Scene IX

After Inez finishes her story, Garcin asks Estelle to speak out. She claims that she does not know what to say. Inez asks her about the man that she had been afraid of all her life; she wants to know if he shot himself because of Inez. Garcin also wants to know the story. Estelle is petrified that they seem to know of her past; she tells them to stop bullying her. She goes to the door and tries to shake it open, but it does not budge. She then feels she has no choice but to tell her tale. As she speaks, she weeps. She explains that her young lover, Roger, wanted a baby. When she got pregnant, he wanted her to have the child and keep it. During her pregnancy, he sent her off to Switzerland, where her daughter was born. She, however, never wanted the child. As a result, she threw the baby in the lake to drown. In response to her action, Roger commits suicide, and Estelle contracts pneumonia and dies. She ends her story by saying that she hates Garcin and Inez.

Estelle does not really want to tell the truth about herself and tries to shake the door open so that she can escape. When the door does not budge, she feels she has no choice but to speak the truth, for Inez and Garcin already seem to know some things about her past. As a result, she tells how she became pregnant with Roger's child. He insisted that she have the baby and sent her off to Switzerland during her pregnancy. When the child is born, Estelle has no desire to raise it. As a result, she tosses the baby girl into the lake to drown. When Roger realizes that Estelle has killed his baby, he kills himself. Shortly afterward, Estelle contract pneumonia and dies.

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