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Sartre No Exit Essay

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Jean Paul Sartre was a French philosopher born on June 21st 1905. He was also a novelist, playwright, political activist, and a literary critic. His works continue to influence sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies to this day. His work mainly focused on the idea of existentialism. The most decisive influence on Sartre’s philosophical view-point was his weekly attendance to Alexandre Kojève’s seminars, joined with many other philosophers and intellectuals such as, Raymond Queneau, Georges Bataille, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, André Breton, Jacques Lacan, and Raymond Aron. In 1944, he wrote an existentialist play called No Exit (French: Huis Clos). This play was seen as one of the best plays to clearly convey his philosophy.
In this play, three deceased adults, Garcin, Inez, and Estelle are brought to a room in hell by the same mysterious Valet. The three souls expected their hell to be filled with tools used for physical torture, but instead they find a regular room furnished in Second Empire style. They all refuse to word their crimes and Estelle believes that a mistake has been made.
Eventually, Inez gets frustrated and demand that they confess. Afterwards, she realizes that they were put in the same room to make each other …show more content…

As the lives of Garcin, Inez and Estelle continue in Hell, their main torments are the things that they were never able to achieve on Earth. Due to the consequences of their actions, they eternally suffer in Hell. This presents a contrasting view to one aspect of existentialism, something which Sartre was heavily affiliated with. If there were no consequences, on what grounds would people be sent to Hell? This new view brings to light the absurdity of life that Sartre surely wanted to make

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