Discuss the character Antoine Roquentine
Question: Discuss the character Antoine Roquentine.
Introduction
Antoine Roquentine is the protagonist or main character of the novel Nausea. He is a thirty years old young man who starts to write a diary from January 1932. He notes down the experiences that he gains from the journey throughout the whole world. Although his family had a good inheritance which helps him to make his life better.
Historical Researcher
At present, he has been living in a small-town named Bouville where he is researching the Biography of Marquis de Rollebon who was a French aristocratic political figure during the French revolution. Without any companion, he has been researching for 10 years. Only companion is his loneliness. He records the changes to his past times around him and from that record, he feels one kind of sensation mentally and physically which is referred to here as nausea. So he wants to left his research on Marquise de Rollebone because it seems to him to bring out the past to the present is valueless.
His Nothingness theory
During the research time, Roquentine doesn’t feel well and get any peace of mind in his research. Then he discovers that there is no value of Marquise because he was a man during the French revolution which is a long past. Again the future is also meaningless. So without the present time, there is nothing important. According to Roquentine, the overwhelming things and his own body is the most important things. He claims that the essence of every object of this world is the same, it may be red sit to the donkey of the jungle.
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His Loneliness
Almost all the time, Roquentine remains alone. During his research, he has been living in a house near the railway station alone in a fictional city named Bouville. But when he starts to feel wonder and disgust as nausea, he wants to be free from loneliness. For this reason, he goes to his ex-girlfriend, the self-taught man and Francoise, a barmaid. But every single person to whom he went cannot give him time and companion because of their own business. It seems that loneliness is an inseparable part of his life. So willingly and unwillingly he doesn’t get any companion without loneliness.
Intention to people
Roquentine was also human beings’ lover which is known to the readers from his deep interest in the other characters. Though Anny is his ex-girlfriend, he goes to meet Anny as soon as he gets the letter from her. As he is in loneliness for a long time, so he wants to continue their relationship again. But Anny denies. When the self-taught man invites him to lunch together, he goes to the restaurant stopping his diary writing. Even he also tries to persuade them to realize his feeling of nausea. Another example of people loving heart is his relation with Francoise. He had a good relationship with Francoise, a bar manager. But the last day he went to meet Francoise was not successful because she was busy with another customer. Thus, people loving is another characteristic of Roquentine.
Conclusion
Finally, he moves to Paris to write his novel on what he feels to reduce his mental and physical stress as Nausea. His nausea feeling makes him self-hatred because of his loneliness. Actually, Roquentine is the mouthpiece of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism theory.
