Jean-Paul Sartre is renowned for his notable works in history. Each of his works showcases distinct literary techniques and elements. The plays No Exit” and “The Respectful Prostitute” share similarities and differences in terms of characters, themes, and points of view. At the end of each play, Sartre’s unique literary characteristic is evident. He provides his perspective on freedom and how it brings doom and dread to our existence as Being-in-this-world.
In one of the most original plays ever written, No Exit” illustrates the modern-day interpretation of hell with its central Sartrean existentialist theme: “Hell is other people.” As the title suggests, it is a play about the consuming, inescapable gaze of others and the inevitability of breeding contempt through familiarity. The play revolves around three characters – one man and two women – who are starkly different from each other. Their idiosyncrasies, attitudes toward their past lives, and views of themselves and the world make it a living hell for them to coexist throughout eternity. Therefore, this paper aims to compare these three characters and how they relate to the central theme of the play.
The first character introduced in the play is Garcin. He was a Brazilian reporter who died as a result of his cowardice. The twelve bullet shots that ended his life were dealt to him because of his refusal to serve in the military, which he regarded as standing by his principles as a pacifist. Garcin was also a callous womanizer and believed that this is the reason why he is in hell.
In the play, he recounts how every night he would go home to his wife drunk from all his womanizing. He was so callous that one night, oblivious of his wife’s presence, he brought home a girl only to have her serve them coffee in the morning after. At first, Garcin regards Ines with abhorrence because he finds himself unable to hide his weaknesses from her and prefers Estelle because he believes she will make him feel like a man.
However, eventually Garcin realizes that Ines is the key to his “salvation” because she’s the only one who can believe that he’s not a coward. At the end of the play when confronted with leaving the room, Garcin becomes cowardly again and refuses to confront responsibility for actions. Therefore, letting Ines be both judge and savior but she refuses.
The second character is Ines. She is a lesbian whose past sin was making her lover leave her husband. Ines poisons her mind until her lover eventually experiences emotional torture being with her, leading to both of their deaths by gas stove poisoning while she slept. Ines fancies Estelle but despises Garcin because he leaves the judgment of his character to others and is nothing but a coward in her eyes. To Ines, the past is inconsequential and she lives in the present. She judges herself, which sets her apart from Garcin.
The last character is Estelle. In her past life, Estelle married a man who was three times her age but deceived and cheated on him with a younger man. Another sin of hers was that she aborted a baby conceived with her lover, which eventually led him to kill himself. Estelle lusts for Garcin simply because he is a man. She sees Garcin as the one who can define her essence, being a woman, and therefore rejects Ines for being the same.
A reading of the play reveals that one of its main themes is the Sartrean maxim “existence precedes essence,” which suggests that human beings have the power to choose and define themselves. However, this freedom also comes with responsibility for one’s choices and actions. The three characters in the play handle this freedom and responsibility differently. Garcin and Estelle believe that their essence should be defined by another person – Garcin chooses Ines while Estelle chooses Garcin. On the other hand, Ines chooses to define herself independently without relying on others. The stubborn refusal of these characters to grant each other salvation ultimately damns them for eternity. They are trapped in each other’s hell, unaware that their own personal hell lies within them.
On the other hand, The Respectful Prostitute” is a play by Sartre that aims to expose the supremacy of the white race and how man’s inhumanity is visible in this world. The story follows a prostitute who was abused by a man with great connections to the senate. In order to avoid further harm, she rushed to the other corner of the train for safety. Throughout the play, it becomes clear that racist individuals are present everywhere and she finds herself trapped in such an environment.
As she tried to escape from her abductor, a black man became a victim of his violence instead. The climax of the story occurs when the prostitute witnesses this crime while on board a train heading towards South. Later on, it was revealed that the murderer was actually a senator’s nephew.
In order to save the murderer, the senator’s son made arrangements with a prostitute and forced her to sign a testimony attesting that the white man killed in self-defense. Despite his efforts to persuade her, she refused to lie for them, even though something intimate had happened between her and the senator’s son. The senator also used his power to manipulate the prostitute in order to protect his reputation and nephew. He appealed to their shared familial connections and cited his nephew’s success as reasons for her cooperation.
The prostitute was given multiple reasons why she should sign papers acquitting the murderer of any wrongdoing. She was manipulated by comparisons between black and white people in society, paid for signing a false witness statement, and despite feeling guilty about it all, continued prostituting herself.
The play portrays a realization that white people will go to any length to preserve their image, even if it means imposing sanctions at the expense of black people. The dominant theme of the play is the lack of freedom. In the story, a prostitute claims to have come from the North where racism is not as rampant as in the South. However, she finds herself trapped in a situation where she cannot exercise her free will and speak truthfully because she feels compelled to remain loyal to white people.
After reading both plays, it becomes clear that they both explore the theme of Sartre’s maxim existence precedes essence.” This means that individuals have the power to choose how they behave and define themselves. However, external factors such as circumstances and environment can hinder people from achieving absolute freedom. The characters in each play handle this freedom and responsibility differently. It is important to note that just because this freedom exists, it does not mean that existence precedes essence for humans. If existence preceded essence, it would imply that humans are nothing on their own and must strive to become something.
Jean-Paul Sartre was a contemporary philosopher who based his views on freedom and how it inflicts doom and dread on our being as Being-in-this-world, as portrayed in these two plays. Sartre’s philosophy argues that freedom has a negative impact on the characters presented in both plays.
According to Sartre, freedom is the understanding that the definition of me” encompasses all thoughts, reflections, judgments, actions, and circumstances that have occurred both in the past and present (Sartre, 2007).
Works Cited:
Sartre, Jean-Paul’s No Exit and Other Plays.
Sartre, Jean-Paul’s The Respectful Prostitute” is a notable work.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism is a Humanism.” Yale University Press, 2007.
