History/Memoryīecause Antoine is working on a history of the Marquis de Rollebon, he spends much time thinking about history as a concept and as a subject of writing. The only thing that appears to be able to alleviate the feeling is music or art, which Sartre suggests might allow us to move beyond the absurdity of existence to create positive meanings. The nausea is a bodily problem as much as it is philosophical. Antoine’s realization causes him to be both mentally and physically disoriented, suffering a strange mix of psychological and physical symptoms. Sartre’s phrase means that any essence or meaning is applied to things after they exist their essence does not exist before them, nor inherently in them. Yet he can’t find any inherent meaning in these things, and though it is never used in the novel, Sartre’s famous phrase, “existence precedes essence,” may help us understand Antoine's predicament. His nausea is often centered around certain objects in the world, all of which make him recognize that he himself is an existent thing. Slowly Antoine analyzes what he calls “The Nausea” more and more deeply, and he begins to understand that it is linked to his realization that he is submerged in an absurd existence. The theme is developed as early as the first few pages, when Antoine describes experiencing something that is like an illness. Nausea’s most prominent theme is, unsurprisingly, the titular experience of nausea.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |