No Exit

by

Jean-Paul Sartre

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No Exit Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Escorted by a courteous valet, Joseph Garcin enters a drawing-room decorated in “Second Empire style,” with three sofas and a large bronze ornament placed on the mantlepiece. Garcin is surprised by his surroundings, saying, “Second Empire furniture, I observe…Well, well, I dare say one gets used to it in time.” In response, the valet admits that some people do grow accustomed to the environment, though others do not. Garcin then asks if other rooms are like this, and the valet says, “We cater for all sorts,” making it clear that each room is tailored to its inhabitant. This causes Garcin to wonder why he has been assigned to a room with Second Empire furnishings, saying that he didn’t expect that. He adds: “You know what they tell us down there?” Before letting him finish, though, the valet chides him for believing “cock-and-bull” about hell.
As the valet shows Garcin what his existence will be like in hell, Garcin subtly deceives himself. As if trying to trick himself into liking his new environment, he suggests that he’ll most likely “get used to” living here, effectively ignoring the fact that this room has been specifically designed to torment him. Rather than accepting that what he sees is a manifestation of torture, he makes casual remarks about his surroundings. At the same time, Garcin acknowledges that he didn’t “expect” hell to be furnished with the lavish style of a Second Empire drawing-room, a comment that reveals the deluded notion that humans can have any idea what it’s like in the afterlife. In this opening, Sartre shows the audience the nature of human ignorance, demonstrating just how adept people like Garcin are at denying unfavorable circumstances.
Themes
Self-Deception vs. Acceptance Theme Icon
Quotes
Garcin agrees with the valet that it was absurd of him to make assumptions about hell. Nevertheless, he wonders aloud where the “instruments of torture” are, but the valet dismisses this as a joke. Going on, Garcin notes that there aren’t any mirrors, and though this doesn’t bother him, he becomes suddenly incensed by the fact that nobody has provided him with a toothbrush. This entertains the valet, who tells him that everyone who comes to hell asks him “silly questions.” He then tells Garcin that he won’t be needing a toothbrush. “Yes, of course you’re right,” Garcin replies, trying to accept his new circumstances. All the same, he’s unable to ignore the ugliness of the bronze sculpture on the mantlepiece, determining that its presence must be part of his torture. Proud of himself for anticipating what he has coming, he says, “I’m facing the situation, facing it.”
Garcin’s assertion that he’s “facing the situation” is another indication that he is eager to deceive himself regarding the nature of his new environment. Rather than simply giving himself over to the experience of being in hell (since he has no control over it anyway), he takes pride in his apparent ability to withstand what he has coming. The problem with this logic, however, is that he doesn’t know what’s coming. Indeed, he hasn’t even discerned the true nature of his torture yet, but he has already convinced himself that he fully grasps what’s going to happen to him. In turn, the audience sees just how desperate he is to feel in control of his situation, even when control is impossible.
Themes
Human Interaction, Control, and Sense of Self Theme Icon
Self-Deception vs. Acceptance Theme Icon
Quotes
Noticing there’s no bed in the drawing-room, Garcin guesses that nobody sleeps in hell. He then waxes poetic about the beauty of sleep, and when he finishes, the valet calls him a “romantic.” Frustrated, Garcin reminds him that he’s facing the “situation” “fairly and squarely.” He then considers why, exactly, nobody sleeps in hell, eventually determining that this kind of existence is a punishment because it forces one to experience “life without a break.” In keeping with this idea, he sees that the valet never blinks, a fact that he believes aligns with a sleepless existence. “So that’s the idea,” he says. “I’m to live without eyelids.” Thinking about never sleeping, he asks himself, he wonders how he will “endure” his own company. To explain what he means, he says that he often “tease[s]” himself—so much that he worries about what it’ll be like never getting a break from himself.
Once again, Garcin reveals his desire to be in control of his existence, ultimately tricking himself into believing that he’s handling this “situation” as best he can. In reality, of course, he doesn’t yet know anything about the nature of his new circumstances, though it’s worth noting that this slowly begins to change as he learns that he’ll never sleep again. When he worries about never having a break from his “own company,” he implicitly acknowledges that having to reckon with his own sense of self is a torturous activity. All the same, he doesn’t seem to fully grasp that this existential unrest will factor heavily into his misery in hell.
Themes
Human Interaction, Control, and Sense of Self Theme Icon
Self-Deception vs. Acceptance Theme Icon
Quotes
Garcin asks the valet if it’s day or night, and the valet says, “Can’t you see? The lights are on.” When Garcin asks what it’s like “outside,” the valet is confused, so Garcin asks what’s beyond the door. The valet tells him that there is simply a passageway with many other doors, leading—eventually—to a staircase, beyond which there is nothing. Returning to the topic of lighting, Garcin asks what would happen if he took the bronze ornament from the mantlepiece and threw it on the lamp, but the valet assures him that it’s too heavy to lift. Nonetheless, Garcin tries and quickly sees that the valet is right—the ornament cannot be moved. 
After learning that he’ll be unable to sleep in hell, Garcin immediately wonders if there’s some way to turn off the lights. The fact that he has this thought is worth noting, since it suggests that he conceives of sight and perspective as somehow linked to selfhood. After all, his main concern is that he won’t be able to “endure [his] own company” without sleeping, and although turning off the lights wouldn’t necessarily enable him to suddenly ignore his own consciousness, he seems to think it would. This aligns with Sartre’s philosophical ideas regarding the human “gaze,” as outlined in his text Being and Nothingness, in which he argues that other people’s perspectives fundamentally alter a person’s sense of self and subjectivity. Of course, Garcin still thinks he’ll be spending eternity alone, so his desire to turn off the lights is quite strange, as if he thinks his own “gaze” will turn on itself and torment him. This fear of the self is worth keeping in mind as the play progresses, since it brings itself to bear on the way Sartre portrays the nuances of human interaction.
Themes
Human Interaction, Control, and Sense of Self Theme Icon
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After Garcin stops trying to lift the ornament, the valet prepares to take his leave. Before he exits, though, Garcin notices a small bell and asks if the valet will return if he rings it. “Well, yes, that’s so—in a way,” the valet says. “But you can never be sure about that bell. There’s something wrong with the wiring, and it doesn’t always work.” To test it, Garcin walks to the bell and pushes it, and a small sound rings outside the room. He says that the bell is working, and the valet looks surprised, saying that Garcin probably shouldn’t “count on it too much.” Just before the valet leaves, Garcin finds a “paper-knife” on the mantlepiece, but when he asks if there are any books to use it with, the valet says there aren’t. “Then what’s the use of this?” he asks, but the valet simply shrugs before leaving.
In this moment, Garcin continues his attempt to convince himself that he’s in a better situation than he’s actually in. His questions about the bell illustrate his desire to think of his stay in the drawing-room as some sort of luxury hotel visit. In reality, though, he knows he’s in hell, and yet he still acts as if the valet will really accommodate his every need. Through this interaction, the audience sees how unwilling he is to accept the true nature of his new environment.
Themes
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Alone, Garcin touches the bronze ornament, sits on the couch, stands, and presses the bell. Nothing happens. Frantically, he tries it again and again, but it remains silent. He then goes to the door and tries to open it without success. Hitting it, he yells for the valet before giving up and returning to the couch, at which point the door opens and the valet escorts Inez into the room. “Did you call, sir?” asks the valet, and Garcin denies having rung the bell. “This is your room, madam,” the valet says to Inez, asking if she has any questions. When she doesn’t reply, he looks somewhat annoyed, saying that most guests have a lot of questions. Still, though, she remains silent, so he tells her to ask Garcin any questions she might have.
Unlike Garcin, Inez seems less likely to delude herself regarding the nature of her surroundings. Of course, she hasn’t spoken yet, but even her decision to not ask the valet any questions suggests that she has no desire to deceive herself by acting like she has just arrived in a fancy hotel. Rather than asking the valet pointless questions about the drawing-room, she seemingly accepts that there’s nothing to do but surrender to whatever’s going to happen.
