This review does not contain spoilers.
Caligula is a play in four acts. As the title suggests, the play is about the emperor Caligula, one of the most notorious Roman emperors — and reputedly insane, a theme that Camus dwells on in the play. Though some scenes have historical roots, the play is essentially an exploration of Camus’ absurdism philosophy (the belief that human existence is absurd and utterly pointless or unreasonable; the prime example is the myth of Sisyphus).
The story starts after the death of Caligula’s sister (and incestuous lover) Drusilla when the young emperor runs away, and the agitated senators gather together to discuss what should be done about it. They think Caligula ran away because of his grief for Drusilla’s death, but when he returns, they find that his grief is not that simple. Rather than presenting him as a straightforward madman, Camus depicts a young ruler tormented with questions about the human condition. Caligula tells his friend and servant Hélicon that he is struggling with the universal truth that “Men die and they are not happy.” To him, the problem is that men pretend they are happy and that their lives have value, but he believes it to be a lie, and he wants to live in the truth instead. His perverted logic arrives at an illogical conclusion: if the truth of this world is abominable, then he wants something that is not of this world. The things of this world no longer satisfy him; he wants to have the impossible and the absolute. And so Camus traces Caligula’s descent into madness, not so much as the sadistic tyrant he is usually portrayed as, but as a man struggling to find freedom, power, and ‘logical’ truth. His logic leads him to think that if he exercised absolute power over the entire Roman world, he would be the only man with complete freedom. He wants to be free from bondage, like the gods, so he decides to be as cruel and abusive as they are. Throughout the play, he is the embodiment of absurdist logic, wanting to arrive at absolute truth through the use of human reason and power. Initially, he believes that he has found freedom in tormenting others, but by the end of the story he virtually gives himself up to be assassinated because he realizes that there is no freedom whatsoever in his ‘logical’ world and that he has become the slave of his own malice and insanity.
Some critics say that the play, and especially Caligula’s outbursts, are silly and immature. But I think it was done on purpose; it’s obvious that Camus intended the play as a philosophical conversation, not a drama with an action-packed plot and convincing characters. Caligula was designed as an absurdist character; rationality and maturity are not his strengths.
Another thing to say in favor of the play is its style. The language, even when discussing violence and madness, is poetic and sometimes reminiscent of the Romantic poets (coincidentally, some of them went mad).