No Exit

Sartre's one-act hell: three strangers locked in a drawing room forever, each the other's torturer.

Specifications & Metrics

author

Jean-Paul Sartre

type

Philosophical drama

era

Occupied France (1944)

language

French

setting

A Second Empire drawing room in hell

source text

Sartre's existentialism

acts

1 act

Relative Scale in Plays

Core Principles & Analysis

• Staged in occupied Paris in 1944 under censorship's nose.
• 'Hell is other people' is its famous verdict.
• Its triangle of Garcin, Inès, and Estelle needs no devils — the characters suffice.

Sources

• Wikipedia: No Exit