And this incredible burden of responsibility that the free man has to bear is what relegates him to constant anguish. According to Sartre, each choice we make defines us while at the same time revealing to us what we think a human being should be.
With nothing to restrict us, we have the choice to take actions to become who we want to be and lead the life we want to live. This lack of pre-defined purpose along with an 'absurd' existence that presents to us infinite choices is what Sartre attributes to the “anguish of freedom”. Therefore, the onus for defining ourselves, and by extension humanity, falls squarely on our shoulders. According to him, there is no fixed design for how a human being should be and no God to give us a purpose. Sartre's theory of existentialism states that “existence precedes essence”, that is only by existing and acting a certain way do we give meaning to our lives. While the circumstances of our birth and upbringing are beyond our control, he reasons that once we become self-aware (and we all do eventually), we have to make choices - choices that define our very 'essence'. Jean-Paul Sartre believed that human beings live in constant anguish, not solely because life is miserable, but because we are 'condemned to be free'.
The anguish of freedom "Man is condemned to be free because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."
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