A Happy Death MCQs

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature
A Happy Death MCQs
Updated on: October 20, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 18 min

A Happy Death MCQs

1. What physical condition defined Zagreus?

A. Blindness
B. Deafness
C. Cripple (stumps of legs)
D. Muteness

C. Cripple (stumps of legs).
Zagreus’s physical limitation contrasts with his wealth and Mersault’s able-bodied poverty.

2. What did Zagreus’ handwritten note say he was doing away with?

A. A miserable life
B. Only half a man
C. All his suffering
D. His possessions

B. Only half a man.
The note is crucial for staging the murder as a suicide, a key part of Mersault’s plan.

3. What action did Mersault take with the revolver immediately after the shot?

A. Threw it in the fire
B. Thrust it into Zagreus’s right hand
C. Placed it on the chest
D. Put it in his suitcase

B. Thrust it into Zagreus’s right hand.
This action completes the staging of the suicide, allowing Mersault to escape with the money.

4. After leaving the villa, what did Mersault do when he reached his room?

A. Counted the money
B. Wrote a letter
C. Lay down on his bed and slept
D. Cleaned the revolver

C. Lay down on his bed and slept.
His immediate, deep sleep shows his emotional detachment from the act of murder he just committed.
5. What did Celeste say he would do if he made a million francs?

A. Buy a big city house
B. Buy a cabin on the beach and stick a flag in his navel
C. Quit working entirely
D. Travel the world

B. Buy a cabin on the beach and stick a flag in his navel.
Celeste’s simple, physical ideal of happiness contrasts with Mersault’s more complicated, conscious pursuit.

6. What disease had afflicted Mersault’s mother?

A. Cancer
B. Heart failure
C. Terrible swelling disease (aggravated by diabetes)
D. Pneumonia

C. Terrible swelling disease (aggravated by diabetes).
Her long, painful illness contrasts with Mersault’s later idea of a “happy” and conscious death.

7. Why did Mersault initially like being with Marthe in public?

A. She was quiet and reserved
B. She displayed her beauty, giving him a wonderful sense of ease/elegance
C. She paid for their expenses
D. She admired him greatly

B. She displayed her beauty, giving him a wonderful sense of ease/elegance.
This shows Mersault’s focus on the aesthetic experience of a relationship, rather than emotional connection.

8. What term did Mersault often use to address Marthe after making love?

A. Darling
B. Sweetheart
C. Image
D. Angel

C. Image.
Calling her “Image” reveals he sees her as an object of beauty rather than as a person.

9. How did Marthe describe Zagreus to Mersault?

A. A miserable man
B. The first one, nice, educated, a character
C. A poor, lonely cripple
D. A bitter intellectual

B. The first one, nice, educated, a character.
Marthe’s description introduces Zagreus as a significant figure, leading to Mersault’s pivotal meeting with him.
10. What did Zagreus say about seeing a good body that Marthe relayed to Mersault?

A. It makes him sad
B. It helps him breathe
C. It makes him angry
D. It makes him jealous

B. It helps him breathe.
This comment highlights Zagreus’s intense appreciation for the physical life he has lost.

11. According to Zagreus, how does a man always judge himself?

A. By his wealth
B. By his social standing
C. By the balance between body needs and mind demands
D. By his relationships

C. By the balance between body needs and mind demands.
Zagreus introduces a key philosophical idea about the conflict between a person’s physical and intellectual life.

12. What did Mersault say his ‘one duty’ was, according to Zagreus, due to his healthy body?

A. To work hard
B. To live and be happy
C. To help others
D. To reflect deeply

B. To live and be happy.
This is the core instruction that sets Mersault on his quest for a conscious, happy life.

13. What prevented Mersault from achieving the life he desired, according to him?

A. His lack of money
B. His job/eight hours a day at the office
C. Marthe
D. His sickness

B. His job/eight hours a day at the office.
Mersault identifies his monotonous job as the primary obstacle to living a truly conscious and happy life.

