The Bridge of San Luis Rey

by

Thornton Wilder

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Esteban’s twin brother. Manuel is almost exactly like his brother, except that whereas Esteban is completely satisfied by their close sibling bond, Manuel becomes infatuated with the actress Camila Perichole. His new passion almost drives him away apart from his brother, but eventually he renounces her in order to preserve their relationship. Shortly thereafter, he dies as the result of a sudden infection. His death forces Esteban to contemplate life as an independent and unattached man for the first time.

Manuel Quotes in The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The The Bridge of San Luis Rey quotes below are all either spoken by Manuel or refer to Manuel. 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:
Acts of God and Individual Will Theme Icon
).
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.

Related Characters: Esteban, Manuel
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

Pleasure was no longer as simple as eating; it was being complicated by love. Now was beginning that crazy loss of one’s self, that neglect of everything but one’s dramatic thoughts about the beloved, that feverish inner life all turning upon the Perichole and which would so have astonished and disgusted her had she been permitted to divine it.

Related Characters: Camila Perichole / Micaela Villegas, Manuel
Page Number: 45
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.

Related Characters: Camila Perichole / Micaela Villegas, Esteban, Manuel
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis:
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Manuel Quotes in The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The The Bridge of San Luis Rey quotes below are all either spoken by Manuel or refer to Manuel. 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:
Acts of God and Individual Will Theme Icon
).
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.

Related Characters: Esteban, Manuel
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

Pleasure was no longer as simple as eating; it was being complicated by love. Now was beginning that crazy loss of one’s self, that neglect of everything but one’s dramatic thoughts about the beloved, that feverish inner life all turning upon the Perichole and which would so have astonished and disgusted her had she been permitted to divine it.

Related Characters: Camila Perichole / Micaela Villegas, Manuel
Page Number: 45
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.

Related Characters: Camila Perichole / Micaela Villegas, Esteban, Manuel
Page Number: 50
Explanation and Analysis: