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1. Albert Camus: “The Absurd of Human Life
and the Human named Sisyphus”

2. CONTEXTS
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………….3
2. The absurd reasoning…………………………………………...............4-6
3. Suicide…………………..……………………………………………....6-8
4. Sisyphus: The absurd Man…………………………………………..........8
5.Conclusion……..…………………………………………………………..9
6.Bibliography…...…………………………………………………………10

3. 1. Introduction
The Myth Of Sisyphus And Other Essays is a collection of essays originally written by
Albert Camus and published in 1942 in French. In 1955, it was translated into English by
Justin O’ Brien.
In this article, I will try, in a brief manner, to connect these essays with the following
subjects, as presented by Camus:
The Absurd Reasoning and Suicide. According to the writer, there is only one
philosophical question, worth asking: Is the human life worth living or everything is
futile and suicide is the only solution?
The absurd man: In this point, Camus takes a step closer to Absurd and his connection to
human nature. He presents the details of the Paradox of the Absurd life. But which is the
image of the absurd man? With the vivid colours of words that language allows, he paints
the absurd hero: Sisyphus. His image, reflected in the mirror of life, describes by a certain
angle the irrationality of living, the deadlock of human nature; or maybe not?

4. 2. The absurd reasoning
A fundamental role in Camu’s thinking takes the term Absurd, which he attempts to
define. Human beings confront the Absurd every day. It is the life, with no meaning,
sense or purpose. Nevertheless, humans try to cope with this irrationality, they strive to
create meaning out of all that chaos. At the same time, Religion and Science battle each
other in the field of providing explanations and they confute each other. Religion
proposes explanations and Science disqualify them. On the other hand, Science can not
answer the deepest human questions that involve the purpose of human existence. It can
only answer why there is life, but not what is the meaning of it. As Camus notices: “We
get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking” (Camus, p. 7)1
.
Generally speaking, Camus approaches the Absurd in a way that is directly connected
with the presence or absence of God. According to that, if there is no God, humans are
bound to live a life full of suffering that concludes to death, something that in the human
thinking makes no sense. As Camus remarks in an absolute manner: “like everything
else, the absurd ends with death” (Camus, p. 22)2
. On the contrary, the presence of God
provides a future perspective of afterlife, which in a sense is comforting. Camus explains
it by saying: “The absurd is essentially a divorce. It lies in neither of the elements
compared; it is born of their confrontation” (Camus, p. 21)3
.
However, Camus decides to accept that there is no meaning in life and no one will ever
be able to present valid and convincing proof upon that matter, so he embraces the idea
that: “Hope of another life one must “deserve” or trickery of those who live not for life
itself but for some great idea that will transcend it, refine it, give it a meaning, and betray
it” (Camus, p. 7)4
. Humans must come to terms with the Absurd and strive to make the
most out of it by just living; without expecting, predicting or demanding anything
afterwards. “Absurd is not in man nor in the world, but in their presence together. For the
moment it is the only bond uniting them (Camus, p.21)5
, he exclaims.
1 2 3 4 5
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, trans. Justin O’Brien, (London : Hamish
Hamilton, 1955)

