Samantha Raup

MLS 449
Fall 2015
Thesis:

Reprsentations littraires de lenfer en France aux XIXe et XXe sicles

Literary Representations of Hell in 19th and 20th Century France

The unique interpretations of hell in A Season in Hell, The Horla, No Exit, and The Fall reflect
the psychological and philosophical influences of the author as well as the sociocultural context
in which the work was written.

1) Introduction
a) Rough translation of quotation: So many men are deprived of grace. How [does one] live without
grace? I need to explore this [topic] and do what Christianity has never done: [take responsibility
for/deal with] the damned. (from Camus writing notes)
b) Traditional Christian interpretation of hell underground/cave setting, horned devil (Lucifer), fire,
sulfur, bodies twisted in agony
i) Artistically interpreted by Gustave Dor, a prominent 19th century French artist, in a series of
detailed engravings
th
c) In 19 and 20th century French literature, we see this interpretation begin to vary and become adaptable
to individuals while representing societys broadest views of hell (that the worst aspects of society were
projected onto the idea of hell)
i) Arthur Rimbauds prose poem A Season in Hell, 1873
ii) Guy de Maupassants short story The Horla, 1887
iii) Jean-Paul Sartres play No Exit, 1944
iv) Albert Camus novel The Fall, 1956
d) These works and the unique representations of hell in them reflect the sociocultural and historical
circumstances in which they were written, as well as the personal experiences of the author.
2) Summary and Context of Works
a) A Season in Hell
i) This prose poem is comprised of nine parts and is written mainly in prose. It is about, as the title
suggests, a protagonist and other characters who spend an extended amount of time in hell.
ii) This poem was written after the dramatic break-up of the poet, Arthur Rimbaud, and his lover Paul
Verlaine, an older poet who had acted as a mentor to Rimbaud, but was married. The relationship
was very passionate, but consequently also violent and abusive.
b) The Horla
i) This short story is written in chronologically dated entries. It is about the narrator, who imagines a
creature that wreaks havoc in his life and escalates in the narrators attempt to kill the imaginary
creature.
ii) At the time of publication, scientific discoveries were being made at astonishing rates.
iii) The author, Guy de Maupassant, contracted syphilis prior to writing The Horla and was
suffering its effects (read: descent into madness) during the time of writing.
c) No Exit
i) This play is the story of three people locked in a room for eternity: Garcin, Estelle, and Ins. Their
interactions, as well as visions of their past lives, make up the plot.
ii) Published in 1944, just before the end of World War II, the interpretation of hell in No Exit is
certainly heavily influenced by the events of this terrible war. The playwright himself was a
prisoner of war of the Germans for ten months.
d) The Fall
i) This novel is written in the traditional manner, split into chapters. It tells the story of the narrator,
Clamence, who witnesses a young womans suicide in Paris and consequently exiles himself to
Amsterdam. He tells his story to various patrons at the bar that he haunts, although the voices of
these interlocutors are never heard.
ii) Camus philosophy differs from Sartres in three key areas: Sartre focuses more on ones
engagement with others, where Camus focuses more on isolation. In regard to life, Sartres view

