Toward the end of the play, Orestes enunciates the moral of the
story and of Sartrean existentialism: “For I, Zeus, am a man, and every
man must find out his own way” (Flies 122 ). Yet, the hero’s “authenti-
city” is imperfect, since the freedom he exemplifies is for himself
alone; his sister and townspeople reject it and he leaves, pursued,
no doubt, by the furies for his crime.^39
We noted that 1943 was a very productive year for Sartre. Besides
Being and NothingnessandThe Flies, he accepted the invitation from
the film company Pathe ́to write scenarios for possible production near or
after the approaching liberation. Two of Sartre’s several submissions
eventually came to fruition,The Chips are Down(as a short story and
film in 1947 ) andTyphus, published posthumously by Gallimard ( 2007 ).
We are reminded of his early interest in the egalitarian character of the
seventh art. As Arlette Elkaı ̈m-Sartre observed, Sartre looked to the
equivalent ofMetropolisandBirth of a Nationas indicators of the power
of the cinema to “speak of the masses to the masses.”^40 He would
continue to write scenarios, the most famous of which was his lengthy
and ill-fated work on the life of Freud for John Houston.^41 As his life and
interests became more politicized, he turned increasingly to the popular
press, interviews, occasional pieces, radio and television to communicate
and promote his political views to the general public.
Doubtless, Sartre’s best-known and most frequently performed play
isHuis Clos(No ExitorIn Camera).^42 It too was written in 1943 (in a
fortnight) but premiered in Paris in May 1944. Sartre had asked Albert
Camus to direct the piece and take the male lead. Camus accepted at first
and the initial rehearsals were held in Simone de Beauvoir’s hotel
room.^43 Why he later withdrew is unclear. One of the female leads,
Olga Barbezat, was arrested and her husband was no longer interested
(^39) Sartre will later link Orestes with the “will to liberation” and see him as “a man who does not
wish to be severed from his people” so that, when the masses can and must become
conscious of themselves, “he can return in peace into anonymity and be at rest within his
40 people” (interview on the occasion of a presentation of this play in Berlin,^1948 [ST^197 ]).
41 Arlette Elkaı ̈m-Sartre, prefatory note to Jean-Paul Sartre,Typhus(Paris: Gallimard,^2007 ),^9.
See below,Chapter 15 as well asSartre avec Freud, a special issue ofLTM 68 , nos. 674 – 675
42 (July–Oct.^2013 ).
No Exit and Three Other Plays.In Camerais the English translation of the piece. It was
43 originally entitledLes Autresand published as such inL’Arble`te(seePrime^669 ).
Prime 677.
228 Bad faith in human life:Being and Nothingness