Existentialism in No Exit

In his play, No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre examines basic themes of existentialism through three characters. The first subject, Garcin, embraces existentialist ideas somewhat. The second character, Inez, seems to fully understand ideas deemed existential. Estelle is the third person, and does not seem to understand these ideas well, nor does she accept them when they are first presented to her. One similarity amongst the three is that they all at some point seem to accept …

…It’s mere chance that has brought us together (p. 14).” All of the characters came to some belief in existentialist concepts, whether they be deep or more simple. All of them also showed areas where they were not in complete agreement with existentialism. Inez seemed to have a strong belief in owning up to one’s actions, and not deceiving one’s self, while Estelle was the complete opposite, and Garcin somewhere in the middle.