Sartre's second century

Contemporary Perspectives 179
extend Contat's culinary metaphor, I suggest that Sartre must have realised
that he was over-egging the pudding, and that it would be much too heavy
in its texture and complex in its flavours ever to be consumed, even if he
managed to get it baked! To support this contention, I propose to analyse
only the first 'Tableau" of the published text, amounting to just ten pages
in the Pleiade volume, with a view to identifying each new topos as it
appears.
As he did in Les Mains sales (Dirty Hands, 1948), Sartre establishes
the historical time and place by means of a radio announcement: "Two
American aircraft shot down by Mig fighters." 13 These are the first words
spoken, setting the scene for the initial repartee between Feller and the
psychiatrist:
FELLER—I want to think out loud in front of you. [...] Should I lie down
here?
PSYCHIATRIST—If you like.
FELLER—Why?
PSYCHIATRIST—It's the custom.
FELLER—Perfect. Let's not ignore custom. That's what makes the world
go round, wouldn't you say? (He lies down.) 14
Within moments, therefore, we already have the Cold War and
psychoanalysis introduced as themes, the latter couched in a bantering and
facetious tone such as Sartre would perfect in his next play, Nekrassov
(1955), but which tends to elude him here, as Contat rightly points out.
Feller's demand: "I want to know what my life is worth", 15 raises the
central existential issue of the play: there is an ethical question at the heart
of this psychological crisis. And his ensuing abrupt self-introduction
ushers in a whole new cast of themes: family, money, class and, in
particular, political opinion and allegiance: "[I am] against the communists.
But I think the communists have the right to speak." 16
Feller's next significant speech includes the first instances of the
flashback technique. However, the intended interruption is so brief that it
13 "Deux avions amdricains abattus par des Migs" (ibid., 1183).
14 "FELLER—Je veux penser h haute voix devant vous. [...] II faut que je me
couche m? / LE PSYCHIATRE—Si vous voulez. / FELLER—Pourquoi? / LE
PSYCHIATRE—C'est l'habitude. / FELLER—Parfait. Ne renongons pas aux
habitudes. C'est elles qui font marcher le monde, n'est-ce pas? (7/ se couche.) 99
(ibid., 1183-84).
15 "Je veux savoir ce que vaut ma vie" (ibid., 1184).
16 "[Je suis] contre les communistes. Mais je pense que les communistes ont le
droit de parler" (ibid., 1184).