Re: Sartre's No Exit: Is Garcin's wife a good model? -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 17:39:59 04/21/08 Mon
Author: CS Holden
Subject: Re: Sartre's No Exit: Is Garcin's wife a good model?
In reply to: Caitlin 's message, "Re: Sartre's No Exit: Is Garcin's wife a good model?" on 19:25:42 04/20/08 Sun

It's not just Garcin who has a close relationship with a seeming "better person." No Exit is a case study, it seems to me, in what "good people" are really like. I think another reading of No Exit can question everyone's goodness, either in intention, spirit, or behavior.

Estelle's lover, who asks her to have a baby and then impregnates her, takes her to Switzerland (good ol' neutral zone) to hide her ignominy from friends and family. And she kills the baby to assert her autonomy. As a result, her lover kills himself. But let's not forget that the lover is the third-wheel of Estelle's marriage...so is the real "victim" here her husband? But if he's the good person here, then why does Estelle hate him so much? Why does she seem to love men as much as she loathes them? Does she merely need them? The baby is the entirely innocent one, but unfortunately we live in a world where crazy socialite mothers kill their babies to get back at the biological fathers. Bleak, bleak, bleak.

Also consider Inez. Her first line indicates concern about what happened to Florence, her lover in life. Yet once she realizes Florence is not present, Inez calls her "a tiresome little fool" and reveals later in the play that she really didn't feel much for her. Garcin, as well, expresses contempt for the so-called good person in his life.

Make no mistake: For Sartre, "hell is other people." Other people may seem like models, but after approaching a model you will find yourself disappointed in them, disgusted in yourself for approaching them, and entirely unsatisfied. For Sartre, mimetic desire and the closeness of the model are the problems with, not the escape from, the hells of life. Notice that the basic assumption of the play is that the afterlife is hell--there is no hope of heaven. The characters refer to the earth as being "down there" rather than above them. They have ascended in death...to this? Yet hell seems a lot like earth. There is still no escape for these souls. They will forever find themselves involved in fruitless triangulations and unsatisfied desires, because that is what human beings do. It is what they do to each other merely by existing.

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Replies:

Re: Sartre's No Exit: Is Garcin's wife a good model? -- Katelyn R., 08:30:14 04/25/08 Fri
Re: Sartre's No Exit: Is Garcin's wife a good model? -- Caitlin, 18:23:03 04/26/08 Sat