5. Camu’s perception of the Absurd approaches ideas expressed by writers such as
Kierkegaard who is searching for “a truth which is truth for me” 6
or Nietzsche who
chooses to understand and describe human, not as something dispensable and disposable
but as “...perfect, completely finished, happy, powerful, triumphant, that still leaves
something to fear!”7
Camus also connects the Absurd with Sartre's Nausea: “This discomfort in the face of
man’s own inhumanity, this incalculable tumble before the image of what we are, this
‘nausea,’ as a writer of today calls it, is also the absurd” (Camus, p. 11)8
. On his behalf,
Sartre describes: “The Nausea has given me a short breathing spell. But I know it will
come back again: It is my normal state. Only today my body is too exhausted to stand it.
Invalids also have happy moments of weakness which take away the consciousness of
their illness for a few hours”9
.
Both, Camus and Sartre attempt to turn the focus of the philosophical debate to human,
in order to perceive and analyse the human’s experience, behaviour and existence. Life is
a tight chain of repeated actions, images, ideas, moments. A human can not avoid it, can
not subdue it. The sole thing he can do is to stoically endure it or as Camus notices:
“Likewise and during every day of an unillustrious life, time carries us. But a moment
always comes when we have to carry it. We live οn the future: “tomorrow,” “later on,”
“when you have made your way,” “you will understand when you are old enough”
(Camus, p. 10)10
. Similarly, Sartre, in his play “No exit”, depicts this vicious circle of
repetition that humans experience as hell, while he reaches a point to exclaim: “Hell is-
other people!”11
6
Kierkegaard Søren. Papers and Journals: A Selection, (London: Penguin Book, 1996), p.32
7
Nietzsche Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p.25
8
Camus Albert, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, trans. Justin O’Brien, (London : Hamish
Hamilton, 1955)
9
Sartre Jean-Paul. Nausea, trans. Robert Baldick, (London Penguin - Penguin classics, 2000), p. 129
10
Camus Albert, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, trans. Justin O’Brien, (London : Hamish
Hamilton, 1955)
11
Sartre Jean-Paul. No Exit and Three Other Plays, (Vintage International, 1989), p. 26
12
Kaufman Walter ed., Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre, (Meridian Publishing Company,
1989), Chapter about Sartre, p.p. 40-48

6. But, while Sartre defends the idea that existence precedes essence, where human firstly
exists, discovers himself, copes with the world and then he defines himself,12
so and
according to this, the Absurd is a condition that follows, Camus chooses a different
approach. For him, the human starts to experience the Absurd from the moment he
understands that the world he lives in is irrational.: “The absurd is born of this
confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This
must not be forgotten” (Camus, p. 20)13
, Camus underlines, leaving no margin for
misconstruction.
3. Suicide
So, in the absurdity of life is suicide a solution? Can or must human beings
acknowledge this action as a response to the unbearable of human living? Camus marks
the fact of suicide, by noticing that: “many people die because they judge that life is not
worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions that give
them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for
dying)” (Camus, p. 4)14
. The value or the absence of value of life drives people to the
decision of suicide.
The distinction between two different categories of human beings is noticeable. There
are those who conclude that life is worthless and those who esteem something else, apart
from life, as more valuable. In their thought, people of both categories, find a reason to
die and not a reason to live. However, it is interesting, that in the first case, the human
finds nothing worth living, whereas, in the second one, he considers something so
priceless in his life, which paradoxically leads him to select the option of the suicide.
This classification in a way resembles the suicide’s interpretation that Durkheim gives.
The anomic suicide15
, in a living environment filled with despair and absence of
13
Camus Albert, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, trans. Justin O’Brien, (London : Hamish
Hamilton, 1955)
14
Ibid
15
Durkheim Emile. Suicide, A study in Sociology, trans. John A. Spaulding, (The Free Press, 1951), p.p.
241-276

7. meaning, bears similarities to the case where people find that life is a waste, while the
altruistic suicide16
, for a higher purpose, fits people who commit suicide, driven by “ideas
or illusions”, as Camus suggests.
In addition to all these, Camus explains that: “we are concerned here, at the outset, with
the relationship between individual thought and suicide. An act like this is prepared
within the silence of the heart, as is a great work of art” (Camus, p. 4)17
. Suicide can be a
personal choice, formed in the individual’s mind, after circumspection, thorough auto-
analysis and introspection. It is perceived as the reflection of human agonies, which in so
many cases is literally expressed artistically, but in this case, it is transformed into the act
of suicide, as the ultimate form of art, in a metaphorical meaning.
This point of view that Camus introduces, reminds a lot of the defensive stand that
Schopenhauer had taken towards suicide. Apart from analysing, why suicide should not
have been considered as a crime by the state, religion, or individuals, Schopenhauer
suggests that: “Suicide may also be looked upon as an experiment, as a question which
man puts to Nature and compels her to answer. It asks, what change a man’s existence
and knowledge of things experience through death? It is an awkward experiment to
make; for it destroys the very consciousness that awaits the answer”18
. It is as if, the
human, unable to purchase the answers about life, he so desperately seeks, in his quest to
acquire some meaning out of it, he selects to lead himself to the extremes, to commit
suicide, even though, after this action, he will not be present anymore, to receive the
answers.
Nevertheless, Camus does not choose the pessimistic path. On the contrary, he stands
against it, claiming that: “In a sense, and as in melodrama, killing yourself amounts to
confessing. It is confessing that life is too much for you or that you do not understand it”
16
Ibid, p.p. 217-240
17
Camus Albert, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, trans. Justin O’Brien, (London: Hamish
Hamilton, 1955)
18
Schopenhauer Arthur. Essays of Schopenhauer, trans. Rudolf Dircks, ( The University of Adelaide
Library, 2014), p. 165

