Re: Confession is far from repentance -- Great Books II

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Date Posted: 22:11:01 04/20/08 Sun
Author: tsawyer
Subject: Re: Confession is far from repentance
In reply to: Joel Gehrke 's message, "Re: Confession is far from repentance" on 16:02:33 04/20/08 Sun

I don't know that Camus "recognizes the existence of Jesus" - at least not in the same way that we would talk about Jesus. Camus denies the existence of a Messiah, the role Jesus would be fulfilling in this situation. I'm assuming that's what Camus means when he talks about an Elijah without a Messiah. Baptiste recognizes the wrong he has done to his fellow man, but sees no method of repentance - none exists. We make the axiomatic assumption that there exists a Messiah and that path to redemption is Christ. Camus (and thus Jean-Baptist) makes the axiomatic assumption that we are alone with our fellow man.

This segues nicely into my disagreement with your statement that Camus is no relativist, that he sees an intransgressible law out there. I don't find them to be complete opposites - that is to say, I won't argue that Camus is a relativist - but I think his law does vary based upon people relations. The man across from you is never the same man; he requires different forms of assistance - which is to say you have different responsibilities to him - at any given moment, whoever he is. Jean-Baptiste transgresses the absolute law of helping the people around him. That he sacrifices it out of concern (or lack thereof) of his image makes no difference within the play. His conscience feels because he has neglected his responsibility to mankind, not because he has transgressed a moral absolute.

I agree with most of your second paragraph, though I would quibble and say that he confesses to everyone around him not only to condemn them, but in hopes that they might forgive him. Either everyone is condemned as he is, or someone is un-condemned and can forgive him. Those are his only two hopes for escape. The second implies a Messiah figure - one which he assumes does not exist - leaving only the possibility of the first. I just don't like automatically throwing away the first option; Baptiste seems to be also searching for a sense of forgiveness (empathy, maybe? association for sure) through the reader.

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