Reply
Sat 3 Jan, 2009 02:33 pm
I truly enjoyed reading Sartre's play No Exit, and the effect was only enhanced as I performed it with a few of my fellow students.
The main component that really maintained my interest was that there was no hero or heroine. Garcin, Estelle, and Inez all have their flaws - however, I do have a question that begs to be answered.
The valet in the beginning - was he symbolic of death, in a way? Or was he simply the bearer of bad news, leading the three to the room that, in the end, caused Garcin to conclude, "Hell is other people"?
NeverTheSame
PS: Forgive me if some of these items from the play are incorrect. It's been a time since I've read No Exit.
@NeverTheSame,
If you interpret the room into which the valet ushers the three characters in turn, then he may be either the devil or Charon, or just a perfunctory worker who has gotten his boring job from his father. One can also interpret the room as simply one in a hotel, or just a room somewhere, in which each attempts to make the others an Object and maintain his own Subjectivity, and seeks to justify his existence through the Other.
The discussion of the play in the brief article below seems to the point:
Jean Paul Sartre: No Exit
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace