BY STEPHEN PAX LEONARD
“Mrs Daddywood”, called Reggie. “What is for supper?”
“Oysters, Mr Reggie”, replied Mrs Daddywood.
“Oysters! How splendid. Ostend or Whitstable?”
Mrs Daddywood examines the packet trying to muddle together a response. “It says sum’thing ‘bout Belgium, luv”.
“Oh, there you have it. Ostend. Crikey. They had a rough time of it during the war”, mumbled Reggie to himself.
“Now, Mrs Daddywood. Do we have any of those Chelsea buns left? We’ve got Mr Wilson-Gropus coming round for tea after supper”.
“Wilson-who…! Who is that then?”
“Well, Mrs Daddywood, I have decided to get a tutor, you know, to make sense of this topsy-turvy world we live in. I have been sat here musing how idle folk really are the last word in civilisation for quite long enough. I can’t spend the rest of my days at Club with old Archie saying: Give me another mist, old boy. Indeed, I would have no compunction about withdrawing my membership”.
Aghast, Mrs Daddywood stood with her mouth wide open.
“No, it is time to brush down the Rimbaud, Dostoevsky and Dante. Alfie recommended this Wilson-Gropus fellow. He used to be one of Alfie’s beaks at Eton”.
“By gum, but Mr Reggie ain’t half-well educated. He knows his Mansfield Park from his Sense and Sensibility. Buns, buns, Chelsea buns”, muttered Mrs Daddywood as she started sleuthing around like a detective in pursuit of the buns.
Over oysters, Reggie flicked through Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huis Clos (“No Exit”). A one-act play. “Oh, that is a relief”, he chuckles to himself. Then, the door-bell rang.
“I have got it, Mrs Daddywood”. Reggie folded his napkin and tangoed towards the hallway.
“Reggie!”, bellowed Reggie in the manner of a military man with his hand held out firmly.
“Wilson-Gropus. How do you do!”
They exchanged pleasantries and Mrs Daddywood took the gentleman’s Mackintosh. Wilson-Gropus started fondling Huis Clos as he spoke.
“Now what did you make of this, Reggie?”
“Dash funny. Is it a comedy? These three characters end up in Hell and yet they have their own valet and are surrounded by Second Empire furniture which they find deeply objectionable. What is it? A satire of bourgeois thinking? Poor old Estelle thinks she has been misallocated to Hell by some under-strapper. And, then everything in Hell turns out to be an inferno of excess whether it be cheesecake or ravenous sex. How marvellous!”
“Oh, yes, indeed. Well, it is not quite a comedy. More of a tragi-comedy, but most readers gloss over the comic aspects. I can see you, Reggie, enjoy the light touch!’
“What this is about, Reggie, is Sartre’s idea that we are condemned to be free”.
“Oh”, said Reggie looking deeply puzzled. It has got nothing to do with over-indulging on cheesecake then?!”
Deeply curious, Mrs Daddywood stood in the pantry pretending to undertake her chores but wishing to be privy to the conversation.
“As you say, we have these three characters – Garcin, Inez and Estelle. They have all been sent to Hell, but Hell turns out to be a single room decked out in Second Empire furniture. They have a valet, but the bell does not always work. From the outset, it seems the three are going to be at loggerheads. At first, they try to disguise why they were sent to Hell but subsequently we discover that Garcin was a deserter in the army who treated his wife abominably, Estelle drowned her unwanted baby and Inez was cruel to the vulnerable.”
“Oh, yes, jolly good. I got that bit. But, what about this business of being ‘condemned to be free’? What the devil is that all about?”
“Well, remember, at the beginning the valet tells the ‘guests’ that they can’t leave the room, that they will be there for ever. Well, Estelle ends up making a pass at Garcin and then subsequently they have a tiff. To his astonishment, Garcin finds the door open and discovers that he can in fact leave Hell. But, he chooses not to. He prefers instead to stay in Hell and convince Estelle that he is a good person. Sartre is making the point that we must bear the burden of the choices we make. People are ‘condemned’ because they did not choose to come into this world, but once here or indeed in Hell they have to live by their decisions. The ultimate irony is that the door to Hell is open, but then the three of them fight to stay there. And, what then is Hell?”
“Oh, I got that bit. HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE, Garcin tells us at the end. I say, it is all a tad misanthropic, isn’t it?,” asks Reggie.
“Well, perhaps not entirely. Sartre just wanted to say that we judge ourselves through the eyes of others. Remember, all the mirrors have been removed in the room? But when we let others define who we are, we lose our freedom. So, I suppose it is more of a case of we should not be psychologically dependent on others.”
“Yes, indeed. Talking of dependency, any sign of those Chelsea buns, Mrs Daddywood”, bellows Reggie.
“Cumming right up!” offers Mrs Daddywood as she retreats from the shadows. She places the buns on the pedestal table.
“Now, if that will be all, Mr Reggie, I’ll get on way.”
“Oh, by golly, no, you can’t leave Mrs Daddywood. The three of us are stuck here forever. There is no exit!”, roars Reggie. Mr Wilson-Gropus stifles a grin.
Baffled, Mrs Daddywood grasps her handbag and opens the front door.
“By heck, this is one hell of a household, ain’t it!” murmurs Mrs Daddywood as she leaves.
“Oh, what fun! You know the bit I liked most in this play. The fight that Estelle and Inez have at the end. Estelle stabs her and Inez responds: ‘you crazy creature, you know that I am dead!’ If only they had left the mirrors up, perhaps they would have been alright! Terrific, now what are we reading next week?”
Stephen Pax Leonard is a writer, linguist, traveller. His book Noble Sentiments for an Exile and Other Writings has been published and is now available here.