The Angst of Existence: The Restrictions on Freedom and Authenticity
Jean Paul Sartre’s Nausea reflects the individual’s obsession with attempting to escape time through distractions in order to disregard the reality of his existence. Throughout Nausea, Antoine struggles with a pestering feeling of anxiety, which he describes as nausea, caused by a sudden change in his life. He thus embarks on a journey to find the root of his anxiety, in which he is faced with many realizations. As he observes people, he remarks their inauthentic relationships and comes to a conclusion that society pointlessly follows formalities in order to distract themselves from their own existence. Martin Heidegger would call Antoine’s feeling of nausea Angst, and would consequentially relate it to Antoine’s root of existentialist struggle. Because Antoine does not know how to deal with his Angst, he dedicates his life to research on a historical figure, Rollebon, who’s life has many uncertainties. By doing this, Antoine escapes the present, which according to Arthur Schopenhauer, is somethings that humans innately do, because, after all, it is impossible to truly live in the present. In a way, both Antoine’s freedom and self worth are restricted by this research as he struggles to come to terms with the present. It is only once Antoine abandons his research on Rollebon that he accepts his nausea, which stemmed from his existence. Through Heidegger and Schopenhauer’s philosophy, Sartre proves that as a result of life’s contingency, man fears the implications of his own existence and it is only once man accepts life’s contingency and assumes total freedom that he is living life authentically.
Antoine’s choice of living alone results in his Nausea and ultimate fear of freedom, consequentially debilitating his genuineness. Antoine decides to isolate himself from the rest of the World, and is therefore left to his own thoughts. He explains, “when you live alone you no longer know what it is to tell something: the plausible disappears at the same time as the friends”(Sartre 7). Antoine chooses to live alone and faces his naked existence and anguished thoughts every day. His naked existence leads him to inauthenticity, as he writes in his journal: “this is odd: I have just filled up ten pages and I haven’t told the truth- at least, not the whole truth…I felt I was no longer free”(Sartre 9). Antoine is constantly lying to himself because the truth about his nausea, or angst, scares him. Heidegger explains that this anxiety “is there. It is only sleeping. Its breath quivers perpetually through Dasein, only slightly in those who are jittery, imperceptibly in the ‘Oh, yes’ and the ‘Oh, no’ of men of affairs; but most readily in the reserved, and most assuredly in those who are basically daring. But those daring ones sustained by that on which they expend themselves—in order thus to preserve the ultimate grandeur of existence”(Heidegger 71). As Heidegger explains, the Dasein, or in other words, existence, is nothing short of fearful, which in Antoine’s case, is the root of his nausea. While Antoine realizes that he has trouble understanding his purpose, he tries to force a purpose onto himself, but in the end only unnecessarily expends energy.
Antoine’s actions, which are direct proof of his inauthenticity, restrict his sense of freedom. He comes to realize that something feels unusual, and states, “things are very bad: I have it, the filth, the Nausea. And this time it is new: it caught me in a café.”(Sartre 18). Although at this point in the novel, Antoine does not know what the root of his nausea is, it frightens him. He is aware that the implications of this feeling are corrupting him. He explains, “I have never before had such a strong feeling that I was devoid of secret dimensions, confined within the limits of my body, from which airy thought float up like bubbles”(Sartre 33). Antoine’s solitary life makes him feel trapped within his own life. He turns to the research of the life of Rollebon, a historical figure, who he will eventually write a book on.
Antoine’s avoidance of his own existence results in his dedication to the writing of a book on Rollebon, causing him to live his life inauthentically. Antoine decides to write a book on a historical figure to give his own life some meaning. He writes, “It is the book which attracts me. I feel more and more need to write- in the same proportion as I grow old, you might say”(Sartre 13). As Antoine ages, and thus gets closer to his death, he feels more need to write a book, which in his view will give him a purpose in life. However, instead of giving him meaning, it gives him means to live his life in bad faith. He realizes that what he is dedicating his life to is not even something that he particularly enjoys. He explains, “I have given up Eugénie Grandet and begun work without any heart in it”(Sartre 29). Not only does he not truly enjoy what he is doing, he is also not doing it with a factual intent, defeating the purpose of writing a biography. He writes, “slow, lazy, sulky, the facts adapt themselves to the rigor of the order I wish to give them…I have the feeling of doing the work of pure imagination”(Sartre13). Antoine does not genuinely portray the life of Rollebon, as he explains that he would do anything to avoid the Nausea that he feels at times. To him, it does not matter if he writes a real account of Rollebon’s life or not because in a way he has the freedom of controlling this book.
Although Antoine suspects that this research will not bring him much success, he chooses to dedicate his life to it. He decides to live his life through the research of someone else’s, resulting in his inauthentic actions. Paul B. Kelley writes, “rather than compensate for the loss of freedom experienced at the outset of the novel, writing the life-history of Rollebon achieves the opposite effect, serving to confine the narrator in an objectified mimesis from which there is no exit. As the Rollebon project proves increasingly untenable, the writerly consciousness is increasingly exposed to the contingency of the external world in which it ultimately discovers its own facticity as an embodiment of individual human consciousness”(76). Although the documentation on Rollebon’s life gets unsupportable, as Kelley notes, Antoine continues writing it. Schopenhauer would argue that he keeps on writing this biography because “to attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and why, though we live all our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving only as the road to our goal.” Antoine does not grasp the meaning of the present, resulting in his quest for some meaning in the past. He thinks that by doing so he will be able to conquer his nausea, which only results in failure.
