Jean Paul Sartre No Exit Symbolism

Psychological suffering versus physical torture is one of the central themes in No Exit by French playwright Jean Paul Sartre. Sartre’s famous quote that “hell is other people” (45) is illustrated through the interactions among Garcin, Inez and Estelle. Through psychological suffering the characters’ self-destructive flaws are revealed which ultimately emphasizes how each of them are responsible for their own fate. The characters have the freedom of will to help redeem each other but choose not to. To subtly reinforce the theme, even the style of the play is psychologically wearing on the audience.

Robert Herrick, an English poet, once said, “Hell is no other but a soundlesse pit, where no one beame of comfort peeps in it.” Picture any type of Hell with relief, happiness, or even the smallest crack of a smile. There is no place. In fact, one can only think of the complete opposite, whether it is a Hell filled with neglect, pain, disgust, or a never-ending life of horror. This is the place created by Dante Alighieri; The Inferno is exactly the type of Hell where no person would want to be. Even those who acted upon the lightest of sins suffered greatly. While each realm contained a different sinner, the punishment that each were forced to face was cruel, repulsive, and sometimes rather disgusting. Through grieving tears without an

Hell seems to be like a place where people tend to just go with the motions. Only the people who truly want to leave will. In the book of Revelation, Hell is described as fiery lake of burning sulfur. This scripture lines up most with what I have been taught about Hell.

The Great Divorce C.S Lewis’s book, The Great Divorce is one of a kind in my eyes and has a unique way at describing heaven and hell. Honestly, the way that her portrays heaven and hell are truly incredible. I agree with the way C.S. depicts heaven and hell. There are aspects that I do not agree with, like what I think is the aspect of purgatory. The book as a whole is about a group of people who are basically dead in hell and get on this bus and later find themselves in heaven with a second chance to be there.

Throughout “No Exit”, Inez says she “knows” everything about hell and what her experience there will be like. However, she continues to prove herself wrong, like when she tells Garcin and Estelle that they’re “going to burn”, but later discovers that the torture in this hell is mental, not physical. In this passage, she further shows her misunderstanding of hell, when she says she wishes to choose her hell. This line is ironic, as a hell that each person got to choose would contradict the definition of hell! Hell is the most painful and intense experience imaginable. If someone chose what happened to them, the experience would no longer be the most painful suffering possible. When Inez says that she would prefer to choose her hell, she prompts readers and audiences to think about the existential issue of existence versus essence. Existentialists like Sartre (and Inez) believe people are born without any predetermined destiny and that someone’s life is his or hers to

For thousands of years, people have had numerous different viewpoints of the characteristics of Hell. Some people believe that Hell is hot and fiery while others believe Hell is cold and frozen over. Although numerous people believe that Hell is fiery because many religious texts describe Hell as that, Hell is frozen because it provides a fair punishment, it surprises the readers, and it represents being far from God.

As stated earlier, man is an autonomous individual. Our freedom of choice determines what we make of ourselves. In the duration of Sartre’s play, No Exit, we are observed to three major characters serving their afterlife in hell together. Inez, one of the major characters, serves her afterlife from committing suicide with her lesbian lover concluding an affair with a woman’s husband. Her actions, in the play, overlook what is considered to be an important example of how we are completely in control of our actions. By acting as Estelle’s “mirror”, due to her personal admiration and obsession with her appearance, Inez engages in an action in which she ultimately knew would not result in the way she hoped for. Estelle, being a straight woman that is attracted to older

Hell has many interpretations, the most popular being the idea that hell is a place where you cannot be forgiven for your sins and you are punished for the rest of eternity. Of course there are other versions of hell, however there is not one hell that is alike. Every individual mind has created both a place where everything could be perfect, heaven, and a place where everything is completely wrong, hell. I like to call it the id, and the super ego but that is another essay entirely. In these different extremities of hell there are different ways to punish those who are in hell.

