Open AccessHell Being Other People in Jean-Paul Sartre’s Play No Exit
Author(s) -
Sanaa Mohammed Mahdi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
mağallaẗ ğāmiʿaẗ kūyaẗ li-l-ʿulūm al-insāniyyaẗ wa-al-iğtimāʿiyyaẗ
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2707-9341
pISSN - 2522-3259
DOI - 10.14500/kujhss.v3n1y2020.pp132-136
Subject(s) - torture , existentialism , afterlife , eternity , relation (database) , punishment (psychology) , order (exchange) , meaning (existential) , psychoanalysis , philosophy , law , psychology , theology , political science , epistemology , social psychology , human rights , finance , database , computer science , economics
In modern world, hell is not the punishment but the society in which we live and the people who surround us. Through their interference in our affairs, those people make our life miserable and look like hell. This research deals with Jean Paul Sartre's play No Exit (1944) illuminating the afterlife of the others. He used three dead characters that are punished by being imprisoned into a room together for eternity. He symbolizes the room as a hell in order to represent the real world around us. Their coming into this small hell shows their indispensability to one another. They represent the essential idea of the play that others are torture for us. By emphasizing on the notion of hell being other people, Sartre shows that man's pain, suffering, depression are due to others. By repeating his prominent line 'Hell is Other People', Sartre concentrates on the relation of people that is always conflict; meaning that other people just being annoying. For him, the mere presence of another person will definitely trouble the others due to his interference in private matters. For that reason, Sartre portrays hell as a room with no torture or flames as the real torture is the presence of others. Through concentrating on the nature of man's existence, Sartre can reveal the problems of both man and society as well.