The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus was a French novelist, philosopher, essayist, and playwriter. He was born on 7 December 1913 in Algeria, and died on 4 January 1960, in French. He is best known for his novels The Stranger, The Plague, and The Fall. He is famous for his philosophy "absurdism" which can be exemplified in his essay "Le Mythe de Sisyphe", The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942. Camus defined the absurd as the futility of looking for meaning in the universe, denying God or meaning.

According to Greek myth, Sisyphus is condemned to roll a rock up to the top of a mountain yet the rock roll back down to the bottom every time he reaches the top. Albert Camus presents Sisyphus as an absurd hero and suggests and concludes the text by saying that we must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Camus presents Sisyphus as an absurd hero because of the resemblance of him between a definition of human from the existentialist perspective. The job of Sisyphus is to take the rock to the top of the mountain again and again, with the hope of sometimes it stays at the top and does not fall down, he just hopes without knowing the truth. However, according to Camus once he realizes, once he knows, his tragedy will begin. This is what makes his condition absurd. "Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth."(Camus, p.592)

Happiness is the recognition and acknowledgment of the fact that our fate belongs to ourselves, our actions rather than some external or spiritual factors, like Gods. "The higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks"( Camus, p.593), Sisyphus's actions are accompanied by the feeling of anguish rather than relying on bad faith and escape. Having a master or not does not seem any different to him since he does not rely on anybody else, only on himself. The effort he is making through his road, and his aim are enough to make him happy. That's what makes him happy, and this is the reason why according to Albert Camus we must imagine Sisyphus happy.

References:

"The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus