Throughout the story, Marie pushes Meursault to show emotions for her as she does for him. “She asks [him] if [he] loved her” and when he says he “didn’t think so,” it makes her seem like she has more emotional desire than he does (35). In this, she evokes emotions in their relationship that Meursault has not even begun to think about. The fact that he doesn't want to understand her feelings and can't love her back creates the idea that he is emotionally controlling the relationship. Later in the story, Marie turns to Meursault again to see if he “wanted to marry her” and “if [he] loved her” again (42). When Meursault explains that they “could get married” if “she wanted to,” she wonders why they would get married if he didn’t care (42). This again pushes the reader to place Meursault in a dominant position over the relationship due to his lack of emotional connection. This makes the reader believe that Meursault does not need a statement about what their relationship is and that he is stronger when it comes to taking their relationship for what it is. In this, the book makes Meursault seem dominant in their relationship and emotionally stronger than Marie. This brings back the idea of ​​men holding emotional strength over women, which appears similarly in The Unbearable Lightness of