The play No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre, is about three people that die and go to hell. Joseph Garcin, a journalist executed by a firing squad for trying to desert during a war; Inez Serrano, a post-office clerk murdered by her lover which left a gas stove on while she slept; and Estelle Rigault, a woman who married an older rich man and died due to pneumonia. They all expected physical torture in hell. However, all they found was a plain room with some furniture that always had the light on, no windows, no beds, and nothing that would reflect or work as a mirror. The three of them were trapped inside the room. After discussing among themselves, they confessed their crimes and deduced that the torture was psychological. They also realized that they had been placed together so that each of them was to become the torturer of the other two. Each character began to ask things from the others to fulfill a need they all had, which only led them to more despair. Due to this, Garcin concluded that “hell is other people” (pag26). A. Petrusso argues in his article “No Exit” that the three main characters of the play have in common a display of cowardice. Certainly, all of them seem to be cowards at some moment and one character exhibits it more than the others. He also argues that certain actions and behaviors are merely the cowardice of the character when in fact, it rather seems more like fear. The examples and arguments used by Petrusso seem to simply catalog the main characters as

No Exit, a play written by Jean-Paul Sartre that debuted in 1944, has many similar themes to the movie The Breakfast Club, written and directed by John Hughes. The play No Exit is perceived as taking place in literal Hell and describes the interactions between those who have died and have been placed in a room together. In The Breakfast Club, students have been put in a metaphorical “hell,” detention, and spend a full day together in the school’s library. For characters in No Exit, trying to deal with other creates a living hell and ends with each of the characters hating one another because they do not help each other; while in The Breakfast Club the characters end up accepting each other after going through the same “hell” because they learn and accept each other.

Hell. The four lettered word that trembles in the throats of men and children alike; The images of suffering, flame pits and blood, the smell of burning flesh, the shrieking of those who have fallen from grace. For centuries man has sought out ways to cleanse his soul, to repent for his sins and possibly secure his passage into paradise, all evoked by the fear of eternal damnation and pain. The early 20th century philosopher and existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre saw life as an endless realm of suffering and a complete void of nothingness. His pessimistic ideals of life followed through to his beliefs on death, as death for him was a final nothingness. If death was a final nothingness, Sartre's view of hell was really a final

In his play, No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre examines basic themes of existentialism through three characters. The first subject, Garcin, embraces existentialist ideas somewhat. The second character, Inez, seems to fully understand ideas deemed existential. Estelle is the third person, and does not seem to understand these ideas well, nor does she accept them when they are first presented to her. One similarity amongst the three is that they all at some point seem to accept that they are in Hell for a reason.

When you think of Hell, what do you see, perhaps a burning pit full of criminals and crazed souls? Or maybe you’re like Dante and have a well organized system of levels in correspondence with each person’s sins. In Dante Alighieri’s epic The Inferno, Dante and his real life hero, Virgil, go on an adventure through a rather elaborate version of Hell. In this version of Hell numerous thoughts and ideals are brought to the attention of the readers. Through Dante’s use of both imaginative and artistic concepts one can receive a great visual impression of how Dante truly views Hell, and by analyzing his religious and philosophical concepts the reader can connect with the work to better understand how rewarding this work was for the time period.

     Set in Hell, the vision of the underworld is nothing the characters imagined as they are escorted to a Second Empire styled hotel. This is all ironic, in the fact that Sartre never believed in perdition. He uses this fictitious place to persuade his audience. Hell is used as a

In both the old times and modern time of Christianity, one of the main controversial topics has surrounded one single word. Hell. Some people hear it and thing noting of it. Others shutter at the name. But everyone has questions about it, whether hell is real or a fable, eternal or temporary, physical or spiritual. Being in the Baptist community since birth, I have believed in a hell since I can remember because “to believe in God and not in hell is ultimately to disbelieve in the reality of human choices.” (Ross Douthat). My definition of hell comes straight from the Bible. That there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mathew 13:42) and that God will say, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil