Dear Esther Meaning

[Jri-Reech]

IMO, Dear Esther is about a man (Donnelly) who has a car accident with another drunk driver (Paul Jakobson) and loses his wife (Esther) to a coma and then eventually death, Donnelly although making peace with Paul cannot get past the grief of losing his wife and becomes addicted to his medication. Paul eventually dies from a weak heart and as Donnelly contemplates life without Esther he takes his own life in a hope to be with his beloved again.

Basing the Story on the above premise leads me to the below elaboration. The player starts out on an Island, an Island which is made up of the culmination of Donnelly’s deep grief induced madness and his eventual disconnecting from society. As the player moves through the island, cryptic poetry unfolds to show us that some form of motor accident had occurred. As we move deeper into the Island we metaphorically move deeper into the mind of Donnelly, we hear of his relationship with Esther and his continual search for answers to why the accident happened. Donnelly continues to visit Esther every day while she is in hospital, eventually Esther dies. Donnelly is stricken with grief of his loves death; he withdraws from society and becomes a hermit. As he was nursing a serious leg injury from the crash, Donnelly becomes addicted to his pain medication and starts quick descent into depression. Donnelly decides to meet up with Paul to make peace with him, but Paul isn’t coping with what he had done either, he swears to Donnelly that he wasn’t drinking when the accident happened, but Donnelly continues to try and find the truth. Donnelly tries to look to religion for comfort but they are unable to give him the support he needs, he rejects the help they try to give over and over and eventually they give upon him. Months go by and Paul is not doing well, They meet up again to see if they can give each other support, but it is obvious that Donnelly still believes that Paul was drunk when he hit them. Paul, having an apparent heart condition, partly from his old age, has a heart attack at home and dies. Donnelly, now having lost his last connection to his wife through Paul, spirals even deeper into addiction, and starts to lose his connection to reality. He continues to write his thoughts down and sends them home as if Esther will be there reading them, even though he knows that she is dead. He realises that Paul hadn’t been drunk at all but he had suffered a heart attack at the wheel, it was his weak heart that caused this tragedy. Donnelly believes that this was all in fate that this had happened, that his wife had died. In his delirium from pain medication, he hobbles to a tall radio tower, he makes his peace with the world, he looks forward to seeing his wife again, he jumps.

A Sad story about a man who could not live without his love, Esther.

Obviously I condensed the story, as there are heaps of extra things that are mentioned like his children for example.

But what are peoples thoughts? Am I Right? Do you agree? I NEED CLOSURE!

[EdmeXIII (Alex)]

I agree with you about there being a car accident, but I don't think the character you control is involved in it. I think it's just Paul and Esther. During the game, you character says something about "I met Paul. We drank coffee and tried to connect. Although he knew I hadn’t come in search of an apology, reason or retribution, he still spiralled in panic." It gave me the impression that this meeting was their first time actually seeing eachother in person.

And as fas as Donnelly being hospitalized. He had kidney stones, which was probably what he was taking the medication for - "I had kidney stones, and you visited me in the hospital. After the operation, when I was still half submerged in anaesthetic, your outline and your speech both blurred. Now my stones have grown into an island and made their escape and you have been rendered opaque by the car of a drunk."

[Jri-Reech]

I was beginning to think i was too late on the dear esther band wagon, thanks for commenting!

You make a good point, i guess its possible that because of the traumer Donnelly and Paul never met at the scene of the accident, but again he may have still been in hospital during the accident.

What about the rest, do you agree? the heart attack?

[EdmeXIII (Alex)]

I just found the following site, that lists all of what's said while playing "Dear Esther" -

http://dearesther.wikia.com/wiki/Dear_Esther_Script

Reading the dialogue a little more carefully this time. My opinion about what happened has changed a little.

There are so many parts in the dialogue where your character switches between 3rd person and 1st person, so it "very easily" gets confusing about who he's referring to. This is my best attempt at reading over the dialogue on the above link, and finding out what happened.