Themes
Human Interaction, Control, and Sense of Self Theme Icon
Self-Deception vs. Acceptance Theme Icon
When the valet leaves, Inez turns to Garcin and asks, “Where’s Florence?” Garcin, for his part, doesn’t know what she’s talking about, telling her that he doesn’t know where Florence is. “Ah, that’s the way it works, is it?” Inez says. “Torture by separation.” She goes on to say that she won’t even miss Florence. After a moment of puzzlement, Inez explains to Garcin that she thinks he’s her torturer, so he quickly tells her he’s simply another person in hell. “A torturer indeed!” he says. “I’m Joseph Garcin, journalist and man of letters by profession.” He then asks what he should call her, saying, “Mrs.—?” In response, she curtly informs him that she doesn’t have a husband.
Inez and Garcin’s relationship begins oddly, with Inez thinking that he’s supposed to torture her—an idea that isn’t quite as absurd as it might seem. Still, he quickly dispels this notion, laughing at the idea of himself as anything but empathetic and kind. In contrast, Inez seems to have embraced her own coldness, as she says that she doesn’t care whether or not she’s separated from Florence. Considering that she thinks being separated from Florence is supposed to be a torture method, it follows that Florence must have been a meaningful person in her life. And yet, she doesn’t hesitate to call her a “tiresome little fool,” ultimately suggesting that Inez is focused first and foremost on herself, not on the people with whom she’s supposedly close.
Themes
Human Interaction, Control, and Sense of Self Theme Icon
Empathy vs. Selfishness Theme Icon
Garcin asks Inez why she assumed he was her torturer, wondering how a person can “recognize torturers.” Inez replies by telling him that torturers normally look “frightened,” and Garcin laughs at this idea, wondering why a torturer would ever be scared. “Laugh away,” she says, “but I know what I’m talking about. I’ve often watched my face in the glass.” Changing the subject, she asks Garcin if he’s going to be in the drawing-room at all times, and he informs her that neither of them can leave, since the door is locked. This visibly disappoints her, so he says: “I can quite understand that it bores you having me here. And I too—well, frankly, I’d rather be alone.” He adds that, since they can’t leave, they should be exceedingly polite to each other, but Inez says, “I’m not polite.” Hearing this, Garcin decides to be “polite for two.”
Inez’s cryptic assertion that she knows what torturers look like because she has “watched [her] face” in the mirror suggests that she herself has tormented people. This more or less aligns with her later remark that she’s “not polite.” Furthermore, her disappointment regarding the idea of Garcin’s constant presence once again indicates that she cares first and foremost about herself. This, at least, matches Garcin’s feeling that he’d “rather be alone,” though it’s worth noting that this sentiment clashes somewhat with his previous complaint that he won’t be able to “endure [his] own company.” Rather than making it easier for him to withstand himself, Inez’s presence seemingly increases the likelihood that he will be discontented in the drawing-room, an idea that foreshadows Sartre’s belief that human interaction can exacerbate a person’s existential insecurities.
Themes
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Empathy vs. Selfishness Theme Icon
Quotes
After sitting in silence for several moments, Inez asks Garcin to stop moving his mouth. “You keep twisting it about all the time. It’s grotesque,” she says, though he doesn’t even know he’s doing it. Consequently, he’s unable to stop, so she chastises him for “inflict[ing] the sight of [his] fear” on her. In turn, he asks why she isn’t afraid, and she says that there’s no “point,” admitting that it made sense to be afraid before coming to hell. Now that they’ve arrived, though, there’s no longer any “hope,” so it’s illogical to still fear what’s to come. However, Garcin reminds her that they “haven’t yet begun to suffer,” and she concedes that this is the case. After a brief pause, she asks: “Well? What’s going to happen?”
When Inez asks Garcin to stop forcing “the sight of [his] fear” on her, she tries to control the way they interact, not wanting to be influenced by what he’s feeling. This desire to control the details of even their nonverbal communication illustrates Sartre’s belief that the mere presence of others can significantly alter a person’s perspective. Not wanting to be afraid of her circumstances, Inez resents Garcin for making “grotesque” faces that show his fear. But the fact that these faces are involuntary indicates that Inez will never be able to fully control the way Garcin sees their shared situation, since even he can’t seem to get ahold of himself. In turn, he will always color the nature of her existence, regardless of what he or she does to try and stop this.
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Empathy vs. Selfishness Theme Icon
Quotes
As Garcin and Inez try to determine what’s going to happen to them, the door opens once more and the valet brings in Estelle. Garcin covers his face with his hands because he’s trying to shield his involuntary expressions of horror from Inez. Seeing this, Estelle shrieks, “No. Don’t look up. I know what you’re hiding with your hands. I know you’ve no face left.” When he looks at her, though, she realizes that he isn’t the person she thought he was, and he informs her that he isn’t the torturer. “I never thought you were,” she says. “I—I thought someone was trying to play a rather nasty trick on me.” She then asks the valet if anyone else will be joining them in the drawing-room, and he informs them that they’ve all arrived.
It’s clear Estelle is afraid of encountering someone from her past, since she reacts so strongly when she thinks Garcin is that person. By ordering him not to “look up,” she reveals her unwillingness to accept her situation in hell. Of course, this is only a false alarm, but her attempt to avoid seeing this unspecified person from her past suggests that she thinks she has the power to keep horror at bay. Once again, then, the audience sees how easily humans deceive themselves, as Estelle refuses to acknowledge that she will have no say over the nature of her torture in hell.
Themes
Self-Deception vs. Acceptance Theme Icon
Learning that she, Garcin, and Inez are fated to spend eternity together in the drawing-room, Estelle begins to laugh, saying that she can’t possibly bear to sit on the only empty sofa, the color of which would clash with her dress. “Would you prefer mine?” Inez asks, but Estelle rejects that sofa, too, admitting that Garcin’s is the only one she could bear to use. “Did you hear her, Mr. Garcin?” Inez asks pointedly, and Garcin jumps up, telling Estelle that she can take the sofa. When she finally sits down, she takes off her coat and introduces herself as Estelle Rigault. Just as Garcin is about to tell her his name, though, Inez steps between them and says, “And I’m Inez Serrano.” As Garcin finally tells Estelle his name, the valet leaves, and Inez tells Estelle that she’s “very pretty.” 
It doesn’t take long for Sartre to establish that Estelle is rather self-obsessed. Not only does she put herself before others, but she also focuses on trivial things, like whether or not her dress matches the furniture. This only serves as yet another indication that she—like Garcin—doesn’t fully grasp the implications of the fact that she’s in hell, where she’s supposed to be tortured for eternity. Rather than acknowledging that superficial aesthetic details don’t matter in the context of eternal suffering, she asks Garcin to give up his sofa, fixating on her looks as a way of controlling her surroundings and denying the true gravity of her situation.
Themes
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Empathy vs. Selfishness Theme Icon
Self-Deception vs. Acceptance Theme Icon
Estelle tells Garcin and Inez that she left the earth only yesterday. Since her funeral is currently taking place, she narrates what she sees, apparently capable of presiding over the ceremony. She sees her sister trying to cry as she stands by the grave. She also sees her best friend, Olga, who is looking quite fine as she stands at her sister’s side. Estelle explains that she had pneumonia and that she died without much pain. Her husband, for his part, has decided to stay home for the funeral, since he’s “prostrated with grief.” Having told this story, Estelle asks how Inez died. “The gas stove,” she replies. “And you, Mr. Garcin?” Estelle asks. “Twelve bullets through my chest,” he says, and when he sees that this upsets her, he says, “Sorry! I fear I’m not good company among the dead.”
Estelle’s narration of her own funeral demonstrates that she’s still quite connected to the real world. As she considers the ways in which her loved ones mourn her death, the audience sees how important it is for her to feel missed. What’s more, her obsession with what people think of her distracts her from her present situation, allowing her to more or less ignore the fact that she’s in hell.  
