In the article the image of the troublesome patrician and marginal person Clodia Pulcher from the novel “The Ides of March” by Thornton Wilder is compared with the classical image of Caligula from the play of the same name by Albert Camus. Thus the original transformation of the existentialist concept of absurd man, which was carried out by Wilder, is regarded. The common features of Clodia and Caligula include the renunciation of das Man-existence and the peculiar educational activity in absurd, however Clodia's absurd vision is complicated by the emotionally coloured reference to determinism and the search of metaphysical support. On the whole, Clodia can be called a quasi-absurd person because, although she functions as an absurd person, the breach of the requirements of limits and transparence, which are fundamental for the concept, undermines the ideological structure from within. Besides, the brightly manifested emotional basis adds the psychological characteristics to Clodia's image and contrasts with