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1-Page Summary of The Myth of Sisyphus
Overall Summary
Albert Camus is best known for his philosophy of the absurd. In The Myth of Sisyphus, he aims to draw out his definition and later consider what strategies are available to people in living with the absurd. He defines it as the confrontation between man’s desire for logic, meaning and order, and the world’s inability to satisfy this desire. People commit suicide when life is meaningless, says Camus; sometimes they do so because they perceive a meaning that others don’t see (for instance someone dying for a political cause). If life is meaningless—which Camus certainly agrees with—is it logical to commit suicide? Is it even dutiful? Camus outlines how people turn to religion in order to live in full awareness of their mortality and suppress the absurdity.
Camus examines the work of philosophers who were all concerned with understanding life’s absurdity. He says that each philosopher tried to explain away the meaninglessness in life, but they did it through a leap of faith (usually to God). Camus argues that trying to make sense out of nonsense is irrational and absurd. The way to live an absurd life is by living passionately, acting freely and resisting any temptation for answers or explanations.
In “The Absurd Man,” Camus tries to move towards a more practical approach to the absurd by providing examples of figures that he feels have accommodating the absurd into their lives. For Camus, it is not about finding a solution to the absurd but living a life that maintains full awareness of life’s meaninglessness. As an illustrative example, he looks first at Don Juan, a notorious seducer who lived his life based on quantity rather than quality—since no experience is inherently more valuable than any other, the absurd man should strive to experience as much as possible. In Don Juan’s case this means sex with many different women. Camus’ other examples of absurd lives are actors and conquerors who live in the present and try out many different lives or political struggles which add urgency and vividness to life.
Camus also discusses suicide in “The Myth of Sisyphus” when he states, “the struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart” (57). This idea can be related back again to Camus’ view on absurdity because if one believes they will never find meaning or purpose then there would be nothing better for them than struggling through their meaningless existence until they die from natural causes instead of committing suicide like Meursault did in The Stranger.
Camus then turns his attention to the relationship between the absurd and creation. The creative life is an especially absurd one, according to Camus; artists expend great energy on their creation, though their meanings are ultimately meaningless. He also criticizes works that have a “smug” motive of proving a particular “truth.” Within this framework, he examines the writings of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. In particular Camus looks at a character from The Possessed named Kirilov who commits what amounts to logical suicide in order for life to have meaning: God must exist—but Kirilov intuitively feels that there is no God and decides to take control by killing himself. His last words were “all is well” which for Camus was precisely how living with the absurd requires one act.
Camus concludes this essay by discussing the myth of Sisyphus mentioned in the title. Sisyphus, a Greek king, was condemned to push a rock up a mountain over and over again for eternity. There are different stories about why he incurred the wrath of gods but essentially he disrespected them. One story is that he put Death in chains and angered Pluto, god of death. Just before dying, Sisyphus wanted to test his wife’s love by ordering her “to cast my unburied body into the middle of the public square.” Annoyed that she actually did so instead of burying him properly, he received permission from Pluto to return to earth in order to chastise her. Upon his return from underworld, Sisyphus fell in love with earth again—particularly its natural beauty—and refused to leave it behind when Mercury was sent down there for him. In this fate Camus sees man longing for meaning in an otherwise meaningless world; as such, Camus sees Sisyphean labor as representative of human struggle against futility (absurdity). The moment when Sisyphe finds himself back at foot on top of mountain represents his hour consciousness and total understanding about his fate; thus Camuss pictures him saying: “All is well”. It is necessary says Camuss “to imagine sisyphe happy”