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Human Interaction, Control, and Sense of Self Theme Icon
Self-Deception vs. Acceptance Theme Icon
Estelle asks Garcin not to use the word “dead,” saying that it’s “in terribly bad taste.” She then suggests that she, Garcin, and Inez refer to themselves as “absentees.” Turning her attention back to Garcin, she asks where he’s from, and he tells her that he hails from Rio. Estelle herself is from Paris, she says. “Have you anyone left down there?” she asks, and Garcin explains that he left behind his wife. Like Estelle, he too is able to see what’s happening on earth, so he narrates as his wife waits for him at a “barracks.” “She doesn’t yet know I’m—absent, but she suspects it,” he says, going on to talk about her large eyes, adding that she never used to cry. “Those big tragic eyes of hers—with that martyred look they always had,” he says. “Oh, how she got on my nerves!”
Estelle’s harsh reaction to the word “dead” underlines her desire to deny the true nature of her new existence. Rather than acknowledging that she and her companions have died, she tries to deceive herself by changing the way she and the others refer to themselves. On another note, Garcin’s remarks about his wife are worth considering, since he admits that she used to get on his “nerves.” What upsets him, it seems, is that she has “big tragic eyes,” suggesting that her “martyred look” makes him feel guilty about something, though it’s not yet clear what, exactly, this might be. All the same, it’s obvious that he feels little empathy for his wife, focusing only on the fact that her sadness makes him feel bad. 
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Human Interaction, Control, and Sense of Self Theme Icon
Empathy vs. Selfishness Theme Icon
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Quotes
Garcin absentmindedly sits on Estelle’s couch to think. When Inez calls this to Estelle’s attention, she asks him to get up, though she apologizes for interrupting what looked like a deep thought. “I was setting my life in order,” he says, and though Inez laughs at him for doing this, he advises her and Estelle to do the same. “No need,” says Inez. “My life’s in perfect order. It tidied itself up nicely of its own accord.” At this point, the three hell-dwellers take turns narrating what they see on earth. It’s night, they realize, eventually understanding that the time on earth passes incredibly quickly while they’re in hell. Garcin sees the dark newspaper office, Estelle sees Olga getting into bed, and Inez sees the bedroom in which she used to live, noting that it has been “sealed up.” 
When Inez says that her life “tidied itself up nicely of its own accord,” Sartre implies that she—unlike the others—has accepted her own death. While Garcin and Estelle continue to muse about their past existences, Inez acknowledges that her life is over (“sealed up”), though she still narrates what has happened to her bedroom in the wake of her death. All the same, it’s evident that she’s more willing than her companions to embrace her new circumstances, since Garcin and Estelle are still trying to distract themselves from their surroundings.
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Estelle makes it known that she dislikes seeing men in shirtsleeves, which poses a problem for Garcin, since it’s hot in the drawing-room. Nevertheless, he agrees to leave his coat on, though he points out that she would have hated it in his office, where the reporters all hung around without their jackets. When Estelle asks if Inez cares about seeing men in shirtsleeves, Inez replies, “Oh, I don’t care much for men any way.” This causes Estelle to wonder why she has been placed in the room with these people. “It doesn’t make sense,” she says, admitting that she thought she’d be placed with “old friends, or relatives.” Garcin posits that they’ve been grouped together randomly, but Inez laughs at this idea, insisting that nothing about their situation has been “left to chance.” “I tell you they’ve thought it all out,” she says. “Down to the last detail.” 
Estelle reveals her naivety when she says that she expected to be grouped together with “old friends” and “relatives.” Although she knows she’s in hell, she nevertheless assumes that she’ll have the luxury of being with close acquaintances, as if she has completely forgotten that people are supposed to suffer in hell. Similarly, Garcin suggests that everything in hell is random, trying to convince himself that his new environment hasn’t been specifically tailored to ensure his misery. Once again, Inez remains the only person in the drawing-room who’s willing to acknowledge the true nature of hell, which is why she tells her companions that nothing has been “left to chance,” trying to get them to stop deceiving themselves about why they’ve been placed here.
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Estelle asks Inez why, exactly, the three of them would be so meticulously placed with one another, but Inez doesn’t know. “I only know they’re waiting,” she says, to which Estelle responds, “I never could bear the idea of anyone’s expecting something from me. It always made me want to do just the opposite.” Trying to understand why they’ve been grouped together, Inez suggests that they all say why they’ve been condemned in the first place. She starts with Estelle, asking what she’s done to deserve hell, but Estelle acts innocent, saying, “I haven’t a notion, not the foggiest. In fact, I’m wondering if there hasn’t been some ghastly mistake.” When she sees Inez smiling cynically, she asks, “Anyhow, isn’t it better to think we’ve got here by mistake?” 
When Estelle says that she can’t “bear the idea” of someone expecting something from her, she exemplifies Sartre’s idea that others can significantly influence the way a person experiences life. The mere idea that someone might want something from her feels like a challenge to Estelle, making her want to assert her agency by doing “just the opposite.” Furthermore, her unwillingness to admit why she’s in hell once again illustrates her tendency to deceive herself, as she makes the absurd claim that there must have been “some ghastly mistake.” Rather than owning up to and accepting her own moral failures, she acts like she doesn’t deserve to be in hell at all—a technique that helps her cope with her situation, though it’s clearly an unsustainable method of maintaining her composure, since she’ll eventually have to admit that she’s in hell for a reason. 
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Inez urges Estelle to be more truthful about why she’s in hell, but Estelle insists that she’s done nothing wrong. Going into more detail, she explains that she was orphaned as a child, putting her in charge of her younger brother. When an older family friend who was very rich asked her to marry him, she agreed. “My husband was old enough to be my father, but for six years we had a happy married life,” she says. “Then two years ago I met the man I was fated to love.” Although this man asked Estelle to elope, she refused. Not long after this, she contracted pneumonia and quickly died.
Estelle has just insisted that she hasn’t done anything wrong, even suggesting that she’s been placed in hell by mistake. And yet, she casually mentions in this moment that she cheated on her husband. Although this in and of itself might not necessarily mean that she deserves eternal damnation, it is—at the very least—a hint that she isn’t as innocent as she’d like to think. After all, having an affair in this circumstance suggests that she thinks primarily about her own desires, failing to consider her husband’s happiness. In this way, it becomes clear that she doesn’t have the capacity to recognize her own shortcomings, so she brings up her affair without stopping to consider its implications about her moral compass.
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Estelle postulates that the only thing she did wrong was “sacrifice” her youth to an older man. “Do you think that could be called a sin?” she asks Garcin, who answers by saying, “Certainly not. And now, tell me, do you think it’s a crime to stand by one’s principles?” Estelle assures him that sticking to one’s beliefs is an admirable thing to do, so he goes into more detail about his life, saying that he operated a “pacifist newspaper.” “Then the war broke out,” he says. “What was I to do? Everyone was watching me, wondering: ‘Will he dare?’ Well, I dared. I folded my arms and they shot me.” Hearing this story, Estelle puts a sympathetic hand on Garcin and is about to call him a “hero” when Inez angrily interrupts, sarcastically saying, “A hero!”
In the same way that Estelle is unwilling to admit her own moral shortcomings, Garcin appears ready and willing to think of himself as a “hero” or martyr, regardless of whether or not this is accurate. Granted, Sartre has yet to clarify the circumstances surrounding Garcin’s death, but it seems likely that his interpretation of what happened is inaccurate, given that he’s in hell. After all, people don’t simply go to hell for no reason, which is why Inez—the only person willing to acknowledge this fact—bitterly mocks her companions for presenting themselves as innocent.
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“What’s the point of play-acting, trying to throw dust in each other’s eyes?” Inez asks. This upsets Estelle, but Inez presses on, insisting that all three of them are “criminals” and “murderers,” reminding them that people don’t go to hell without cause. Again, Estelle vehemently rejects this idea, but Inez continues until Garcin puts his clenched hand in the air and tells her to shut her mouth. “Ah, I understand now,” Inez says. “I know why they’ve put us three together.” She then explains that they’ve all been put in the drawing-room to torture each other. “I mean that each of us will act as torturer of the two others,” she says. 
