Characters from No Exit by Sartre "No Exit", by Jean-Paul Sartre, is a play that illustrates the transition of three people from the desire to be alone in hell to the need for the omnipresent “other” constantly at their side. As the story progresses, the characters' identities become more and more permanent and unchanging. Soon Inez, Garcin and Estelle live in the hope of gaining each other's acceptance. These three characters cannot accept their existentialist condition: they are alone in their emotions, their thoughts and their fears. Therefore, they look to others to make sense of their past lives and present deaths. Trapped forever in Hell, they are condemned to seek the other to find meaning in their lives; even when given the option to leave the room, the characters choose to stay together instead of facing uncertainty and the possibility of being detached from the stability of their relationships with others. Without the others, the characters would have no reason to exist. The meaning of each character depends on the other's opinion of him; Garcin needs someone to deny his cowardice, Inez longs for Estelle's love, and Estelle just wants passion without commitment. This triangle of endless need, anguish and continued disillusionment because of the other is precisely Sartre's definition of pure hell. Garcin, the most complex of the three characters, gradually gives in to the mold in which his death shapes him. As a result, he craves respect from others. At the beginning of the play, Garcin wishes to maintain his privacy in order to be able to “face the situation” (Sartre 5) and “take the measure” (Sartre 5). At first, Garcin doesn't even want help from others; he rejects Inez's presence and would prefer "... middle of paper......more important if one is alone or with a large group of people." The eye of the other is internalized in the minds of these three characters; because of this, Garcin considers himself cowardly, Inez reacts violently towards others because she feels her lifestyle is taboo and therefore must defend it, and Estelle worries about her appearance because she has a vision of what it should look like caused by the other. For these reasons, all the characters are in bad faith. Meaning also determines how characters act and react toward each other. At the end of the play, the characters still cannot accept that there is no meaning even in Hell and this is what becomes the torture. They all seek refuge in each other and discover that there is no way to achieve long-term satisfaction. Works cited: Sartre, Jean Paul. No exit and three other rooms. 1944. NY: Vintage Books, 1989.