41 pages • 1 hour read
Albert CamusA Happy Death
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Happiness and Self-Understanding Are Incompatible
During their discussions, Mersault and Zagreus ponder whether a happy person can truly understand themselves. The inverse, they suggest, is also true: Someone who truly understands themselves can never be happy. This provides the foundation for Mersault’s journey as he tries to find happiness while understanding his identity.
Following his accident, Zagreus has done nothing but think. He is confined to his house with his books, his money, and himself. His life is a relentless pursuit of self-knowledge, framed in the context of his own depression. He is a deeply sad man who frequently considers death by suicide. In this context, Zagreus does not believe that he can ever be happy, but comforts himself with the satisfaction of knowing himself better than most people.
For Zagreus, understanding is a coping mechanism. So long as he believes that he has a greater understanding of his own identity, he gives his life purpose and meaning. At the same time, he weaponizes his misery against the world and assures himself that his lack of happiness has benefited him in some way. In Zagreus’s view, the question of happiness and identity is a zero-sum game: He cannot have one without another. The extremeness of this position is dictated by the extremeness of his situation. Zagreus frames his idea as universal, even though the only case study is himself.
Following Zagreus’s death, Mersault steps out into the world armed with his fortune and guilt. The image of Zagreus stays with Mersault. He is haunted by the memory of the dead man’s body but also by the dead man’s philosophy. Mersault sets out on a quest to find happiness. After deciding that he is not happy in Algiers, he travels to central Europe and visits several unsatisfying cities.
Mersault may have the small fortune left to him by Zagreus, but his real inheritance is the haunting idea that he may never be happy. The act of killing Zagreus, coupled with the philosophical nature of their discussions, has left an impression on Mersault. He now knows that he is capable of killing a man, and of transgressing against society in a way he never thought was possible. Zagreus’s death has given Mersault every opportunity to be happy financially, but it has left him with an understanding of himself that he can’t shake. Mersault’s pursuit of happiness ends in failure because he has been infected by Zagreus’s ideas.
The question of happiness and identity may be best explored through other characters. Mersault and Zagreus are made unique by their circumstances but plenty of other characters live more traditional, uneventful lives. After Mersault returns to Algiers, he meets Marthe. She was initially upset by his departure but their break-up has led to a better understanding of herself. She is happier now, thereby defying Zagreus’s premise. Bernard’s career path follows a similar trajectory; by better understanding his hopes and dreams, he has been able to find happiness of sorts in the Chenoua.
These characters operate beyond the existential angst of men like Zagreus and Mersault. They defy Zagreus’s philosophical premise and insistence on utter commitment to happiness or self-understanding. Happiness and identity are compatible for these characters, but elude Mersault’s comprehension.
The Search for Meaning
Mersault’s exploration of the link between happiness and identity is built on the foundation of a deeper search for meaning. At the chronological beginning of the story, Mersault is untethered from society. He is deeply unconnected to everything around him, finding no meaning or purpose in anything he does. Mersault has a job that does not interest him, a girlfriend who he does not love, and a society that he hardly knows. He is a passive observer of the world, watching everything go by from his balcony while smoking cigarettes and counting down the hours until his irrelevant schedule changes.
Mersault is not happy by any means, but he is also not sad. He is simply indifferent. There is nothing in Mersault’s life, he believes, that warrants his care, affection, passion, or curiosity. This is an example of the existentialist idea of alienation: Mersault is so cut off from the world that he is completely isolated and removed from the people, places, and emotions which might motivate a less alienated person. Mersault has no meaning in his life; his journey becomes a way to find this meaning.
When Mersault meets Zagreus, he does not like him. Already feeling slightly jealous, he rejects Zagreus’s pondering and rumination. He continues to insist on his own isolation and complains about not having money, ascribing his lack of purpose to his diminished material conditions. Once Mersault has killed Zagreus and taken his money, he no longer has this excuse. He leaves everything behind in Algiers and travels to Prague, hoping that he will be able to set up a new and satisfying life for himself with his new fortune. Mersault spends the money but he cannot give his life meaning. Instead, he is haunted by the mistakes of his past. He spends money in bars, on sex workers, and—eventually—on returning back to Algiers because nothing in Europe is able to give meaning to his life.