Inez’s willingness to be frank about her situation enables her to see clearly. While Estelle and Garcin try to trick themselves into thinking that they don’t deserve to be in hell, Inez acknowledges not only that her condemnation makes sense, but also that there’s an underlying logic to the nature of the group’s collective damnation. Observing how aggressively she and the others argue, it dawns on her that they’ve been placed in the drawing-room specifically for this reason: they don’t get along, and so they’re fated to torture each other simply by coexisting.
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Quotes
“No,” Garcin says after thinking about what Inez has said, “I shall never be your torturer. I wish neither of you any harm.” To avoid tormenting each other, he says, each of them should ignore the others, remaining silent in their separate areas of the drawing-room. Estelle doesn’t like this idea, but they all agree that this is the only way to avoid torturing each other. Shortly after they fall silent, though, Estelle sings a song to herself about an execution while applying lipstick. When she finishes, she looks in her handbag for a mirror, but realizes she doesn’t have one. “Excuse me, have you a glass?” she asks Garcin, who doesn’t respond. “Don’t worry,” Inez quickly says, offering to let Estelle look in her mirror. When she opens her bag, though, she sees that she, too, doesn’t have one anymore.
By suggesting that he and his companions should avoid one another, Garcin tries to evade torture. If he and the others are destined to torment one another, he reasons, they should simply keep to themselves, thereby circumventing any misery that might come their way. This, however, is yet another form of self-deception, as Garcin makes the grand assumption that he has enough power to control the nature of his own suffering. Although it might be the case that he and his fellow hell-dwellers could avoid torturing each other simply by ignoring one another, it seems unlikely that they’ll be able to sustain this lack of communication. After all, it seems clear by now that they’ve been grouped together because of their personalities, which will most likely drive them to each other time and again, making it impossible to escape their torturous interpersonal dynamic.
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Quotes
Upset that nobody has a mirror, Estelle says she feels out of sorts when she can’t see herself. “I begin to wonder if I really and truly exist,” she says. Inez, for her part, says that she’s quite “conscious” of herself, though only in her “mind.” “Ah yes, in your mind,” Estelle says. “But everything that goes on in one’s head is so vague, isn’t it?” She explains that her bedroom on earth has six mirrors—she can see them now, she says, but she can’t find herself in the reflection. “How empty it is, a glass in which I’m absent!” she laments. “When I talked to people I always made sure there was one near by in which I could see myself. I watched myself talking. And somehow it kept me alert, seeing myself as the others saw me…” 
In this portion of No Exit, Sartre employs his ideas about the human “gaze,” which he explores at length in his philosophical text Being and Nothingness. According to Sartre, another person’s gaze threatens any individual’s sense of self. He argues that an individual’s realization that someone else might see her a certain way can be troubling because it suggests that she isn’t in total control of her own existence. As Estelle laments the lack of mirrors in the drawing-room, it becomes clear that she feels uncomfortable because she can’t reassert her own conception of herself. The fact that Inez and Garcin might see her in ways that go against the way she thinks of herself is unbearable, so she wants to find a way to look at herself, thinking that doing so would reestablish her agency over her own identity. 
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Quotes
Learning how important mirrors are to Estelle, Inez offers to act as her “glass,” encouraging her to sit next to her and stare into her eyes to find her reflection. Estelle hesitates, reminding Inez that they’ll probably “hurt each other,” but Inez ignores this, saying that it’s more than likely that Estelle will be the one to hurt her, not the other way around. “Still, what does it matter?” Inez says. “If I’ve got to suffer, it may as well be at your hands, your pretty hands.”
Whereas Estelle loathes the idea of giving herself over to others (by letting them look at her when she can’t look at herself), Inez embraces the idea of surrendering herself to Estelle. This, however, is because she wants to maintain her agency, since choosing to “suffer” at Estelle’s “pretty hands” is still a decision. In this sense, Inez agrees to put herself at Estelle’s mercy for the same reason that Estelle wants to see a reflection of herself—they both want to maintain a modicum of control over their existences.
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Estelle sits next to Inez and peers into her eyes, but she can hardly make out the details of her own face. Inez offers to describe everything she sees, telling Estelle that her lipstick is “smudgy.” The more she helps her in this way, though, the more frustrated Estelle becomes, since she feels she can’t “rely” on Inez’s “taste.” In response, Inez assures her that they have the same taste. Inez then urges Estelle to look again, saying, “I’m not so ugly, either. Am I not nicer than your glass?” In response, Estelle says, “Oh, I don’t know. You scare me rather. My reflection in the glass never did that: of course, I knew it so well. Like something I had tamed…I’m going to smile, and my smile will sink down into your pupils, and heaven knows what it will become.”
When Estelle says that her reflection in regular mirrors always looked back at her as if she had “tamed” it, she proves her desire to control her own sense of self. By looking at her reflection, she was always able to reaffirm who she was and align this with who she wanted to be. Now, though, the only reflection she can find is in Inez’s eyes, and though this gives her an opportunity to see herself, she can’t ignore the fact that Inez is watching her. This, in turn, makes it impossible to deny the influence of Inez’s gaze, as Estelle realizes that anything she does might mean something different than she intends to Inez. If she smiles, she says, that smile might “become” something different in Inez’s mind. Consequently, she finds no relief looking at her reflection in Inez’s eyes.
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Inez tells Estelle that she would be happy if Estelle “tame[d]” her in the same way that she has “tame[d]” her reflection in the mirror. She also says that she wants them to be incredibly close, but Estelle says she doesn’t “make friends with women very easily.” Still studying Estelle’s face, Inez suddenly points out a pimple, and when this thoroughly unsettles Estelle, Inez admits that she wasn’t being serious. “So what about it?” Inez says. “Suppose the mirror started telling lies?” Inez asks. She also wonders what would happen if she refused to look at Estelle at all, just as Garcin is refusing But then she concludes that she “can’t help” looking at Estelle. Going on, Inez promises to be “nice” to Estelle if Estelle does the same for her.
Although Inez offers to let Estelle look into her eyes as a way of being nice, in this moment she hints at the power she has over her new acquaintance. Since Estelle is already so concerned about her looks, Inez’s comment that she might stop looking at her is actually something of a threat—after all, if Estelle attaches so much existential importance to her image, then what will happen if nobody (including herself) looks at her? As this idea emerges, Sartre begins to demonstrate more clearly how these characters will torture each other, suggesting that their various hang-ups and neuroses are at odds with one another. 
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Recognizing the gravity of Inez’s interest in her, Estelle asks if she’s actually “attracted” to her. “Very much indeed,” Inez says. After a pause, Estelle admits that she wishes Garcin would take a similar interest in her—a comment that enrages Inez. “Of course!” Inez quips. “Because he’s a Man!” Turning to Garcin, she says, “You’ve won.” When he doesn’t reply, she demands that he look at Estelle, accusing him of hearing everything they’ve said.
When Estelle says she wishes Garcin would notice her, she agitates Inez. In doing so, she sets off a chain reaction, since Inez yells at Garcin, furious with him because he’s stealing Estelle’s attention without even trying. In this way, the group dynamic becomes toxic, since each character is unable to get what he or she wants from the others.
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Finally, Garcin breaks his silence, but only to say that he wants to be left “in peace.” “I’m not interested in you,” he says to Inez. When Inez asks if he’s “interested” in Estelle, Garcin tells her that he’s trying to hear his colleague, Gomez, who’s currently talking about him at the office. He also says that he’s not interested at all in Estelle, who takes immediate offense. Seeing this, Garcin reminds her that this is exactly why none of them should interact, but Estelle says that it’s Inez’s fault for getting her worked up. “I didn’t ask anything of her and she came and offered me her—her glass,” she says. Inez then bitterly observes that Estelle was hoping to get Garcin’s attention the whole time.
