No Exit is that the Setting of Hell by Jean-Paul Sartre

Dante's depiction of Hell is not meant to entertain but to change the behavior of his readers so that they will choose behavior which will lead them to the "city" of Heaven, rather than behavior which will lead to the dark wood and, eventually, damnation: A place is there below, stretching as far from Beelzebub as his tomb extends. . . . My Leader and I entered by that hidden road, to return into the bright world; and . . . we mounted up . . . so far that a round opening I saw some of the beautiful things which Heaven bears, and thence we issued for again to see the stars (Dante 52).

    Hell is said to be the worst place to ever exist, and it is greatly feared about on earth and in the minds of people. “Hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them and swallow them up,” this illustrates personification in giving the flames of hell the live ability to hold and swallow us. It portrays how we will be consumed by our own sins if we do not act on them to better ourselves. If we let our sins pile up they will weigh us down and we will eventually be brought down to hell to pay for our wrong doings.

This dark, decayed, disgusting and risky place makes the character confused and makes him feel inside hell. He feels despair and does not understand the cruelness of his captors (even though he had heard some stories, being there was worse).

In complete contrast to this, the Christian Hell is a place of punishment for crimes committed on Earth. There are tons of depictions of Hell across tons of books, movies, and TV shows, but the most widely accepted version of damnation comes from the writer Dante Alighieri, in his world famous title Dante’s Inferno. Alighieri described Hell as a sort of giant funnel, with seven layers on the inside, representing the seven deadly sins, and in Inferno, he and Virgil Maro traverse these layers, and battle their inner demons, while also witnessing the cruel, and ironic torture of those sent to this unholy plain of existence. For example those who were wrathfully in life find themselves trapped in the filthy slime of the Styx, violently beating each other for all of eternity, while those who were sullen in life are drowned just underneath the river, and stepped on by the wrathful. The Buddhist realm of the damned, Naraka, is the most similar to Dante’s Hell, but unlike the Inferno, Naraka is less a place of eternal suffering, and more a place of

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.

Hell has been described in many different texts, all explaining how Hell may be organized. There have been many examples in the Bible, myths, folktales, and music through out time. One example in particular is in Dante's, The Inferno, where hell is described as having many layers, which are categorized by individual sins, such as thievery, and are punished for an eternity. In Dante's model, more sin centered, a soul would be sent to a certain layer of hell for one sin that he had committed. However, perhaps a more personalized Hell, sinner-centered, that deals with each sinner individually for each sin committed and its severity, would allow for people to be punished more effectively.

The sad part is that the people choose to go back to hell because it is easier than being in heaven. Hell is a dark place. It is like a town that is gray, rainy, dreary, and lonely. I pictured it as if everyone was walking very

Over the history of the church, Christians have generally believed that hell is a place of eternal torment. Jonathan Edwards, for example, preached this view in every opportunity that he had. Namely, the classical view of hell guided a myriad of his sermons. As Edwards with his view influenced people who surrounded him, theologians across the church spectrum likewise influenced people. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary boldly defined hell as a real place for the wicked dead “and a condition of retribution for unredeemed man…. As life of the believer is to be endless, just so the retributive aspect of hell refers to the future infinite age. ” Rather than hell being a place where God or evil destroys the soul insomuch it

Hell exists to punish sin. However hell is insinuated that it existed long before mankind was created so God didn't originally create hell for humankind, he created it to punish his angels when they fell from grace. For example a love of wealth and power, drives many souls to commit terrible sins. The second circle of hell contains those sinners who gave into excessive lust, including the memorable Francesca da Rimini. These sinners follow lust and desire, rather than chaste love like that between Dante and Beatrice. Dante also includes Sodomites in his vision of hell, a category including those who engage in homosexual

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

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

     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

The idea of making up a "Hell", or inferno, is not an experience in which I, even in my wildest thoughts, had started to imagine. Call me an optimist, but the idea of imagining Hell never appealed to me. However, as I read through the Bible, I have come across many images of hell and will now attempt to create a partial picture.

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