No Exit

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1944

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Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

Pages 3-18

Pages 19-31

Pages 32-47

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Pages 32-47Act Summaries & Analyses

Pages 32-47 Summary

Estelle wants Garcin to help her. Garcin says Estelle should ask Inez for help instead. Estelle stands facing Garcin and speaks to him, while Garcin stares back at her silently. Inez stands just behind Estelle, whispering into her ear. Estelle does not acknowledge Inez’s presence and speaks to Garcin as if he is conversing with her when she is in fact speaking with Inez.

Estelle needs Garcin’s help because she “doesn’t want to be left alone” (32). Olga has taken Peter, the last man on earth who has romantic feelings for Estelle, to a cabaret. Estelle does not love Peter but needs his attention. Estelle claims Peter “belonged” to her. Inez tells her that nothing on Earth is hers any longer. Olga is going to take Peter because Estelle isn’t alive and that’s the way of things. Estelle believes neither Garcin nor Inez will love her or call her their “glancing stream” or “crystal girl” like Peter did. She feels as if her sins have permanently stained her. Estelle watches helplessly as Olga tells Peter everything about Estelle and Roger. Peter loses interest because of what she’s done and Estelle no longer has any connection to Earth, like Inez.

The scene breaks when Inez commands Garcin to step away. Garcin reiterates that Estelle should address Inez, which causes Estelle to lunge and cling to Garcin. Estelle begs him to pay attention to her because he’s a man and that is what he should do. Estelle has fallen out of men’s hearts like a “little sparrow” and needs a new place to nest. Garcin reiterates that she must address Inez as he cannot help her. Estelle believes Inez does not count because she is a woman. Inez tries to seduce Estelle again and claims that Estelle can see herself just as she wants to be in Inez’s eyes. Estelle spits in her face.

Garcin offers himself up to Estelle, who believes she can change him and make him care about her. Garcin cannot love her and Estelle doesn’t care, so long as she has physical intimacy from a man. As the two become intimate, Inez glares at them from the corner of the room and lets her judgment weigh on them.

Garcin cannot bring himself to kiss Estelle because he is distracted by his coworkers on Earth. His colleague Gomez badmouths him to the rest of their cohort. After this, Garcin is no longer interested in physical intimacy and begs Estelle to give him a “different kind of trust” (37). He wants her to affirm his self-image and assure him he isn’t a coward like his coworkers think he is. Estelle is not interested in judging whether or not he is a coward since she cannot “put [herself] in [his] skin” (38). Garcin is tormented over whether or not his reasons were “real reasons” for fleeing from the war.

Inez prods him from the corner. She reminds him that the “dirty little instincts” in the backs of our heads can influence us (39). Estelle admits she would want Garcin whether he was a coward or a hero. This deeply hurts Garcin because he can no longer trust what Estelle says to him. In the course of this argument, Garcin’s wife dies and all that is left of him on Earth is the cowardice his coworkers associate with his memory. Garcin begs Estelle one last time to love him and assure him he isn’t a coward: if only one person tells him he is brave, he can believe it. Inez reminds him Estelle can’t possibly mean it.

Garcin tries to flee. After a long monologue from Garcin about the tortures of hell and preferring physical pain to being locked in the room, the door opens. Despite wanting to leave moments before, Garcin decides to stay. Estelle attempts to throw Inez out of the room, but Garcin stops her. He explains he is staying because of Inez. Garcin feels that Inez truly understands him, and Garcin wants Inez to help him understand his own motivations and the circumstances surrounding his death. Garcin argues for a rationalist approach to his actions, that his idea of being a hero was enough. Inez rebukes him and says that his actions are those of a coward; what he thought doesn’t matter. When Garcin can’t think of a way to defend himself, Estelle suggests that he kiss her in order to make Inez uncomfortable. Garcin agrees, as he would like to hurt Inez in the way she hurts him.

Inez doesn’t allow Garcin to forget she is there and that she thinks him a coward. Inez makes it clear that making love to Estelle won’t actually change anything, since she and her judgment of him are always present. Garcin cannot bring himself to be intimate with Estelle, and steps away to examine the bronze ornament.

Garcin states that “hell is other people” (46-47). Estelle tries to stab Inez with the paper knife. Inez admonishes her and stabs herself to demonstrate the absurdity of Estelle’s actions: They are all dead and Estelle cannot physically harm her. The three of them realize they are stuck together with one another forever. Everybody else has forgotten them and all that exists of them is present in the room. The trio laughs for a long time. When their laughter dies down, they stare at one another in silence. Garcin says “let’s get on with it,” and the curtains fall on the play, signaling the end (47).

Pages 32-47 Analysis

Sartre sets up the climactic action by severing each character’s final connection to Earth. Their losses accrue: Inez loses her apartment, which is rented out to a new couple. Estelle loses Peter, the last man on earth who cared about her. Finally, Garcin loses his wife; the only thing left is the memory of a coward his colleagues joke about. Sartre squeezes his characters down and erodes their subjective selves. All that remains is contained in the tiny room.

By isolating his characters, Sartre can explore the Look without outside interference. The characters are at the mercy of the other two. Without bodies or influence on Earth, their lives have wrapped up “with a line drawn neatly under [them], ready for the summing up” (45). Living people can change things and are a work in progress. In contrast, the three of them have become static, frozen in time. The struggle between their subjective and objective selves is inescapable and anxiety-inducing. This is heightened by their inability to sleep or have time away from one another.

The three protagonists, unable to escape one another or emotionally grow, chase one another “round and round in a vicious circle, like the horses on a roundabout” (31). The final section is an escalation of this chase: Inez wants Estelle, who wants Garcin, who needs Inez to validate him.

Sartre reminds us of the setting’s absurdity when the paper knife, introduced at the beginning of the play, is used in an act of violence. This is a variation on the idea of Chekhov’s gun. According to the 19th-century writer Anton Chekhov: “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.” (Perelman, Britton. “Everything You Need To Know About Chekhov’s Gun.” screencraft.org.) In keeping with Chekhov’s principle, the knife is introduced early on and later implicated. However, it does not have the dramatic impact one might expect—at least not physically. Instead, it underscores the tension at the heart of the play: The characters are dead and impervious to harm. Moreover, they are trapped with one another. There is nothing they can do to escape, not even by murdering. By removing the consequences of physical violence, Sartre shows how psychological warfare is more potent. He suggests that people often use violence to escape the Look and one’s objective self.

In spite of wanting to escape, the characters don’t flee when the door opens. This is a metaphor for how people are often afraid to act. They stay in terrible situations rather than take risks, such as the Parisians did when Germany occupied their city during World War II. The characters in No Exit also stay for The Possibility of Redemption, particularly Garcin. Garcin respects Inez, and feels that only she can save him by changing her mind about his cowardice.

The play’s ending reflects the monotony that the characters will continue to endure. It concludes the way that it has carried on, with each of the protagonists on their separate couch, staring at one another.