The Existential Manipulation of Freedom in Sartre's No Exit

Abstract

Sartre's belief that God is dead does not imply that God has never existed or is not there now. It indicates that God does not have roles to play in people's lives, which generates and inspires humans' freedom and the consequent sense of responsibility. This unique association between the death of God, on the one hand, and freedom and responsibility, on the other, constitutes the spine of Sartre's No Exit (1989). Thus, this paper examines Sartre's No Exit (1989) in terms of his Being and Nothingness (1969) and Existentialism Is a Humanism (2007). The paper deciphers several scenes through which Sartre's freedom-oriented viewpoints are articulated, concluding that Sartre's characters in this play are entirely free due to their belief in the death of God. Yet, they are not ready to acknowledge their freedom due to its inevitable association with anguishing responsibility.