It’s now quite obvious that Inez was right when she guessed that she, Garcin, and Estelle are supposed to torture each other. When Garcin says that he wants to listen to Gomez talk about him instead of paying attention to Estelle, the audience sees how interested he is in how others see him. However, only some people interest him, since he clearly doesn’t care about Estelle’s opinion. Rather, he disregards her and, in doing so, causes her to lash out at Inez, who subsequently turns her anger back on Garcin. In this manner, they all torture each other in a cyclical, never-ending fashion, each one caught up in selfish motivations.
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Once again, Garcin insists that he and his companions should ignore each other, but Inez says that this will be impossible. “Your silence clamors in my ears,” she says. She accuses him of having taken Estelle from her, since she can’t stop thinking about the fact that Estelle wants to attract his attention. “Well, I won’t stand for that, I prefer to choose my hell,” she says. “I prefer to look you in the eyes and fight it out face to face.” 
Once again, Inez expresses her desire to “choose” the nature of her suffering, this time wanting to confront Garcin head-on, since she sees him as her primary enemy. It’s also worth noting how utterly incapable these three people are of not interacting with one another. Despite their efforts to keep to themselves, they have found their way into an ongoing conflict, ultimately illustrating the strength of the human impulse to communicate and interact—even when those connections are toxic.
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Giving up trying to be silent, Garcin walks to Estelle and touches her neck. “So I attract you, little girl?” he says, but she tells him not to touch her. “Why not?” he says, pointing out that they might as well “be natural.” After all, he says, he used to be quite the ladies’ man. “We’re between ourselves,” he says. “And presently we shall be naked as—as newborn babes.” He then proposes that everyone speak honestly about why they’ve come to hell. Frustrated that he’s missed what Gomez said about him, he tries to focus on the present moment, urging Estelle to be “frank” about why she’s been condemned. This way, he hopes, they will all manage to get “specters into the open” so that they can avoid “disaster.”  
Again, Garcin tries to avoid suffering in hell. Instead of keeping to themselves, he suggests that he and his companions share their stories, no doubt thinking that this will help them avoid tormenting each other. According to this logic, knowing why Estelle and Inez have been sent to hell will enable him to sidestep any topic that might upset them. At first glance, this might seem like a good idea, but it’s worth acknowledging that this might actually be the worst thing Garcin and his companions could possibly do. Considering that they’ve been placed in hell to torture one another, it’s unlikely that talking about sensitive issues will lead to anything but misery, since knowing the intimate details of each other’s lives might simply fuel their arguments. Still, Garcin likes to think that he has control over his environment, and so he insists that treating one another with empathy will save the hell-dwellers from “disaster.”
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Despite Garcin’s insistence, Estelle refuses to say why she’s been sent to hell, so Garcin agrees to go first. In addition to refusing to become a soldier, he says, he was a great philanderer who slept with many women outside his marriage. Once, he even brought a woman home and had sex with her within his wife’s hearing. The next morning, his wife made them coffee. “You brute!” Inez says. “Yes, a brute, if you like,” replies Garcin. “But a well-beloved brute.” He then urges Inez to tell her story, so she explains that she moved in with her heavy-drinking cousin and seduced his wife, Florence. “I crept inside her skin,” she says, “she saw the world through my eyes. When she left him, I had her on my hands.” Shortly after this, she explains, her cousin was run over by a tram.
Both Garcin and Inez are seemingly in hell because of their lack of empathy for others. Garcin was cruel and heartless in his marriage, not caring whether or not his wife knew about his affairs. Inez, for her part, knowingly seduced her cousin’s wife, paying no thought to her cousin’s feelings. Both of these decisions denote a failure to show compassion—a moral deficiency that brings itself to bear on the interpersonal dynamic in the drawing-room. Having lived selfish lives, Garcin and Inez now depend upon each other to treat one another kindly, but it’s unlikely that either of them will be able to show enough empathy to avoid hurting the other. It’s also notable that Inez describes her transgression in terms of forcing Florence to see the world differently, since this uncontrollable change in perspective and sense of self seems to be exactly what Estelle fears.
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Inez says that she used to tell Florence that they killed her husband (Inez’s cousin) together. “I’m rather cruel, really,” she says, and when Garcin says that he is, too, she disagrees, saying, “No, you’re not cruel. It’s something else.” Going on, she says, “When I say I’m cruel, I mean I can’t get on without making people suffer. Like a live coal. A live coal in others’ hearts.” She goes on to admit that Florence turned on the gas stove one night and then went back to bed, killing them both in their sleep.
Inez’s reason for being in hell is somewhat complicated. Although it’s true that it was selfish of her to seduce her cousin’s wife, this in and of itself doesn’t necessarily make her fit for eternal damnation. In this moment, though, she clarifies the nature of her cruelty, saying that “making people suffer” is an integral part of her life. In fact, she says she can’t even live without inflicting emotional harm on others, which is exactly what she did to Florence and her cousin. “When I’m alone I flicker out,” she says, suggesting that she needs someone to pine over her in order to feel existentially grounded. This, it seems, is why she wants Estelle to love her—in the same way that Estelle wants Garcin to notice her, Inez wants Estelle’s romantic attention, since this would help her affirm who she is. In other words, Inez defines herself according to how her love interests feel about her.
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Inez and Garcin turn to Estelle and ask her to tell her story, but she continues to claim that she doesn’t know why she was sent to hell. Provoking her, Inez says she must know perfectly well why she’s here, adding that it must have something to do with the man Estelle was “so scared of seeing” when she first entered the drawing-room. “Why were you afraid of him?” Garcin asks. Estelle refuses to answer, but Inez jumps in, saying, “Did he shoot himself on your account?” Continuing in this manner, Garcin agrees that he must have killed himself because of Estelle. “Don’t! Please don’t go on,” Estelle begs. “Because of you. Because of you,” Garcin chants. “He shot himself because of you,” adds Inez. Pleading for them to stop, Estelle rushes to the door but is unable to open it, so she rings the bell, which remains silent.
When Garcin and Inez team up to convince Estelle to tell them her story, it’s overwhelmingly clear that the group has already started torturing one another. This is especially obvious when Garcin repeats, “Because of you,” as if he’s actively trying to upset her—and, in truth, he is trying to upset her, thinking that she’ll only tell her story if he and Inez force her to do so. This is somewhat ironic, since Garcin’s original reason for wanting everyone to tell their respective stories was so that they could avoid torturing each other. Now, though, he finds himself torturing Estelle in the hopes of learning how to not torture her—an absurd and illogical idea.
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Inez and Garcin continue to guess what happened between Estelle and the man she was afraid of encountering in hell. They hypothesize that she was his “mistress,” that she wouldn’t leave her husband for him, and that he killed himself as a result. “You’ve got it all wrong, you two,” Estelle finally laughs. “He wanted me to have a baby.” She explains that she didn’t want to have a child, though she got pregnant with her lover Roger’s baby. To keep this a secret from her husband, she and Roger went to Switzerland during her pregnancy. When the baby was born, Roger was beside himself with happiness, but Estelle attached the baby to a heavy stone and cast it into the lake beneath her balcony. When they returned to Paris, Roger shot himself in the face. “It was absurd of him, really, my husband never suspected anything,” she says.
Pushed to the edge by Garcin and Inez, Estelle finally tells her story, revealing the real reason she’s been sent to hell. The fact that she’s so hesitant to tell this tale suggests that she feels guilty about what she did. At the same time, though, she maintains a certain kind of selfishness, as evidenced by her remark that it was “absurd” of Roger to shoot himself. “My husband never suspected anything,” she says, failing to see that Roger didn’t kill himself because he worried her husband would find out about their relationship. Rather, he killed himself because she murdered their newborn child. However, Estelle is too preoccupied satisfying her own wants and needs to recognize that this is what upset Roger so much.
