No Exit

“I understand that I'm in hell. I tell you, everything's been thought out beforehand. [...] Devouring me. What? Only two of you? I thought there were more; many more. So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire, and brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is other people!”

• Evil is independent of good

• Hell is naturally on earth

• The gaze/ opinion of other devours him and reduces his individuality

• He cannot act within the gaze of Inez because it makes him condemn his freedom and responsibility

  • Sees it as his only proof of his existence

What did you think of the play?

• General consensus: enjoyed the play

The Setting

• No Mirrors

  • Mirrors are a way to escape the judging look of others

  • Cannot tell how you look--others will say to you

    • When Inez sees Garcin, she thinks his mouth looks dastardly

      • Garcin must decide whether to trust his judgment or hers

      • He listens to her

        • An example of what Sartre called “Bad Faith”

• Lack of appearance and furniture

  • Symbolizes how emotions and personal interactions will drive the plot

• Three characters

  • Menage a Trois

    • Choose to listen to yourself or listen to the two others

• Second Empire

  • Delays the explanation of the room

  • Second Empire is out of date and inaccessible

    • Suggests that hell is really on earth

    • Could be an allusion to Nazi-occupied France

      • Sartre was rumored to be apart of the resistance

      • Saw what was happening and Paris at the moment to be like hell on earth

Inez

• Compared to the other characters she can cope with reality and accepts that she is dead

• Always tells the truth unlike the other characters

  • She does not subject herself to the same kind of hell as the other

  • Acts as a foil to the other characters

Garcin

• A coward

  • Seeks the approval of others

  • Pretends to like furniture and be okay

  • Denies having a nervous twitch

    • Pretends to be afraid of his impending doom

• “Bad Faith”

  • Worse than all the others

  • He needs Estelle to tell him that he is brave

  • He cannot leave the room if Inez believes he is a coward

    • Thus he surrenders his free will to her

    • He cannot exist without others' opinions

    • He is not secure in his thought

“When I chose the hardest path, I made my choice deliberately. A man is what he wills himself to be.”

• Cannot decide for himself whether or not he is a coward

• He obsesses about people judging and whether

“ But they won't forget me, not they! They'll die, but others will come after them to carry on the legend. I've left my fate in their hands.”

• Listens to what other people say about him

• He is stuck in the past

  • He justifies his current actions by his past

  • Condemns himself to live in the room forever

    • Thus he makes his hell

Estelle

• Vain and caught up with what others think of her

  • The mirror scene

  • Pretends to be virtuous and pious

“ I've six big mirrors in my bedroom.”

Valet

• Has no eyelids

  • Can never go to sleep

  • Will never have a break from the torture

Self-Deception

• Estelle pretends to be in hell by mistake rather than accepting that she should be in hell for good reasons

  • She pretends to be in hell by mistake rather than accepting that she should be in hell for good reasons

    • Left her husband to have an affair

    • Got pregnant and murdered the baby, causing her lover to commit suicide

• Garcin lies about his story

  • Says that he was a pacifist journalist and refused to fight during the war, is only is hell for being an abusive husband

  • He fled his post in the army because he was a coward and was shot dead for fleeing

• Neither Estelle nor Garcin will accept that they are in hell

“What's the point of play-acting, trying to throw dust in each other's eyes? We're all tarred with the same brush.”

• The specific use of the word “play-acting” evokes an idea where Estelle and Garcin are actors lying to the audience and themselves

• They are both blinding themselves, so they are unable to see the truth and reality

  • Reinforces the idea of this being an artificial setting and a mental thing

  • There is “no exit” from self-deception

Existence and Essence

• Estelle does not believe she “exists” until she sees herself

“Don't you ever get taken that way? When I can't see myself, I begin to wonder if I really and truly exist. I pat myself just to make sure, but it doesn't help much.”

• Estelle is unable to rely on her judgment

  • She asks Inez to be her mirror

    • An Example of Bad Faith

      • She is not making her own decisions; she gets Inez to make them for her

      • Cannot define her essence

    • She gives Inez power over her

      • She surrenders her individuality to her opinion

        • This would have never worked out because they do not have the same perspective

• Inez can rely on her judgments

  • Sarte sees her suffering and her ability to do this as a step towards affirming one’s existence

“ I'm always conscious of myself—in my mind. Painfully conscious.”

Torture

• The mirror Scene

• Garcin-Inez

  • Garcin’s existence undermines Inez’s self-autonomy

• She knows that Estelle’s beauty will torture her forever and accepts and decides to face hell on her terms

  • She decides not to be bound to her past

  • Comparable to her counterparts, who are refusing to do the same

    • Inez does not base her existence on who she was

    • She bases her existence in the present and uses her present to determine her essence even though she is in hell