No Exit: Part Two

Part Two:

Estelle is shocked at Inez's notion that the three of them have been placed together to torture each other. Estelle can't keep from talking and asks Inez for a mirror, saying that if she can't see herself she begins to wonder if she really exists. They can't find a mirror, but Inez says that it doesn't matter, claiming that she is always conscious of herself in her mind.

She then proposes that she act as Estelle's mirror and the vain Estelle agrees. The two women begin bickering because Estelle rejects Inez's advances and tries to flirt with Garcin. He asks them to keep quiet but Inez exclaims that it would be impossible for her to ignore his existence.

Inez confesses to having seduced her cousin's wife while living with them. After refusing to acknowledge that she did anything wrong, Estelle finally confesses to having cheated on her husband and getting pregnant.

Only Inez refuses to lie, calling herself a "Damned bitch" and demanding that the other two stop "Play-acting" and throwing "Dust in each other's eyes." Sartre use of the word "Play-acting" also recalls the artificial setting of the play itself: no matter what the characters do, they are still actors and actresses who are "Lying" to each other.

 Estelle is unable to do this, asking Inez to be her mirror so she can create Estelle's essence for her.
Inez revels in her power, even telling Estelle she has a pimple when she really doesn't. As for Inez, she refuses to let other people define her essence. Inez can't stand Garcin looking at her because she thinks that he is automatically judging her. Garcin's mere existence thus reduces Inez's feelings of autonomy.

Sees her past as meaningless and inaccessible, choosing to exist in the present instead. She insists to the others that "Nothing" is left of them on earth and that "All you own is here." Rather than justify her existence in terms of the person she used to be, Inez asserts her freedom to choose her essence in the present, even though she is in hell.