Nausea - Jean Paul Sartre

Nausea - Jean Paul Sartre

1. Nausea is an existential novel about a man who begins to have strange and unexplainable feelings about everyday places and things, to the point that he becomes uneasy around people and objects, causing him to feel nauseous. Antoine Roquentin finds himself pondering the meaning of existence and can't seem to make sense of anything. Roquentin begins writing a diary in hopes that it will help him figure out what has been causing his new mental frustration. Also, to take his mind off of his distress, he spends his time researching the Marquis de Rollebon in order to write a book about the French aristocrat. Bored and frustrated, Roquentin returns all of his attention on the meaning of existence and concludes that there is no real purpose to existence. "I could not understand it...I had learned all I could about existence."

2. The protagonist and narrator of the novel is Antoine Roquentin, his diaries constitute the novel itself. He is a French writer who is lost in this world and who doesn't understand the people that live in it. Roquentin is a lonely person who has no friends or family. Aside from his ex-girlfriend, Anny, and a companion he meets in the library, the Self-Taught Man, Roquentin is completely alone in the universe. Roquentin spends most of his time exploring the nature of existence and the absurdity of life, he is almost horrified of his existence.

The other main character in the novel is the Marquis de Rollebon, who is not actually present in the novel but plays a large role in Roquentin's search for meaning in life. The marquis was a politician during the French Revolution whom Roquentin respects and looks up to. Because of the marquis, Roquentin realized that living in the present is more important than to go back and reflect the past and that he was simply trying to justify his own existence and understanding of himself by researching the marquis' life.

3. Nausea is a novel based on the philosophy of existentialism. Antoine Roquentin experiences many feelings and thoughts that are the basis of existentialism. Roquentin lives a life of anxiety and dread, frightened of his own existence.

Roquentin is a hopeless man who is essentially alone in life and doesn't fit into the universe that surrounds him. Everybody he once had has been taken from him and he is lost in his own mind. Roquentin can't communicate with people because he sees through them and analyzes their motives, concluding that people are all ill-hearted. Roquentin despises the world he lives in, and the world he lives in seems to disregard his existence.

Aside from the question of one's existence, the aspect of existentialism that is most apparent in this novel is that there is no absolute truth. Roquentin doesn't know anything for sure about the world around him. He looks at people and objects wondering what their true intentions are. He questions every aspect of life, right down to everyday objects. "For instance, there is something new about my hands, a certain way