Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Joseph Garcin

As we discuss in Garcin’s "Character Analysis," he is the middle ground character between Estelle’s bad faith and Inez’s existentialism. He’s the normal guy, the one who we identify with. We see hell through Garcin’s eyes. The play opens with Garcin, he gets its closing line, as well as the play’s most important line, "Hell is other people." Also, as you’ll see in "Classic Plot Analysis" and "Booker’s Plot Analysis," the novel’s plotline unfolds around Garcin, not the other two characters.