He smokes and has coffee with Meursault while mourning. He lives and works at the home, telling Meursault some of his past. CaretakerĪlso a witness against Meursault, he is in charge of the mourning night at Maman's coffin. At the trial he testifies to Meursault's coldness during the funeral. In charge of the home, he leads Meursault through the funeral process.
Meursault references her anecdotes and stories while in jail. In the face of society, Meursault is condemned for his lack of sadness at her funeral and we learn at the trial that she did harbor resentment toward Meursault for placing her in the home. At the home, she becomes intimate with Pérez and Meursault understands this action at the end as he realizes she was living it all again. She had lived with Meursault until he could no longer afford to care for her and they had nothing left to say to each other. MamanĪ character solely through reference, Maman's death begins the story and indicts Meursault in the end. He shows much support at the trial for Meursault and expresses the desire to do more for him than he really can. They have gone to races and such together. CélesteĪ friend of Meursault's, Céleste owns a nearby restaurant which Meursault dines at regularly. Meursault refusal angers him as he cannot understand such a lack of ambition. He is kinder afterwards, asking about his mother and offering him the chance to move to Paris. His supervisor at Meursault's work, he is annoyed to give Meursault a total of four days off even though two are to attend his mother's funeral.
The ridiculousness of the trial and his reaction to it allows him to finally transcend its symbolic imprisonment and free himself for a life beyond what society could offer him.
The second half of the book turns the man who does not judge into the judged as the reader watches him indicted for the crime of not giving into society's code of morals or sense of fate and the divine. He leads a highly indifferent life through much of the book, reveling in the physical impulses which made him happy such as swimming and sex and smoking. He, like the author, does not believe in God and comes to the realization that one must struggle against and with the Absurd in order to create meaning in a meaningless world. The narrator and main character of the narrative, he is the driving force behind Camus' examination of the Absurd.
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