9/19/2023 0 Comments Dear esther quotesThis suggests that the narrator has already turned to religion and was disappointed in its inability to lead him to any real answers. At the “Valley top” in script A, the narrator asks if previous island inhabitants could “walk the bible and inhabit its contradictions”. If these visual metaphors aren’t convincing enough, the narrator specifically notes contradictions in different pursuits of knowledge in the script. I would encourage you to check it out in-game. *At a better angle this looks significantly more boat-like. By using these pieces to create the boat that the narrator used to strand himself on the island, it would seem that the narrator feels that all deeper thought has abandoned him on the island. In this case, the car parts refer not only to the accident but technological advancement whereas the candles give a ceremonial feel to the image. The boat has a notable resemblance to the one the narrator used to wreck himself onto the island. Further evidence of abandonment by all human rationality can be seen in a cave in chapter 4 in which the player finds a boat constructed of car parts and surrounded by candles. Taking this in the same light as the scientific drawings, the narrator sees religion as similarly useless in finding answers in the world. The majority of the cave paintings are scientific, but in chapter 4, these images climax with a long and large biblical quote. In the second two chapters, the player sees hints that the narrator associates religion and science as both having forsaken him. In this case, the player could interpret these paintings as the narrators frustration we know all of these things and yet none of it could save Esther. Not only does this image undermine their value to society, but it has also noted that these drawings relate to Esther’s death as one of the images is of an alcohol molecule-a possible cause of the crash. Perhaps most convincingly, the visual metaphor of complex ideas painted onto ancient ruins and cave walls reduce the greatest achievements and advancements in human history, what the narrator calls “the last vestiges of civilisation” (lower valley #2), to no more than cave paintings. The narrator even goes as far as to describe “ascribing purpose, deliberate motive to everything” as “delusional” (cliff path-c) which hints at the same existentialist thoughts in the narrator himself. As an intellectual man who cannot even make sense of his own words and thoughts, the narrator transforms into a symbol of the failures and inherent contradictions in all pursuits of knowledge. With this understanding, the fragmented narrative and contradictions within the narrator’s own speech give the player a whole new lens through which to look at the story. The narrator describes Donnelly’s material as “obscure, the writer’s literary style… even more so” (cliff path-b) which leads the player to believe that Donnelly’s book is a pursuit only an intellectual would take on. In one of the first triggers, the narrator says “Donnelly reports the legend of the hermit” (first climb). Furthermore, the narrator continually cites Donnelly as if he were writing an academic paper and not a letter to a loved one. References to “singularity” and “alpha point”, which are fairly complex scientific and religious theories respectively, immediately immerse the player in the narrator’s intellectual speech. Using a word like hypothesis in common speech suggests that the narrator is in a field that involves some kind of academic pursuits-a place where “hypothesis” would be commonly used. In one opening monologue, the narrator describes the island as “a singularity, an alpha point in my life that refuses all hypothesis” (jetty-a). In fact, I have seen many complaints about Dear Esther as being written in a style that is too “pompous”, “cryptic”, and-yes-even “intellectual”. Rather, he presents the player with the existential story of an intellectual discovering the lack of meaning in the world and the uselessness of his own intelligence. The inherent contradictions in the narrator’s speech and visual metaphors show that Pinchbeck may have had more in mind than just character depth and ambience while writing in these details. Traditionally, this has been taken for a more surface-level understand that the narrator’s mind is similarly fragmented. Much has been said of the fragmented narration and ambiguity in Dear Esther.
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