14. What did Zagreus say was stúpid, false, and cowardly regarding happiness?

A. Believing happiness is easy
B. Thinking money isn’t necessary for happiness
C. Ignoring one’s body
D. Being touchy

B. Thinking money isn’t necessary for happiness.
Zagreus argues that poverty is a barrier to happiness, providing justification for Mersault’s later actions.
15. According to Zagreus, what is having money primarily equated to?

A. Power
B. Fame
C. Time
D. Security

C. Time.
Zagreus’s central thesis is that money buys the time necessary to cultivate a happy, conscious life.

16. What accident immediately followed Zagreus making his fortune?

A. He lost his wealth
B. The accident that took off his legs
C. He was arrested
D. He became ill

B. The accident that took off his legs.
This tragic irony—gaining the means for happiness just as he lost the ability to enjoy it—defines Zagreus.

17. What final advice did Zagreus give Mersault?

A. Don’t take anything seriously except happiness
B. Find a new job
C. Get married soon
D. Travel the world

A. Don’t take anything seriously except happiness.
This parting advice solidifies the philosophical mission that Zagreus passes on to Mersault.

18. What was Cardona doing when Mersault went into his apartment?

A. Reading
B. Sobbing like a child
C. Cleaning
D. Arguing with his dog

B. Sobbing like a child.
Cardona’s raw, animal grief over his mother’s death provides a stark contrast to Mersault’s own behavior.

19. Why did Mersault feel powerless when confronting Cardona’s pain?

A. He was too sick
B. He felt respect for that animal pain
C. He hated Cardona
D. He didn’t know what to say

B. He felt respect for that animal pain.
Mersault’s reaction shows his alienation from conventional emotion, seeing Cardona’s grief as something primal.
20. What realization did Mersault have while sitting in Cardona’s room?

A. That he missed his mother
B. That his rebellion was the only authentic thing in him
C. That he needed a woman
D. That he was also poor

B. That his rebellion was the only authentic thing in him.
This moment of clarity solidifies Mersault’s resolve to break free from the constraints of his ordinary life.

21. What did Mersault do the morning after visiting Cardona?

A. Killed Zagreus
B. Went to the office
C. Visited Marthe
D. Left Algiers

A. Killed Zagreus.
His visit to Cardona directly precedes the murder, suggesting it was the final catalyst for his act of rebellion.

22. Where did Mersault travel to after leaving Lyons?

A. Marseilles
B. Vienna
C. Genoa
D. Prague

D. Prague.
His journey to the cold, dark city of Prague represents his initial failure to find happiness with money.

23. What burst from Mersault’s eyes as he thought of cities, sunlight, and women in his room?

A. Vomit
B. Sweat
C. Tears
D. Blood

C. Tears.
In his Prague hotel room, Mersault finally breaks down, realizing that money alone has not brought him happiness.

24. Why did Mersault choose to return to Algiers by way of Genoa?

A. To see Marthe
B. He was poisoned by solitude and needed friendship/confidence
C. To invest his money
D. To buy a boat

B. He was poisoned by solitude and needed friendship/confidence.
His decision to seek out friends marks a shift from seeking solitude to needing human connection.
25. What did Mersault realize he must create during his crossing to Algiers?

A. A new identity
B. His happiness and his justification
C. A new relationship
D. A map of his travels

B. His happiness and his justification.
He realizes happiness is not a passive state but something he must actively build and justify.

26. What had attached Mersault to Marthe, in his final analysis on the ship?

A. True love
B. Physical attraction
C. Vanity and power
D. Shared grief

C. Vanity and power.
His reflection on Marthe shows his growing self-awareness about his own motivations in relationships.

27. What power did Mersault realize he possessed, akin to children and geniuses, regarding Zagreus?

A. The power to forget
B. The power to create
C. The power of lucidity
D. The power of wealth

A. The power to forget.
He sees the ability to forget his crime not as a moral failing but as a necessary power for moving forward.

