Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary

As Meursault lies in his cell, he ponders his appeal, but his execution is more probably. Fantasies of escape lead him to realize that he has never studied executions well enough to know what methods of escape may be feasible. If he should escape his fate, Meursault vows to attend every execution from now on in order to become better educated with these facts.

Eventually, Meursault accepts the inevitability of his execution. He considers the need for a better system where the condemned man would have some sort of chance for escape. Perhaps a drink could be developed that could kill a person and the condemned could choose from one of ten glasses, knowing that only one contained a non-lethal substance. The guillotine, which sits flat on the ground and not on a scaffold like in the movies, offers no escape...