Samantha Raup
Reprsentations littraires de lenfer en France aux XIXe et XXe sicles
MLS 449
Literary Representations of Hell in 19th and 20th Century France
Fall 2015
was pessimistic where Camus was optimistic. Interestingly, the characters in No Exit are dead,
while the characters in The Fall are alive. In terms of humanism, Camus can be characterized as
more of a humanist than Sartre, due to his comparatively optimistic view of mans role in life.
3) Interpretation/Representation of Hell
a) A Season in Hell
i) According to Chris Foley, the setting in which Rimbaud wrote A Season in Hell was quite
dramatic: Rimbaudlocked himself in the attic [after a drunken attempt on his life by Verlaine].
There, grieving, sobbing, groaning, cursing, and at times laughing wildly, he composedsome 40
pages of seething anger and despair (49-50).
ii) Indeed, such a cacophony of noises and emotions is reminiscent of hell. The representation of hell
in Rimbauds prose poem is influenced heavily by the presence of hatred and despair in the poets
life at that point in time.
iii) In this work, hell is not only the setting, but also the state of being of the narrator.
b) The Horla
i) Maupassants representation of hell is supernatural, yet personal. Based on the lack of certainty
and the creature called the Horla, a name invoking the other side (hors = outside, l = here),
this vision of hell mentally affects the narrator.
ii) The narrators descent into insanity is interestingly lucidly chronicled by the narrator himself. In
the entry marked July 6, the narrator writes Im going crazy. [] Oh! My God! Im going
crazy? Who will save me? The narrator can no longer explain the events occurring around him
and is conscious of his burgeoning madness. From thus comes the aspect of uncertainty in the
narrators hell.
c) No Exit
i) Sartres interpretation of hell is social and psychological: being constantly watched by other people
makes one obsessed with ones appearance, and this obsession with appearance distracts them
from their true identitythat is, their own view of themselves. Being locked in a room without
distractions for eternity with other people is, in Sartres view, the worst thing that a person could
ever be subjected to.
ii) Sartres existentialist philosophy is quite complex, but can be summarized in the following way.
One seeks to discover who they are throughout their lives, but never actually becomes anything
until theyve died, because in life they are a work in progressa work that is not completed until it
has ceased living. During life, one is given an identity by the Others. Thus, one has two
identities: their own identity in their head, and the identity given to them by the Others. As stated
by Hardr and Daniel, for it is only through the eyes of the Others that Man can see his image,
and what the Others see of him is only his acts (xi).
d) The Fall
i) Camus representation of hell is also social and psychological. According to Clamence, hell is
completely void of anything and anyone. Psychologically, hell is being immediately judged
unfairly and not having the chance to explain yourself or change the judgment.
ii) The narrators choice of location for his exile is quite interesting: he chooses Amsterdam, a city of
canals that resemble [Dantes] circles of Hell (The Fall 18).
4) Hell as punishment
a) A Season in Hell
i) The similarities between this poems characters and the real people in the poets life, including the
poet himself, suggest that Rimbaud wrote this poem as a parallel to his own life, writing his own
ending to the story.
ii) The characters suffer greatly in this poem, especially the protagonist. Rimbauds negative feelings
after the break-up caused him to want to be in hella sentiment that is clearly reflected, even
outright stated, in the poem.

Samantha Raup
Reprsentations littraires de lenfer en France aux XIXe et XXe sicles
MLS 449
Literary Representations of Hell in 19th and 20th Century France
Fall 2015
iii) Worth noting is the fact that Rimbaud did not care about others opinions of him or his relationship,
due partly to his personality and partly to the effects of the abusive relationship he had with
Verlaine.
b) The Horla
i) The question of punishment in this short story is not why, but how. The narrator is punished by
not knowing anything, as well as being terrified all the time.
c) No Exit
i) The characters in this play are punished by being constantly watched by each other.
ii) The famous quote Hell is other people perfectly describes the sentiment of punishment in this
work. Being constantly watched by each other leads to becoming obsessed with appearances, and the
characters have no way out of this predicamentnot even death.
d) The Fall
i) The first instance of the narrators punishment is of course his exile. Clamence punishes himself by
removing himself from his comfortable life as a Parisian lawyer and instead placing himself in a
dingy apartment in Amsterdam and hanging around a dive bar, talking to strangers. However, he
fails to escape the guilt he feels for not having saved the young woman.
ii) The second instance of the narrators punishment is his self-appointed title of judge-penitent. He
admits to having judged others and insists upon his role as a penitent sinner, as he believes that this
role will lead to a higher place in life from which he can resume judging others.
iii) The last circle of Dantes hell is the circle of traitors, and according to Colin Davis, [t]he traitors
evoked here could be the bystanders, such as Clamence, who look on, or look away, whilst others
are suffering, and thereby share some of the guilt of the perpetrators of a crime (47).
5) The role of the Other(s)
a) A Season in Hell
i) There are two Others in this work: the ex-lover and the masses.
ii) The ex-lover is a very negative figure, and thus the role of the individual other is negative.
iii) The masses are also negative figures, described as maniacal, ferocious, and miserly. Thus, the
role of the multiple others is also negative.
b) The Horla
i) The Horla is certainly a negative figure, but interestingly can be viewed as a psychological
reflection of the narrator, in which case the narrator plays a negative role in his own life (Jung 511513).
ii) The city residents play a positive role; they serve as a distraction upon which one can focus instead
of focusing on their other worries.
c) No Exit
i) The Others are both the people in the room as well as the people in their past lives. Each of these
groups of Others plays a negative, even harmful, role in the story. These Others are responsible for
the punishment of everyone but themselves.
d) The Fall
i) In Camus view, the Others includes everyone but the individual. Their role is complicated: their
absence is negative, but their presence is not necessarily positive. One cannot exist without the
otherthe individual cannot exist without the Others, because judging others and being judged by
others is an inescapable facet of life.
6) Ambiguity (especially in the last line)
a) A Season in Hell
i) There is no resolution in this poem.
ii) Rough translation of last line: I saw the hell in the women there; - and it will be permissible for
me to possess the truth in a soul and a body.