28. What did the inhabitants call their house?

A. The House of Solitude
B. The House above the World
C. The House of the Sun
D. The House of Joy

B. The House above the World.
This name reflects the house’s isolation and its inhabitants’ attempt to live apart from conventional society.

29. What physical feature of Lucienne’s delighted Mersault due to its hint of “mindless beauty”?

A. Her small straight nose
B. Her blond hair
C. Her smooth, curving belly
D. Her silence and closed expression

D. Her silence and closed expression.
Mersault is attracted to Lucienne’s apparent lack of deep thought, seeing it as pure physical existence.
30. Where did Mersault decide to buy a little house?

A. In Algiers
B. Near Tipasa ruins (Chenoua)
C. In Marseilles
D. In Vienna

B. Near Tipasa ruins (Chenoua).
His choice of location reflects a desire for a life in harmony with nature, sun, and sea.

31. What did Mersault say was the risk of staying at the House above the World?

A. The risk of getting bored
B. The risk of losing his money
C. The risk of being loved
D. The risk of forgetting his purpose

C. The risk of being loved.
He feared that accepting love from his friends would compromise his project of solitary, conscious happiness.

32. What truth did Mersault share with Lucienne about memory and love?

A. Great love lasts forever
B. Everything is forgotten, even a great love
C. Only unhappy passions are remembered
D. Memory fades with age

B. Everything is forgotten, even a great love.
This statement to Lucienne shows his persistent belief in the impermanence of human emotions.

33. What paradox about loving people did Mersault realize after meeting Marthe again?

A. That they were always unfair to him
B. That he loved them only for their beauty
C. That we deceive ourselves twice (first to advantage, then disadvantage)
D. That he shouldn’t have left her

C. That we deceive ourselves twice (first to advantage, then disadvantage).
He reflects on how our self-deception in relationships ultimately leads to our own suffering.

34. Mersault believed he had acquired independence by using money as what?

A. A shield
B. A weapon
C. An investment
D. A distraction

B. A weapon.
He sees money not just as a tool for time, but as a weapon to defend his independence.
35. When asked if he was happy on the mountain climb, what did Mersault say mattered most for happiness?

A. Money and time
B. The will to happiness (a kind of enormous, ever-present consciousness)
C. Love and connection
D. Solitude and freedom

B. The will to happiness (a kind of enormous, ever-present consciousness).
Mersault defines his happiness not as a feeling, but as a conscious, willful state of being.

36. What did Mersault confess he had to acquire to perfect a life in happiness?

A. More patience
B. Unintelligence (a minimum of ignorance)
C. Better health
D. A stronger will

B. Unintelligence (a minimum of ignorance).
He believes that perfect happiness requires a conscious effort to ignore certain distracting thoughts.

37. How did Mersault experience killing Zagreus when he reflected on it later?

A. With profound regret
B. In the innocence of his heart
C. As a great crime
D. As an unavoidable chore

B. In the innocence of his heart.
He retrospectively views the murder not with guilt, but as a necessary and almost innocent act of creation.

38. What illness confined Mersault to his room in January?

A. Grippe
B. Diabetes
C. Pleurisy
D. Fever

C. Pleurisy.
His illness marks the beginning of his body’s betrayal and his final confrontation with death.

39. During his convalescence walk, what did Mersault realize was born of his patient self-abandonment?

A. A desire for revenge
B. A great melancholy
C. The peace that filled him
D. A return to his past

C. The peace that filled him.
By accepting his illness and weakness, he finds a new, deeper sense of peace with the world.
40. What was Mersault’s greatest fear during his sickness?

A. Dying alone
B. Dying in unconsciousness (in a coma)
C. Leaving Lucienne
D. Losing his money

B. Dying in unconsciousness (in a coma).
His ultimate fear is losing the conscious awareness that he has worked so hard to cultivate.

