FREE ESSAY ON JEAN-PAUL SARTRE, ALBERT CAMUS, AND JEAN ANOUILH

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE, ALBERT CAMUS, AND JEAN ANOUILH

On of the major playwrights during this period was Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre had
been imprisoned in Germany in 1940 but managed to escape, and become one of the
leaders of the Existential movement. Other popular playwrights were Albert Camus,
and Jean Anouilh. Just like Anouilh, Camus accidentally became the spokesman for
the French Underground when he wrote his famous essay, Le Mythe de Sisyphe or
The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was the man condemned by the gods to roll a
rock to the top of a mountain, only to have it roll back down again. For Camus,
this related heavily to everyday life, and he saw Sisyphus an absurd hero,
with a pointless existance. Camus felt that it was necessary to wonder what the
meaning of life was, and that the human being longed for some sense of clarity
in the world, since if the world were clear, art would not exist. The Myth of
Sisyphus became a prototype for existentialism in the theatre, and eventually
The Theatre of the Absurd.
Sisyphus is the absurd hero. This man, sentenced to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top
of a mountain and then watching its descent, is the epitome of the absurd hero according
to Camus. In retelling the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus is able to create an extremely
powerful image with imaginative force which sums up in an emotional sense the body of the
intellectual discussion which precedes it in the book. We are told that Sisyphus is the
absurd hero as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods,
his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which
the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. (p.89). Sisyphus is conscious of
his plight , and therein lies the tragedy. For if, during the moments of descent, he
nourished the hope that he would yet succeed, then his labour would lose its torment. But
Sisyphus is clearly conscious of the extent of his own misery. It is this lucid
recognition of his destiny that transforms his torment into his victory. It has to be a
victory for as Camus says:
I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But
Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too
concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him
neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that
night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself towards the heights
is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. (p.91).Sisyphus' life
and torment are transformed into a victory by concentrating on his freedom, his refusal
to hope, and his knowledge of the absurdity of his situation. In the same way, Dr. Rieux
is an absurd hero in The Plague, for he too is under sentence of death, is trapped by a
seemingly unending torment and, like Sisyphus, he continues to perform his duty no matter
how useless or how insignificant his action. In both cases it matters little for what
reason they continue to struggle so long as they testify to man's allegiance to man and
not to abstractions or 'absolutes'. 
The ideas behind the development of the absurd hero are present in the first three essays
of the book. In these essays Camus faces the problem of suicide. In his typically
shocking, unnerving manner he opens with the bold assertion that:
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. (p. 3).He goes
on to discover if suicide is a legitimate answer to the human predicament. Or to put it
another way: Is life worth living now that god is dead? The discussion begins and
continues not as a metaphysical cobweb but as a well reasoned statement based on a way of
knowing which Camus holds is the only epistemology we have at our command. We know only
two things:This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can
touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is
construction. (p. 14)With these as the basic certainties of the human condition, Camus
argues that there is no meaning to life. He disapproves of the many philosophers who have
played on words and pretended to believe that refusing to grant a meaning to life
necessarily leads to declaring that it is not worth living. (p.7) Life has no absolute
meaning. In spite of the human's irrational nostalgia for unity, for absolutes, for a
definite order and meaning to the not me of the universe, no such meaning exists in the
silent, indifferent universe. Between this yearning for meaning and eternal verities and
the actual condition of the universe there is a gap that can never be filled. The
confrontation of the irrational, longing human heart and the indifferent universe brings
about the notion of the absurd.The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human
need and the unreasonable silence of the world. (p.21)and further:The absurd is not in
man nor in the world, but in their presence together...it is the only bond uniting them.
(p. 21)People must realize that the feeling of the absurd exists and can happen to them
at any time. The absurd person must demand to live solely with what is known and to bring
in nothing that is not certain. This means that all I know is that I exist, that the
world exists ,and that I am mortal. 
Doesn't this make a futile pessimistic chaos of life? Wouldn't suicide be a legitimate
way out of a meaningless life? No. No. answers Camus. Although the absurd cancels all
chances of eternal freedom it magnifies freedom of action. Suicide is acceptance at its
extreme, it is a way of confessing that life is too much for one. This is the only life
we have; and even though we are aware, in fact, because we are aware of the absurd, we
can find value in this life. The value is in our freedom, our passion, and our revolt.