Samantha Raup
Reprsentations littraires de lenfer en France aux XIXe et XXe sicles
MLS 449
Literary Representations of Hell in 19th and 20th Century France
Fall 2015
(1) There are infinite possible interpretations of this last line, but my interpretation is that unity of
body and soul is the key to heaven (or hell).
b) The Horla
i) Neither the reader nor the narrator knows what the Horla even is.
ii) Death is hinted at but never explicitly stated.
iii) Rough translation of last line: Nonowithout a doubt, without a doubthe is not
deadSosoI must kill myself!...
(1) Context: the narrator has just set his house on fire in the hope of killing the Horla.
(2) The narrator has no believable proof that the Horla ever existed at all, nor that it caused the
mysterious disappearances.
c) No Exit
i) There is no resolution at the end.
ii) Rough translation of last line: Well, lets continue on.
(1) The verb is conjugated in the first person plural (we/us), which includes the spectator with
the characters.
(2) One task of this ambiguous last line is to ensure that the action continues; that is, that the
spectator believes that the characters stay in this room for eternity.
(3) Another task of this last line is to encourage, even to require, that the spectator think about
what happens after the curtain falls, both in the play and in their own lives. It is meant to
inspire thought about what happens after death. If the spectator does not do so, they have
failed in Sartres eyes.
d) The Fall
i) There is a lot of ambiguity surrounding Clamences witnessing of the young womans suicide. The
only proof the reader has is that Clamence hears a cry and the sound of a body hitting water. Is the
narrator reliable? If we are meant to believe the tale, not the teller, what should we believe with
such little evidence?
ii) Rough translation of last line: Brr! the water is so cold! But be reassured! It is too late, it will
always be too late. Happily!
(1) Context: the narrator has an extreme fever and is referencing the young womans suicide and
how there is nothing he can do now to fix it.
(2) There are multiple interpretations of this last line. It could be meant to humanize and/or
demonize the narrator, who is happy that there is nothing he can do to right this wrong; it
could be meant to reassure the reader that the past is in the past and should stay there.
7) Conclusions
a) Each of these works represents a distancing from the church and from God. In A Season in Hell, the
narrator wants to be in hell; in The Horla, the narrator undergoes a living, supernatural hell; No Exit
takes place in hell; and in The Fall, the narrator attempts to take on the role of God by playing the role
of a penitent sinner in order to ascend higher than everyone else.
b) The sociocultural and historical contexts serve as influences in this distancing from God.
i) For A Season in Hell and The Horla rebellion against religious models of behavior and
positivism (the belief that everything has a scientific explanation, and thus the rejection of theism)
ii) For No Exit and The Fall World War II and the Holocaust, the latter of which is considered the
epitome of human evil and which lead Sartre and Camus to question the existence and/or validity
of a God that could allow us to do this to one another
c) Everyone has their own interpretation of hell and the afterlife. These works offer four very different
perspectives of hell as eternal punishment, in both manner and reason. They are ambiguous to allow the
reader to draw their own conclusions and are open to interpretation. One is allowed to formulate their
own opinion about these topics by reading such works.
d) Is hell other people? Its up to you to decide.

Samantha Raup
MLS 449
Fall 2015

Reprsentations littraires de lenfer en France aux XIXe et XXe sicles

Literary Representations of Hell in 19th and 20th Century France
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