Sartre's second century

178
Chapter Twelve
existential torment of the individual's tussle with his own moral
conscience; the merits or otherwise of suicide as an authentic action—and
so on. With such a cornucopia of dramatic material before him, why then
did Sartre abandon La Part dufeul
Considering this question, Michel Contat first dismisses possible
"external" causes—such as the difficulties of staging the play, the
potential problems of litigation, or the risk of displeasing the audience of
the Theatre Antoine with a political theme—and proffers instead the
following three "internal obstacles". 8 First, the antipathy of the hero:
"Sartre chooses to write his play against compassion. [... Feller's] death
does not touch us [...]: his existence was worthless." 9 Second, Sartre's
inability to find a suitable satirical tone: "One might even think that the
play was abandoned for want of finding that new satirical style that Sartre
was looking for." 10 Third, the unforeseen alteration of current circumstances:
[Sartre] had here all the elements of a contemporary political drama, of a
committed and even militant play. But the political world situation
changed. In November 1954, the threat of a nuclear conflict receded; Stalin
died [...]. All at once, the play became less urgent. 11
While not dissenting from any of this expert opinion, I want to consider a
fourth and possibly decisive "internal obstacle" to Sartre's completion of
La Part dufeu, namely what I shall call "thematic overload".
As Contat rightly observes, P6ju's article presented Sartre with "all the
ingredients of an existential and political drama", to which the playwright
then proposed to add "his own psychological interpretation [and] the
symbolic representative of the witch-hunt", McCarthy himself. 12 My
present hypothesis is simply that all of this was just too rich a mix. To
8 See Sartre, Theatre complet, 1577.
9 "Sartre choisit d'dcrire sa pi&ce contre la compassion. [...] sa mort ne nous
touche pas [...]: son existence &ait sans valeur" (ibid., 1578). All translations from
French are my own.
10 "On peut mSme penser que la pi&ce a €t€ abandonee faute d'avoir trouvd ce
style satirique nouveau que Sartre cherchait" (ibid.).
11 "[Sartre] a \k tous les 61dments d'un drame politique contemporain, d'une pifcce
engagde, et m§me militante. Mais la situation mondiale politique a change. En
novembre 1954, la menace d'un conflit nucteaire s'&oigne; Staline est mort [...].
Du coup, la pi&ce devient moins urgente" (ibid.).
12 "[...] tous les ingredients d'un drame existentiel et politique [...] sa propre
interpretation psychologique [et] le repr£sentant symbolique de la chasse aux
sorcifcres [...]" (ibid.).