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Estelle tries to sob, but no tears come. “Tears don’t flow in this place,” Garcin tells her. “I’m a coward. A coward!” Estelle screams. “If you knew how I hate you!” Inez rushes to her while Garcin takes off his jacket, though he stops when he remembers that Estelle doesn’t like men in their shirtsleeves. “Don’t bother,” she says, telling him to take off his coat. Still, though, he says he doesn’t want her to be angry with him. “I’m not angry with you,” she says, though she is angry with Inez. After a tense silence, Inez turns to Garcin and asks if he feels better after knowing why everyone has been sent to hell. “Yes, perhaps a trifle better,” he says. “And now suppose we start trying to help each other.” 
Now that Garcin and his companions have all revealed why they’ve been sent to hell, they find themselves in worse shape than before. At first, they were just testy with one another, but now Estelle deeply resents her companions for forcing her to relive a difficult period of her life. As her anger takes shape, she directs it solely at Inez, though Garcin was the one who insisted that everyone should tell their stories. The fact that she takes her anger out on Inez perfectly demonstrates the strange relational dynamic of the drawing-room, since it illustrates Estelle’s fondness for Garcin. In turn, this fondness upsets Inez, who takes out her aggression on Garcin. Once again, then, the audience sees why these three people are perfectly fated to be each other’s torturers. 
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After Garcin proposes that everyone in the drawing-room try to “help each other,” Inez insists that she doesn’t need help. “Inez,” Garcin reasons, “they’ve laid their snare damned cunningly—like a cobweb. If you make any movement, if you raise your hand to fan yourself, Estelle and I feel a little tug. Alone, none of us can save himself or herself; we’re linked together inextricably. So you can take your choice.” For a moment, he waits for her to respond, but she isn’t paying attention. Instead, she narrates what she sees on earth, explaining that the room in which she died has been rented. A strange couple has come to her bed and is about to make love, but the lights are suddenly dimming, though she hears them mention that it’s noon. “So I’m done with the earth, it seems,” she says. “All of me’s here, in this room.”
By telling Inez that he and Estelle “feel a little tug” if she even lifts her hand, Garcin emphasizes that her actions and decisions will affect everyone in the room. Although Inez might not want to band together with Garcin and Estelle, the group depends upon her to do so. If she doesn’t, Garcin insists, none of them will be able to avoid misery. Of course, it’s not clear whether or not they would be able to avoid misery even if they were able to show each other compassion, but this is perhaps exactly Sartre’s point—these three people will never manage to coexist happily, no matter what they do. Consequently, their failure to relate to each other in a positive manner forms the basis of their hellish circumstances.
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Turning her attention back to Garcin, Inez asks why he wants to help her. “To defeat their devilish tricks,” he says. In response, she asks what he wants in return, and he says he wants her to return the favor. “It only needs a little effort, Inez; just a spark of human feeling,” he says. However, Inez insists that “human feeling” is “beyond [her] range” because she’s “rotten to the core.” Instead of helping Garcin, Inez simply stares at Estelle, admiring her hair. Seeing this, Garcin points out that Estelle is “fated to be [her] torturer.” “It’s through her they’ll get you,” he says. 
Unlike Garcin, Inez has embraced the fact that she’s in hell, clearly believing that there’s nothing she can do to change her circumstances. In turn, she allows herself to give up any effort to be good, welcoming the idea that she’s “rotten to the core.” With reckless abandon, then, she admires Estelle even though she knows that doing so will only cause her pain. Once again, then, she asserts a small amount of control, ultimately choosing the nature of her own torment by accepting and welcoming it.
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Inez acknowledges that everything in the drawing-room is a “trap.” “And you’re another trap,” she tells Garcin. “Do you think they haven’t foreknown every word you say? And of course there’s a whole nest of pitfalls that we can’t see. Everything here is a booby-trap. But what do I care? I’m a pitfall, too.” This frustrates Garcin, who points out that they’re all “chasing after each other, round and round in a vicious circle.” If Inez doesn’t “let go” of her obsession with Estelle, he says, she’ll “bring disaster” to all of them. Still, though, Inez doesn’t care, saying she knows that she’s “going to burn” for eternity. “I’ll catch her, she’ll see you through my eyes, as Florence saw that other man,” she says. 
Again, Inez shows Garcin that she doesn’t care about what’s going to happen to her. This is because she has accepted that there’s nothing she can do to avoid torment. Along with this attitude comes a desire to antagonize Garcin, since he is the only thing (according to Inez) standing between her and Estelle. As a result, she tells him that she’s going to get Estelle to see Garcin in the same way that she, Inez, sees him. This will ruin his chances of ever being happy with Estelle, since he’ll know that Estelle is watching him scornfully. In this sense, Inez uses the idea of perspective to bring Garcin down with her, altering the way he experiences his existence simply by giving him alternative and malicious views of himself.
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Garcin takes Inez by the shoulders and tries to convince her to care about what’s happening to her. “I’m dried up, too,” he says. “But for you I can still feel pity.” Brushing him off, she simply reminds him that there are “traps” in the drawing-room for him, too. Saying this, she asks him to leave her and Estelle alone. Dejectedly, he agrees. However, Estelle hears this and lifts her head, asking him to pay attention to her. “You can help me, anyhow,” she says. Trying to ignore her, he urges her to seek attention from Inez, but she refuses. As she sidles up to him, she narrates what she sees on earth, explaining that Olga is dancing with a man named Peter, whom Estelle used to see on the side. She didn’t care much about Peter at the time, but now she feels strongly that he “belonged” to her. 
When Garcin talks about feeling “pity” for Inez, he’s referring to the fact that the only way for any of them to avoid torturing one another is by behaving empathetically. Because Inez is uninterested in this, though, there’s nothing he can do, which is why he eventually retreats. However, he hasn’t quite given up yet, since his rejection of Estelle is an attempt to avoid trouble with Inez. Knowing that Inez will actively make his existence more difficult if she sees him courting Estelle, he urges Estelle to seek attention from her instead of him. Estelle, for her part, is too busy thinking only about what she wants, a mindset emphasized by her sudden feeling that Peter—who was clearly not that significant to her when she was alive—should “belong” to her. 
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Estelle complains that there’s nothing she can do to stop Olga and Peter from dancing, realizing that there’s “nothing left” of her on earth. Piping up, Inez tells her that only what’s in the drawing-room matters now. Adding to this, she tells Estelle that she’ll be hers “forever”—an idea that only makes Estelle laugh before sinking back into her vision of Olga and Peter dancing. However, her connection to what’s happening on earth slowly begins to fade, getting dimmer and softer until it finally vanishes completely. “The earth has left me,” she says. Bereft, she turns to Garcin and begs him to hold her, but Inez gestures at him to step away from her. “It’s to her you should say that,” Garcin tells Estelle, but she grabs him and pleads with him to “gather [her] up,” since she has “dropped out of” Peter and Olga’s hearts. 
Having lost all connection to the earth and the people who loved her, Estelle is especially eager to gain Garcin’s love. Once again, though, he tells her to appeal to Inez, knowing that nothing but trouble will arise if he and Estelle become overly friendly, since Inez will surely hold it against him if they become romantic. In this way, the audience sees how treacherous this relational dynamic has become—no matter what happens, at least one of the hell-dwellers will be unhappy.
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Once again, Garcin tells Estelle to give Inez her affection. “But she doesn’t count, she’s a woman,” she says. Hearing this, Inez compliments Estelle and tries to give her the love she craves, but Estelle tells her to stop, eventually spitting in her face. “Garcin, you shall pay for this,” Inez grumbles, but Garcin only shrugs and finally goes to Estelle, agreeing to be with her, though he says that he probably won’t pay much attention in the long run, since he has other things to think about. Still, Estelle decides to sit next to him and wait for him to notice her, an idea that infuriates Inez. Garcin then “bends” over Estelle, about to make love to her. “You must be going crazy,” Inez interrupts, reminding them that they’re not alone. “Under my eyes?” she asks. “You couldn’t—couldn’t do it.” 
In this moment, the audience understands the extent to which the trio is doomed. Even if Garcin ignores Estelle, Inez will still take out her anger on him, since Estelle responds to his lack of attention by rebuking Inez. As a result, it’s futile for Garcin to continue ignoring Estelle, which is why he finally decides to oblige her. Unsurprisingly, Inez is even more angry about this, and when she says, “Under my eyes?” she emphasizes the fact that she’s watching, wanting to make sure Garcin feels the effect of her scornful gaze.
