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The Abbess
Esteban is a young man who grows up in the Abbess’s orphanage alongside his identical twin, Manuel. Reserved and industrious, Esteban works as a scribe and errand boy, but he forms few friendships and no romantic attachments due to his exclusive attachment to Manuel. The brothers are defined by their extremely close relationship; they live together and have even devised their own language in which to communicate. Esteban is distraught when Manuel’s passion for Camila Perichole threatens to destroy their relationship, and relieved when Manuel renounces this passion for the sake of his brother. However, his relief proves short-lived when Manuel suddenly contracts an infection and dies. Manuel’s death plunges Esteban into an existential crisis, as he’s never contemplated the idea of life without his brother. It’s only Captain Alvarado’s compassionate intervention that convinces him not to commit suicide; fortified by the older man’s guidance, Esteban prepares to begin a new stage of his life as a member of the captain’s exploring crew; however, his expectations are dashed when he dies in the bridge collapse.
Esteban Quotes in The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The The Bridge of San Luis Rey quotes below are all either spoken by Esteban or refer to Esteban. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 3: Esteban
Quotes
[…] for just as resignation was a word insufficient to describe the spiritual change that came over the Marquesa de Montemayor on that night in the inn in Cluxambuqua, so love is inadequate to describe the tacit almost ashamed oneness of these brothers […] there existed a need of one another so terrible that it produced miracles as naturally as the charged air of a sultry day produces lightning.
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It was merely that in the heart of one of them there was left room for an elaborate imaginative attachment and in the heart of the other there was not. Manuel could not quite understand this […] but he did understand that Esteban was suffering […] and at once, in one unhesitating stroke of the will, he removed the Perichole from his heart.
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He was the awkwardest speaker in the world apart from the lore of the sea, but there are times when it requires a high courage to speak the banal. He could not be sure the figure on the floor was listening, but he said, “We do what we can. We push on, Esteban, as best we can.”
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Esteban Quotes in The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The The Bridge of San Luis Rey quotes below are all either spoken by Esteban or refer to Esteban. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 3: Esteban
Quotes
[…] for just as resignation was a word insufficient to describe the spiritual change that came over the Marquesa de Montemayor on that night in the inn in Cluxambuqua, so love is inadequate to describe the tacit almost ashamed oneness of these brothers […] there existed a need of one another so terrible that it produced miracles as naturally as the charged air of a sultry day produces lightning.
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Explanation and Analysis:
It was merely that in the heart of one of them there was left room for an elaborate imaginative attachment and in the heart of the other there was not. Manuel could not quite understand this […] but he did understand that Esteban was suffering […] and at once, in one unhesitating stroke of the will, he removed the Perichole from his heart.
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Explanation and Analysis:
He was the awkwardest speaker in the world apart from the lore of the sea, but there are times when it requires a high courage to speak the banal. He could not be sure the figure on the floor was listening, but he said, “We do what we can. We push on, Esteban, as best we can.”
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