Monty's Literary References - Dante and Shakespeare

[RadZakpak]

This topic sort of came to me out of nowhere, and I wanted to share my thoughts because I don't think I've seen really any discussion on the topic.

 

In Revelations, there are two stand out radios in which Dr. Monty simply recites lines from famous literature:

 

From Shakespeare's The Tempest:

Quote

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air; and, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve; And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep.

 

From Dante's Inferno (The Divine Comedy):

Quote

Midway this way of life we're bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, where the right road was wholly lost and gone. Ay me! How hard to speak of it - that rude and rough and stubborn forest! The mere breath of memory stirs the old fear in the blood; But when at last I stood beneath a steep hill's side, which closed that valley's wandering maze whose dread had pierced me to the heart-root deep, then I looked up, and saw the morning rays mantle its shoulder from that planet bright which guides men's feet aright on all their ways.

 

 

Because of the old fashioned language and seeming randomness of these references, I don't think they were given much thought before. But I got curious recently about the origins of these quotes and what they could mean from Monty's point of view. What do they say about his situation in Revelations?

 

Let's start with the lines from The Tempest, one of Shakespeare's last plays. The Tempest is about a group of people shipwrecked on an island led by a magical person known as Prospero. Prospero was formerly the Duke of Milan, and fled to this island years ago after a coup. One of the leaders of the coup was on the wrecked ship, and Prospero wants to make amends and return home.

 

One of the passengers from the shipwreck is the son of a King, and he falls in love with Prospero's daughter. Meanwhile, a plot is going on to overthrow Prospero and take his position on the island. The text that Monty quoted is near the end of the marriage of Prospero's daughter and the King's son, after a celebration. Prospero remembers the plot against him and realizes he will have to give up the power he has come to know. "Our revels are now ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air" The spirits Prospero conjured for entertainment are now gone, and their celebration comes to an end. "and, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve; And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep." In essence, despite how grand it all appears, Prospero's magic and the life he has created on the island will soon be gone. The themes of the play seem to be about the insignificance of our little lives despite how much we place importance on ourselves.

 

 

Now, the lines from Dante's Divine Comedy are actually the beginning of the first of three sections, called Inferno. In summary, The Divine Comedy is about Dante travelling through Hell, Purgatory, and then Heaven. Inferno begins with Dante in the middle of his life, feeling as though he has gone down a path of sin. The dark woods represent that sin and he feels as though he is doomed. However, there is a glimmer of hope as he approaches a hill and sees the sun's rays cast overhead. They will lead him down a more righteous path.

 

 

With the explanation out of the way, why is Monty fixated on these works, and these passages in particular?

 

One interpretation of his reference to The Tempest is that he places himself in the shoes of Prospero when it comes to the cycle that Monty has created. Perhaps he even realizes that inevitably he will fail and the cycle will be broken. It would be interesting if he was already aware of the fact he was delaying the inevitable. In this viewpoint, Monty understands the folly of his actions and knows that someday, the House and Agartha will be gone and there will be nothing more of his life. In this case, his reference to Inferno is perhaps him feeling that despite the negative connotations of his actions, there is still redemption to come for him. What that redemption could be, I don't know. There is some speculation we will see more of Monty in the future, and that could further tie into this interpretation of the text.

 

 

On the other hand, another interpretation could be that Monty is ascribing The Tempest's passage to humanity as a whole. Unlike he and the Keepers, our lives are small and temporary. Every empire that is created will fall, and as individuals we will be forgotten. His reference to Inferno could be a metaphor for Richtofen's journey, finding himself surrounded in darkness, a forest of bad deeds committed by his other selves. Richtofen, like Dante, sees hope through the forest and a path to redemption in following the plan up to Revelations.

 

 

What do you think is the proper interpretation of these references?

 

 

Also, BONUS LORE TIDBIT: The Tempest was also referenced in Black Ops's campaign. The clearance codes inside the Pentagon that McNamara uses are Prospero, Ariel, and Sycorax. Prospero being the protagonist of The Tempest, Sycorax being a witch who previously inhabited the island, and Ariel being a spirit imprisoned by Sycorax and later serving Prospero. Interestingly, as McNamara says these sequences, Mason seems to hear them as number sequences (discussed more in this thread). Is there something to this literary reference? Is Kennedy Prospero, with a plot to overthrow him coming from inside the government? Anyway, thanks for reading.

[anonymous]

Bringing up a real mystery here that I totally forgot about, nice job!  I'm really fund on your explanations, and it is so strange that Monty simply cites these passages rather than a specific quote directed to someone (Primis). This begs the question, to whom is Monty citing this? If for himself or the characters, it could very well be for the reasons stated by you. But what if it is directed to us, the ones who play the game?

 

I could see how these passages are meant as an inspirational tool for us to understand certain aspects in the story: What is the nature of souls, what is the Frozen Forest? Espessially that second passage reminds me of something concrete:

 

A man standing in a dark forest, filled with memories. Then, the rays of sunlight start to rise brightly... Could this be related with what we see in the game-over screen of Black Ops III: the dark Frozen Forest but with an odd blue-ish light rising (Apothicon Sun?). Something is happening here, but we never knew what. There's also the 'Primis memory trailers', taking place in the dark forest but before the lights start to rise ("The mere breath of memory stirs the old fear in the blood").  

 

Perhaps the synonym of a dark forest in Shakespeare's work is the same as the Frozen Forest in our forest. Like how we had a lot of Biblical metaphores in our story as well (Number of the Beast, Tower of Bable, etc).

