Empathy vs. Selfishness Theme Analysis

Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit is a play interested in the interpersonal dynamics of compassion. This is made evident by the fact that Garcin, Inez, and Estelle all end up in hell largely because of how they conducted their romantic affairs and personal relationships on earth. For each of them, love is one-sided, as they think only about what they want, regardless of what this might mean for other people. In hell, though, they’re forced to recognize that anything they do will affect their fellow hell-dwellers and, in turn, anything the other hell-dwellers do will affect them. This leaves them feeling “inextricably” bound to one another, their happiness or misery depending solely on the way they treat each other. Acknowledging this, Garcin points out that anything that happens to the hell-dwellers will happen because of their relational dynamic as a group, so he tells Inez and Estelle that they all must treat each other with compassion. Despite this decision, though, they’re unable to stop thinking about themselves, finding it impossible to “get on without making people suffer.” Accordingly, their failure to genuinely empathize with one another is what makes them such perfect torturers.

When the hell-dwellers tell their life stories, it becomes clear that they’re most likely receiving punishment for their failure to love others in an authentic, caring manner. Garcin, for one, reveals that he slept with many women without caring what his wife thought. He even brought home another woman and had sex with her without trying to hide from his wife. “My wife slept upstairs; she must have heard—everything,” he says. “She was an early riser and, as I and the girl stayed in bed late, she served us our morning coffee.” When Inez calls him a “brute,” he doesn’t seem to mind the wretchedness of his behavior. “Yes, a brute, if you like. But a well-beloved brute.” When he says this, he reveals his unwillingness to feel empathy for his wife, only caring about the fact that he himself is “well-beloved.”

Similarly, Estelle cheated on her husband with a younger man, and when she gave birth to his child, she drowned it, at which point he committed suicide. “It was absurd of him, really,” she says to Garcin and Inez, proving that she has very little sympathy for him. In keeping with this callous sentiment, both Garcin and Inez say at various moments throughout the play that they don’t “regret” anything about what they’ve done on earth. In turn, the audience sees that none of them seem to care about how their actions affect other people.

Forced to spend eternity in close proximity with two companions, the characters’ lack of empathy for others becomes a serious problem. Since each one has been placed in the drawing-room to torture the others with his or her presence, they all come to realize the extent to which their actions affect other people. Trying to convince Inez that the way they treat each other will determine whether or not they suffer, Garcin says, “And now suppose we start trying to help each other.” Going on, he adds, “If you make any movement, if you raise your hand to fan yourself, Estelle and I feel a little tug. Alone, none of us can save himself or herself; we’re linked together inextricably.” When he says that he and Estelle will “feel a little tug” if Inez simply moves her hand, he means that anything—and everything—a person does eventually has some kind of influence on the people around them. This is especially true in the closed environment of the drawing-room, where each person’s fate depends upon the interpersonal dynamic that the hell-dwellers create.

Of course, Garcin, Inez, and Estelle have been placed in the drawing-room explicitly because they’re unable to put others before themselves, so Garcin’s desire to foster a kind and empathetic environment is doomed from the start. Inez makes this clear when she calls herself “cruel,” saying, “I can’t get on without making people suffer. Like a live coal. A live coal in others’ hearts.” This suggests that Inez is unavoidably malicious, as if there’s nothing she could possibly do to avoid hurting the people around her. In keeping with this, Garcin and Estelle also fail to show each other true compassion, so all three of the hell-dwellers inevitably end up tormenting each other.

The seeming unavoidability of this result is worth noting, since it suggests Sartre believes that humans are incapable of transcending their own preoccupations in order to empathize with others. Garcin can’t stop obsessing about his reputation long enough to give Estelle the attention she craves, Estelle can’t stop thinking about whether or not she’s worthy of Garcin’s love, and Inez can’t stop hating Garcin for stealing Estelle’s attention. As a result, they perpetuate the interpersonal dynamics that ensure their own despair, demonstrating the unfortunate difficulty humans have overcoming selfishness.