No Exit

What is hell in Garcin's mind?

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One of the first remarks Garcin makes upon his entrance into the drawing room is that there are no torture instruments. As it turns out, Estelle and Inez provide all the torture Garcin needs. "Hell is - other people," he proclaims, and indeed the torture he suffers stems from the tensions between him and the two women, as well as from within himself. When he can no longer stand it, Garcin cries out, in one of the play's most chilling passages: "I'll endure anything, your red-hot tongs and molten lead, your racks and prongs and garrotes - all your fiendish gadgets, everything that burns and flays and tears - I'll put up with any torture you impose. Anything, anything would be better than this agony of mind, this creeping pain that gnaws and fumbles and caresses one and never hurts quite enough."

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