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Unable to stop Garcin from having sex with Estelle, Inez tells him that she’ll be sitting at the other end of the room and “watching” the entire time. “I shan’t take my eyes off you, Garcin,” she says. Trying to ignore her words, Garcin tells Estelle to kiss him, but when she puts her mouth to his, he can’t bring himself to kiss back. “Didn’t I tell you not to pay any attention to her?” Estelle asks, assuming that Garcin is thinking about Inez’s gaze. “You’ve got it wrong,” he says, explaining that Gomez and his colleagues are talking about him again. It’s been six months since he died, and they’re hardly saying anything of importance about him. Because of this, Garcin decides to continue kissing Estelle. Before long, though, he stops again to listen to Gomez.
Garcin’s decision to have sex with Estelle doesn’t come from a place of passion. Instead, he simply resigns himself to the task, realizing that she won’t stop pursuing him and that Inez won’t stop resenting him for this. No matter what he does, then, he will feel Inez’s wrath, so he might as well make Estelle happy. As he tries to give her attention, though, he finds himself distracted by his overwhelming need to know what others think about him. Tuning Estelle out, he tries to listen to what Gomez is saying about him, an attempt that further solidifies how much he cares about other people’s opinions and can’t behave empathetically even to those who are right in front of him.
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“Talk away, talk away you swine,” Garcin says, referring to Gomez. “I’m not there to defend myself.” Turning to Estelle, he tells her how important it is for her to give him her “trust.” This annoys her, since she’s already giving him her entire body. “My trust!” she says. “I haven’t any to give, I’m afraid, and you’re making me terribly embarrassed. You must have something pretty ghastly on your conscience to make such a fuss about my trusting you.” In response, he says that he wasn’t shot specifically because he renounced the war. Hearing Gomez speak badly about him, he says, “I must say he talks well, he makes a good case against me […] Should I have gone to the general and said: ‘General, I decline to fight’?”
Estelle makes an astute observation when she says that Garcin must have a guilty conscience. He has just asked her to “trust” him, apparently wanting to rely on her to assure him that his idea of himself is accurate. This, she notes, suggests that he’s desperate to confirm his sense of self, which in turn suggests that he’s insecure about something. Hearing this, he begins to tell the real story of his death, which is obviously what he feels guilty about.
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Garcin acknowledges that refusing to fight in the war would have landed him in jail. Accordingly, he set off for Mexico, where he intended to start a pacifist newspaper. Before he got there, though, he was stopped and killed for desertion. Having told this story, he asks Estelle what she thinks, and she doesn’t know what to say. “Can’t you guess?” Inez says from the corner. “Well, I can. He wants you to tell him that he bolted like a lion.” Garcin agrees with this assessment, but Estelle tries to soothe him by insisting that he “had” to run. “Of course,” he says. “Well, Estelle, am I a coward?” Estelle tries to avoid the question, saying that he has to “decide that for himself.” Going on, she suggests that he must have had “reasons” for doing what he did. “But were they real reasons?” he asks.
By asking Estelle to assure him that he isn’t a “coward,” Garcin effectively asks her to help him deceive himself. It’s rather apparent that he knows he acted like a coward by running from the war, but he still wants to trick himself into thinking otherwise. As he struggles to do this, he enlists Estelle’s help, wanting to control the way she sees him, since this will profoundly affect the way he sees himself. If he can get her to say that he’s not a coward, he thinks, he’ll be able to make peace with himself.
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Garcin admits that, although he told himself that he was acting on his “principles” when he ran from the war, he can’t decide whether or not this is really the case. It’s possible, he says, that he was too cowardly to face war. Inez cuts in at this moment and urges him to pinpoint his “real motive” for running, telling him to be “honest” with himself. Thinking back, he can’t avoid the fact that he “face[d] death” without any courage—a thought that deeply troubles him. Estelle, on the other hand, doesn’t care whether or not he was a coward. “Coward or hero, it’s all one—provided he kisses well,” she says. Still, though, Garcin can’t stop thinking about what his colleagues on earth think about him, understanding that they see him as a coward—a legacy that will remain on earth for a long, long time.
When Garcin takes an honest look at the nature of his death, he can no longer convince himself that he faced the firing squad courageously. This, it seems, is why he needs Estelle to tell him that he’s not a coward—otherwise, he’ll be forced to truly admit his shortcomings.
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As something of an afterthought, Garcin adds that his wife “died just now,” or roughly “two months ago.” Her death, he says, was of “grief.” “So all is for the best, you see; the war’s over, my wife’s dead, and I’ve carved out my place in history,” he says. He then tries to cry, and Estelle moves to him and urges him to stop thinking about people like Gomez, who will soon die. “They’ll die,” he agrees, “but others will come after them to carry on the legend. I’ve left my fate in their hands.”
The depth of Garcin’s selfishness comes to the forefront of the play when he casually mentions his wife’s death. Rather than mourning her, he continues to fixate on what people like Gomez think of him. In addition, Estelle tries to soothe him by pointing out that the people who think he’s a coward will soon die, but this isn’t an effective way of comforting him because it doesn’t do anything to help him think of himself in a positive light. Garcin wants to see himself as a courageous and principled man, so it gives him no relief to hear Estelle say that people will forget about his cowardliness, since this sentiment acknowledges that he is indeed a coward.
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Finally paying attention to Estelle again, Garcin asks her to give him her “faith,” saying that he’ll “love” and “cherish” her for eternity if she trusts that he isn’t a coward. Immediately, she assures him that he isn’t a coward, since she loves him and could never love a coward. “Then I snap my fingers at them all, those below and those in here,” he says gleefully. “Estelle, we shall climb out of hell.” Overhearing this, Inez laughs, and when Garcin asks what she finds so funny, she reminds him that he can’t really trust Estelle, since she would say anything to get him to give her the attention she craves. When he asks Estelle if this is true, she admits that she doesn’t know what to say. “Anyhow, I’d love you just the same, even if you were a coward,” she says.
Once again, the interpersonal dynamic in the drawing-room is tense and fated for misery. Just when Garcin manages to feel good by enlisting Estelle to help him see himself he’s an admirable person, Inez ruins the illusion. This, of course, is because she doesn’t want him to get close to Estelle. Furthermore, Estelle’s assertion that she would “love [him] just the same” if he were a coward is worth noting, since it will most likely cause Garcin to discount her perspective. After all, she has ruined any sense of objectivity by saying this, meaning that Garcin can no longer rely on her to provide an accurate account of his character. In turn, he can’t use her to deceive himself anymore.
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Fed up, Garcin rushes to the door, saying that both Estelle and Inez “disgust” him. Although Inez reminds him that the door is locked, he begins pressing the bell, and then he bangs on the door, demanding that it be opened. Meanwhile, Estelle runs to him and pleads with him to stop, but he casts her away, making it abundantly clear that he doesn’t care about her. “Oh, how mean you are!” she says. “Yes, it’s quite true you’re a coward.” Seeing this, Inez goes to Estelle and tells her that they’ll be better off when Garcin leaves, but Estelle pushes her away, saying that she plans to leave if the door opens. When Inez asks where she would go, she replies, “As far from you as I can.” 
Sartre accentuates the toxic relational dynamics between Garcin, Estelle, and Inez in this moment, as each one behaves in a way that torments the others. After realizing that Estelle won’t be able to help him solidify his sense of self, Garcin decides to break out of the drawing-room. As a result, Estelle is distraught, and her desperate need to be with him only exacerbates Inez’s feelings, causing her to redouble her efforts to pursue Estelle. As chaos mounts, then, Sartre illustrates the cyclical and never-ending misery of this unfortunate group of people.
