“The only thing that interests me now is the problem of circumventing the machine, learning if the inevitable admits a loophole.”
Chapter Five opens with Meursault's declaration that he has refused the chaplain three times. He has nothing to say and will see the chaplain soon enough at the execution. What he does care about is escaping the inevitability of the machinery of his execution. Meursault wishes that he had paid closer attention to executions in books and such so that he could hold on to the thought of one escape, one possibility. He realizes though, there is little chance for that. Still he finds it very difficult to accept the absoluteness of the machinery he is faced with. The absurdity of the verdict being handed out at a certain time for the good of a certain people decided by random people just like himself hits him full force. It all seemed so haphazard and arbitrary. Nevertheless, the verdict would be very real for him.
The reader is transported into the cell with Meursault at a point where he has already been approached and has denied the chaplain three times. His inner thoughts have moved for the first time that we see from the external sensations he enjoys or the physical elements of the world he observes to a type of fear, apprehension, and searching for escape. He is less marginalized from the goings on of the court system and institutions around him. He realizes that he is trapped in a machinery which would be very difficult to stop. There is a sense of wish and regret for the past in Meursault which was never noticeable in the past. He wishes that he had taken stories of executions more seriously before so that he would know of one where the condemned had escaped the inevitable machinery of the state.
GradeSaver
