The Misunderstanding

“You’re acting strange, Mother. You haven’t quite seemed yourself for some time now. I hardly recognize you.”

Throughout the play, Camus uses the motif of recognition to underscore his thematic engagement with The Tragedy of Miscommunication and the Importance of a Common Language. The alienation and estrangement inherent to an absurd world crop up in the relationship between the Mother and Martha. The source of this estrangement is the divergence between their desires: The Mother has grown world-weary and longs only for sleep, while Martha still pursues happiness.

“I don’t like insinuations. Crime is crime, and you have to know what you’re after.”

Martha’s frankness, one of her defining characteristics, manifests itself in the certainty of her desire for the seaside. In contrast to Jan, who lies to himself about what he really wants, Martha has no such dissonance. In existentialist terms, Martha lives in good faith, while Jan lives in bad faith. The moral ambiguity characteristic of the play arises from their opposite intents: Jan seeks to do good in pursuit of happiness, but Martha seeks to do ill.

“It does seem true that life is crueler than we are. Maybe that’s why I find it hard to feel guilty.”

The Mother and Martha each repeatedly rationalize their crimes in different ways. Here, the Mother argues that the absurd senselessness of the world grants them license to drug and drown people, a more peaceful death than most.