41. What realization dissolved Mersault’s fear of death just before he lost consciousness the first night of fever?

A. The certainty of a next life
B. The memory of Marthe
C. A tremendous chord of tenderness and hope at dawn
D. Bernard’s injection

C. A tremendous chord of tenderness and hope at dawn.
He finds peace by connecting his own impending death with the natural cycle of the world.

42. Mersault realized that being afraid of death meant being afraid of what?

A. God
B. Life
C. Suffering
D. Solitude

B. Life.
This is a key philosophical insight: the fear of death is simply the negative expression of the will to live.

43. What did Mersault say defined his happiness in living and dying?

A. That he had traveled far
B. That he had married Lucienne
C. That he had created his life with consciousness and courage
D. That he had inherited money

C. That he had created his life with consciousness and courage.
His happiness comes from the knowledge that he actively built his life according to his own will.

44. What feeling united Mersault and Zagreus in their final moments?

A. Shared regret
B. A heavy approach of tears, mingled taste of life and death
C. Mutual forgiveness
D. Shared physical pain

B. A heavy approach of tears, mingled taste of life and death.
Mersault’s conscious death allows him to feel a final, profound connection to the man he killed.
45. What physical sensation indicated to Mersault his body’s continued complicity with life, even while failing?

A. A coughing fit
B. A shudder at Lucienne’s touch
C. The ache in his limbs
D. His irregular breathing

B. A shudder at Lucienne’s touch.
This involuntary reaction shows that his body still clings to the sensory world, even as he consciously accepts death.

46. What happened in Mersault’s final second of consciousness?

A. He spoke to Lucienne
B. He felt a stone approach his throat and returned to the truth of the motionless worlds
C. He coughed violently
D. He thanked life

B. He felt a stone approach his throat and returned to the truth of the motionless worlds.
The novel ends with his final, conscious moment, achieving the “happy death” he sought.

47. What did Sandra Smith listen to in order to capture Camus’s intended nuances?

A. Interviews with Camus’s family.
B. A recording of Camus’s own reading of the novel.
C. Lectures by Camus on his philosophy.
D. Other French novels from the same period.

B. A recording of Camus’s own reading of the novel.
Listening to Camus’s reading helped the translator capture the rhythm and tone of the original French.
48. What did Camus famously say about Meursault’s character?

A. That Meursault was “a lost sheep.”
B. That Meursault was “the only Christ we deserve.”
C. That Meursault was “a modern-day prophet.”
D. That Meursault was “a saint in disguise.”

B. That Meursault was “the only Christ we deserve.”
Camus stated Meursault is the “only Christ we deserve” because he dies for the truth of his feelings.

49. Which translation prize did Sandra Smith win?

A. Booker International Prize.
B. French American Foundation Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize.
C. National Book Award for Translated Literature.
D. Pushkin House Russian Book Prize.

B. French American Foundation Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize.
Her work on Irène Némirovsky’s *Suite Française* earned her this prestigious award.
50. What is the original French title of The Outsider?

A. Le Premier Homme.
B. Le Mythe de Sisyphe.
C. L’Étranger.
D. La Peste.

C. L’Étranger.
The French title translates to “The Stranger,” “The Foreigner,” or “The Outsider,” all of which apply to the protagonist.

Brief Overview

A Happy Death by Albert Camus centers on Patrice Mersault, a young man trapped in a dull job and feeling emotionally empty. He longs for freedom and happiness but struggles to understand what it truly means to live fully.

He meets a wealthy, disabled man named Zagreus, who tells him that happiness requires money and the courage to seek personal freedom. Influenced by this belief, Mersault kills Zagreus and takes his fortune.

With this new wealth, he quits his job and begins travelling across Europe. However, he still feels disconnected from life, realizing that freedom alone does not guarantee happiness.

Mersault later moves to a quiet house by the sea and tries to live more consciously. He spends time in solitude, reflecting on time, existence, and the body’s connection to life.

Through this journey, he slowly understands that happiness is created through awareness of the present moment. The novel ends with his peaceful acceptance of life and death.

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