No Exit

No Exit Summary | Part 1 Summary

A Valet shows Garcin into a room decorated with antique furniture, including three sofas upholstered in different colors, and a large bronze statue. Garcin asks where all the instruments of torture are, but the Valet laughs and suggests that Garcin is joking. Garcin notices there are no mirrors or windows, nothing that can offer a reflection. He then complains that he hasn't been allowed to keep a toothbrush. The Valet comments calmly that there really isn't any need for a toothbrush. Garcin notices that there is no bed and realizes there is not a need to sleep in the same way, just as there is not need for brushing his teeth. He asks what's outside the room. The Valet tells him passages, more rooms, and stairs. Garcin tries to move the statue, but discovers that it's immovable. He wonders if it's possible to turn out the lights and Valet replies that it rarely happens. Garcin says," It's always daylight" and notices that the Valet doesn't blink. One has to "live" with one's eyes open all the time, Garcin thinks. The Valet asks whether Garcin needs anything else. Garcin asks whether the Valet will come if the bell is rung, but the Valet tells him that the bell doesn't always work. Garcin discovers a paper knife, but doesn't understand why it is in the room.

A moment or two later,rGarcin tries to ring the bell and tries to get the door open; the Valet reappears and brings in Inez. He appears surprised when she says nothing but tells her that if she has any questions she can ask Garcin, then leaves.

Inez asks Garcin about where Florence is. When he tells her he has no idea, she says it doesn't matter; she won't miss her at all. Inez believes Garcin is to be her" torturer," except Garcin introduced himself as a journalist and writer. He asks her what a torturer looks like to her. She tells him that a torturer looks frightened - that she knows from watching herself in a mirror. Garcin suggests they be very polite with each other and that will ease their situation a great deal. She accuses him of being afraid, saying there might have been a point to being afraid "before." He says it still is before; the suffering hasn't yet begun. They settle down to wait.

After a few moments of silence, the door opens a third time. The Valet admits Estelle, who had expected Garcin to be someone with a ruined face - she is surprised to see that his face if fine. Estelle asks the Valet if anyone else is coming and he tells her, "No.". She laughs about the ugliness of the furniture, and complains that the one sofa left for her is the wrong color to go with her dress. Inez offers her sofa but Estelle refuses, hinting that Garcin's might be better. Garcin gets up and then offers the sofa to her. Estelle suggests they introduce themselves, and then Estelle dismisses the valet.

Inez flirts with Estelle but Estelle focuses on a vision she's having of her funeral. She teasingly urges her sister to cry, and makes a comment about how her friend Olga isn't crying because she doesn't want to ruin her makeup. Inez asks whether Estelle suffered, and says she was only half conscious while dying of pneumonia. She adds her husband's not at the funeral, but is at home, prostrate with grief. Inez reveals she was killed because of a leak from a gas stove, while Garcin tells that he was shot twelve times in the chest. As Estelle and Inez react with shock, he comments that he's not good company "among the dead." Estelle says she prefers the word, "absent." Then, in the same way as Estelle saw her funeral, Garcin sees his wife waiting for news of him. He describes her as always wearing black and complains that she always got on his nerves. He sits on Estelle's sofa and holds his head in his hands.