47 pages • 1 hour read
Albert CamusThe Fall
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Jean-Baptiste Clamence
Clamence is the narrator and protagonist of The Fall. He was an esteemed lawyer in Paris and moved to Amsterdam to become what he calls a “judge-penitent.” Jean-Baptiste Clamence is not his real name. “Jean-Baptiste” is an allusion to John the Baptist, the prophet who baptized Jesus. “Clamence” is a typical French name meaning clemency, or forgiveness and mercy. Clamence’s name is an ironic representation of his egotism and fall from grace.
Clamence struggles with his memory. Throughout his anecdotes and ramblings, he tells his friend about a particular evening and a laugh he heard. As he recalls the event over the course of five days, he remembers that it wasn’t a laugh but the cries of a drowning woman that he ignored. The misremembrance of her cries as laughter is vital to Clamence’s spiral into sin. He believes she was laughing at him, and he projects this laughter onto his friends after the incident traumatizes him. He believes everybody is laughing at and judging him.
The title of “judge-penitent” is an ironic one. A penitent is one who repents their sins and seeks forgiveness, usually from God, by performing symbolic actions. Clamence believes there is no God and that the “masters” of the world fill the role of God now by oppressing people, which he believes is a good thing. Clamence is a “penitent” insofar as he wants to be rid of his guilt for not helping the drowning woman and outliving his fellow prisoners of war. He does so by judging others and tricking them into believing he is correct. By making others guilty, he lessens his own burden.
In the book’s epigraph, Camus says that Clamence is the “portrait […] [of the] aggregate of the vices of our whole generation in their fullest expression” (1). Camus chose this epigraph to stress that Clamence is meant not to be a believable portrayal of one person’s inner psyche but a portrayal of the dysfunctional society of Camus’s time. Clamence is egotistical, believes in nothing but power, and uses charity to reassert his dominance over the lower classes. Clamence’s life as a virtuous lawyer is a “surface” level cover for who he actually is underneath. Camus’s choice of epigraph suggests that Clamence is meant to reflect the ills of European society in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust.
As more of an allegorical figure than a person, Clamence is a relatively static character; he delivers all of his monologues with the intention of converting his cher ami to his ideology. While he stays true to this purpose, he loses standing as the book proceeds, and as he delivers his final monologue, he is delirious. With this, Camus subverts Clamence’s ideas, indicating that they are ravings and not to be trusted as solutions.
Cher Ami
Clamence’s “cher ami,” or dear friend, is an anonymous character. He is also a lawyer from Paris and a “cultured bourgeois” (9). The cher ami is not a dominant character like Clamence. He is a narrative device that allows Camus to structure the story as an “I” delivering monologues to a “you.” Readers are not privy to the few times the cher ami speaks, only Clamence’s responses. The cher ami is well-read in classical literature and understands Clamence’s references to Dante’s Inferno. Most of Camus’s contemporary audience would understand his references to classical literature and figures, which makes the cher ami’s knowledge reflective of the audience.
Clamence reveals at the end of the novel that people such as his cher ami are the most effective marks for his ideology. He likens the “cultured bourgeois” to a “rare violin” that he can play like a “virtuoso” to get what he wants (139). The bourgeois is a class in society that consists of people who have great amounts of social and financial capital; they work in the institutions that organize society such as government bureaucracies, law firms, the court system, and managerial positions. They often have enough money and leisure time to be the primary consumers of cultural productions, such as books and theatrical plays. The most elite of the bourgeois control the means of production, the factories and land that the proletariat (working class) labor in for wages. Many of Camus’s contemporary readers would fall into the category of “cultured bourgeois.” Camus claims that Clamence’s ideas are particularly persuasive to bourgeois people like the cher ami.
Camus’s use of a “you” without a voice and endearing phrases like “cher compatriote” creates a stand-in for the reader. This is in keeping with Clamence’s role as a mirror of society and Camus’s readers.
The City of Amsterdam
Clamence gives great attention to Amsterdam in his monologues that he does not give to other characters or places. The city of Amsterdam is characterized as cold, icy, and full of fog. This is juxtaposed against Paris, which is warm. As a port city, it is slightly below sea level and far away from the lofty places Clamence prefers. The endless fog and cold make Amsterdam feel unreal to Clamence, like a “dream” that is not inhabited by people but “silhouettes.” He also likens it to Dante’s version of hell and calls Amsterdam the innermost circle, Cocytus. In Dante’s Inferno, Satan resides in Cocytus, which, unlike in other popular versions of a fiery hell, is made entirely of ice. Sinners are frozen in the ice with only their heads exposed as punishment for betraying their bonds in life.
Amsterdam reflects the darkest parts of European history, so Camus situates it as hell, including its docks. The docks were used in the transatlantic slave trade, on which the city’s wealth was founded. Near the docks is the Jewish Quarter, which was ethnically cleansed by Nazi Germany. With this, Amsterdam is another layer of the mirror that Camus wishes to hold up to society. Likewise, Mexico City is a real bar that existed in Amsterdam, and Camus chose a bar with this name to allude to the real Mexico City’s history of colonization, genocide, and enslavement. Mexico City was built on top of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan after the Spanish razed it to the ground between 1521 and 1524. The Indigenous people of Tenochtitlan whom the Spanish did not slaughter were enslaved. Much of the characterization and description of Amsterdam connect to slavery, colonization, and the Holocaust.
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By Albert Camus
