247 pages
French language
Published Nov. 5, 1947 by Gallimard.
No Exit (French: Huis clos, pronounced [ɥi klo]) is a 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The original title is the French equivalent of the legal term in camera, referring to a private discussion behind closed doors. The play was first performed at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in May 1944. The play begins with three characters who find themselves waiting in a mysterious room. It is a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters are punished by being locked into a room together for eternity. It is the source of Sartre's especially famous phrase "L'enfer, c'est les autres" or "Hell is other people", a reference to Sartre's ideas about the look and the perpetual ontological struggle of being caused to see oneself as an object from the view of another consciousness.
An important work that demonstrates bad faith in clear terms. The vices of each character are amplified by their inability to take responsibility for their own action and own persons, thereby destroying themselves and the people around them.
It's hard living together with other people, and unfortunately there is hardly any other option other then becoming a complete hermit. Sartre proposes that life is hell because we must depend on other people. Even when we are economically independent, we rely on other peoples' perception of us. We have a need to be seen as "good people" - as decent, pretty, worthy individuals. While the play makes a good point, I felt it was quite unsophisticated and one-sided. A must-read for people who are weary of society, though.
