Genre & Structure
No Exit is an existentialist drama in one act.
The Playwright
Jean-Paul Sartre, (1905-1980) born in Paris in 1905, studied at the École Normale Supérieure from 1924 to 1929 and became Professor of Philosophy at Le Havre in 1931. With the help of a stipend from the Institut Français he studied in Berlin (1932) the philosophies of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. After further teaching at Le Havre, and then in Laon, he taught at the Lycée Pasteur in Paris from 1937 to 1939. Since the end of the Second World War, Sartre has been living as an independent writer.Sartre is one of those writers for whom a determined philosophical position is the centre of their artistic being. Although drawn from many sources, for example, Husserl's idea of a free, fully intentional consciousness and Heidegger's existentialism, the existentialism Sartre formulated and popularized is profoundly original. Its popularity and that of its author reached a climax in the forties, and Sartre's theoretical writings as well as his novels and plays constitute one of the main inspirational sources of modern literature. In his philosophical view atheism is taken for granted; the "loss of God" is not mourned. Man is condemned to freedom, a freedom from all authority, which he may seek to evade, distort, and deny but which he will have to face if he is to become a moral being. The meaning of man's life is not established before his existence. Once the terrible freedom is acknowledged, man has to make this meaning himself, has to commit himself to a role in this world, has to commit his freedom. And this attempt to make oneself is futile without the "solidarity" of others.
LINK
 |
| Jean-Paul Sartre |
Plot Summary
No Exit is a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters are punished by being locked into a room together for eternity.Character Descriptions
Joseph Garcin – His sins are cowardice and callousness (which caused his young wife to die "of grief" after his execution). He deserted the army during World War II, and he blatantly cheated on his wife – he even brings his affairs home and gets her to make them coffee in bed, without any sympathy. Initially, he hates Inès because she understands his weakness, and lusts after Estelle because he feels that if she treats him as a man he will become manly. However, by the end of the play he understands that because Inès understands the meaning of cowardice and wickedness, only absolution at her hands can redeem him (if indeed redemption is possible).
Inès Serrano – Inès is the second character to enter the room. A lesbian postal clerk, her sin is turning a wife against her husband, twisting the wife's perception of her spouse and the subsequent murder of the man (who is Inès' cousin). Indeed, Inès seems to be the only character who understands the power of opinion, manipulating Estelle's and Garcin's opinions of themselves and of each other throughout the play. She is the only character who is honest about the evil deeds she, Garcin, and Estelle have done. She frankly acknowledges the fact that she is a cruel person.
Estelle Rigault – Estelle is a high-society woman, a blonde who married an older man for his money and had an affair with a younger man. To her, the affair is merely an insignificant fling, whereas her lover becomes emotionally attached to her and she bears him a child. She drowns the child by throwing it into the lake, which drives her lover to commit suicide. Throughout the play she makes advances towards Garcin, seeking to define herself as a woman in relation to a man. Her sins are deceit and murder (which also motivated a suicide). She lusts over "manly men", which Garcin himself strives to be.
Valet – The Valet enters the room with each character, but his only real dialogue is with Garcin. We learn little about him, except that his uncle is the head valet, and that he does not have any eyelids, which links to Garcin because Garcin's eyelids are atrophied.
Literary Criticism
It's the cultural event which inaugurated the golden age of St.-Germain-des-Pres.
PDF The Wilson Quarterly
"Sartre on Theater by Jean-Paul Sartre", by Tom Markus
Sartre has an understanding of the nature of character in drama and man in life.
PDF The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism
"No Exit and Three Other Plays: Dirty Hands, the Flies, the Respectful Prostitute by Jean-Paul Sartre", by Susan Keane
Some aspects of the play are still traditional, but the ideas of the play are alive and accessible.
PDF The Modern Language Journal"'No Exit' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf': A Thematic Comparison", by Eugene H. Falk
Death in No Exit is merely a dramatic device used to effect an a posteriori consideration of life from that point in time at which it assumes the tragic quality of the too-late, being having definitively disproved desired appearance.
PDF Studies in Philosophy
