In Jean Paul Sartre’s play, “No Exit,” three characters are trapped in a room for all eternity as punishment for their sins on earth. Sartre has filled the text with numerous amazing literary elements, one of which being imagery. In “No Exit,” the letter opener is used by Sartre as an important symbol throughout the text to represent how meaningless the characters’ lives have become and accent the fact that they are truly dead.
The letter opener in the play helps Sartre establish a sense of lack of purpose that will be continued throughout the play. At the begining, Cradeau is shown to the room by the bellboy. Cradeau asks the bellboy about his life outside of work, and discovers that the bellboy does not do anything besides work.
CRADEAU. You must have
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(Struggling as if she were being tickled and laughing) What are you doing? Are you crazy? You know perfectly well that I’m dead.
ESTELLE. Dead? (She lets the knife fall)
INEZ. (Picks up the knife and stabs herself furiously) Dead! Dead! Dead! (Sartre 52)
The reality of being dead is incredibly tough for Estelle for multiple reasons. It’s hard because since she is such a materialistic person, constantly worrying about where her mirror is, she had no proof that she was dead, and will never be able to continue living her former life, and Inez surviving many stabbings is a huge wake up call. Also being dead is a hard thing to come to terms with because since you the torturing is forever, there will never being a chance to right your wrongs, again leading to the torture being pointless. Jean Paul Sartre was used imagery in the writing of his play to help convey ideas that would have been a hard thing to express by just actions and dialogue. The most important instance of imagery is the use of the letter opener. In “No Exit,” the letter opener is used by Sartre as an important symbol throughout the text to represent how meaningless the characters’ lives have become and accent the fact that they are truly