No Exit
"GARCIN: Yes. And that way we—we'll work out our salvation. Looking into ourselves, never raising our heads. Agreed?"
This seems to be a comment on finding one's answer within himself- much good that would do- in hell!
Why the absence of glass? Maybe because it could show one one's soul and that is the last thing one should see in hell? Ah yes:
"ESTELLE [opens her eyes and smiles]: I feel so queer. [She pats herself] Don't you ever get taken that way? When I can't see myself I begin to wonder if I really and truly exist. I pat myself
just to make sure, but it doesn't help much."
and
"GARCIN: I'd give a lot to be able to see myself in a glass."
"INEZ: To forget about the others? How utterly absurd! I feel you there, in every pore. Your silence clamors in my ears. You can nail up your mouth, cut your tongue out—but you can't prevent your being there. Can you stop your thoughts? I hear them ticking a way like a clock, tick-tock, tick-tock, and I'm certain you hear mine. It's all very well skulking on your sofa, but you're everywhere, and every sound comes to me soiled, because you've intercepted it on its way."
"Anything, any thing would be better than this agony of mind, this creeping pain that gnaws and fumbles and ca-resses one and never hurts quite enough."
"GARCIN:[...] So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. Youre-member all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the "burningmarl." Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is—other people!"
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Fascinating dynamic- in the end they all needed each other. For one would complete the other in some way, but the third is in the way. They are so close to salvation, and yet would never achieve it. So they are doomed to live with their evil, without ever getting rid of it.
The Flies
"What, moreover, could you give them in exchange? Good diges-tions, the gray monotony of provincial life, and the boredom—ah, the soul-destroying boredom—of long days of mild content."
"ZEUS: Oh, that's nothing. Just a parlor trick. I'm a fly-charmer in my leisure hours. Good day to
you. We shall meet again. [Exit ZEUS.]"
Lol :)
"A MAN [falling on his knees]: I stink! Oh, how I stink! I am a mass of rottenness. See how the flies are teeming round me, like carrion crows. . . . That's right, my harpies, sting and gouge and scavenge me; bore through my flesh to my black heart. I have sinned a thousand times, I am a sink of ordure, and I reek to heaven."
This is very much like Dostoevsky's Bobok. Where the foul smell represents people's sin.
"Forgive us for living while you are dead."
"ORESTES: I know. Not yet. I'm still too—too light. I must take a burden on my shoulders, aload of guilt so heavy as to drag me down, right down into the abyss of Argos"
The king uses remorse as a way of ruling:
"AEGISTHEUS: You saw what happened? Had I not played upon their fear, they'd have shaken off their remorse in the twin-kling of an eye."
Zeus plays the part of the devil.
"ZEUS: You have. The same as mine. The bane of gods and kings. The bitterness of knowing men are free. Yes, AEgistheus they are free. But your subjects do not know it, and you do."
"ORESTES: Neither slave nor master. I am my freedom. No sooner had you created me than I ceased to be yours."
"ZEUS: Poor people! Your gift to them will be a sad one; of lone-liness and shame. You will tear from their eyes the veils I had laid on them, and they will see their lives as they are, foul and futile, a barren boon.
ORESTES Why, since it is their lot, should I deny them the de-spair I have in me?
ZEUS: What will they make of it?
ORESTES What they choose. They're free; and human life begins on the far side of despair."
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Absolutely sublime ending. It's interesting he brings in the flute-player leading all the ratas away just as in the story Pied Piper. I never thought much about it- it turns out he is the scapgoat for everyone's sins, taking all the filth away. It is also somewhat like Jesus, taking upon all humanity's sins on himsef. And yet he doesn't deny them the despair. It was the fashion of the city to broadcast their sins, and yet not feeling remorse for them. Only one day of the year would they confront their fears, and forget about them the next day until the next year. In this way, Orestes gives them the OPPORTUNITY to LIVE with their remorse. I love the way he justifies it- that something new will come out of it.
In a way the king needed the people's regret in order to rule them, just as the King in the Pied Piper story needed the rats- to keep the people in such a state, a low state, so that they need the king. And yet they all needed each other- like in the Pied Piper I believe that they loved their filth and did not want a change. Just as in this play, the citizens would not know wha tto do with their freedom- lthey liked to be slaves.
What do the flies symbolize? They are the filth of the people, the regrets, the evil surrounding them. And they prey on rotten filth, carcasses, because the people are dead inside. They are slowly killed by their remorse.
Orestes leaves them with "Try to reshape your lives." Maybe they will, but I believe he has too much faith in this despair. Because sometimes, despair destroys and does not give birth to anything new.
Dirty Hands
Dirty Hands
" What if we die and discover that the dead are alive and are simply playing at being dead? We'll see."
"What a shame he didn't marry you! He needs a resolute woman. He could have stayed in your room ironing your underwear while you went out throwing bombs in the square. Then we should all have been very happy."
I like Jessica- the first character, a wife, which has a great personality.
-- I didn't end up finishing it- the whole Soviet/German thing became boring... sorry...
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