The Fall

The Fall: A Synopsis

The novel The Fall was published in 1956 and is set in Amsterdam. \u201cThe Fall takes place in Amsterdam, while The Plague takes place in Oran\u201d (Francev 18). The plot is written in the form of a conversation between a former Parisian prosecutor, Jean Baptiste Clamence, and another Parisian. These two meet and strike up a chat in a seedy dockside bar in Mexico City. However, the majority of the dialogue in this story seems to be one-sided, with only one man speaking. The dialogue seems to be a confession rather than a regular conversation. From the story, it can be seen that it takes place in five days and it is set within five different locations. The conversation starts and ends in Clamence’s house.<\/p>

Clamence: The Complex Main Character

Clamence is the narrator and the main character of the story. He tells his story of how he was a successful lawyer in all aspects and how he changed and became a sketchy person who could help people order for gin in a seedy bar. Clamence acts as a teacher and a deceiver in this story. He is a guide who teaches one at the same time deceiving. He plays several roles, from being God, a demon, a prophet, Jesus Christ, the pope, Adam, Virgil, Dante and John the Baptist. He is also a lawyer, a judge and a penitent (Bowker 38). Because this a question is raised about the real identity of Clamence and the person he represents. Clamence is trying to find his meaning and the purpose of life. Through his perception, Clamence is not ethical, and his absurdity is as a result of his casual indifference. <\/p>

Life’s Meaning and the Game of Existence

Clamence believes that he has found the goal or meaning of life. He, however, says that the goal he found is worthless, this is because life does not have any intrinsic value. He adds that even with the meaninglessness of life, one has to play it as a game so that he or she can live. For him, he has to play it, and he can either win or lose. Clamence says that for him to be respected and win in this game of life he has to take considerations of his moral actions and to do this he creates a right public image of himself. Through this public image he wants to be the best person to have ever lived, he takes himself as Adam in the garden of Eden before he ate the fruit of knowledge or an angel.<\/p>

The Breakdown and Unethical Actions

However, after witnessing a preventable suicide, he changes his mind and feels like life does not have any meaning at all. This breaks his spirits because he has not been able to be the best person in the world (Francev 78). He changes his focus from being the best person to being less immoral than others. It is after this that he goes back to the bar and tries to explain to others on how immoral they are and how is better than them. This makes him unethical, as a lawyer and a person who fights for others in the society he needs to focus more on making other people moral and not on showing them how immoral they are.<\/p>

The Judge-Penitent: Manipulation and Indifference

As a judge-penitent, he puts himself in different characters and tries to manipulate one’s mind. As a penitent judge, it can be seen that he does not care about those he defends. In his role as a penitent judge, he is supposed to ensure that he cares for everyone that comes to him and needs protection. However, this is not the case. This is the reason why he argues that life does not have any intrinsic value, this is because he fails to defend some of the people that he could have supported. In the Journal of Albert Camus Society UK, 2009, it is asserted that \u201cAs a result, he became baptized into realm of existence where everyone is a judge-penitent, and everyone is flawed\u201d (Berg 23). Failing to do his duty as it is supposed to be done shows that he is not ethical. He does not care about them as it can be seen from the book. For instance, while he was proud of himself for being moral and virtuous, he remembers an incident from years ago. He recalled that he let a young woman drown on the bridge without helping him even a little. He slows down to hear the cries of help, but he does not do anything to help. This can be seen from the Journal of Camus Studies 2012, on the introduction part Peter Francev says \u201cand then there is Clamence, who slows down the pace of his walk to hear the screams and cries for help of the mysterious woman who jumps into the Seine.\u201d This hits him, and he finds his hypocrisy. Just as he was telling other people of their immorality if they find out about his actions they would also say how immoral he was. Because of this he feels guilty and feels like everyone who is around him is judging him.<\/p>

The Judgement and Guilt

After thinking about it more, he believes that everyone is judging another person and that everyone is guilty of something. It can be seen that he concludes that we are all going to be judged and we will eventually be condemned. But for his case, he does not want to be judged as he does not want to look guilty before anyone else. Because of this, Clamence acts unethically by judging others and believing that everyone has something to be guilty of in a way to justify his self.<\/p>

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Works Cited

Berg Eric. Journal of Camus Studies 2012, Albert Camus Society,2013, 3-23.

Bowker Matthew H. The Journal of the Albert Camus Society Of the UK, 2009 22-46.

Francev Peter. Journal of Camus Studies 2013, Albert Camus Society, 2014, 17-29.

Francev Peter. Journal of Camus Studies 2014, Albert Camus Society, 2015, 7-132.