No Exit
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- For the album by Fates Warning or Blondie, see No Exit (album)
No Exit is an existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre, originally published in French in 1944 as Huis Clos. English translations have also been performed under the titles In Camera, No Way Out, and Dead End. The play features only four characters (one of whom appears for only a very limited time), and one set.
Plot Synopsis
The play begins with a bellhop leading a man named Garcin into a hotel room (the play portrays Hell as a gigantic hotel, and realization of where the action is taking place dawns on the audience in the opening minutes). The room has no windows and only one door. Eventually Garcin is joined by a woman (Inez), and then another (Estelle). After their entry, the bellhop bolts the door shut. All expect to be tortured, but no torturer arrives. Instead, they realize, they are there to torture each other, which they do effectively, by probing each other's sins, desires, and unpleasant memories. At first, the three see events concerning them that are happening on earth, though they can only observe and listen, but eventually (as their connection to Earth dwindles and the living move on) they are left with only their own thoughts and the company of the other two.
Characters
Garcin – Garcin is the first character to whom the audience is introduced. His sin is cowardice: he deserted the army at the start of World War II. At the start of the play, he hates Inez because she understands his weakness, and lusts after Estelle because he feels that if she treats him as a man he will become manly. However, by the end of the play he understands that because Inez understands the meaning of cowardice and wickedness, only absolution at her hands can redeem him (if indeed redemption is possible for him).
Inez – Inez is the second character to enter the room. A lesbian, her sin is turning a wife against her husband, twisting her perception of her spouse. Indeed, Inez seems to be the only character who understands the power of opinion, throughout the play manipulating Estelle's and Garcin's opinions of themselves and of each other. She is the only character who is honest about the evil deeds she, Garcin, and Estelle have done and, without her, life in Hell would not be torture.
Estelle – Estelle is a "society woman", a blonde who married her husband for his money and deceived him with a younger man. Throughout the play she makes advances towards Garcin, seeking to define herself as a woman (perhaps her only role) through a man. Her sins are deceit and her role in the death of the baby she conceived with her young lover, which then drives her lover to suicide. In the end, she loses the struggle for Garcin to Inez.
Analysis
The theme is summarized in one line near the end of the play: pas besoin de gril: l'enfer, c'est les autres – You don't need red hot pokers:Hell is-other people.
The last line of the play is also a topic for discussion: Garcin, after refusing to leave the room, says Eh bien, continuons..., most often translated literally "Well, then, let's get on with it...", but others have suggested that this leaves the dark humour of the French untranslated, and perhaps a better cultural equivalent is a darkly ironical "All right, let's get it over with...".de:Huis-clos fr:Huis clos