TO REPENT OR NOT TO REPENT: THE UNCANNINESS OF ALBERT CAMUS’THE FALL

Abstract

This study analyses Albert Camus’ The Fall through Sigmund Freud’s views on ‘‘Uncanny”. Described in Freud’s essay titled ‘‘Das Unheimliche,’’ published in 1919, the German word Unheimliche, the uncanny, means a sense of strangeness, horror, or ambivalence that arises out of a familiar situation, place, individual, or experience. The study explores that the strange ambivalence to repent or not to repent even after the confession of delinquency seems essentially uncanny.  In Albert Camus’ The Fall, the strangeness that Clamence feels by suffering from guilt and after confessing in front of a stranger heightens the uncanniness as he struggles to avoid repentance because it is that aspect of his personality that was supposed to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light. Freud’s notion is that experiencing two contradictory or paradoxical feelings at once is also uncanny. The protagonist is torn between two personalities and is often held hostage by his alter ego. His alter ego is Freudian “unheimlich” which is familiar yet frightening. Clamence’s narcissistic personality halts him from repenting as he pronounces himself as a judge-penitent giving no weakness to any soul to judge him but continues to feel uncanny and frightened due to the guilt.