Jean Paul Sartre's Play 'No Exit'

I would like to take this opportunity to discuss Jean Paul Sartre's philosophy and it's integration into his play "No Exit". Embedded within the character interactions are many Sartrean philosophical themes. Personal attributes serve to demonstrate some of the more dominant ideas in Sartre's writings. Each of the three characters in the play show identifiable characteristics of sexual perversion, bad faith, and interactions of consciousness.<br><br><br>This play takes an interesting setting, that of the afterlife. The plot centers around three main characters, Joseph Garcin, Estelle Rigault and Inez Serrano. Hell, as portrayed in this work, is no more than a room with three couches and Second Empire decorum. There are no mirrors, no windows,
Sartre presents to us the situation of the waiter, one who is a waiter by trade but chooses to believe that "he is not truly a waiter." He acts as a waiter, he dresses as a waiter, is he not a waiter? The same logic applies to our subject Mr. Garcin. By his actions he is a coward, running from service while questioning his own motivation to do so. At a later stage in the play, Garcin manages to open the door to the corridor in an attempt to leave. Yet, he cannot leave. The very fact that Inez has identified that bad faith makes him stay. Estelle, grappling for his attention, tries to push Inez into the hallway and close the door. But Garcin will not allow it. <br><br>Garcin: It is because of her [Inez] that I'm staying. <br><br>..Yes. You [Inez] anyhow, know what it means to be a coward. And you know what wickedness is, and shame, and fear. There were days when you peered into yourself, into the secret places of your heart, and what you saw there made you faint with horror. And then, next day, you didn't know what to make of it, you couldn't interpret the horror you had glimpsed the day
She describes her worldly lover Florence as a "tiresome little fool" and "I won't miss her in the least." She has shown us through self-description and opinion that this is not a clever ruse designed to fool her cohorts, it therefore shows us that she has no warm feelings for Florence. She kept her around as a "toy". What could possibly be more objectifying than that? In saying "she saw the world through my eyes", it certainly sounds like she is trying to remove Florence's individuality. Florence should be deprived of even her own opinion because it is indicative of her personality. Achieving that level is the ultimate end of Sartre's sexual perversion. One wants another not as a complement one's consciousness, but rather as an object. <br><br>Inez cannot escape these desires, even in the afterlife. This time, Estelle is the object of her affection. Garcin represents a threat to that end, Estelle seeks physical pleasure from him. Inez cannot imagine a fate worse than allowing Estelle to get away. As she said, she wants to crawl underneath her skin, to make Estelle see the world through her eyes. Is there a better definition of objectification of persons? It is as though Inez is trying to "push" the soul out of Estelle. Once she has been "obtained", she is nothing more than a shell of a person, mental jewelry. The difference in this situation from the other two is that Inez knows why she desires another person. Most people are confused, and cannot see that the end of