As I contemplated the true/authentic self (Will Drake was talking about something) I began to think about it in a sort of word picture. These people (Estelle, Inez, Garcin) are all extremely dependent on other people and their relationships to define themselves. I believe the existentialist would affirm free standing identity. Thus, I began to imagine a set of dominos, all lined up next to each other. (I I I I I I I I I) Their identity is found in and of themselves and discovering the depth of their own character, and yet their fall, or their movement can effect others, but that movement does not define them. However, the hell characters seemed to be dependent upon that human interaction to give meaning to their existence. More a house of cards, which if one fails the whole thing tumbles downwards. They forfeited their opportunity to pursue the individual self in an effort to be apart of something collective and at the core of it to understand themselves as part and influencer in that collective- Thus their punishment seems fitting to spend eternity collectively unable to find themselves apart from each other. Three selfish people depending upon others for meaning and existence being punished FOREVER (forever) with each other unable to them discover that significance which none of them attained in life.
I commented on Joy's Unfulfilling Confirmation
Good analogy, Rachel. I think that this could work in the opposite way, to. If Garcin would just realize and remove himself from the equation, the Hell would fall apart and they would all escape. Or maybe that's what you're already saying with the house of cards? Either way, I like the observation.
ReplyDeleteI like this, Rachel. As I read No Exit I was puzzled by how hell could be other people, but as I kept reading I saw the point I think Sartre was trying to make. You confirm it with your analogy, because the only way hell could be other people would be if one relied on other people for confirmation and their identity. I like Will's comment also... what would've happened if Garcin went through the door? Perhaps hell would've fallen apart, but there was never any serious chance of that because each person depended on the others for an identity. They did not know how to be an individual self apart from the others, so the emptiness and unknown of the passage outside their room frightened them and kept them within the prison of the known and the torture of each others company.
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