Chapter 4
Meursault works hard all week. Raymond visits and mentions sending the threatening letter. Meursault goes to the movies twice with Emmanuel, who struggles to follow the plot. On Saturday, Marie arrives in a red‑and‑white striped dress and leather sandals. They take a bus outside Algiers to a rocky beach. Marie teaches Meursault a game of catching foam from wave crests, then kisses him in the water; they later make love on the beach and return to Meursault’s apartment, where they spend the night with the window open. The next morning Marie stays; Meursault goes downstairs for meat and hears a woman’s voice in Raymond’s room. Later, old Salamano growls at his dog, and distant footsteps and a “Lousy, stinking bastard” are heard. Meursault tells Marie about Salamano; she laughs, wears his pajama sleeves rolled up, asks if he loves her, he says he does not, she looks sad, then they kiss again while preparing lunch. Suddenly a violent fight erupts in Raymond’s room: the woman screams, Raymond shouts “You used me… I’ll teach you to use me,” thuds are heard. Marie urges Meursault to fetch a policeman; he refuses. A cop arrives with a plumber neighbor, knocks louder, the woman cries, Raymond opens the door with a cigarette. The woman accuses Raymond of beating her; the cop orders Raymond to remove his cigarette, then slaps him hard, sending the cigarette flying. The cop warns Raymond, the woman cries “He’s a pimp!” Raymond asks if it’s legal to call him a pimp; the cop silences him. Raymond threatens the woman, the cop orders him to stop, tells the woman to leave, and orders Raymond to stay in his room awaiting summons. The cop rebukes Raymond for being drunk and shaking. After the police leave, Meursault and Marie finish lunch; Marie is not hungry, Meursault eats most of it and leaves at 1 p.m. He sleeps. At 3 p.m Raymond knocks, sits on Meursault’s bed edge, and explains he hit the woman after she slapped him, claiming she got her punishment. Meursault agrees, noting the cop could do anything but the woman is already punished. Raymond asks if Meursault expects him to hit the cop; Meursault says no and repeats his dislike of police. Raymond proposes a walk; Meursault combs his hair. Raymond says Meursault must act as a witness, simply stating that the woman cheated on him. Meursault agrees. They go out; Raymond buys brandy, they play pool (Meursault barely loses), then Raymond suggests a whorehouse, which Meursault declines. On the return they discuss how “glad” Raymond is to have given the woman what she deserved. From a distance they see old Salamano on the doorstep, frantic and dog‑less. Salamano explains he took his dog to the Parade Ground fair, watched “The King of the Escape Artists,” and the dog vanished. He fears the police will take the dog; he curses the dog and imagines paying a fee at the pound. Raymond laughs and goes inside; Meursault follows, and later Salamano knocks on Meursault’s door, pleading that the authorities won’t take the dog away. Meursault explains the pound’s three‑day holding rule. Salamano says good night, retreats, and begins sobbing in his room, prompting Meursault to think of his mother. He goes to bed early without dinner.