Comparative Essay Sample: No Exit by Sartre and Desire Lines by Lush

📌Category: Entertainment, Music, Plays
📌Words: 1536
📌Pages: 6
📌Published: 20 January 2022

The appreciation of literature and art has brought forward distinct truths. The first being, similarities between art and life showcase the complexities of human affairs. In the case of Sartre’s Play, No Exit, and the song, “Desire Lines” by Lush, readers and listeners alike compare the two works of art through the similar topics, tones, and the relationship between song lyrics and each of the characters in No Exit. 

The first eleven seconds of the song, “Desire Lines”, is the sound of a ticking clock. The common idea surrounding ticking clocks is the fact that time cannot be stopped or paused. Time is fleeting and lives are ending. In the play, No Exit, time has run out for the three characters. Whether their deaths be their own fault or not, time has ended for them. Garcin, Inez and Estelle alike are prime examples of time ticking away. Nothing these characters do will ever bring back the time they had on earth. All three characters are oddly okay with the forever they have together. From the following passage, “Inez: Once and for all. So here we are, forever…Estelle: My God, how funny! Forever… Garcin [Looks at the two women, and joins in the laughter]: For ever, and ever, and ever” (Sartre 46). These characters are aware the clock has run out for them and they cannot do anything to change it. Garcin, Estelle and Inez are nothing but a forgotten memory.

The next similarity between No Exit and “Desire Lines” is the melancholy tone in both works. When listening to the song, feelings of nostalgia and sadness are prevalent in the words and instruments. While reading the play, the setting of the inescapable room and the properness of the environment make the tone stick out even more. From the reading, “A drawing-room in Second Empire style” (Sartre 3). The environment the characters are forced to “live” in is uncomfortable and sad. “Live” is in quotation marks because the characters are not living, they are dead, but they all seem to still have human qualities. All three characters have feelings and senses, just like when they were alive. Moreover, a Second Empire style room is almost unlivable and being trapped there forever is also an element of Sartre’s hell. Garcin, Estelle and Inez are trapped in this hell to torture each other for eternity. Further, the shoegaze style song has quiet drawn-out words that are almost overshadowed by the incredible instrument use. The song sounds like how the play reads.

In terms of Sartre’s hell, the little human tendencies are taken away. No eyelids, no light switches, and no alone time are the elements in life that are no longer available in hell. The climate of the room is also mentioned, and the fact that none of the characters know each other relates to the song even more. From the song, “And it’s so hot outside this room” (Lush), this line alone relates to the play in multiple ways, in terms of setting. From the reading, “Garcin: Whew! How hot it is here!” (Sartre 13) and “Inez: All right shut the door. It’s ten times hotter here since it opened” (Sartre 42). Also, the heat outside the room could imply that something worse is outside the once unpleasant room. The room is now a safe place for the three characters because none of them want to know what lies outside the door. Moving on, the song also talks about being surrounded by people, “I don’t know no one here I don’t want to be here in this room” (Lush). These lines can also directly relate to the fact that none of the three characters in the play know each other. From the reading, “Estelle [hesitantly]: I wonder, now. Don’t you think we may have met one another at some time in our lives?... Inez: Never… Garcin: We’ve never met” (Sartre 14). These characters have never met each other in life, none of them are related and they do not have similar friends. Readers may wonder why then these three have been put together for eternity. To answer, each of these characters are put in each other’s path to torture one another. All three are capable of torturing on a mental level. The characters do not know each other, but how each one lived their life, who they were, and how they act is torturous to the others.

The song, “Desire Lines” has lyrics that can be connected to each character in No Exit. From the second verse of lyrics, 

“And I’ll heal you when you’re ill 

Though it’s hard keeping still

In our sleep” (Lush).

