0 Hiding from ourselves in each other...

"No Exit" is a wonderfully deep story about the pits of hell without the general fanfare expected with it. The premise was brilliant, with the well-known quote the thesis and the rest of the book the support. "Hell is other people." This is show through the characters themselves. Each of the three have carefully cultivated pasts and personalities that are born to get under the others' skins. Estelle is Inez's past victim  while Inez is the woman who took Estelle's man after her death. To Estelle, Garcin is the man she coveted and ruined her life with and to him she is his wife, his victim and Inez is one of his many critics. And it's absolutely great, the fact that the characters link up with each other like that. It's absolutely perfect.

But something they don't address but I think is evident is hell is ourselves as much as it is other people. The three are tortured by who they are and where and they're memories as much as they are tortured by each other. If not for themselves being themselves, the others would have no effect on them.

I think that's why I truly enjoyed No Exit, because the underlying theme there. Anywhere can be your own personal hell because you can have it be so.