimidate the man who throws himself
upon crime as one throws oneself into misery.”
The Death Penalty in The Stranger

● Death penalty is explicitly shown in The Stranger

● Death by the guillotine is just another irrationality of society to Meursault
● The sentence of death is a common fate in an absurd world
● “I just couldn't accept such arrogant certainty. The fact that the verdict was read out at eight P.
M. rather than at five, the fact that it might have been quite different, that it was given by men
who change their underclothes, and was credited to so vague an entity as the “French people”—
for that matter, why not to the Chinese or the German people?- all of it seemed to detract it from
the seriousness of the decision” (109).
● However, it is the death penalty that allows for Meursault to become aware of his
consciousness and transition into a fully authentic human.
Continued...

● Certainty of death by using the guillotine(vs hanging, poison)

● Hope is a torture tool
● Has no choice but to look forward towards his execution
● “... I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of
my execution and that they greet me with the cries of hate” (123).
● Supports the fact that Meursault has abandoned the idea of hope, can only
await his death
Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQN76Vv-nVw

Start at 1:38:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iW74PnBIGo

End at 1:57
Discussion Questions

1. How can the thoughts/punishments of Sisyphus be compared to

Meursault's death penalty and thoughts?
Question #1 Answer

● “One must imagine Sisyphus happy” (99).

● “I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again” (123).
● Sisyphus and Meursault both find happiness in their punishments; their
punishments allow them to escape the meaningless and irrationalities of
life.
● Continuously pushing the rock up the hill allows for Sisyphus to distract
him from the absurdities of the world.
● As for Meursault, death is the clear answer to end his torture in the
inauthentic society.
Discussion Questions

2. How would Camus’s style of writing be different if he had never met Sartre?

(Think of the influences Sartre had on Camus)

Question #2 Answer

● Camus wrote about the absurdity of life because Sartre did.

● “And my lawyer, rolling up one of his sleeves, said with finality, "Here we
have a perfect reflection of this entire trial: everything is true and nothing is
true!” (91).
● Since Camus went to university to study philosophy, he most likely would’
ve still wrote about it, but he might’ve had different philosophical views on
the world.
● Sartre helped him realize the cruelty of the world and the unimportance of
life
3. How does Camus put himself into the story(regarding the death penalty and
relationships)? Cite specific examples from the text.
Question #3 Answer

● Camus was an existentialist and therefore viewed life indifferently

● Meursault, with no doubt, represents everything that Camus represents
● “A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn’t mean anything
but that I didn’t think so. (Part 1)
○ Even close ones to Meursault do not mean much to him.
○ This quote portrays the indifference in which Meursault lives life. He
live life very realistically in that he sees that death in life is evitable. Also
human existence is meaningless.
4. Where can you see some of Sartre’s influence directly in The Stranger?
Question #4 Answer

● Camus viewed Sartre as a friend, and then later as a competitive

adversary. This can be seen when Meursault views the world as his rival,
wishing many would witness his demise.
● “For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to
wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and
that they greet me with cries of hate” (123).
Works Cited
● http://www.iep.utm.edu/camus/#SH5a
● http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/027961.html
● http://spring96.org/en/news/68097
● http://www.mrbauld.com/camuscp.html
● http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/camus-and-sartre-
friendship-troubled-by-ideological-feud-a-931969.html
● http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/027961.html