Your character had a previous hospital stay, where he was recovering from kidney stones. He gets a visit from Esther while he's still affected by the anesthetic, and is only able to barely recognize who she is. He's on the mend, and is given medication to help with the pain. He's let out of the hospital. Within a couple days of getting out of the hospital, him and Esther are driving, and get hit by Paul. Esther dies at the scene. Paul dies, but is brought back to life 21 minutes later. Your character "sees" Paul at the accident, but whether or not Paul sees you is never specifically stated. You two don't "officially" meet until later. Your character survives the accident, but I'm guessing that he now probably is suffering from a lot of mental trauma, given the circumstances. Due to the mental trauma, at times, he thinks that him and Donnelly are two different people (which is why Esther also has the last name 'Donnelly'). He meets up with Paul on "at least" two different occassions after the accident. The first time when they're having coffee, the second time is when he says, "In my final dream, I sat at peace with Jakobson and watched the moon over the Sandford junction, goats grazing on the hard shoulder, a world gone to weed and redemption." There are a couple times during the game where your character references kidney stones, which makes me think that, some time after the accident, your character starts getting kidney stones again. And if it's true that your character and Donnelly are one and the same, he's also suffering from Syphillis.

The grief from Esther's death, along with the pain from the recurring kidney stones and syphillis, my guess is that your character ended up taking his own life. ("I have run out of places to climb. I will abandon this body and take to the air.")

[Jri-Reech]

Yes, thats the site i used to compile my ideas.

It seems we completely agree on the story, however what passage of script makes you believe Esther died at the scene? Im interested to know because i was sure i read that Donnelly made repeated visits to Esther in hospital.

Also what did you glean from part in the gamewhen you are at the beach where the paper boats are and you find 3 eggs? You also find 3 broken eggs before that..... was she pregnant or what?

[EdmeXIII (Alex)]

When your character says, "Dear Esther. Whilst they catalogued the damage, I found myself afraid you’d suddenly sit up, stretch, and fail to recognise me." I interpreted that as meaning that she passed away at the scene.

The paper boats that you see are supposed to represent the letters that your character wrote (and wanted to give) to Esther - "I collected all the letters I’d ever meant to send to you. Then I took each and every one and I folded them into boats. I folded you into the creases and then, as the sun was setting, I set the fleet to sail." My guess is that him sending the letters away like that is his way of finally being able to accept the fact that she's gone, and that he's able to move on. To me, the eggs represented that they wanted kids, but because of the accident, they never had the chance.

[Jri-Reech]

Yes after re-looking at the monologue i can see i made the hospiotal coma out of thin air!
I guess I just saw what i wanted to see.

Yeah thats also along the same line as my thoughts, well i guess ill wait for others to stumble upon this and tell me what they deciphered.

Thanks :)

[Moot Von Mootersen]

i totly go 4 the seagull thingy

[Sallama Pajama]

Does anyone know what's up with the spirits (or people?) walking around the island? They (it?) really freaked me out the first time I saw them/it. I was walking by the little, old house, minding my own business when all of a sudden I look to my right while on a nearby trail to the cave and there's a figure with a light walking deeper into the cave.

Note to self: Don't play creepy games alone in your room, in the dark, at night, with headphones on. I never learn.

[Jri-Reech]

Really?!
I can't say i got to experience them. I was too busy looking intently at the syringes on the ground.

[Sallama Pajama]

@cubawillrule There's youtube videos about where you can find them, there's multiple ones just wandering around and being terrifying. There's one right after the paper boat scene where you see it when you look up at the hill by the beach but as soon as you walk up there, it's gone.
Creepy. As. Hell.

[Jri-Reech]

How did i miss this haha :D I'll check them out. Wait was there one near the light house?

[Madbat]

Bit late to this, but I've only seen 2 spirits (I have screen shots). Both we just standing, one on the high path overlooking the wrecked cargo ship, the other on a cliff outcropping over looking a beach with a lot of old wooden lanes.

[DocCovington]

Here is a good summary: http://www.mattyrasker.me.uk/dear-esther-the-story-explained/

[Madbat]

Here's some archived notes by Dan Pinchbeck, they suggest that while the whole story is deliberatly ambiguous and often misleading, it's to suggest the unraveling of the narrators mind, that he may in fact be Paul, and responsible for the very accident that killed Esther. (Seagull smashed into his windshield, he had a heart attack) He may also be dead or in a coma.

http://web.archive.org/web/20140711012000/http://thechineseroom.co.uk/blog/some-old-dear-esther-archive-stuff/

[Sandboxhead]

I thought that the big Shyamalan-esque twist of the story is that even though you naturally assume the player-character is both the author and speaker of the monologues, the PC is actually just reciting the monologues someone else wrote down.

That led me to believe that the PC isn't actually Donnelly (Esther's husband), but rather is Paul. Because otherwise I don't see how the little paper boats are already there when he finally made his way to the other side of the island.