Quotes from work
The Flies

Jean Paul SartreOriginal title Les Mouches (French, 1947)

The Flies is a play by Jean-Paul Sartre, written in 1943. It is an adaptation of the Electra myth, previously used by the Greek playwrights Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides.

“Fear? If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Act 1
The Flies (1943)

“Some men are born committed to action: they do not have a choice, they have been thrown on a path, at the end of that path, an act awaits them, their act.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Act 1
The Flies (1943)

“Jupiter: I committed the first crime by creating men as mortals. After that, what more could you do, you the murderers?
Aegisteus: Come on; they already had death in them: at most you simply hastened things a little.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“Your entire universe will not be enough to make me guilty. You are the king of the Gods, Jupiter, the king of the stones and of the stars, the king of the waves of the sea. But you are not the king of men.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Orestes, Act 3
The Flies (1943)

“The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free, Aegistheus. You know it and they do not.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Jupiter, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“Understand me: I wish to be a man from somewhere, a man among men. You see, a slave, when he passes by, weary and surly, carrying a heavy load, limping along and looking down at his feet, only at his feet to avoid falling down; he is in his town, like a leaf in greenery, like a tree in a forest, argos surrounds him, heavy and warm, full of herself; I want to be that slave, Electra, I want to pull the city around me and to roll myself up in it like a blanket. I will not leave.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Orestes to Electra, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“I felt less alone when I didn’t know you yet: I was waiting for the other. I thought only of his strength and never of my weakness. And now here you are, Orestes, it was you. I look at you and I see that we are two orphans.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Electra to her brother Orestes, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“Ah! How I hate the crimes of the new generation: they are dry and sterile as darnel.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Jupiter to Orestes, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“Jupiter: I am not your king, impudent larva? Who then has created you?
Orestes: You. But you should not have created me free.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Act 3
The Flies (1943)

“They are in bad faith — they are afraid — and fear, bad faith have an aroma that the gods find delicious. Yes, the gods like that, the pitiful souls.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Act 1
The Flies (1943)

“I am a man, Jupiter, and each man must invent his own path.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Orestes, Act 3
The Flies (1943)

“Aegistheus, the kings have another secret…. Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the Gods can do nothing against that man. It is a matter for men to handle amongst themselves, and it is up to other men — and to them alone — to let him flee or to destroy him.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Jupiter, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Orestes, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“He is dead, and my hatred has died with him.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Electra, before the dead Aegistheus, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“We were too light, Electra. Now our feet press down in the earth like the wheels of a cart in its groove. Come with me, and we will walk heavily, bending under the weight of our heavy load.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Orestes, Act 3
The Flies (1943)

“But [your crime] will be there, one hundred times denied, always there, dragging itself behind you. Then you will finally know that you have committed your life with one throw of the die, once and for all, and there is nothing you can do but tug our crime along until your death. Such is the law, just and unjust, of repentance. Then we will see what will become of your young pride.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Clytemnestra to her daughter Electra, Act 1
The Flies (1943)

“Jupiter: I gave you the liberty to serve me.
Orestes: That is possible, but it has turned against you and there is nothing either one of us can do about it.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Act 3
The Flies (1943)

“You must be afraid, my son. That is how one becomes an honest citizen.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Mother to her young son, Act 1
The Flies (1943)

“Nicias, do you think you can erase with good deeds the wrongs you committed against your mother? What good deed will ever reach her? Her soul is a scorching noon time, without a single breath of a breeze, nothing moves, nothing changes, nothing lives there; a great emaciated sun, an immobile sun eternally consumes her.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

King Aegistheus, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

“Her face seems ravaged by both lightning and hail. But on yours there is something like the promise of a storm: one day passion will burn it to the bone.”

Jean Paul Sartre The Flies

Act 1
The Flies (1943)

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