Through Antoine’s description of the protocols people follow as a way of distracting themselves from their own existence, Sartre proves that they are living inauthentic lifestyles. Antoine is not the only one who chooses to live an inauthentic lifestyle to ignore his fear of existence. He notes, “it seemed as though all these men no longer had strength to sustain this fine social hierarchy they were so proud of before luncheon”(Sartre 51). There are people who must create a facade for themselves in order to live, which allows them to have a code of conduct with which to live life. Heidegger explains,“But this numbness not only takes Da-sein back from its ‘worldly’ possibilities, but at the same time gives it the possibility of an authentic potentiality of being”(Heidegger 45). The social hierarchy Sartre projects is apparent. As Antoine describes society’s way of being, it seems as if every person lives a life full of meaningless actions to distract himself from the reality of existence. Heidegger suggests that authenticity is closely reliant on possibility and it is possible to break free of one’s own circumstances by confronting possibility. He notes, “the senses do not enable us to cognize any entity in its Being; they merely serve to announce the ways in which ‘external’ Things within-the-world are useful or harmful for human creatures encumbered with bodies….they tell us nothing about entities in their Being.”(Heidegger 32). While people classify themselves according to their socioeconomic class, according to Heidegger’s philosophy, nothing can be said about their existence or their being.
Once Antoine decides to stop writing his book on Rollebon he starts living his life authentically. Antoine explains, “I’m not writing my book on Rollebon anymore; it’s finished, I can’t write any more of it”(94). In the begging of the novel Antoine, “attempts to control the future, by his meeting with Anny and his project of writing a book on Rollebon, but both these attempts prove fruitless”(Raoul 703). He realizes the inauthenticity that the writing of the book on Rollebon implied. He writes, “M. de Rollebon was my partner; he needed me in order to exist and I needed him so as not to feel my existence…He stood in front of me, took up my life to lay bare his own to me. I did not notice that I existed anymore, I no longer existed in myself, but in him”(Sartre 98), and continues by writing, “I am the thing. Existence, liberated, detached, floods over me. I exist”(Sartre 98). Roquentin could not have been authentic in this moment as he was not living in accordance to his personality and characteristics, he was living in accordance to Rollebon’s personality. When he realizes that all he needs to exist is himself, he lives authentically. His actions are finally motivated by his own character, and instead of being consumed by bad faith he is able to be himself. As Sartre explains, “consequently, when I recognize, as entirely authentic, that man is a being whose existence precedes his essence, and that he is a free being who cannot, in any circumstances, but will his freedom, at the same time I realize that I cannot not will the freedom of others”(Sartre 28). Antoine is finally existing freely, as he has realized that his existence is not justified through the inauthenticity of another’s. He lives singularly, he is finally defined though his proper entity, his own self.
Antoine comes to terms with his existence by accepting the contingency of life, and ultimately gains a sense of freedom through his authenticity. Antoine explains that “the Nausea has not left me and I don’t believe it will leave me so soon; but I no longer have to bear it, it is no longer an illness or a passing fit: it is I”(Sartre 127). The Nausea, or angst, no longer bothers Antoine because he finally realizes that it is his existence. He realizes that, as Heidegger explains, “If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life – and only then will I be free to become myself”(Heidegger 73). Although Antoine has realized what his nausea stemmed from, it still surrounds him, only now it does not bother him him anymore and has freed himself from this anxiety by accepting death. As Heidegger mentions, Antoine is free to be himself now that he recognizes the vapidity of life.
When Antoine realizes that he must exist before figuring out what his purpose is, he feels alive. As he reflects back upon his psychological and existentialist journey, Antoine states: “I was like the others, like the ones walking along the seashore, all dressed in their spring finery. I said, like them, ‘The ocean is green; that white speck up there is a seagull,’ but I didn’t feel that it existed or that the seagull was an ‘existing seagull’; usually existence hides itself”(Sartre 127). Sartre’s belief that existence precedes essence is the main argument reflected in this passage. Sartre states, “For if indeed existence precedes essence, one will never be able to explain one’s action by reference to a given and specific human nature; in other words, there is no determinism – man is free, man is freedom.”(Sartre 18). The reason Antoine felt his nausea was because he was too focused on creating himself an essence, without existing first. He continues, “only they tried to overcome this contingency by inventing a necessary, causal being. But no necessary being can explain existence: contingency is not a delusion, a probability which can be dissipated; it is the absolute, consequently, the perfect free gift”(Sartre 129). Once again, Antoine recognizes his freedom as a result of his understanding and embrace of the absoluteness and actuality of death.
Antoine’s struggle to accept the present and the meaning of his life result in his consummation of bad faith, isolation and feeling of confinement. It is only when Antoine acknowledges and embraces the implications of his existence that he feels free and behaves authentically. Antoine’s struggle to come to terms with his existence is not too far removed from modern society’s. Through the modern technology that most human beings have access to, it seems that we never keep ourselves alone with our thoughts. In a sense, our thoughts represent the possibility of thinking about our existence, which is where our angst, or nausea, comes in. We prefer to ignore that angst, just as Antoine does. While he distracts himself by writing a book about a historical figure, we often resort to using cell phones or other forms of technology in order to avoid having to deal with existentialist thoughts. However, just as it restricts Antoine in his sense of freedom, it isolates society from having intellectual thoughts and discoveries by limiting the comfortable areas of conversation to banal and trite discussions.