The first change we must make to live in the absurd situation is to realize that
thinking, or reason, is not tied to any eternal mind which can unify and make appearances
familiar under the guise of a great principle, but it is:
...learning all over again to see, to be attentive, to focus consciousness; it is turning
every idea and every image, in the manner of Proust, into a privileged moment. (p. 20)My
experiences, my passions, my ideas, my images and memories are all that I know of this
world - and they are enough. The absurd person can finally say all is well.I understand
then why the doctrines that explain everything to me also debilitate me at the same time.
They relieve me of the weight of my own life, and yet I must carry it alone. (p. 41)Camus
then follows his notions to their logical conclusions and insists that people must
substitute quantity of experience for quality of experience. The purest of joys is
feeling, and feeling on this earth. This statement cannot be used to claim a hedonism as
Camus's basic philosophy, but must be thought of in connection with the notion of the
absurd that has been developed in the early part of the essay. Man is mortal. The world
is not. A person's dignity arises from a consciousness of death, an awareness that
eternal values and ideas do not exist, and a refusal to give in to the notion of hope or
appeal for something that we are uncertain of. 
In the following essays, Camus presents examples of the absurd person. We are given Don
Juan, the actor, and the conqueror as examples of people who multiply their lives in an
attempt to live fully within the span of their mortality. But more important is the
creator who is discussed in the essay Absurd Creation. The absurd joy par excellence is
creation. For in creating a work of art the creator is living doubly in as much as his
creation id a separate life. The artist commits himself and becomes himself in his work.
Works of art become, then, the one means for a person to support and sustain a lucid
consciousness in the face of the absurdity of the universe. 
The present and the succession of presents before an ever conscious mind, this is the
ideal of the absurd man. (p. 81)Art is for Camus an essential human activity and one of
the most fundamental. It expresses human aspirations toward freedom and beauty,
aspirations which make life valuable for each transient human being. Art defies that part
of existence in which each individual is no more that a social unit or an insignificant
cog in the evolution of history. 
In The Myth of Sisyphus then we find the philosophical basis for the stranger, the
doctor, and the judge-penitent. This is the starting point of Camus's thought. Camus is
concerned here as in his other works with persons and their world, the relationships
between them, and the relationships between persons and their history. In The Myth of
Sisyphus he opposes himself to the rationalism of classical philosophy which seeks
universal and enduring truths or a hierarchy of values which is crowned by God; he
believes that truth is found by a subjective intensity of passion; he maintains that the
individual is always free and involved in choice; he recognizes that persons exist in the
world and are naturally related with it;he is deeply concerned with the significance of
death, its inevitability and its finality. The absurd is a revolt against tomorrow and as
such comes to terms with the present moment. Suicide consents to the absurd as final and
limitless while revolt is a an ongoing struggle with the absurd and brings with it man's
redemption. 
One can see now why Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is conscious of his plight: it was
his scorn of the gods, hatred of death, and passion for life that won him the penalty of
rolling a rock to the top of the mountain forever, and he does not appeal to hope or to
any uncertain gods. His is the ultimate absurd, for there is not death at the end of his
struggle. All is not chaos; the experience of the absurd is the proof of man's uniqueness
and the foundation of his dignity and freedom. 
All that remains is a fate whose outcome alone is fatal. Outside of that single fatality
of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty. A world remains of which man is the
sole master. What bound him was the illusion of another world. The outcome of his thought
, ceasing to be renunciatory, flowers in images. It frolics - in myths, to be sure, but
myths with no other depth than that of human suffering and like it inexhaustible. Not the
divine fable that amuses and blinds, but the terrestial face, gesture, and drama in which
are summed up a difficult wisdom and an ephemeral passion. (p. 87)One could do worse than
to consider the myths-retold in the works of Camus. 
Sisyphus is the absurd hero. This man, sentenced to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top
of a mountain and then watching its descent, is the essence of the absurd hero according
to Camus. In retelling the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus is able to create an extremely
powerful image with imaginative force, which sums up in an emotional sense the body of
the discussion. We are told that Sisyphus is the absurd hero as much through his passions
as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for
life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward
accomplishing nothing." (p.120). Sisyphus is conscious of his dilemma, and in that lays
his tragedy. For if, during the moments of descent, he nourished the hope that he would
yet succeed, then his labor would lose its torment. Nevertheless, Sisyphus is clearly
conscious of the extent of his misery. It is this logical recognition of his destiny that
transforms his torment into his victory. It has to be a victory for as Camus says: 
"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But
Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too
concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him
neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that
night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself towards the heights
is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." (p.123). 
Sisyphus' life and torment are turned into victory by concentrating on his freedom, his
refusal to hope, and his knowledge of the absurdity of his situation. It matters little
for what reason he continues to struggle so long as he continues on this absurd path and
not venture on to the path of dreaming or wishing. 
