No Exit Character List

Joseph Garcin
Garcin was once a journalist in Rio de Janeiro. He claims to have been shot on the grounds of
being a pacifist, but his dread of his own cowardice eats away at him throughout the play. He had
a wife whom he treated like a dog: he would often stumble home drunk after a long night of
womanizing, and once even brought a "half-caste" girl into his home as a sort of mistress. He was
arrested while trying to flee the country after the war broke out, and was executed by a firing
squad.
Estelle Rigault
A beautiful Parisian lady, Estelle was married to a man many years older than she. Her lover tried
to convince her to leave her husband, but he was poor and she would not comply. When she
became pregnant with his child, she went with him to Switzerland and secretly gave birth there.
In an act of vicious spite, she drowned the baby in the lake before her lover's eyes. As a result,
he shot himself. When she first enters the drawing room, she immediately comments that the
sofas are badly arranged and that she needs a mirror in order to apply her makeup. Slowly, she
breaks down, pleading Garcin for his affection, hungering for a man.
Inez Serrano
A postal worker and the poorest of the three characters, Inez is a cynic through and through, and
far less deluded than Estelle or Garcin. Never does she argue that her damnation was a mistake;
never does she attempt to defend her misdeeds. A lesbian, she was once in love with a woman
named Florence, whose husband was her cousin. She ran away with Florence, but the affair did
not last long. One night, Florence turned on the gas and killed them both. Now Inez's attentions
are focused on Estelle, but her attraction is thwarted by Estelle's own lust and Garcin's presence.
When she does not get her way, Inez is capable of great cruelty; although she is no more
malicious than the other characters, she nonetheless wields greater power because of her
willingness to go for the jugular.
The Valet
Prim and proper, he shows the three characters into the drawing room and promptly disappears,
never to be seen again.
Olga
A friend of Estelle's who reveals Estelle's secret past to Peter.
Peter
A man in love with Estelle.
Gomez
One of Garcin's compatriots. Time and again, Garcin tries to see what Gomez is saying about him.
Florence
Inez's love, and the woman who killed her.

No Exit Summary

Inez, Estelle, and Garcin are in hell - that is to say, a Second Empire drawing room with no
windows, no mirrors, and a single locked door. Once they come to terms with their situation,
they begin to wonder why they have been sent to hell. What crimes did they commit? Garcin
argues that he was a pacifist who stood up for his principles, while Estelle explains that all she
did was refuse to leave her husband for a lover.

The characters decide to stay quiet and keep to themselves. This attempt at non-interaction does
not last for long, however. Inez is attracted to Estelle and repeatedly tries to win the pretty
Parisian over. Garcin, annoyed, finally reveals why he is in hell after all: he treated his wife
"abominably." He then procures Inez's story: she ran away with her cousin's wife. Estelle is next
in line. Inez and Garcin gang up on her and coax out the details of her sordid past: when she
became pregnant with her lover's child, she fled to Switzerland with him, gave birth, and drowned
the newborn baby. Her lover killed himself as a result.

Estelle, hungry for a man's attention, begs for Garcin's affection - much to Inez's dismay. Tensions
come to a boil when Garcin demands that Estelle trust him, and reveals his greatest worry: that
he may be a coward. It turns out that his "pacifism" was expressed by his attempt to flee his
country instead of courageously facing down his opponents at home. For that crime, he was
sentenced to death, and, as he confesses, he faced his demise "miserably...rottenly." Inez now
has a leg up and digs deep into Garcin's conscience, tormenting him with the specter of his
cowardice.

When the door to the room swings open and Garcin is given the opportunity to escape, however,
he chooses to stay, determined to convince Inez that he is not a coward, but Inez refuses to play
along. Finally, after Estelle, in a rage, tries to kill Inez (who, of course, is already dead) with a
paper knife, Garcin cries out: "Hell is - other people!"