Sartre's Existentialism and 'Bad Faith' in The White Devil by John Webster

All humans may attempt to evade their mistakes and justify their deeds with different tricks. One of these ways that have a philosophical and ontological root is “bad faith”. In the twentieth century, the French philosopher Joan-Paul Sartre introduced this philosophical concept in his book Being and Nothingness. This concept is one of the fundamental bases of existentialism school but we can discover it in a literary work of hundred years ago, The White Devil, a famous play by John Webster in England too.

Background of the study:

The main theme of the White Devil and other plays by John Webster are women in society besides family problems. Though these pictures are painful and agonizing, they give perpetual magnificence to his works (Clark). Cecil believes that this play is the study of sin in the world. The main characters in this play are sinful devils but disguised as white devils which are more dangerous than the real devils. Bogard mentions that Webster discusses the origin of life through the depiction of corruption not only in the court but also at higher levels in society. Also, he wants to illustrate the religious corruption in the Renaissance. The missing point in these studies is the “bad faith” that is ignored and we couldn’t find any research about that. Both Sartre and Webster pay attention to this issue from various countries, nationalities and even far eras in two different fields of study which proves its importance. So It sounded necessary to do a comparative study related to both of these fields and scrutinize the topic.

Methodology :

Sartre defined “bad faith” as hiding the truth from oneself, a truth that is related to existence and being. It is somehow synonym with “self-deception”. For a liar to successfully lie to the victim of the lie, the liar must know that what is being said is false. To be successful at lying, the victim must believe the lie to be true. When a person is involved in “bad faith”, the person is both the liar and the victim of the lie. So at the same time, the liar believes the lie to be false, and as victim believes it to be true. So there is a contradiction in that a person in “bad faith” believes something to be true and false at the same time. Sartre observes that “the one to whom the lie is told and the one who lies are the same people, which means that I must know the truth in my capacity as a deceiver, though it is hidden from me in my capacity as the one deceived”, adding that “I must know that truth very precisely, to hide it from myself carefully”. So all the levels happen freely to ignore the truth just like whatever the main characters do in the White Devil to justify their victims.

Main characters with the help of “bad faith” consciously change their being from “being for itself” as a free human to an aimless “being in itself” like any inhuman like rocks and air. The present article explores these characters through the theory of “bad faith” and examines the effect of this attitude on the decline of their beliefs. As they deny their freedom, attempt to lie to themselves, and consciously cling to “bad faith” to justify their crimes. All these characters fall into the abyss of absurdism and overthrow. Ultimately, this research proves that the only way to save all human beings and these personalities in this play, as Sartre states, is to change the mindset, believe in freedom, take responsibility for one's actions, transcend, and be self-aware.