The ideas behind the development of the absurd hero are present in the first three essays
of the book. In these essays, Camus faces the problem of suicide. In his typically
shocking, unnerving manner he opens with the bold statement that: 
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide." (p. 3). 
He goes on to discover if suicide is a legitimate answer to the human dilemma. Or to put
it another way: Is life worth living now that God is dead? Since Camus doesn't believe in
the Superior Being, he must find another way to describe the fate of man. We know only
two things: 
"This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and
I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is
construction." (p. 19) 
With these as the basic certainties of the human condition, Camus argues that there is no
meaning to life. He disapproves of the many philosophers who have played on words and
pretended to believe that refusing to grant a meaning to life necessarily leads to
declaring that it is not worth living." (p.8) Life has no absolute meaning. In spite of
the human's irrational longing for unity, for absolutes, for a definite order and meaning
to the universe, no such meaning exists in the silent, indifferent universe. Between this
yearning for meaning and eternal truth and the actual condition of the universe, there is
a gap that can never be filled. The confrontation of the irrational, longing human heart
and the indifferent universe brings about the notion of the absurd. 
"The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable
silence of the world." (p.28) 
Yet: 
The absurd is not in man nor in the world, but in their presence together...it is the
only bond uniting them. (p. 30) 
People must realize that the feeling of the absurd exists and can happen to them at any
time. The absurd person must demand to live solely with what is known and to bring in
nothing that is not certain. This means that all I know is that I exist, that the world
exists, and that I am mortal. 
Doesn't this make a useless life? Wouldn't suicide be a legitimate way out of a
meaningless life? No. answers Camus. Although the absurd cancels all chances of eternal
freedom, it magnifies freedom of action. Suicide is acceptance at its extreme; it is a
way of confessing that life is too much for one. This is the only life we have; and even
though we are aware, in fact, because we are aware of the absurd, we can find value in
this life. The value is in our freedom, our passion, and our revolt. The first change we
must make to live in the absurd situation is to realize that thinking, or reason, is not
tied to any eternal mind which can unify and make appearances familiar under the guise of
a great principle, but it is: 
"...learning all over again to see, to be attentive, to focus consciousness; it is
turning every idea and every image, in the manner of Proust, into a privileged moment."
(p. 26) 
Camus then follows his ideas to their logical conclusions and insists that people must
substitute quantity of experience for quality of experience. The purest of joys is
feeling, and feeling on this earth." This statement cannot be used to claim
self-satisfaction as Camus's basic philosophy, but must be thought of in connection with
the notion of the absurd that has been developed in the earlier. Man is mortal. The world
is not. It is therefore absurd to try to understand something we will never have,
immortality. A person's dignity arises from a consciousness of death, an awareness that
eternal values and ideas do not exist, and a refusal to give in to the idea of hope or
appeal for something that we are uncertain of and cannot know. 
In the following essays, Camus presents examples of the absurd person. We are given Don
Juan, the actor, and the conqueror as examples of people who multiply their lives in an
attempt to live fully within the span of their mortality. However, more important is the
creator who is discussed in the essay Absurd Creation. For in creating a work of art the
creator is living doubly in as much as his creation in a separate life. The artist gives
himself and becomes himself in his work. Works of art become, then, the one means for a
person to support and sustain a logical consciousness in the face of the absurdity of the
universe. 
Art is for Camus an essential human activity and one of the most fundamental. It
expresses human aspirations toward freedom and beauty, aspirations that make life
valuable for each short-lived human being. Art defies that part of existence in which
each individual is no more that a social unit or an insignificant cog in the evolution of
history. 
One can see now why Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is conscious of his predicament: it
was his scorn of the gods, hatred of death, and passion for life that won him the penalty
of rolling a rock to the top of the mountain forever, and he does not appeal to hope or
to any uncertain Gods. His is the ultimate absurd, for there is not death at the end of
his struggle. Not all is chaos; the experience of the absurd is the proof of man's
uniqueness and the foundation of his dignity and freedom. 
"All that remains is a fate whose outcome alone is fatal. Outside of that single fatality
of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty. A world remains of which man is the
sole master. What bound him was the illusion of another world. The outcome of his
thought, ceasing to be renunciatory, flowers in images. It frolics - in myths, to be
sure, but myths with no other depth than that of human suffering and like it
inexhaustible. Not the divine fable that amuses and blinds, but the terrestrial face,
gesture, and drama in which are summed up a difficult wisdom and an ephemeral passion."
(p. 117-118)
Bibliography
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