Sartre's hell has no torture devices — just other people watching you

In No Exit (1944), three strangers are locked in a room together forever and gradually realise there will be no physical torment — their punishment is being permanently exposed to each other's judging gaze. Sartre's line 'hell is other people' doesn't mean people are hellish company; it means that being seen and defined by someone else's perception traps you in an identity you never chose.

— Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit (Huis Clos) — 1944
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