The philosophical
idea behind
Huis Clos is that all three persons in the room have lived other lifes than they have let people believe.
Garcin, for instance, claimed to be a
war hero. He was very much involved with the
resistance and even edited a paper for them. Everyone loved him for that. The fact is that in reality, Garcin ran away for the
enemy when friends needed him. This is the reason why he ended up in the room/the
hell afther he died.
First he can't believe he's dead, but he sees his funeral through some kind of window in the floor. From time to time a boy (simply named garcon {=
boy in
french} because he stands for some kind of
conscience)comes into the room, making the extistence in the room even more unbearable, because he points them at their
shortcomings in a subtle kind of way.
During the story, the window in the floor closes up and garcon stops appearing, so the persons are really cut from the
earth and from
life. Left all by them selves with their
guilt and
shame for all the times they lied about who they really were.
Jean Paul Sartre is telling us by this book that one has to do what one has said. One has to avow one's
errors. At the end you are what you have done.The characters in the book ended up in hell for it.
The worst hell one can imagine: spending an
eternity with yourself and the knowledge you did it all wrong during life and you can't turn that back anymore.