![]() The happiness in the case of Sisyphus also was achieved through acceptance. After the trials, the feeling of happiness flooded him on the way back to jail when he realized how much he loved the town and the summer night. However, it did not happen at once, but only when this absurd hero realized the inevitability of his execution (Camus, “The Stranger” 97). In this way, he started to accept life the way it was without questioning its twists and turns. The man demonstrated a lack of remorse for his crime as he showed no grief for his mother in the past (Camus, “The Stranger” 65). The final stage on the way to happiness is acceptance, and for Meursault, it happened when he was arrested and thrown into jail. In this way, their design eventually led to the expected outcome and deprived the hero of further motivation. In fact, his punishment was defined by the idea of Gods to put him in such hopeless conditions (Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus” 107). ![]() In his situation, the chances for success were near zero, and he could not find a source of hope in his life due to the lack of goals. This man’s story was defined more by the circumstances which he could not avoid rather than the overall apathy as in the case of Meursault. In contrast to him, the loss of hope for Sisyphus happened when he was exhausted by his useless labor. It indicated not only the end of the character’s peaceful life but also the end of the attempts to find his place in the world, and, therefore, the hope for it. Consequently, it led to a turning point in the story, when Meursault shot the brother of Raymond’s mistress without any apparent reason for it (Camus, “The Stranger” 59). Nevertheless, their friendship was strengthened over the time they spent together. Meursault does not seem to care about him more than he cares about Marie. In continuation of the narrative, he befriends his neighbor, Raymond, known for his violent temper and occasionally beating his mistress (Camus, “The Stranger” 36). The next step on the way to happiness is the loss of hope, and the experience of Meursault is the evidence of it. However, he does not attempt to change anything in his situation, either, and this fact adds to his resemblance to Meursault. In the narrative, he is an absurd hero who does not try to escape his fate. From his point of view, the story of Sisyphus, who was punished by Gods and had to spend an eternity rolling a huge rock up the mountain, is another proof of it (Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus” 107). In this way, Camus uses this Greek myth to underpin his theory regarding the need for a struggle on the way to happiness. The second character, Sisyphus, in contrast to Meursault, experiences a struggle of a physical nature which has similar effects on him. Hence, his struggle is reflected by an apathetic attitude towards life due to inability to enjoy it. Thus, for instance, his girlfriend, Marie, is the initiator of their communication from the very beginning when she asks if Meursault wanted to marry her (Camus, “The Stranger” 41). It is explicitly seen not only in the occasional conversations as in the example above at his mother’s funeral but also in relationships. The first step to happiness, which is struggle, for him, is reflected in the failed attempts to understand others and socialize with people. Moreover, he is annoyed by the people he meets on his way, such as the talkative caretaker in the facility where his mother died (Camus, “The Stranger” 7). The first character, Meursault, is a person who has little interest in his surroundings. Therefore, the achievement of happiness by Meursault and Sisyphus implies the struggle, the loss of hope, and the subsequent acceptance of meaningless of life, and they pass through these stages in the specified order. In this case, the most prominent examples of novels presenting Camus’ views on the subject are “The Myth of Sisyphus” and “The Stranger,” and their main characters have a row of similarities in the way they are trying to find their paths. In other words, inevitability is synonymous with happiness, and it is added to the idea of absurdity of life (Daniel). The philosopher emphasized its importance from the perspective of the search for meaning and the necessity to refuse from it to become truly happy (Daniel). The achievement of happiness is a recurrent theme in the works of Albert Camus.
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