Type of Text: Play

Author: Jean-Paul Sartre

Year Published: 1944

Access Link: Click Here

Plot Summary

In No Exit, three characters – Garcin, Inez, and Estelle – are led into a room in hell, expecting physical torture but instead are forced to confront each other for eternity. As they interact, their secrets, self-deceptions, and crimes are gradually revealed. They come to realize that their punishment is psychological: they are each other's tormentors. Sartre uses their interactions to illustrate existentialist ideas, particularly the concept that “hell is other people.” With no escape and no illusions left, the characters are condemned to an eternal confrontation with their own guilt and the gaze of others.