"No Exit," by Jean-Paul Sartre

Complete Text

Although many nineteenth century philosophers developed the concepts of existentialism, it was the French writer Jean Paul Sartre who popularized it. His one act play, Huis Clos or No Exit, first produced in Paris in May, 1944, is the clearest example and metaphor for this philosophy. There are only four characters: the VALET, GARCIN, ESTELLE, and INEZ and the entire play takes place in a drawing room, Second Empire style, with a massive bronze ornament on the mantelpiece. However the piece contains essential germs of existentialist thought such as "Hell is other people." As you read the play, put yourself in that drawing room with two people you hate most in the world.

No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre (emphasis, added).

I read this play as a student at Northwestern University.  These years heralded a marked transition in my thinking and interests: from chemistry, mathematics and Spanish, to psychology, philosophy and literature.  No Exit crosses two of these areas, as I found myself drawn to the existentialism of Sartre and drama on stage.

So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is—other people!

That notion of hell as being forever locked in a room with people I despise still reverberates in me.