The Misunderstanding - Philosophy

Philosophy

"The vision is bleak, with Camus' absurdist creed summed up by one of his characters: 'This world we live in doesn't make sense'"

Le Malentendu “focused on Camus’ idea of the absurd. The core of this idea is that human desire is in perpetual conflict with a world that is arbitrary, illogical and unfair. A central theme of this play is that life does not distinguish between those who pursue a ‘bad’ path and those who pursue a ‘good’ path. Life, as Camus sees it, is equally cruel to the innocent and the criminal; this is the absurdity of existence”

“In The Myth of Sysiphus, Camus defines 'The Absurd' … as the feeling of being radically divorced from the world and thus a stranger to both others and oneself. The sense of constantly living in a state of exile produces a profound skepticism or distrust in the myths and universal systems of belief, which are alleged to give meaning and purpose to existence but in fact devalue and even negate it”

“Although seen by a number of critics as a bleak piece of work, Camus did not regard Le Malentendu as pessimistic. He said: ‘When the tragedy is done, it would be incorrect to think that this play argues for submission to fate. On the contrary, it is a play of revolt, perhaps even containing a moral of sincerity’” It implies that everything would have worked out all right if Jan had done what his wife begged him to do, or if Martha had responded to Jan’s personal questions or Mother had remembered when asked about her son. The family is destroyed through “failing to realise that values are not dreamed up in isolation but discovered communally”.

“Camus himself remarked that he considered the play to have been a failure for the simple reason that everybody he met kept asking him what he meant. If they needed to ask, he argued, then the play itself was not clear, and he had not been successful as a playwright”.