It is time for another blog entry... Hurray!

Today let´s discuss these topics
(topics are going to be separated so that if you are looking for some particular information it is going to be easier for you):

• Who are the main characters?  What are they like?

As we know from the previous entry in this play there are only 4 characters and the whole story is set in "Second Empire drawing-room". Let's imagine that the room of their afterlife looks something like this one:

Remember that there are no things to entertain you (windows, mirrors, books etc.).

Garcin: (Joseph Garcin) his is a coward and heartless person, he deserted the army during World War II and he was cheating on his wife a lot during his life - she died because of sadness -  (no surprise that he is in "hell"). Inez understands his flaws, therefore he does not like her in the beginning and he somehow needs Estelle because if she treats him as a man he will become more manly.

Estelle: (Estelle Rigault) is a woman from high-society - snobbish, she married some old man because of his money and of course was cheating on him with another young man. This young man was in love with her and they had a baby, however, Estelle drowned the child. For this reason her young lover committed suicide (no surprise that she is in "hell").

Inez: (Inez Serrano) the second woman in this play, she is a postal clerk and lesbian, her sin is that she was manipulating a wife against her husband, she manipulated her that much that the woman changed the perception about her husband completely and she killed him eventually. Interesting about this character is that she is the only honest character there that is aware of bad things they all have done. She is also aware of the fact that she is a cruel person as she call herself once "a damned bitch" (no surprise that she is in "hell").

Valet: is the second man in this play, his role is to enter the room with each character. We know very little about this character because his only big dialogue is in the beginning with Garcia. From the dialogue we know that his uncle is the head valet in that place. I think that this character is very interesting, because there are not many information about him, so that the reader is forced to think "who is that guy? what is he doing there?". It is not that crucial to interpret his role in this play so I will leave that to you so that you can read it and think on your own ;).

• How do they help define and create the events that happen within the play? Where does the majority of the tension lie? What, in general, is the play about?

As we understand from the description of the play, this play hasn't got complicated story with dozens of side plots. It is simply about 3 (without Valet) absolutely different people that have to stay together in one room. Therefore we can deduce that the play has psychological plot, it is more about thinking "why" rather than watching some lame story. Those 3 characters are developing a dialogue and we can observe their conversation. 

What about the tension in this play? Well, we have to realize that those 3 characters, I dare say (because it is my blog and I have never used any rude word in any assignments at school and I was saying this all the time when I was reading the play) they all had fucked up lives so they cannot be surprised that their afterlife is even worse. However, the hell in this play is the situation that a person that had a bad life ends up with people like himself. We can see that all of them are totally different and that they are not going to be able to cope with each other.  All 3 characters expect to be tortured, but instead of physical torture they are left there for ever. After a while they realize that this is their punishment: they are each other's torturers. Can you even imagine more tension?

When I was reading I realized that those people there had really bad lives so after their death they could not "live in" their memories, because they were too bad. Moreover they do not want to share that much those bad stories with other strangers so that the situation cannot be possibly worse, when they are there forever. When I was reading I understood Dalai Lama's sentence "Spend some time alone every day" (great-inspirational-quotes) because as Sartre said "Hell is other people" (brainyquote)... I love plays like this one, it makes you think and every individual is going to interpret it in his own way so that everybody can learn something from this play. I will hold back my other theories and interpretations until I finish the whole play... 

...so when you see a T-shirt like this, don't think that the person is being rude to all people around....

For the next time everybody please try to imagine this situation on your own, so that we can understand the plot more. Choose people you hate or simply dislike when you are with them more than certain amount of time... then imagine you are with them FOREVER - enjoy.

cheers

chris

--> "Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes." BrainyQuote.com. BookRags Media Network , n. d. Web. 1 Feb. 2012. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jeanpaul_sartre.html>
--> "Dalai Lama Quotes." Great-Inspirational-Quotes. BookRags Media Network , n. d. Web. 1 Feb. 2012. <http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/dalai-lama-quotes.htmll>