In Psychology, there is believed to be six main personality traits. There is Honesty/Humility (truthful or honest vs hypocritical or sly), Emotionality (anxious vs calm), eXtraversion (outgoing vs shy), Agreeableness (compromising or cooperative vs revengeful or stubborn), Conscientiousness (disciplined vs disorganized) and Openness to experience (creative vs conventional). These are the very basics of the model and of personality studies. For a deeper understanding of the model click here. In reality, personality is very complex and difficult to box into six categories. However, these six traits otherwise known as the HEXACO personality structure seem to be the most common universal traits. Hence, using these categories, one can come to better understand another person, even if that person is fictional as is with the case of Meursault.
Meursault is the main character of Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger. Camus is famous for his absurdist philosophy which puts forth the notion that we, as people, are constantly yearning for a purpose and meaning, however, life is meaningless, hence the pursuit being absurd. Eventually, one must understand this absurdity and come to terms with it and create your own meaning that can justify your suffering and work. Meursault is a character who embodies Camus’ philosophy as he is completely detached from normal social norms of everyday life because he finds no value in them. This character, who does not value anything, does not care about anything, does not judge anything and is often emotionless in situations that almost demand an outpour of emotions, comes to be one of the most intriguing characters ever written. Hence why the HEXACO model is used to study him, in order to better understand the character.
Meursault would be described as a character with a high level of honesty/humility. The reason being, Meursault values very little in life and by behaving so, he never masks his thoughts or feelings. He often says things that may seem socially off-putting but they are his true feelings. His response to Marie’s marriage proposal is an example of this where he essentially tells her that she’s not unique and that he would have married any girl. Furthermore, the novel starts with the news of the death of Meursault’s mother and instead of reacting like how society would expect a son to react, Meursault reacts with a lack of emotions, for that is who he is. He does not try to manipulate people by falsifying his emotions and neither is he interested in receiving special treatment during this time. Additionally, once Meursault has been imprisoned for committing murder, during the trial, the attorney asks Meursault many times to share his feelings and emotions which he felt during the incident so that the attorney could present to the jury an emotionally unstable individual with the hopes that he could receive a lesser punishment. However, Meursault denies such vulnerable feelings and constantly informs the attorney that he was aware of what he was doing when he pulled the trigger.
As for the extraversion trait, Meursault would rank on the lower end of that trait. Although he does not mind conversing with his neighbors, going to the beach and even meeting a woman, Marie, and starting a relationship with her, Meursault is still most comfortable when he’s alone. He is a detached individual who likes to spend a lot of time at home, reflecting on his inner state and the state of the people around him. Nobody would expect Meursault to be the life of the party. Rather, you could imagine him brooding in the corner or quietly sitting at a table, observing people.
Meursault would rank very low in emotionality. Meursault is extremely detached from societal norms and expectation. He does not feel sorrow when his mother passes. He does not protest Raymond’s plan to beat his girlfriend for cheating on him. He does not offer support to his other neighbor whose dog ran away. Even at the prospect of marriage to Marie, his attitude is one of detachment for he says that he would have married anyone who spent as much time with him as Marie had. Lastly, he does not feel remorse for killing someone at the climax of the novel.
In the agreeableness trait, Meursault would rank on a higher level mainly due to his willingness to compromise and cooperate with others. However, such willingness is not due to his desire to be with others but rather because he simply does not care enough to argue and fight. Hence, Meursault then ends up writing a letter to Raymond’s girlfriend, informing her that Raymond would like to meet and talk to her. He does so at Raymond’s request even though he knows that Raymond has ill intentions and most likely will cause harm to her. It is his lack of care that makes him go along with other people.
The conscientiousness trait is one of the more difficult traits to judge when it comes to Meursault. One assumes he is low in conscientiousness because nothing in the text suggests that he would be an individual who is constantly challenging himself, setting new goals, working harder than expected. Rather, he would most likely be an individual who meets the workload expected of him and that is it. He describes his flat to be messy which could also indicate low conscientiousness.
Openness to experience is another trait that is difficult to measure with Meursault. On one hand, Meursault never speaks about art or beauty or anything related to the creative fields. However, he is imaginative and he does have unusual ideas and is willing to explore what is known as absurdist philosophy. In doing so, one could argue that Meursault is above average in openness to experience for he is willingly unpacking unusual thought patterns and acting on them. In fact, once he has been sentenced to death, Meursault reflects upon the absurdity of life and how nothing matters, he finds relief in such a thing and it makes it easier for him to accept his death. This could indicate somewhat higher levels of openness to experience.
Through the use of personality traits, we get a deeper sense of Meursault. He is someone who is perhaps too honest, keeps to himself, has very little emotional intelligence, is willing to agree with you simply because he doesn’t care enough to argue, he is likely someone who meets his required standards and doesn’t go above and beyond and lastly, is open to exploring new ideas.
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