Essay Questions

Why is Jean-Baptiste Clamence playing with women's hearts without any regard for their undying love for him?

Jean-Baptiste is infatuated with self-satisfaction because he thinks that human reality is ineffectual. According to him, human subsistence is just jokey and exasperating. He does not see any wrong when he plays with women's hearts. He uses women as his personal property and he believes that he has the right of getting any woman he desires. Therefore, dumping women after having sex affairs with them is not a big deal to him. However, he fails to comprehend that he is hurting the feelings of those women who are truly in love with him.

What is making the female gender to pursue Jean-Baptiste using all means including disparaging their husbands just to be with him?

Jean Baptiste is a prominent lawyer who has safeguarded the rights of women throughout his career. However, being a lawyer who defends the female gender is not the primary reason why every woman is dying to have an affair with him. According to Jean-Baptiste, any female is attached to him because of his personality and attractiveness. It is not astonishing that women of all ages are after him. The women's attachment towards him has made him believe that human existence has no meaning because he can change women like clothes. The reader notes that some women can do anything within their power including denouncing their husbands just have an affair with him.

Is Jean-Baptiste finding it difficult to continue living in Paris?

In Paris, everyone knows Jean-Baptiste because of his fame. However, his misuse of women is making him feel guilty. He knows that he has hurt many women especially those who are truly in love with him. He has never felt in love with any woman he has slept with. He just views women as objects of sex and this is now making him feel guilty. Therefore, he is thinking that the best step is to vacate Paris and go away to a new place where he can freely interact with people because they do not know him. He is also feeling that he should make confessions about his life to people who do not know him.