8. (Camus, p. 5)19
. Human is destined to fight against the Absurd, until the end. There is no
surrendering, no retreat, no space for cowardliness. Humans are bound to fight
relentlessly and there is no better and more eloquent example to prove it than Sisyphus.
4. Sisyphus: The absurd Man
Who is the absurd Man and how can we recognise him? According to Camus: “He
who, without negating it, does nothing for the eternal. Not that nostalgia is foreign to
him. But he prefers his courage and his reasoning (Camus, p. 43)20
. The absurd Man
knows his destiny, he understands the futile of his existence, even though he embraces it,
he accepts it as an inextricable part of who he is. So, he becomes his choice to fight, to
engage himself in the endless circle of life’s repetition, without ever surrender. He
becomes Sisyphus.
As Camus suggests, Sisyphus is “the absurd hero” (Camus, p. 76)21
. He, who provoked
the rage and the punishments of the gods, because of his passions, the undimmed desire
to live, the aversion towards death. The absurd Man accepts his punishment, his destiny.
He carries it, like Sisyphus carries his rock up to the top of the mountain, only to watch it,
to roll back to the fringes, over and over again, while this torment called life, keeps
looping, repeating itself.
In a way, Camu’s Sisyphus, the “absurd hero”, resembles the “tragic hero”, presented in
the ancient greek tragedies. He is the human, who strives to live, tormented by all these
situations he can not understand or bear, but he fights. Although he can not make sense of
anything in his life, he hopes, he resists, he falls and gets up again. Like another absurd
hero, Sophocle’s Oedipus, to whom the Chorus addresses the lines: “Unhappy in your
19 20 21
Camus Albert, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, trans. Justin O’Brien, (London : Hamish
Hamilton, 1955)

9. mind and your misfortune, would I had never known you!”22
, Camus bids Sisyphus
farewell by the phrase: “One must imagine Sisyphus happy”23
(Camus, p. 78).
5. Conclusion
Camus, in his book “The myth of Sisyphus and other essays” attempts to have a deep
look in the meaning of human existence. The Absurd dominates and defines the human
nature. It dictates the relentless struggle that humans call life. But Camus is not a
pessimist. He does not accept suicide as a solution, as an admissible way out. On the
contrary, he depicts the human nature as a vibrating, warring, hopeful figure, that
although it rocks under the constant beatings of the Absurd, remains the Absurd man, the
Absurd hero, who does not desire to surrender, to admit that everything in life is in vain,
simply because he sees no point in this choice.
22
Sophocles, Oedipus the King, trans. David Grene (The University of Chicago Press Books, 2010), verses
1530-1531
23
Camus Albert, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, trans. Justin O’Brien, (London : Hamish
Hamilton, 1955)

10. 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Camus Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, trans. Justin O’Brien, (London :
Hamish Hamilton, 1955)
Durkheim Emile. Suicide, A study in Sociology, trans. John A. Spaulding, (The Free
Press, 1951)
Kaufman Walter ed., Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre, (Meridian Publishing
Company, 1989)
Kierkegaard Søren. Papers and Journals: A Selection, (London: Penguin Book, 1996)
Nietzsche Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morality (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2007)
Sartre Jean-Paul. Nausea, trans. Robert Baldick, (London Penguin - Penguin classics,
2000)
Sartre Jean-Paul. No Exit and Three Other Plays, (Vintage International, 1989)
Schopenhauer Arthur. Essays of Schopenhauer, trans. Rudolf Dircks, (The University of
Adelaide Library, 2014)
Sophocles, Oedipus the King, trans. David Grene (The University of Chicago Press
Books, 2010)