Sartre's No Exit

From the start of the play, No Exit, there has been a certain amount of mystery surrounding the dark hallway from which everyone emerged. As the audience, we are left guessing as to the look and application of the hall as the entirety of the play takes place in a single room. Although there is no physical description or speculation as to its appearance or purpose, the hall seems to represent some sort of gateway, maybe to redemption. At one point, Garcin is given the chance to leave, or exit, through this corridor when he tries to break free from the room. This may have saved him, or any of them, assuming their salvation was at all possible.
Garcin seemed to think he could win his way out of hell by overcoming his self proclaimed cowardice and proving it to Inez. He was adamant that the reason he was in hell was his cowardice, completely overlooking the detestable treatment of his wife as any possibility (Sartre 43). His torment with Estelle and Inez involved laying bare their darkest secrets. They all used the other’s sins to haunt each other and when that became too much to bear, Garcin tried to escape, “I can't endure it any longer, I'm through with you both” (Sartre 41). This

There’s a passage….There’s more rooms, more passages, and stairs” (Sartre 6). This only alerts us to the hotel-like structure of Sartre’s hell, an unusual feature in and of itself, and gives no visual aide of the actual hall. Perhaps it would have lead him straight to another room where the torture would have been far worse. Or the passage could have looped back to the original room, a never ending cycle with no escape. It is possible, however, that if Garcin had ventured down the passage he would have been ‘saved’ by overcoming fear of the unknown.* Unfortunately for Garcin, he is now eternally stuck with his two tortures, not that he’s much better himself (Sartre 46).