Nausea : Summary

Summary

This novel can be easily described in 6 stages. After reading these six stages and the last 7 important points, the concept of this novel will be completely clear.

6 Stages:

1. Antoine Roquentin’s purpose for coming to Beauville
2. Does he feel nauseous anywhere?
3. Antoine Roquenti meets Self-taught and Francaise
4. Experiencing existentialism for the first time
5. Meeting Annie in Paris
6. Returning to Antoine Roquentin’s Beauville and experiencing existentialism one last time

Antoine Roquentin’s purpose for coming to Beauville: The novel begins in January 1932 when Antoine Roquentin, the protagonist of the novel, travels around the world. Then he comes to a fictional city in France, which is called Beauville. In fact, there is no port city in France named Beauville. Antoine Roquentin is in the city because he wants to write about Marquis De Rollebon, a French politician and aristocrat. That is, he wants to write a biography of the Marquis de Rollebon.

How does he feel Nausea (first, second, and third time): Antoine Roquentin goes through the day in an uncomfortable situation. Nothing feels good to him. Nausea is shown in a few places.

First, one day he found a piece of stone. He thought, is it really a piece of stone, or is any paper wet? He is not able to understand what this object is. So he was feeling very embarrassed and fell ill. When he tried to lift the object by leaning over, he could not lift it. At this time he began to feel nauseous. And this condition is initially called Nausea in the novel. Antoine Roquentin felt that such situations should be noted. He started to write down everything in the diary.

Second, shortly after that, he went to a cafe. He went there and took a glass. He took the glass in hand and began to think about his existence. He is thinking about different things in different places, this is Nausea. He feels that, whatever is going on inside him, the things he is thinking about, this thought is not his alone. Rather, everyone in the world is passing through such thoughts. This is Nausea.

Thirdly, in replying to Anny’s letter: Then Antoine Roquentin receives a letter from his ex-girlfriend Anny. In this letter, Anny asks Antoine to go to Paris and meet her. Antoine Roquentin also wants to meet Anny. And he wants to inform her that nothing feels good; he wants to inform her about Nausea.

Antoine Roquenti meets Self-taught Man and Francois: Antoine then goes to a nearby library to read about the Marquis de Rollebon in order to write his biography. There he met a Self-taught Man. Self-taught Man was reading all the books in the library alphabetically (a,b,c,z). Then Antoine Roquentin met Francois. Antoine had sex with her in exchange for money. There was no love here. Physical needs were met only in exchange for money.

 Existentialism

Stop writing about the Marquis de Rollebon, experiencing existentialism for the first time: While passing through this nauseous situation, Antoine felt the futility of writing about the Marquis de Rollebon. That is, there is no point in writing about him. The Marquis de Rollebon is dead. He is past. Thinking or writing about the person who died is a waste of time. Because the past will not come back. Just like the past doesn’t come back, Rollebon won’t either. Antoine’s thinking is an evident example of existentialism. Here Antoine Roquentin is abandoning his own existence by writing about a dead man. He realized 2 things at this point,

One, he is alone in this world. He is forgetting his own existence while writing about others.

Two, the present should be given utmost importance. Looking at the past is futile.

After realizing these two things, he stopped writing about the Marquis de Rollebon. The duality of existentialism is shown at this point in the novel. That is, Antoine Roquentin is comparing himself to the Marquis de Rollebon. He was so oblivious to himself that when he looked into the mirror he saw the Marquis de Rollebon instead of himself.

Experiencing existentialism for the second time: Then one day at lunch, Self-taught Man tells Antoine that he believes in socialism and humanism. Believing in socialism and humanism, he places great importance on the people around him and their opinions. He emphasizes socialism and says that socialism is an economic system in which there is an equitable distribution of everything produced within a particular community.

But to Antoine, it seems worthless. Because he thought about his existentialism a while ago. He stopped writing about the Marquis de Rollebon, concerned about his own survival. Humanism and socialism are of no importance to him. Self-taught Man then tells Antoine about a book called “Is Life Worth Living” to motivate him more. Human life has no specific meaning. The meaning we give to our life is what our life will be. But Antoine thought to himself that there was a stark difference between the ideas of the author of this book and his. But on this matter, he kept quiet as he did not want to enter into a controversy with Self-taught Man.

Experiencing existentialism for the third time: After lunch, Antoine began to think about existentialism while riding a tram. Then he sat under a chestnut tree in the park. Then he felt that he had discovered his own existence. He started talking to the tree. He kept on talking about the virtues of the tree without looking at its exterior. He kept thinking about the park chairs and benches. They are named by people. But does it really have any real connection with its name? They could have been named something else. People are using everything according to their needs and naming it but there is no real relationship with it. This means that as long as we are ignorant of our own existence, nothing can accurately represent our existence. Thus he tries to find his existence.

Meeting Anny in Paris: That night Antoine decides to go to Paris to meet Anny. He thinks that since Anny invited him willingly, maybe she wants to mend their old relationship again. He wants to live with Anny permanently after a short visit to Beauville. Seeing Annie, Antoine thinks that Anny has become fatter than before. Her appearance has deteriorated. Anny used to act on stage. Her performance was very good. And with every moment she adapted herself very well. But Anny doesn’t care about the perfect moment when it comes to acting. And she now lives with a boyfriend in exchange for money. Annie tells Antoine that she has enjoyed life too much. She no longer wants to return to Antoine. The next day Anny goes back to London with her new boyfriend.

Returning to Antoine Roquentin’s Beauville and experiencing existentialism one last time: Meanwhile, Antoine Roquentin returns to Beauville. He spends some time here. One day he hears that Corsican, the librarian, saw the Self-Taught Man shaking hands with a young boy. Because of sexual abuse, the librarian banned Self-taught Man from the library. Although Self-Taught Man did not have a good relationship with Antoine, nor did he like him, he did not believe such accusations against Self-Taught Man.

She then goes to the cafe and meets Francois to bid adieu. Antoine Roquentin sometimes spent time with Francois, having sex in exchange for money. Sometimes he felt embarrassed, sometimes he felt insecure. However, they bid farewell to each other without being emotional.

• Experiencing existentialism for the last time: A waitress from the cafe tells Antoine that she will play a record of her favorite song “Some of These Days” for Antoine Roquentin. The CD of this song has a lot of stains. It was almost destroyed. Seeing this, Antoine thought, this CD is only a material instrument. But its existence is hidden in its songs. And its existence is still intact. That is, even though the CD is about to be destroyed, the song is still intact.

Antoine decides he has to create something that will sustain his existence like this song. So he decided, to leave this research work,  and write a novel. And this novel will sustain his existence.