AN EXISTENTIAL APPROACH TO VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS. DALLOWAY AND ALBERT CAMUS’ THE STRANGER AND THEIR FILM ADAPTATIONS

Abstract

Virginia Woolf and Albert Camus are two successful writers of the 20th century. They have both have written in modern age explaining the struggle of the modern individual. Although they are not essentially existentialist writers, their works have the characteristics of the existential philosophy. This thesis analyses the similarities and differences between the two works: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and The Stranger by Albert Camus which take place in different regions, but they describe similar pains of the individuals of the same century. These two novels draw a portrait of two people who are suffering in their life journey, they suffer not only for their meaningless lives, but also for they come face to face with the brutality of death. The reason of their pain is that the inevitabiliy of death leaves them helpless. This thesis aims to scrutinize how human being feels when he comes close to death. How people close themselves to the outside and they become as outsiders in their inner journey because of their fear of death, these are important issues of this thesis. There are some people, who seem normal just like everyone else, however deep down inside they are not normal but living the conflicts of identity, meaning and alienation, just like everybody else. Life flows, and it is very fast, so the human being experiences the remorse about the past. Thus this thesis is actually describing the pain, the inner conflicts, the identity struggles every other modern individual goes through in search for meaning in the face of death. When the individual finds the absurdity; meaninglessness of life, as an answer, he is frustrated. All in all, the whole conflict of an individual is scrutinized through this thesis.