Adolphe L'Étranger

The stranger motiv is an essential aspect of Adolphe. The hero's difficulty at communicating with others, his absence of roots and feeling of dissemblance, his opposition to conventional ways and values, set him apart from his class and contribute to a deep sense of estrangement. Adolphe's peregrinations to foreign lands express the emptiness and lack of direction of his existence. Alienated from himself as from others, he is forever a stranger who belongs nowhere. The isolation, detachment, non-conformism and lucidity of Constant's hero announce Meursault, that symbol of twentieth-century alienation. But Adolphe's egoism, instability and inability to determine his destiny, as well as his rejection of life, distinguish him from Meursault, who develops into an heroic figure whose strength of convictions, solidarity with his friends and espousal of life in the face of death, ultimately lead him to transcend his estrangement. (In French) (MG)