The lyrics imply carefulness with another person and the nervousness from the actual caretaker. The caretaker cannot keep still in sleep because of the other persons sickness. This must mean that the caretaker and the sick person have a deep relationship with one another. They both feel one another’s pain. Throughout Sartre’s play, the characters are careful which each other’s feelings at first, especially Garcin. Here, “Garcin [gently]: I wish neither of you any harm, and I’ve got no concern with you” (Sartre 17) and “Garcin: Oh, I didn’t mean it rudely” (Sartre 22). Garcin is careful with Estelle at first. I think Garcin’s carefulness is almost him trying to make up for his awfulness on earth. While on earth, “…Night after night I came home blind drunk, stinking of wine and women…A word was enough to make her flinch… I’m fond of teasing” (Sartre 24). Readers may question why Garcin acted so terribly to his wife on earth. Eventually, readers learn Garcin did run away from war, so it is possible he is afraid commitment. Garcin’s wife was a commitment, but the women he picked up were just little one-night occurrences. Now that he is dead, Garcin realizes he cannot change his life. Garcin has the freedom to choose who he will be in death, and that may be different than he was in life. There are no commitments in hell.

Towards the end of the song, the lyrics read, “Don’t ask them to understand” (Lush). And throughout the play, the most understandable and shallow character, Estelle, is seen as the odd one out. Estelle is concerned with everything except for the fact that she is in hell. From the reading, “Estelle: It’s those sofas. They’re so hideous” (Sartre 10) and “You’re sitting on my sofa” (Sartre 12). Estelle is afraid to address her true self, or why she is really in hell. “Estelle: [quickly]: I haven’t a notion, not the foggiest. In fact, I’m wondering if there hasn’t been some ghastly mistake” (Sartre 14). Estelle cannot let Garcin and Inez know who she truly is. Estelle is always projecting her “Dream Self”, so no one suspects she is anything but perfect. There are no mirrors for her to see how she looks. Estelle cannot be-for-others if she has no idea how she is presenting herself. This causes her distress. Why? Estelle only flourishes when she is being objectified and peered at by others. Estelle needs Inez and Garcin so she knows she is still there, that Estelle is still real even if they are all in hell. Estelle would not expect Garcin or Inez to understand her, she just wants them to look at her. Estelle would not expect that Garcin or Inez care that the sofa colors are off, or that the room is too hot, or men in their undershirts make her loathe after them. Estelle cannot ask them to understand her, and neither Garcin nor Inez could anyway.

While analyzing Inez, the tough character in the No Exit, readers eventually learn of how she died. From the play, “For six months I flamed away in her heart, till there was nothing but a cinder. One night she got up and turned on the gas stove while I was asleep. Then she crept back into bed” (Sartre 26). The word choice is interesting here, Florence crept. Not got into bed, or laid in bed, but crept. Usually when someone creeps around they are menacing or trying to be secretive. This quote seems like both people in this relationship were cruel. It is possible that Florence is just as hurtful as Inez. Florence could have left at any time, but she stayed. Florence could have left after lighting the stove, but she stayed. Inez must have had a deep power over Florence for Florence to not only kill Inez but also kill herself. From the song, “Desire Lines”, the lines read, 

“We hold parties in our sleep 

We fill ourselves up in our sleep” (Lush). 

Inez died in her sleep. These lyrics imply that sleep is restful and people relax or replenish themselves while sleeping. It is interesting that Inez’s last time sleeping was the same time she was murdered. This could imply that even in death Inez was going to die in accord to her cruelness in life. In the play, Inez says, “I mean I can’t get on without making people suffer” (Sartre 26). Therefore, Inez needs Garcin and Estelle. Inez must cause suffering for other people so she can be her “Dream Self”. This also begs the question, why does Inez have to make others suffer, why can’t Inez make herself suffer and be content with that? To answer, Inez is suffering at every point in her life. Even when she is hurting other people, she is hurting too. The sleep in the song is drastically different than the sleep Inez endures at the end of her life. 

“Desire Lines” by Lush and Sartre’s No Exit have very similar topics, tones, and settings. Each line in this song can relate to one element in the play: whether it be the actual words, implied meanings, or the characters, or even the instruments! If the play, No Exit, were to have a soundtrack, the song, “Desire Lines”, would be the first and the last in the lineup.

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