The Stranger characters

Appears from the start

A young French Algerian clerk in Algiers and the novel's narrator. Emotionally detached and strikingly honest, he responds to life through physical sensation - heat, light, food, the sea - rather than convention or sentiment, and he declines to pretend to feelings he does not have. The story opens with the death of his mother, which he meets with a flat, unperformed calm that unsettles those around him. Passive and indifferent to ambition, social expectation, and even his own prospects, he drifts through events without seeking meaning in them.

Appears from the start

A cheerful young woman and former typist at Meursault's office who becomes his lover shortly after his mother's funeral. Warm, playful, and fond of swimming and the seaside, she is drawn to Meursault and hopes for affection and marriage, though she is puzzled by his emotional flatness and his refusal to say he loves her.

Appears from the start

Meursault's neighbor, a rough, disreputable man rumored to live off women. Aggressive and quick to violence, he seeks Meursault's help in taking revenge on a mistress he believes has wronged him, and treats Meursault as a friend. His grudge and his enemies draw Meursault into events on the beach.

Appears from the start

An old neighbor in Meursault's building who is inseparable from his mangy dog, which he abuses and curses yet cannot do without. When the dog goes missing he is stricken with grief, revealing an attachment beneath his harshness.

Appears from the start

A friend of Raymond's who owns a beach bungalow outside Algiers and invites Meursault and Marie to spend a Sunday there. Easygoing and hospitable, he is present on the day the seaside outing turns violent.

Appears from the start

An unnamed Arab man, the brother of Raymond's estranged mistress. He and his companions follow Raymond in resentment over the way she was treated, and a confrontation with them simmers through the group's day at the beach in the blazing sun.

Appears from the start

The owner of a small restaurant where Meursault regularly eats. Friendly and loyal, he is fond of Meursault and thinks well of him as an ordinary, decent man.

First appears in chapter 2

The investigating magistrate who questions Meursault after his arrest. A fervent believer, he is disturbed by Meursault's indifference to religion and to remorse, and he presses him agitatedly on his lack of faith and feeling.

First appears in chapter 2

The prison chaplain who visits Meursault as his case reaches its end, urging him toward God and repentance. Insistent and pitying, he tries to make Meursault turn to religious hope, provoking a decisive response from the condemned man.