No Exit VS Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

In the two works of literature The Scarlet Letter and No Exit, the relationships between the main characters can be used to question morality, and understand justice. The relationships in both works follow the same principals and trends, despite the time periods they were written in. In the play No Exit, by Jean Sartre, the author attempts to describe his vision of what Hell is, a subject that many have pondered, but none really know. Sartre was under the impression that Hell had nothing to do with the fire and brimstone, as many people before him believed. He instead voiced his thoughts through the characters of No Exit. â€Å"Obviously there aren’t any physical torments†¦and yet we’re in hell. And no one else will come here. We’ll stay in this room together, the three of us, forever and ever†¦in short there’s someone absent here, the official torturer†¦each of us shall act as the torturer of the two others.† (No Exit, p. 22) The three main characters in this play, Inez, Garcin, and Estelle create the hell they were banished to, but not by using the â€Å"racks and red-hot pincers† of the past, but by hurting each other in a disturbed form of a â€Å"love triangle†, where the love really doesnâ€⠄¢t exist. In this complicated triangle Inez is attracted to Estelle, who is in turn needs a man such as Garcin to desire and notice her. Thus Garcin can hurt Inez by pretending to desire Estelle, or hurt Estelle by not caring. Garcin however, will never be at rest until Inez recognizes that he is not a coward. Thus, the triangle is complete, and the three create hell for each other. Even when they realize the problem, they can do nothing to save each other. â€Å"They’ve laid their snare damned cunningly†¦Alone none of us can save himself or herself; we’re linked together inextricably.†(No Exit p. 38) On top of this, none of the three are very truthful with each other, and any relationship between them is strained at best. This is Sartre’s vision of hell. Very similar to Sartre’s hell, are the relationships between the characters in The Scarlet Letter. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter the priest of a Puritan settlement, Arthur Dimmesdale commits adultery with a young woman by the name of Hester Prynne. When Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingsworth returns from overseas to find his wife with a newborn baby, and a brilliant scarlet letter across her chest, both constant reminders of her sin, he vows to find her partner and extract his revenge upon him.