Jean-Paul Sartre
Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 247 pages Rating: 4.07 | 9320 Users | 221 Reviews
Details Books During Huis clos, suivi de Les mouches
| ISBN: | 2070368076 (ISBN13: 9782070368075) |
| Edition Language: | French |
Explanation Toward Books Huis clos, suivi de Les mouches
The Nobel Prize 1964 goes to the perfect description of Hell!And Sartre, clever and free, refuses to accept the honour, knowing full well the implications of binding oneself to the hellish feeling of owing something to an institution, however honorable it may seem. A truly independent spirit who knew everything of the prisons human beings carry with them wherever they go: their minds full of desire for the things that are out of reach.
The only laureate ever to decline the prize out of conviction (Pasternak had to decline after pressure from the state), he is nonetheless a worthy (non-)laureate. It is not within his power to un-choose himself.
I read Huis Clos for the first time in High School. It immediately made a huge impression on me and has followed me ever since. The story is so straightforward and bitter. Three people, a man and two women, enter Hell and are at first relieved to discover that it is merely a room, not a torture chamber. They can't sleep anymore, so there is no relief from reality, but in the beginning, they have good hopes of getting along.
They are still engaged in the lives of people that they left behind in their previous living existence, and they suffer from their powerlessness to influence and manipulate the world. Slowly but steadily, their focus shifts to their new acquaintances in Hell, and now the torture begins. After confessing the reasons for their stay in Hell (vanity, cruelty, brutality etc...), they start to take an interest in each other and try to form alliances. But as human hearts go, they desire what they cannot have, and they discover they are stuck in an eternal triangle of unreciprocated desire, powerless to change the constellation or even just get a moment of relief.
"L'enfer, c'est Les Autres", one character sighs.
Utterly frustrated, one of the characters even tries to kill another, to face the silliness of the act immediately afterwards:
"Morte! Morte! Morte! Ni le couteau, ni le poison, ni la corde. C'est déjà fait, comprends-tu? Et nous sommes ensemble pour toujours."
This is Sartre's best play in my opinion, with a dark sense of humour in the bleak setting. I love the ending when the characters resign themselves to the fact that they are forever trapped in the hell of their triangle and decide to just go on annoying each other. There is nothing else to do:
"Continuons!"
My only question now is, as Sartre created this realistic scenario of humans torturing each other with their wishes and vanities, who is in his Huis Clos? Imagine Sartre sitting in his own hell now, who is there to anti-entertain him? Of the women and men he knew, who would be best suited to torture him in eternity? Or did he earn a place in heaven for resisting the greed to accept the Nobel Prize money? But heaven is populated as well, right? With a whole bunch of highly annoying people.
Or is he alone with himself, like Captain Jack Sparrow in Davy Jones' locker? Sartre discussing Sartre with Sartre in eternity. Hard to tell if that is heaven or hell.
Fabulous play, unsure if it counts in my Nobel month countdown or not!
Identify Out Of Books Huis clos, suivi de Les mouches
| Title | : | Huis clos, suivi de Les mouches |
| Author | : | Jean-Paul Sartre |
| Book Format | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 247 pages |
| Published | : | December 18th 2000 by Folio (first published 1946) |
| Categories | : | Cultural. France. Plays. Classics. Theatre. Fiction. Philosophy |
Rating Out Of Books Huis clos, suivi de Les mouches
Ratings: 4.07 From 9320 Users | 221 ReviewsAssessment Out Of Books Huis clos, suivi de Les mouches
The existentialist philosopher, Jean Paul Satre, was a man of letters, writing plays, novels, and screenplays, and of course, philosophy. He was a lot of things in his time, including a political activist (Marxist), and a literary critic. Everything Ive read of his is supremely intelligent and thoroughly thought out, and it all makes me sense that he really has something valuable to say. And these couple plays only encouraged me to read more from Sartre in the future. They are short vignettesHell is other people. It's a terrific piece of theatre. Though every time I read this play - I have unfortunately never seen it performed - it occurs to me that, logically, heaven should be other people too, and that Sartre is perhaps taking an unjustifiably gloomy view. There is an incident in Huis Clos where one of the characters offers another one her eyes to use as a mirror. (There are no mirrors in Hell). I have wondered several times whether the Velvet Underground's track "I'll be your
Hell Is Other PeopleThis short play provides a good introduction to some of Sartres key ideas about existence and human relationships. Admittedly, the characters are the extremes a good melodrama should have, so the audience can safely distance itself from their reality, while at the same time being fascinated by their behavior and stories. Joseph Garcin, known by his last name in the play, Inez Serrano and Estelle Rigaut, the women known by their first names, are the three people discovered
A true masterpiece I highly recommend it
"L'Enfer, C'est les autres."What is Hell to you?The description of Hell presented by Existencialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte is the most accurate I have ever seen so far. Three despictable people forever locked inside a room, getting on each other's nerves, desiring unattainable goals. Simple, neat and efficient - nothing of the glory of John Milton, no clichées of torture chambers and still no way out of the crescendo teethclenching boredom & tension. If Sartre would ask for my personal
No Exit is very famous, and probably with good reason. The famous-with-good-reason phrase "Hell is other people" comes from it, and it makes quite a lot of sense in context (if not in, you know, real life or Christian psychology-- what's that, Hopkins? "God's most deep decree/ Bitter would have me taste. My taste was me"). The Flies is a little much. It's a retelling of the Orestiad, but without grace (i.e. Eliot) or justice (i.e. Aeschylus). All it's got to offer is Freedom, which apparently
"Huis Clos" is theater reduced to its essence: three people locked in a room. The informative method is masterly: the reader initially is completely lost, but after a while he gets to know what is going on with the characters (they are dead). Then the room becomes a chemistry experiment: the characters interacts and that, consistent with Sartre's human vision, ends badly. Beautiful illustration of "L'enfer c'est les autres". But you still end up feeling unsatisfied at the end: there was more to
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