Friday, October 30, 2015
Garcin's essence
In class we touched on Garcin's cowardice and how he did not leave the room when the door open. It seemed that the general agreement was that his cowardice kept him from leaving the room. However, I think it was Garcin's pride that kept him from leaving. This pride is his essence and Garcin is obsessed with how others perceive In his life he was remembered as a coward. His final moments on earth were spent cowering in fear and that is what he is remembered for. In No Exit, he has been recognized as a coward Estelle and Inez, I think that Garcin wants to leave that forsaken room, but knows that if he does he will forever be judged as a coward, even in hell.
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3 comments:
I agree, I think that the only thing keeping Garcin from leaving was that Inez was the last person that he would ever be able to convince that he was not a coward. It was not his fear of what was on the outside. If he would have gone, like Antonio said, he would forever be a coward, because he would never be able to convince another human that he was not. And he specifically wanted to convince Inez, first of all because she is one of the two only people their, but also because she would be the most difficult to convince. Estelle said she didn't care either way because she just wanted his body, but if he was able to convince Inez, it would be more of an accomplishment and better proof to himself that he was not a coward.
I think it was almost both. Garcin begs to be let out of the room and then all of a sudden he changes his mind once that door is open. I feel like the only thing that could change his mind that fast would be fear. He fears what's on the other side of the door and therefore he starts to think about whether or not he should go- and rationalized not going by thinking about what was still available to him in the room, Inez. So I think fear was definitely a factor but he also was rational about his actual decision and probably didn't act completely out of cowardice.
Garcin, Estelle, and Inez are all each others' torturers. They were put in the same room specifically so that they could torture each other for eternity. (Note: "Hell is other people.") Clearly, Garcin's character is complex enough to debate over whether his leaving the room with Inez and Estelle would have made him a coward or would have expressed his true inner bravery. I think that Garcin was actually showing more bravery in staying in the room with the two other people, or "facing his hell" one could say. Garcin is going to try to prove for eternity his morality to Inez, who would never believe a liar. This is Garcin's ultimate punishment.
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