"l'enfer, c'est les autres”

In Sartre's 1944 play, No Exit, we are introduced to three people (four including the valet, who is not an essential character) two women and a man, who find themselves in a hotel room with no windows, no mirrors, and only one door. As it turns out all three characters are actually in Hell. As they are wondering what tortures await them they have time to reflect on their sins, desires, and hurtful memories. You know the main suspects of course, cowardice, callousness, manipulation, deceit, and murder. Actually, as it turns out, the only torture that the characters receive is from each other. They must prove their rightness to themselves as well as to each other. Great pain is taken in this effort. For example, consider their desires:

Garcin -attempts to prove his manliness by having Estelle fall in love with him. Because surely she can make him feel like a REAL man. However, he realizes that he needs Ines to truly alleviate his feelings of wickedness and cowardice because she truly understands these conceptions- or at least he believes this to be the case.

Ines- constantly manipulates the other two characters' opinions of themselves as well as of each other. Constantly playing the game but owning up to her wickedness at least.

Estelle- attempts to gain the affection of Garcin in an attempt to define herself through a man as this is all she has ever known.

And hence the eternal struggle continues for all. At the end of the play, the door is actually opened and the characters are therefore provided with the option of leaving. None do.
Sure you can argue that it is the fear of the unknown that keeps them all inside that room. More content to struggle blindly with themselves and each other instead of risking the awfulness of freedom and all it entails.
Think about that. None of the characters leave. Is that not somewhat like our normal daily lives? Isn't the door standing open for us all? Yet, we stay. Reliving our own sins. Having others stoke the fire as we stir the pot....
Hell is other people, indeed.