No Exit Notes

NOTES on No Exit by Sartre

• 1900's
• Existentialism : philosophical and cultural movement which holds that the starting point of philosophical thinking must be the experiences of the individual
• Jean Paul Sartre : French writer
• 4 characters :

Valet
Garcin
Estelle
Inez

• Entire play takes place in a drawing room.
• "Hell is other people" --- Imagine being in a room with your two most hated people
• Garcin enters with Valet into a room with Second Empire Furniture
• Garcin is not fond of the furniture yet fond of that fact.
• Garcin asks if all rooms are the same
• Valet ask "How could they be? We cater for all sorts..."
• Valet has a temper about his residence
• Garcin talks about how the talk of this place was different from where he lives
• Garcin has a great sense of humor...he even calls the racks and pincers "the instruments of torture"
• ("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 likeDante's Inferno? Can the mind be in hell in a beautiful place? Is there a way to find peacein a hellish physical environment? Enter Sartre's space more fully and imagine how itwould feel to live there endlessly, night and day") --- I appreciate this thought process.
• Valet gets irritated that everyone relates this residence with torture and Garcin tells him to calm himself
• Garcin is apparently caught in a bad situation. No bed, mirrors,toothbrush, etc..
• ("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?") --- appreciation for thought
• No windows only floors and rooms
• Garcin asks if its day, Valet knows not what he means
• Garcin then ask if he has days off...Valet says yes but he only visits his uncle on the 3rd floor
• ("How does Sartre create a sense of place through dialogue? Can you imagine what it feelslike 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 aroundso that everyday habits become hell? Is there a pattern of circumstances that reinforcesthe experience of hell?")
• Garcin is locked in this room
• Paper knife with no books?
• Valet leaves to attend his other guests
• Garcin tries to ring the bell, scream, shout, but no one hears him
• Finally Valet and Inez enter
• Inez is a woman who is to share a room with Garcin
• Valet tells her to ask Garcin about the room since they had such a detailed talk
• Inez asks about Florence
• Garcin hasn't an idea
• Inez believes Garcin is the torturer and they separated her and Florence as such.
• Garcin says no and goes on to talk her
• Inez is unmarried
• She says those who torture looked frightened
• She then asks if he has ever gone outside
• Estelle and Valet enter
• Estelle is now to be in the room as well
• Estelle rants about the room
• Inez makes note that Garcin is not the torturer
• Estelle Rigault*
• Joseph Garcin*
• Inez Serrano*
• THEY ARE DEAD! *got it.
• In hell! Yet they talk about the living to be "down there"?
• Inez died a week ago
• Estelle died yesterday from pneumonia, from Paris
• Garcin ...12 shots in the chest, month ago, from Rio
• They all wonder why they were put together in this one room
• They can still see the living from where they are
• They all wonder why they are in hell
• Non of them have done anything terrible enough to deserve this
• They figured out they are all evil in one way or another
• And then they realized that there is really no physical pain
• That they (the devil) put them in the same room to torture one another since they are all so different
• That is how they will live for eternity
• No mirrors in hell?
• Inez acted as Estelle's mirror, but mirrors sometimes lie
• Inez is attracted to Estelle she puts her's and Garcin's acts on blast
• Garcin=unfaithful to his loving wife
• Inez=killed a man (3)
• Estelle= A man killed himself over her and killed her child
• Inez wants Estelle, Estelle wants Garcin, Garcin wants Inez
• Estelle gives herself to Garcin but not her trust
• Garcin didn't want to fight in the war so he tried to run to Mexico
• Garcins wife is dead
• Time goes by very slow in hell compared to on earth
• Garcin asks Estelle to let him love her forever
• Estelle say yes but then Inez butts in and makes him realize she would love any guy down here
• Garcin tries to escape
• "One always dies too soon-- or too late. And yet one's whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are-- your life,and nothing else"
• Inez keeps pushing, Estelle tries to kill Inez.
• Yet they are all already dead!
  
  
  I must give kudos to Ashlie, http://apfeiferrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
  My notes didn't compare to hers! They are very comprehensive. Helped me understand No Exit perfectly.