1. Analyze the interplay of philosophy and politics in The Flies. 2. Trace the development of the Oresteian story and show how Sartre presents it in The Flies. 3. In what way can The Flies be considered to be an existentialist drama? 4. Write a short essay on the evolution […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essays Sartre’s Dramatic Formula
Sartre’s early plays reflect a formula which he described in a 1940 essay entitled “Forgers of Myth”; in this essay, he analyzes the French drama of the Occupation and of the post-war period. He advocates a particular type of drama, one which is short and violent and which is centered […]
Read more Critical Essays Sartre’s Dramatic FormulaCritical Essays Sartre’s Political Ideas
Sartre was a leftist thinker throughout his entire life, and after World War II, he moved more and more to the left, expressing himself in increasingly difficult publications, and often in a language accessible only to a select few. He rejected the idea of class and attempted to strip away […]
Read more Critical Essays Sartre’s Political IdeasCritical Essays Sartrean Existentialism: Specific Principles
In order to simplify things even further, one should study a point-by-point list of existentialist principles. This is a summary useful for understanding several of Sartre’s works, and it is representative of his major ideas. The Problem Existence is absurd. Life has no meaning. Death is the ultimate absurdity: It […]
Read more Critical Essays Sartrean Existentialism: Specific PrinciplesCritical Essays Sartrean Existentialism: An Overview
In learning about Sartrean existentialism, it is helpful to recall data about the climate in which Sartre grew up. Recall for a moment the sadness of his childhood when no one wanted him for a friend. Recall his heavy dependence on a fantasy life as an escape from a world […]
Read more Critical Essays Sartrean Existentialism: An OverviewCritical Essays Existentialism before Sartre
Sartre was not the first to elaborate a system of existentialism. The question of existence has preoccupied humankind since its beginnings, and as early as the Bible, free will has been a major concern. One reads in Ecclesiasticus (15:14) (in the Apocrypha) that “God made man free in the beginning, […]
Read more Critical Essays Existentialism before SartreJean-Paul Sartre Biography
Personal Background Jean-Paul Sartre was a novelist, playwright, and philosopher. His major contribution to twentieth-century thinking was his system of existentialism, an ensemble of ideas describing humans’ freedom and responsibilities within a framework of human dignity. That is, he evolved a philosophy which concerned itself with existence in all its […]
Read more Jean-Paul Sartre BiographySummary and Analysis Act III
Orestes and Electra are at the Temple of Apollo. It is twilight, and the flies cannot touch them at the Temple. The flies have now become the Furies, goddesses of remorse, and they form rings around the two young people, asleep at the foot of the statue of Apollo. The […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act IIISummary and Analysis Act II: Scene 2
It is the throne-room of the palace. A soldier comments on the fact that the flies are “all crazy” tonight. Clytemnestra asks Aegistheus what’s wrong with him, and he replies that the crowd would have gone out of control if he hadn’t played on their fear. He is aware of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act II: Scene 2Summary and Analysis Act II: Scene 1
The scene begins at the mountain cavern, which is blocked at the entrance by a large black boulder; there is a crowd present for the ceremony. A woman teaches her child to cry on cue, to be frightened by the spirits who are about to exit from the cavern. This […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act II: Scene 1