No Exit

-written by Jean Paul Sartre

-he was French, literary critique and playwright

-Existentialism: stresses the individuals unique position as a self-determining agent responsible for the authenticity of his or her choices

-existence proceeds existence

-3 people trying to figure our existence in themselves; they have a hard time finding themselves

-famous line "Hell is other people"

-"people condemned to be free"

-entire play takes place in a drawing room

-only four characters: Valet, Garcin, Estelle, and Inez

- the rules: no sleep, no mirrors, no darkness

-Garcin is left in room and Valet exists but only a few seconds after Garcin calls on him and Valet enters with a new women, Inez who doesn't have questions

- Inez thinks she should be with Florence and she accuses Garcin as her torturer 

- Valet enters with Estelle who gets scared Garcin has no face and begs him not to look up

-Inez is gay and takes an interest in Estelle as does Garcin

-Estelle is angry there's no mirror as she needs to do her makeup and Inez offers to help but Estellle is interest in men not women 

-Estelle is in denial she is dead

-Inez accepts it and yells out they are in hell frequently 

-Garcin wants to be left alone as he thinks they will hurt each other so he doesn't speak

-Garcin: journalist in Rio who ran a newspaper and was shot for standing up to his principles 

-Estelle: poor girl whose parents died when she was young, married a wealthy man who was old enough to be her father so he could support her and her brother, she died of pneumonia 

-Inez: was a postal worker

-they are allowed glimpses from their lives; Garcin: watches his friend Gomez talk about their friends, Estelle: watches her friend Olga flirt with a boy who used to love her, Inez: watches her old apartment get closed up and then rented to someone else

-new stories come out as to why they are in hell; Garcin: an adulterer and his wife adored him but he he treated her poorly, Estelle: had an affair with a young man and got pregnant then fled to Switzerland to have the baby but then drowned the baby while the man watched, Inez: lived with her cousin and his wife Florence but turned wife against him and took her for herself

-Their hell= Garcin tortures Estelle because she wants him to love her but he won't, Estelle tortures Inez because Inez is attracted to Estelle, Inez tortures Garcin because he wants to feel like a hero and seeks Inez's approval but she won't give it to him

-they realize they are inseparable and they all break into laughter and fall on the three couches in the drawing room

1) Think about the place you have chosen as your hell. Does it look ordinary and bourgeois, like Sartre's drawing room, or is it equipped with literal instruments of torture like Dante's Inferno? Can the mind be in hell in a beautiful place? Is there a way to find peace in a hellish physical environment? Enter Sartre's space more fully and imagine how it would feel to live there endlessly, night and day

- My version of hell would be a place full of people and things I dislike or am scared of. Everyone's version of hell is different so some may appear ordinary and bourgeois compared to others. The mind can be in hell in a beautiful place because everyone has different perceptions so one may believe that beautiful place is their own place of hell. There is a way to find peace in a hellish physical environment. To do this, however, a person needs to be open and willing.

2) Could hell be described as too much of anything without a break? Are variety, moderation and balance instruments we use to keep us from boiling in any inferno of excess,' whether it be cheesecake or ravenous sex?

 - Hell could indeed be described as too much of anything without a break. If someone is bombarded with something and they are given no time to relax, they can be pushed to the point of frustration and exhaustion. 

3) How does Sartre create a sense of place through dialogue? Can you imagine what it feels like to stay awake all the time with the lights on with no hope of leaving a specific place? How does GARCIN react to this hell? How could you twist your daily activities around so that everyday habits become hell? Is there a pattern of circumstances that reinforces the experience of hell?

-Sartre creates a sense of place through dialogue because as the characters speak to each other the readers are able to really capture their sense of place and frustrations. Lying awake all the time with the lights on having no hope of leaving a certain place is something I do not want to imagine doing. That seems like it would make a person go crazy! Garcin reacts to this hell by simply not believing this is happening to him. He is in denial.