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Garcin continues to plead for the door to open. “I’ll endure anything,” he says, “your red-hot tongs and molten lead, your racks and prongs and garrotes—all your fiendish gadgets, everything that burns and flays and tears—I’ll put up with any torture you impose. Anything, anything would be better than this agony of mind, this creeping pain that gnaws and fumbles and caresses one and never hurts quite enough.” As he says this, he grabs the doorknob, and the door suddenly swings open. “Ah!” he yells, narrowly keeping himself from falling. He then peers into the dark hall and considers this new development. “Now I wonder why that door opened,” he says. As he contemplates what to do, Inez urges him to leave. “I shall not go,” he decides.
Garcin’s willingness to endure physical pain instead of this “agony of mind” underscores just how torturous it is for him to exist in a relational environment in which nobody will help him deceive himself. Tormented by the notion that he’s a coward, he craves any way to forget about the fact that he died dishonorably. This is perhaps why he would welcome physical torture, which would most likely take his mind off his shortcomings. When the door swings open, though, he stops and reconsiders, most likely realizing that he’ll never be able to cease thinking about whether or not he’s a coward. Now that he’s started being honest with himself (or almost honest) about his true nature, he desperately needs to find someone who will put him at ease once more. Since it’s unlikely that he’d receive this kind of reassurance during the act of physical torture, he decides to stay in the drawing-room. Again, his behavior suggests that meaningful existence depends on connections with others, even if those relationships only create pain.
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“And you, Estelle?” Inez asks. “The barrier’s down, why are we waiting?” Then, when she realizes nobody will leave, she says, “But what a situation! It’s a scream! We’re—inseparables!” As she says this, Estelle sneaks up behind her and tries to push her out the door. As Inez pleads, Estelle tries to enlist Garcin’s help, but he tells her to stop. “You’re crazy. She hates you,” Estelle reminds him, letting go of Inez. “It’s because of her I’m staying here,” he says. Calmly, he walks to the door and closes it. He then explains that Inez is now the only person whose opinion he cares about. Because she knows “what evil costs,” he has realized that he has to “convince” her that he isn’t a coward. “I couldn’t leave you here, gloating over my defeat, with all those thoughts about me running in your head,” he says.
For Garcin, leaving the drawing-room would be like giving up all control over his self-image. If he left, Inez would think of him as a coward forever, just like Gomez and his coworkers. If he stays, though, he can try to convince her otherwise, thereby manipulating the way she sees him and, thus, the way he conceives of himself. He no longer cares what Estelle thinks because she will tell him anything he wants to hear, which is why he turns his attention to Inez, thinking that winning her favor will prove his worth. 
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Garcin understands now that there’s “nothing left” of him on earth. Because of this, he feels he must persuade Inez that he isn’t a coward. To begin, he says that “each man has an aim in life, a leading motive.” Throughout his life, he claims, he concentrated on being “a real man.” “Can one possibly be a coward when one’s deliberately courted danger at every turn?” he asks. “And can one judge a life by a single action?” Inez easily dismisses this argument, saying that he merely “dreamt” he was a “hero” for his entire life. Then, when the moment of truth came, he showed his true colors. Still, he insists that he always “chose the hardest path,” adding that “a man is what he wills himself to be.” On the contrary, Inez says, “It’s what one does, and nothing else, that shows the stuff one’s made of.”
During this exchange, Inez sets forth one of Sartre’s most important ideas regarding Existentialism (as outlined in his essay Being and Nothingness). When she says that “it’s what one does, and nothing else, that shows the stuff one’s made of,” Inez articulates the existentialist idea that no human is born with essential (nonphysical) traits. Nobody, Sartre believes, is born fundamentally good or fundamentally bad. Instead, it’s what a person does throughout life that determines whether or not he or she is good. This is an important point when it comes to Garcin’s story, since he wants to believe that he was misjudged because of one action, which he argues didn’t represent the way he lived his life. If actions are all that matter, though, then his decision to run from danger makes him a coward. 
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Garcin gives up trying to convince Inez that he isn’t a coward, calling her a “poisonous woman.” In turn, she says, “You’re a coward, Garcin, because I wish it.” In response, he launches himself in her direction, but she ridicules him for thinking he could do anything to stop her from speaking, since “you can’t throttle thoughts with hands.” Interrupting this exchange, Estelle tells Garcin to take “revenge” on Inez by making love to her. “That’s true, Inez,” Garcin says. “I’m at your mercy, but you’re at mine as well.” With this, he moves toward Estelle and begins to hug and kiss her. As he does this, though, Inez keeps talking, refusing to let him forget that she’s there. She tells him that it’s as if a crowd is watching him, chanting, “Coward! Coward!”
When Inez says that Garcin is a coward simply because she “wish[es] it,” she acknowledges that he defines himself according to the way others see him. Knowing how much importance he places on her opinion of him, she makes it clear that he is at her “mercy,” since she can so profoundly alter his sense of self just using thoughts and words. At the same time, though, she is also at Garcin’s “mercy” because of her attraction to Estelle (and because of Estelle’s attraction to Garcin). At a standoff, then, Garcin and Inez torture each other by behaving in the exact way that will most hurt the other person.
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Unable to stand it anymore, Garcin asks, “Will night never come?” “Never,” Inez responds. “You will always see me?” he asks. “Always,” she answers. Breaking from Estelle, Garcin walks to the bronze sculpture and says, “I’m looking at this thing on the mantelpiece, and I understand that I’m in hell. I tell you, everything’s been thought out before hand. They knew I’d stand at the fireplace stroking this thing of bronze, with all those eyes intent on me.” Saying this, he whirls around and looks at Estelle and Inez, adding that it felt like more people were watching him. “So this is hell,” he says. “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!”
The line “Hell is—other people!” is one of Sartre’s most famous ideas. Interestingly enough, though, the phrase itself isn’t as simple as it might seem. Although it appears that Garcin is cursing his companions because they torment him (which, of course, is true), what he’s really cursing is the fact that his interactions with “other people” rattle his existential insecurity. That is, nothing he can say or do will ever help him control the way people see him, and this upends his sense of self. Consequently, he is the one to torment himself, and this torment simply manifests itself through his interactions with others. Additionally, it’s worth noting that Sartre subtly acknowledges the presence of the audience when Garcin says that he feels “all those eyes intent” upon him. Given that No Exit examines the effect of the human gaze on an individual, it makes sense that Sartre would eventually recognize that multiple people are staring at the characters onstage, a fact that reflects and amplifies Garcin’s discomfort about encountering other people’s perspectives.
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Estelle tries to reason with Garcin, begging him to come back to her, but he tells her to stop, saying that he’ll never love her because Inez will always be watching. “Right!” Estelle says. “In that case, I’ll stop her watching.” Grabbing the paper-knife, she runs to Inez and stabs her multiple times, but Inez just laughs, reminding her that she’s already dead. “Dead?” Estelle asks. “Dead! Dead! Dead!” Inez chants. “Once and for all. So here we are, forever.” Having said this, she breaks into hearty laughter, and Estelle and Garcin join her. “Forever. My God, how funny! Forever,” Estelle yells. “For ever, and ever, and ever,” Garcin adds. Laughing for a long while, they eventually fall silent and slouch into their couches. “Well, well,” says Garcin after a moment, “let’s get on with it.” 
The only form of relief that the characters experience throughout the entire play comes when Inez finally convinces Estelle and Garcin to fully accept their circumstances. After Estelle stabs Inez and fails to kill her, she’s forced to admit that she and her companions are already dead and that this will always be the case. As a result, she gives herself over to the sad absurdity of her situation, joining her fellow hell-dwellers in laughter. In this way, Sartre suggests that even people with terrible fates ahead of them should accept the things they can’t change, since this kind of acceptance might lend them at least a moment of gaiety in an otherwise endless deluge of misery. Furthermore, if the trio’s deranged laughter isn’t enough of an indication that they’ve finally accepted their wretched destiny, Garcin’s final remark confirms that he now understands he’s fated to argue with Inez and evade Estelle for all of eternity—but rather than rejecting this, he finally embraces the inevitability of his everlasting torment, saying, “Let’s get on with it.” 
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