Meursault's Enlightenment and Triumph

Throughout Albert Camus' The Stranger, we see that Meursault is a stranger to societal norms. This is established from the beginning of the book, where we see his lack of emotion at his mother's funeral. Through his thought processes, we see that Meursault has to think a lot about why people feel certain ways in certain situations. Despite (or perhaps because) of his lack of understanding with society, Meursault tries to not draw society's ire through most of the novel. We see this in his interactions with other people. An example of this is on the first page, where Meursault asks his boss for a couple days off of work in a very apologetic tone. 

In fact, it is this desire to take the path of least resistance against society that ironically ends up getting him in major trouble with that society. Because of his desire to not offend Raymond, he ends up having dinner with him, and then writing the letter for him. This starts the series of events in which he continues to do things with Raymond that lead to his murder of the Arab. As a result, Meursault's anti-social traits came up in his trial, and that was all the trial could focus on. Despite trying his hardest to lead a life in which he wouldn't offend society, he ends up sentenced to a grand spectacle of an execution "in the name of the French people"; he ends up sentenced to death because his character is a threat to society.

Meursault was already struggling to find meaning in life. He did not have any deep, meaningful relationships with any people (just look at how little he cares about marrying Marie) and he has no ambition in his work (he declined the move to Paris his boss offered him). It seems like Meursault was living a meaningless life largely driven by his desire to not offend society. His sentence took away that drive in his life. This is the backdrop for his talk with the chaplain, who tries to instill meaning in Meursault's life through Christianity. However, the chaplain finds a man who is simply done with the notion of a meaningful life.

Meursault has an enlightenment during the talk with the chaplain. He rejects the chaplain's meaning and realizes that life has no meaning. This makes sense considering the absurdity of his own life, in which the thing that drove his life (society) has ridiculed and condemned him. He realizes that "I had done this and hadn't done that. I hadn't done this thing but I had done another. And so? It was as if I had waited all this time for this moment and for the first light of this dawn to be vindicated. Nothing, nothing mattered" (121). By seeing the absurdity of the society-driven life he had been leading, in some sense he triumphs over it. Although society is about to execute him, he understands the truth about society and opens himself "to the gentle indifference of the world" (122). In his blind rage against the chaplain, we get the sense that he pities the chaplain as well as the other people who continued to live with the delusion that their lives had meaning. Perhaps this is why Meursault wishes for a large crowd at his execution that greets him with cries of hate, as he gets to hear the last pitiful attempts of society to drive his life before he dies knowing the truth.

I saw Meursault's talk with the chaplain as a triumph for Meursault, but I can definitely see other interpretations of this final scene. Comment with your views on this scene!