A man who refuses to cry at his mother's funeral will die for it.
Who drives the story
A French clerk in Algiers who tells the truth about what he feels—which is almost nothing. He kills a man on a beach without motive and dies for his honesty rather than his crime.
A typist from Meursault's office who loves the sun and the sea as he does. She asks about love and marriage, gets indifferent answers, and stays anyway—until prison rules bar her because she isn't his wife.
Meursault's neighbor, rumored pimp, who beats his mistress and drafts Meursault into his revenge. His feud with the woman's brother drags Meursault onto the fatal beach, and he testifies for him at trial.
The old man who curses and beats his spaniel daily yet weeps when it runs away. He shows Meursault that attachment and cruelty can share one body, and testifies at the trial.
The elderly man residents joked was Meursault's mother's 'fiancé.' He staggers after her funeral procession in the heat, and his muddled, tearful testimony fails to save Meursault.
The carefree owner of the beach house where the Arabs confront the group. He joins the fight, watches Raymond bleed, and later testifies for Meursault.
The unnamed brother of Raymond's mistress, the man Meursault kills. He never gets a name—none of the Arabs do—which is its own indictment.
Also in the story
The café owner who has fed Meursault for years. He calls the killing 'an accident' from the witness stand—the one voice that treats him as a man, not a monster.
The prison priest who won't take no for an answer. Meursault's rage at him is the book's climax: the moment a man refuses God's script with his last breath.
How they are connected
A typist from Meursault's office who loves the sun and the sea as he does.
Meursault's neighbor, rumored pimp, who beats his mistress and drafts Meursault into his revenge.
He shows Meursault that attachment and cruelty can share one body, and testifies at the trial.
The elderly man residents joked was Meursault's mother's 'fiancé.
The café owner who has fed Meursault for years.
He joins the fight, watches Raymond bleed, and later testifies for Meursault.
He joins the fight, watches Raymond bleed, and later testifies for Meursault.
The unnamed brother of Raymond's mistress, the man Meursault kills.
The unnamed brother of Raymond's mistress, the man Meursault kills.
Meursault's rage at him is the book's climax: the moment a man refuses God's script with his last breath.
Go deeper
The absurd · Society punishes honesty, not crime · The tyranny of scripts · Death as the only certainty
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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