No Exit

Existentialism is a school of philosophy where human life derives meaning through action. The world is a series of acts, and meaning flows from our actions that alter the world around us. Sartre gave a lecture at a little-know club in 1945 titled “Existentialism Is a Humanism,” which was turned into a short book the following year. This lecture is the first time Sartre applies the term “existentialist” to himself, a term he had previously rejected.

In the lecture, he outlines existentialism and defends it from various critiques, stating that it is perhaps the most optimistic outlook one can have on human life. He says that “existence precedes essence.” (Sartre, Jean-Paul. “Existentialism Is a Humanism”. Homepages.wmich.edu.)

Only our actions determine meaning for our lives, he says. Meaning, or “essence,” always comes after the fact of doing, or “existing.” This idea became the core tenet of existentialist thought.

Many of the specifics in “Existentialism Is a Humanism” appear first in No Exit. Sartre uses a paper knife in both. The characters in No Exit also use many of Sartre’s phrases almost word-for-word. Inez, at the climax of the play, tells Garcin: “You are—your life, and nothing else” (45). When defining the doctrine of existentialism, Sartre says: “Man is […] nothing else but what his life is.” (“Existentialism Is a Humanism.”) There is roughly a year between the publications of these works. Sartre gave the lecture less than a year after Germany officially left France. For Sartre and other existentialists, it is impossible to separate existentialism from the experience of World War II.

World War II caused a dramatic break with many traditions and past ways of thinking. This is in large part due to the horrors of the war—genocide, brutal repression, disease outbreaks, and starvation. Other factors, like the complete reordering of economic life and global trade, also contribute to this break. Old ways of living, working, and understanding died with the war, which led people to reconsider how they lived and approached living. The war’s atrocities robbed meaning from many people and made life seem absurd and illogical. The astronomical death toll meant nearly everyone in Europe had lost people they knew. People wondered what it meant to be connected to others. A common society with shared meaning and purpose were no longer apparent.

Existentialism dealt with horror and lack of meaning—not by dismissing them, but by accepting them as fundamental parts of life: Out of absurdity we create meaning together. The despair that many felt was, for the existentialist, an unveiling of what was always behind the curtain. Sartre writes that “man is condemned to be free.” (“Existentialism Is a Humanism.”) The word “condemned” indicates that freedom to act is not an easy burden, often leading to despair and evil. Existentialism explains that humans are just as free to create atomic bombs and annihilate themselves as they are to have a cigarette or share a cup of coffee.

By offering answers to the questions left in the wake of a horrible war, existentialism became incredibly popular and spread its influence far. Its impact can still be seen today in media and art that deals with absurdity and human freedom.