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Don Juan
Albert Camus holds up the actor-figure as another example of an “absurd man.” In essence, Camus is talking about stage actors rather than film. He sees the actor as an “absurd figure” because he acts out ephemeral lives for ephemeral fame (again, this is much more appropriate to the stage actor than Hollywood celebrities). Camus believes that the actor “demonstrates to what degree appearing creates being,” which aids to show the illusory nature of most people’s lives.
The Actor Quotes in The Myth of Sisyphus
The The Myth of Sisyphus quotes below are all either spoken by The Actor or refer to The Actor. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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8. Conquest Quotes
Let me repeat that these images do not propose moral codes and involve no judgments: they are sketches. They merely represent a style of life. The lover, the actor, or the adventurer plays the absurd. But equally well, if he wishes, the chaste man, the civil servant, or the president of the Republic. It is enough to know and to mask nothing.
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This quote comes at the end of the “Absurd Man” section. It represents something of a get-out clause for Camus; if the reader doesn’t agree with his examples of absurd lives, then any other will do fine as an illustrative example. There is no doubt that Camus’ choices of Don Juan, the actor, and the conqueror as “sketches” of absurd lives have involved “judgments”—these are the types of lives that he deems to be genuine responses to the absurd. Camus, here, adds the paradoxical claim that remaining aware of the absurd—“It is enough to know and to mask nothing”—is sufficient Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occae
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The Actor Character Timeline in The Myth of Sisyphus
The timeline below shows where the character The Actor appears in The Myth of Sisyphus. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
7. The Absurd Man: Drama
...a life lived with the absurd, rather than in effort to reject it, is the actor. The actor wants to enter into the “diversity” of different lives, and embraces the “realm”...
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The stage actor, says Camus, has only “three hours” and a relatively small amount of space to live...
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...unity of the soul—one single identity—and the promise of a deferred eternal life. In contrast, Actors insists on multiple identities and living in the moment.
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8. The Absurd Man: Conquest
The Church opposes the conqueror, just as it did the actor. Conquerors reject any notion of the eternal—to the conqueror, the only “truths” are those that...
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Camus concludes this section by reminding the reader that Don Juan, the actor and the conqueror are just sketches of a “style of life” that “plays the absurd.”...
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