The Sudsy Existentialist
Created | Updated Dec 31, 2004
THE SUDSY EXISTENENTIALIST
“Jean-Paul Sartre in the Bathtub” (A Fine Excess, 137) by Hunt Hawkins is a lighthearted look at existentialist writer, Jean-Paul Sartre. The image in the poem is of Sartre taking a bath, and what he says to himself while bathing. I already know a bit about the life and works of Sartre, so this paper takes on the task of putting the poem in context, given what I already know, and also of deducing what Hawkins’ point was in writing it.
It is difficult to keep a straight face while reading this poem, because the tone is so lighthearted and the subject so unexpected. It is thoughtful, and the reader gets the sense that the author is making a point, but it is hard to take the piece too seriously. The form keeps with the tone, using short lines and stanzas. The first, third, fifth and seventh stanzas are Sartre’s dialogue, with breaks for narration of Sartre’s actions. At the end there is a longer narration, concluding the poem and providing one last laugh.
Because the subject of the poem is Sartre, we can be certain that the poem is focusing on his existentialist views. Sartre believed that first man came into existence, and then he defined himself. (As opposed to coming into the world with an identity.) In Existentialism the universe is irrational.
Sartre’s dialogue in the poem focuses on his actions as being his own. “I took this bath…knowing…no one else could do it for me.” Later on, he reasserts this notion that he is an individual, and not connected to any other individuals. “…I do not become related with the others…the tub… [does not put] me in community.” In other words, he is just taking a bath. At the end, he asserts his individuality a final time, “The act of bathing…is my own…I regain myself in an indifferent tub.”
This poem is humorous because it approaches Sartre’s views on existentialism in a light way that is easy to understand and to absorb. The points about existentialism and the identity of one’s self can be plainly seen. Who when reading this poem does not laugh at the image of an old French man in a bathtub, talking to himself?
Having read this poem and having spent a great deal of time analyzing it, I am left with only one question; what has made Sartre so dirty?
