©ARC Page | 15 Sartre’s Existentialist Viewpoint in No Exit

Abstract: This paper attempts to render a Sartrean existentialistic analysis of No Exit. Although drama was only a small part of Jean Paul Sartre’s remarkable oeuvre that included the central texts of French existentialism- the philosophical movement that he named and spearheaded- in the forms of novels, essays, and an almost continual stream of articles, Sartre is unique among philosophers in illustrating his ideas in literary works. Of his nine plays No Exit is centrally important both as a crucial text applying the philosophical precepts that dominated the post World War II era and as a formulation of a new kind of drama that significantly influenced the theater in the second half of the 20 th century. No Exit is one of philosophy’s most profound contributions to the theater and all of Samuel Beckett’s major plays, and by extension the theater of the absurd, ultimately derive from it. No Exit therefore commands attention as a vehicle for its influential ideas and its dramatic methods that established possibilities for the drama. No Exit and the ideas that gave birth to it derived from Sartre’s attempt to make sense of the moral and metaphysical implications of the German occupation of France during World War II. Although Sartre is most well known for his straightforward philosophical analysis in Being and Nothingness, his arguments and theories are conveniently summarized in his novels, short stories, and plays. No Exit was written one year after Being and Nothingness. As a result, many of the themes and symbolism in the play support Sartre’s arguments in the larger and longer philosophical work