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Swimming
Meursault runs into Marie Cardona at the beach, where they have sexual crossings while swimming. Later, they attend a humorous movie, where again there are several descriptive references towards sexual wanting from both Marie and Meursault. The date culminates with Marie returning with him to his place, where it's strongly implied that they slept together. All of this occurred the day after Maman's funeral, which introduces us to the protagonist's apathy; his attitude is not at all mournful. -
Meh
Marie asks Meursault whether he loves her. He responds that he finds the question meaningless, but he supposes that he doesn't love her. This is our first glance at the lack of a solid foundation, where the protagonist finds conventional emotional underpinnings obsolete. Meursault's more nihilistic attitude towards concepts like love goes on to mark the characters's future actions and thoughts. -
Proposal
Marie proposes to Meursault, and, in a swift sentence, he responds by saying that it's up to her; it doesn't make a difference to him. We see, here, how the protagonist rejects societal conventions such as marriage, paralleling his prior dismissal of the idea of love. Societal foundations are not important to Meursault; his rejection of social norms sets him apart and makes him a stranger to a society that doesn't understand him. -
Swim 2.0
Marie and Meursault go to Masson's house by the beach, where we see a stark difference in how Meurault describes his time with her. They go out and swim and he notes a "closeness as we moved in unison and were happy." At this point, we see Meursault not as a stranger, but as someone who we could understand as being capable of taking a moment and being happy. This does, however, go on to develop the reader's comprehension of his motivation for doing things: how he feels at the moment. -
Visit
Marie visits Meursault in prison, and the most interesting part of the interaction is the way it's recounted. The description of the conversation is constantly interrupted by narration of all the conversations around Meursault, then slightly shifted back to what Marie is shouting. It depicts a protagonist who doesn't value people the way most do, and the visit was more awkward than comforting. By this point, we see the connection severed between the two, marking Meursault as a true stranger. -
Testifies
The last scene with Marie is when she testifies in court, trying unsuccessfully to defend Meursault's character. Marie's desperate attempt to help her lover speaks to some aspect that the book doesn't explicitly state: there must be some redeeming quality in Meursault that inspires Marie's love. While the reader may fail to gauge what that is, through Marie, we see that there must be some component of him that makes him worthy of her love and affection, of even her defense of him in court.
