“Open the door! Open, blast you! I’ll endure anything, your red-hot tongs and molten lead, your racks and prongs and garrotes- all your fiendish gadgets, everything that burns and flays and tears- I’ll put up with any torture you impose. Anything, anything would be better than this agony of mind, this creeping pain that gnaws and fumbles and caresses one and never hurts quite enough. [He grips the doorknob and rattles it.] Now will you open? [The door flies open with a jerk, and he just avoids falling.] Ah! [A long silence.]”
Jean-Paul Sartre accommodates his characters in his work to illustrate his philosophy of “bad faith” and perdition. No Exit is a play that depicts an absurd and ironic representation of hell, by fitting three alike characters in a same room to make each other’s existence, literally, “a living hell”. This passage thought, has an important meaning to both, the theme of the story and Sartre’s philosophy. It resembles the idea of condemnation and how one of the characters has finally realized how hell has been set up for him and chooses to receive physical punishment instead, as to keep participating in the “psychological war” going on in the room – the idea of surrender; in other words having bad faith. Self-judgment plays an important role in this story as main topic as well, having a major impact among all three of the characters, principally on the one stating the quote, Garcin. He is unable to decide for himself whether or not he is a coward and bases his beliefs on the other characters’ judgment rather than listening to his own; being this the reason that he decides to escape the room to avoid listening to them. In the end, they come to conclude that hell is “other people”.
The play as a whole is intriguing and comical, giving an exceptional definition of hell that no reader would imagine. But this passage specifically, is shocking for the audience since it shows an ironical scene and ridicules the male figure. Garcin is the only male of the room and, as depicted in Sartre’s time, expected to be the more robust. However, towards the end of the play he shows to be the weakest and least valiant to accept his fate. He is the first one to drop his dignity and relinquish. Furthermore, the passage sets the theme and portrays the lack of self-judgment most of humanity lacks, guiding themselves for the voices of the surroundings. Garcin gets to admit that mental punishment is the real hell and the best way of redemption.
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wow....this was interesting! After reading ur response, i feel like i want to read the book. Satre makes very interesting points in this novel which are true to an extent. I agree with most of the points he addresses in the novel. For example, the fact that humanity lacks self-judgment is accurate. People often observe what is bad in others, but they seldom look at their own faults. I also agree with the fact that mental punishment is the real hell. However, i do disagree with one of satre's points. In the last sentence of your first paragraph you stated, “In the end, they come to conclude that hell is other people. I believe this is wrong because people play an imperative role in our lives. For example, our friends and family are a necessity in our lives because they are able to comfort us in times of trouble. Arite, but anyways…. This was an awesome response. I really enjoyed reading it and now I want to read this book :)
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ReplyDelete"Hell is other people." - Satre.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some interesting points about Satre's exploration of punishment , both internal and external. Specifically, I'm interested in your view of Garcin as a male character in a room with two females. I'd like to hear more about how this scene resolves the relationship among the three women. What does each represent? How do they all play upon and strain each other?
Also: Consider this view of hell as we read Faustus. What is his view of hell? How might it differ/relate?