THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

SUMMARY OF THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

      The central concern of the myth of Sisyphus is what Camus calls the absurd. Camus claims that there is a fundamental conflict between what we want from the universe [whether it is meaning, order, or reasons] and what we find in the universe [formless chaos]. We will never find in life itself the meaning that we want to find. Either, we will discover that meaning through a leap of faith by placing our hopes in God beyond this world, or we will conclude that life is meaningless. Camus opens the essay by asking if this latter conclusion that life is meaningless necessarily leads one to commit suicide. If life has no meaning, does that mean life is not worth living? If that were the case, we would have no option but to make a leap of faith or to commit suicide, says Camus. Camus is interested in pursuing a third possibility that we can accept and live in a world devoid of meaning or purpose.

      What interests Camus is what leads to suicide. He argues that beginning to think is beginning to be undermined. The worm is in man’s heart. When we start to think we open up the possibility that all we valued previously, including our belief in life’s goodness, may be subverted. This rejection of life emanates from deep within, and this is where its source must be sought. For Camus killing yourself is admitting that all of the habits and efforts needed for living are not worth the trouble. As long as we accept reasons for life’s meaning and we continue, but as soon as we reject these reasons, we become alienated. We become strange from the world. This feeling of separation from the world Camus terms absurdity a sensation that may lead to suicide, still most of us go on because we are attached to the world, and we continue to live out of habit.   

      But is suicide a solution to the absurdity of life? For those who believe in life’s absurdity, it is a reasonable response. One’s conduct should follow from one’s belief, of course conduct does not always follow from belief, individuals argue for suicide but continue to live, others profess that there is a meaning to life and choose suicide. Yet, most persons are attached to this worldly instinct, by a will to live that precedes philosophical reflection. Thus, they evade questions of suicide and meaning by combining instinct with the hope that something gives life meanings.

      Yet, the repetitiveness of life brings absurdity back to consciousness. In Camus words, “Rising, street, car, fair hours in the office or factory, meal, fair hours of work, meal, sleep and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday” Living brings the question of suicide back, forcing a person to confront and answer this essential question – should I go on? Yet, of death we know nothing. “This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists” This world I can touch and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge and the rest is construction.

      What makes life absurd is our inability to know ourselves and the world’s meaning even though we desire such knowledge. What is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The world could have meaning. But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. This tension between our desire to know meaning and the impossibility of knowing it is a most important discovery. In response, we are tempted to leap into faith, but the honest know that they do not understand, and they must learn “to live without appeal”. In this sense, we are free living without higher purposes, living without appeal. Aware of our condition, we exercise our freedom and revolt against the absurd; this is the best we can do.

      Now, here is the essence of the human condition made clearer than in the myth of Sisyphus. Condemned by the gods to roll a rock to the top of a mountain, where upon its own weight makes it fall back again, Sisyphus was condemned to this perpetually futile labour. His crimes seem slight, yet his preference for the natural world instead of the underworld incurred the wrath of the gods. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted towards accomplishing nothing. He was condemned to everlasting torment and the accompanying despair of knowing that his labour was futile.

      Yet, Camus sees something else in Sisyphus at that moment when he goes back down the mountain, consciousness of his fate is the tragedy, yet consciousness also allows Sisyphus to scorn the gods which provides a small measure of satisfaction. Tragedy and happiness go together; this is the state of the world that we must accept. Fate decries that there is no purpose for our lives, but one can respond bravely to their situation. This universe henceforth without master seems to render him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself towards the height is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

      Because there is no remedy for this awareness, Camus proposes revolt or constant confrontation with the absurd. He also suggests that freedom is available in the absurd since any “scale of values” are tied to belief in the meaning of life. One is no longer bound to these values. A third consequence of the absurd, says Camus is passion or the enthusiastic embrace of the meaningless life and a rejection of suicide.

      In the section of absurd characters, Camus offers some examples to those who he thinks have a deeper insight into the absurd such as lovers, actors and conquerors. The lovers pursue the pleasures of love knowing they are fleeting and rare. The actors make a living by appearing to live, and conquerors act decisively instead of engaging in useless moralization. These types, he says have an advantage over others because they know that any sense of enduring accomplishment is illusory.

      Camus also discusses the function of art in the absurd. Art does not explain the absurd or solve the problem it creates, argues Camus, but rather describes the conditions of existence with an awareness of its futility. Creative enterprises, however offer the artist opportunities to maximize their experience. In creating arts, Camus suggests, artist make the most of their lives.

       Finally, Camus lays out a metaphor for absurdity in the figure of Sisyphus. Sisyphus is a figure from Greek mythology that has been condemned by the gods to roll a boulder up a steep hill, only to have it roll back, down to where he must repeat this task infinitely. Camus asks us to consider Sisyphus, especially at the point where he must repeat his task.