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Absurdity & Suicide in Albert Camus
The Algerian French philosopher, Albert
Camus was well
known for his concept of the absurd which he defined as
a ‘confrontation between our demands for rationality
and
justice and the indifferent universe’. He explored the
questions of responsibility, innocence and guilt of man
in
the face of overwhelming tragedy.
Camus in ‘Absurdity & Suicide’ is concerned with what
he
calls a ‘truly serious philosophical problem’ of
suicide.
The
condition of suicide amounts to confronting the
question whether or not life is worth living.
Camus tries to shift the focus of suicide from a social
phenomenon to an individual one. His contention is that
the
act of committing suicide has its inception in man’s
heart
and society has little bearing in it. Camus argues
that “killing yourself amounts to confessing that life
is
unbearable and that there is no serious reason for
staying
alive”. Camus also emphasizes the point that the ‘daily
agitation’ and ‘monotony of life’ can render life
meaningless. Voluntary death is the recognition of the
fact
of ‘uselessness of suffering’. Camus describes the idea
of
absurdity as the ‘divorce between man and his life’.
The
absurd is also described as that which one might think
to
be amenable to reason, but which turns out to be beyond
the
ambit of rationality. Camus tries to establish a
relationship between the absurd and suicide, where
suicide
can be seen as a solution to the absurd.
Camus then points out the irony involved in the
situation
of absurdity- where saying ‘no’ to suicide could mean
yes
and that those who committed suicide were assured of
the
meaning of life? Camus then cites the instance of
philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer who ‘advocated the
practice
of suicide as a solution to absurdity’ without
practising
it. According to Schopenhauer, the only lasting
solution to
our misery comes when people become so aware of the
drudgery of existence, the wretchedness of life, of the
misery of existing as ‘futile manifestations of the
cosmic
will to live’, that they lose all will for existence.
Further, Camus writes that our existence is something
which
is given to us before, the idea and habit of thinking
has
come to us. This idea was to become later on the motto
of
Existentialist philosophy, where ‘existence precedes
essence’. It also described the basic inevitability &
absurdity of our existence. Life for him becomes
a ‘daily
hastening towards death’ which in effect is an
acceptance
of the absurdity of our existence. Camus’ The Stranger
depicts a protagonist who has accepted the absurdity of
existence, ‘opening up his heart to the benign
indifference
of the universe’. But Camus, like Sartre, also displays
a
deep appreciation of what can be called ‘original
guilt’,
guilt that is inherent in our existence as human
beings.
However, Camus argues that it is because of some hope
in
life that man tries to elude or escape form suicide.
Hope
gives life some meaning and man is content enough to
evade
suicide. Camus then argues that absurdity of life is
something which is given to us and the way to confront
it
is either through hope or through suicide!
By citing German philosopher Karl Jaspers, one of the
pillars of
existentialism, Camus furthers his
argument, ‘that the self exists having no fixed nature
and
acting not only within the routine of everyday life,
but
sometimes unconditionally with the freedom amounting to
the
choice of itself’. Its condition is starkly revealed
in ‘limit-situations’ of conflict, suffering, guilt etc
requiring decisions perplexed by uncertainty &
antimony. It
is this point where many have committed suicide!
Camus is eager to point out the fact that it is theconsciousness of the tragic condition which ultimately
constitutes tragedy. The myth of the Greek mythological
hero Sisyphus is tragic because he is conscious of his
torment and suffering. Camus assures us that ‘Sisyphus
is
happy in this condition of torment’, for he accepts his
futile fate. This knowledge, that man has to accept his
fate and ultimately death is essential to him for his
existence!