Mersault’s quest for meaning is divided into his understanding of deeds and love. Having committed the deed of murdering Zagreus, he is unable to forget his own actions. His life lacks meaning because this one deed now defines his existence. His money comes from this sinful, regretful event and he can never share his experience with anyone. Mersault has all the money he will ever need, but his life still lacks meaning; he cannot act in a way to resolve or lessen his alienation. Deeds alone cannot save Mersault; they only deepen his sense of alienation.
Mersault tries and fails to find meaning through love. At the beginning of the novel, he bluntly admits to his girlfriend Marthe that he does not love her. Their relationship is a way of passing time, rather than working toward something romantic or emotional. Similarly, his faltering marriage to Lucienne is built on the frank admission that he does not love her and that he does not want her to live with him.
While women like Marthe and Lucienne understand that a loving relationship with another person can give life meaning, Mersault does not understand this. Each time he has a relationship with a woman, he cannot overcome his own alienation. He removes himself, either running away to Prague, or to the house above the world, or to the small village in the Chenoua. Mersault’s search for meaning through love is undermined by his complete misunderstanding of how to love a person. His alienation is so entrenched that he cannot relate to other people. Therefore, he cannot understand how a relationship or marriage might serve a purpose beyond physical pleasure.
As a result, women like Marthe realize that they are happier without Mersault. His search for meaning fails. He only comes close to revelation in the moments before his death, by which time his chance to understand the meaning of his life has passed.
The Futility of Living in an Indifferent World
The characters in A Happy Death are forced to reckon with their own futility. The universe they occupy is indifferent to their existence, and the absurdity of their lives makes them feel as though few of their actions are capable of meaningful, positive consequences.
This is illustrated prominently through Zagreus. Growing up, Zagreus examined the material conditions of his society and recognized that—with a little hard and possibly illegal work—he would be able to live a comfortable life. Almost at precisely the moment when he was set to retire with his fortune, he had a terrible accident and lost both his legs. This feels particularly egregious to Zagreus because of the way in which it makes his hard work seem utterly futile. He examined the society in which he lived and identified the actions which would give him the best chance of success. In his opinion, he did exactly what should have been expected of him. He played by the rules of the society and—in his opinion—was punished for doing so.
Zagreus locks himself away in his house and experiences a deep depression, watching other people enjoy their lives without working as hard or as intelligently. Zagreus is not depressed simply because he now has no legs. His depression stems from the sense of futility and unfairness that he sees all around him. After doing everything right, he was punished and others were rewarded. This sense of unfairness makes existence seem pointless and random.
After his meetings with Zagreus, Mersault comes to see the universe in a similar way. After murdering Zagreus and attempting to make a new life for himself, Mersault shares Zagreus’s belief in futility. Mersault’s story consists of a series of plans designed to make him happy, each of which fails miserably for a different reason. He kills Zagreus and tours Europe with a small fortune, but cannot escape the trauma of the murder. He returns to Algiers and dedicates his life to pursuing happiness in a hedonistic way with his three friends, though this only ends with him feeling a desperate impulse to be alone. When he is finally alone, his emotions fester for so long that they turn into a physical sickness which eventually kills him.
Mersault’s fate illustrates the futility of his actions. He tried everything to mitigate the alienation of his life, but everything he tried failed. Unlike Zagreus’s accident, Mersault’s failure comes from a place within himself. He is traumatized by his own actions; his attempts to overcome his alienation cause the guilt that eats away at him. Mersault is a murderer and a criminal, though he refuses to recognize this. His efforts to live a happier life may seem futile, but his inability to acknowledge his own transgressions is the common thread in all his failures. Futility gives Mersault a convenient excuse for failing. His reliance on Zagreus’s philosophy is more of a coping mechanism than a robust belief.
Related Titles
By Albert Camus
