Analysis of consciousness of self in Nausea

Analysis of consciousness of self in Nausea

Question: Discuss Sartre’s analysis of consciousness of self in Nausea.

Introduction

Sartre’s analysis of consciousness is really evoke-making in the history of literature. From Aristotle to literary devices, he does leave nothing to focus on the fact of consciousness. His procedure of consciousness analysis helps the readers to prob into the death psychology of human beings. “Know thy Self” is a famous proverb which means to know yourself. In this novel “Nausea”, Jean-Paul Sartre focuses on the term existentialism which indirectly makes people conscious about their self-consciousness. According to Sartre knowing about self is so much hard for individual people. Because knowing about self is a complex process as there are so many factual realities outside of someone’s personality.

The paradox of Self-consciousness

According to Sartre, the present state of someone can be recognized by his true outlook. But how will his consciousness changed will depend on his choice. So, we are responsible for our own consciousness. Though we are responsible for our consciousness, we can never realize this process that means this process is totally unconscious to that person. This is the paradoxical situation of consciousness. And Sartre’s concept of existentialism is badly related to this process which also signifies human being’s responsibility and freedom.

Thirst for knowing

Antoine Roquentine notes down a lot of daily events of his life during his journey and his research time of his life. But when he realizes that bring back the past to the present is just like nothingness. So, he starts to being excited to know the terms what is running in his mind. This feeling is referred to as nausea in the novel. His thirst for knowing the unconscious matter is a sign of knowing himself.

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Roquentine’s Feeling

When he realizes the reality of past and present time, he stops his research on Marquise and starts to find the answer of his questions. For this reason, he feels something wonder and disgusting at the same time and this feeling is called nausea by Roquentine. To be free from his nausea feeling, he tries to tell all the matters to some people such as Anny, The self-taught man, and Francoise. When he tells these to Anny, she denies realizing all this thing. Even she denies reconnecting their relationship again. Because of his despair, he feels heavy wondering and disgusting which creates pressure on his brain. So, he tries to come out of this situation. He told the self-taught man but he fails to explain. There is a reason for telling others. When he cannot solve this problem, then he starts to tell this confusion and tries to come out from nausea.

Existence of Objects

Roquentine’s thinking of existentialism at first comes from the objects of the world. Leaving the lonely town of Bouville, he returns to Paris to kick out his loneliness. When he was sitting in a park, he suddenly starts to think about the existence of the objects as well as himself. He defines objects and human beings of this vast world in the same theory. Again, sometimes he goes to café to enjoy the environmental beauty. So, through the arts of the world, he also tries to realize existentialism and his pure existence in this world.

Conclusion

We come to know that Roquentine’s realize finally, human beings are the maker of their own freedom and responsibility as well as consciousness. And this may be applied for curing his nausea. So in this novel, Sartre exercises the analysis of consciousness of self in the best way for every individual personality.