"The Fall" by Albert Camus

Paper Summary:

The writer of this paper details the plot and main characters in Albert Camus' "The Fall" which is the story of a self-proclaimed penitent judge, who gets his thrills from confessing his own sins in order to implicate others whom he may then judge. The paper examines the novel's themes of penitence, redemption, guilt and grace. The writer contends and explains why the narrator in "The Fall" has never been authentic while detailing the reasons for his eventual fall from grace. The writer analyzes the true meaning of "The Fall," which at first seems difficult to grasp, unless one makes the assumption that the narrator speaks for the author as the voice of wisdom and reason.

From the Paper:

"The meaning of this story may seem very difficult to grasp if one makes the assumption that the narrator speaks for the author as a voice of wisdom and reason. Actually, no such assumption needs to be made. Camus is well known for writing ironic works in which the speaker is not a mouth-piece for virtue. A key to this work may be found in something which Camus wrote shortly before-hand regarding his falling-out with Sartre. "Existentialists! Whenever they accuse themselves, you can be sure it is invariably in order to assail others. [they are] Penitent judges." Because of this quote, and the similarities between certain elements of the story's philosophy and that of the existentialists, some critics consider this story to be "at least in part a mordant satire directed against Sartre and the philosophical position for which he stood." If this is the case, then we are being happily invited to mock the ideas of the narrator, who thinks that human society and esteem is enough to make one justified, or that there is meaning in such an interplay of guilt and righteousness."

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