No Exit

Questions About No Exit

by Jean-Paul Sartre

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No Exit was a college assignment in the 1960's. A study group recently discussed rest, rest as a gift from God. If memory serves, it was in No Exit that the 3 tormented residents had no eye lids which implies the absence of rest. Can anyone confirm my memory?
Anna There are references early on, spoken by Garcin, to sleep and rest being absent. The exact quote: (though not necessarily from this edition but the on…moreThere are references early on, spoken by Garcin, to sleep and rest being absent. The exact quote: (though not necessarily from this edition but the one I have at hand) "Your eyelids. We move ours up and down. Blinking, we call it. It's like a small black shutter that clicks down and makes a break. Everything goes black; one's eyes are moistened. You can't imagine how restful, refreshing, it is. Four thousand little rests per
hour. Four thousand little respites--just think!...So that's the idea. I'm to live without eyelids."
I believe he's simply being hyperbolic, and expands on the idea of sleep and rest no longer being possible by pushing it to the point of absurdity (and mocking the Valet in the process by sort of "suggesting" a worse torture than they have concocted for him), as later Inez also remarks on looking at Estelle "without a flutter of her eyelids", implying that she has them.

Plus, for all the talk of attraction, they'd all look pretty ghastly without eyelids, lol.(less)
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