[RadZakpak]

10 minutes ago, anonymous said:

Bringing up a real mystery here that I totally forgot about, nice job!  I'm really fund on your explanations, and it is so strange that Monty simply cites these passages rather than a specific quote directed to someone (Primis). This begs the question, to whom is Monty citing this? If for himself or the characters, it could very well be for the reasons stated by you. But what if it is directed to us, the ones who play the game?

 

I could see how these passages are meant as an inspirational tool for us to understand certain aspects in the story: What is the nature of souls, what is the Frozen Forest? Espessially that second passage reminds me of something concrete:

 

A man standing in a dark forest, filled with memories. Then, the rays of sunlight start to rise brightly... Could this be related with what we see in the game-over screen of Black Ops III: the dark Frozen Forest but with an odd blue-ish light rising (Apothicon Sun?). Something is happening here, but we never knew what. There's also the 'Primis memory trailers', taking place in the dark forest but before the lights start to rise ("The mere breath of memory stirs the old fear in the blood").  

 

Perhaps the synonym of a dark forest in Shakespeare's work is the same as the Frozen Forest in our forest. Like how we had a lot of Biblical metaphores in our story as well (Number of the Beast, Tower of Bable, etc).

Great catch with the dark woods being a parallel of the frozen forest! He could be referencing Primis between Gorod Krovi and Revelations being in the Frozen Forest, as seen in the memories trailers, with that light over the hill being their salvation, Agartha.

[anonymous]

17 hours ago, RadZakpak said:

Great catch with the dark woods being a parallel of the frozen forest! He could be referencing Primis between Gorod Krovi and Revelations being in the Frozen Forest, as seen in the memories trailers, with that light over the hill being their salvation, Agartha.

Do we know that the memory trailers take place between Gorod Krovi and Revelations, the moment everyone had lost their soul? At some point we saw that Monty also discovered the location, and I really wonder if/when this happens in the Cycle

[RadZakpak]

7 hours ago, anonymous said:

Do we know that the memory trailers take place between Gorod Krovi and Revelations, the moment everyone had lost their soul? At some point we saw that Monty also discovered the location, and I really wonder if/when this happens in the Cycle

I always assumed that they did because of the Monty trailer seeming to be the finale of all of them: 

 

 

Though, I don't think it should be taken entirely literally. What he says in the trailer is just reused lines from Revelations itself. However, I think it does still imply that Primis all met up in the forest before meeting Monty in Revelations.

[Rapt]

I think these specific quotes/stories inspired some of the main themes and events of Aether.

They were probably included here to give the story fans like us a deeper understanding of what we already know about the story,

 

For example the quote from the Tempest:

Quote

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air; and, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve; And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little lives are rounded with a sleep.

Long Explaination;

This is basically the thematic inspiration for the Tag ending.

The key difference being that the medium of a videogame is perpetual, unlike original theatre.

So to actually give these characters their eternal "sleep" in this medium they have to all be killed and any potential for this to be undone to also be destroyed (via the distruction of the multiverse with the Agarthan Device, which removes any timetravel potential to undo or circumvent their deaths).

Killing off all the characters in a way that cannot be unwritten is the only way to give the audience closure in a video game series that will be passed on for others to continue. (ie. "The only way for the characters and story to not be ruined by someone else with no respect or understanding of what this story means to the fans who grew up with it" is a more cynical way to put it.)

 

In the medium of theatre they don't have to kill off all the characters at the end of play to give the audience and characters complete closure.

Because the story in transitory. And will never be performed in that exact same way again.

So that telling of the story only exists in the memory of the audience giving them complete ownership and closure.

 

TDLR; This quote forshadows and is a meta explaination of why the Tag ending had to happen. 

You may disagree but I think that Tempest quote is pretty cut and dry.

 

.

 

The Dante quote is another can of worms entirely...

 

Like @RadZakpak @anonymous you both said it looks to relate to the story trailers and the forest.

Things we still don't understand fully.
But the guidance of the morning rays could alude to the becon, or that blue light offscreen in the forest.
Who knows.

 

In a more general sense I'd say it's aluding to Richtofen's story. Which is partially unseen.

 

Some of his story is a retelling of the story of Faust.

He made a deal with the devil ("long ago I made a promise a vow to protect him in order to keep my version I have done bad things")

Just like Faust his character flaw is narcissism. He values his own word above all else.

In the same way as Faust refuses to break his deal with the devil when offered the opportunity and is dragged to hell,

Richtofen makes the same mistake, keeping his word at all costs, killing his younger self and damning his soul to the eternity of the cycle. (hell)

 

The Divine Comedy, is in the basic sense the story of a jouney from life into heaven.

From Earth > Hell > Purgatory > Heaven.

And we see all the aspects of that story in Aether.

We see the "real world" the characters orignate from in various places and radios (the nuclear fallout world from radios, the "Dresden" line from the Moon loading screen etc etc)

We see Hell very briefly in Blood of the Dead, where character is defined by action not motive (ie the Warden's actions). 
Most of the rest of the story takes place in purgatory, with it being an exploration of the characters and their motivations (especially BO3) 

Quote

The classification of sin here (Purgatorio: purgatory in book 2 of The Divine Comedy) is more psychological than that of the Inferno, being based on motives, rather than actions

And finally, we see the Beautific Vision from the end of Paradiso (Book 3 of The Divine Comedy) right at the end of Origins (only BO2 it's not the same in BO3)

Not to get too deep into things (this is already long enough to be a standalone post sorry) but the BO2 ending was the original "Paradiso" ending.

But due to time travel this ending was no longer an "ending" once BO3 had happened.

Which is why in BO3 Origins we don't ascend into "heaven" at the end. We only get to stand staring at it after the cutscene ends and die.

Because once Revelations happened the only way to get an "ending" was via the destruction of the multiverse in Tag.

Which is why we see that cutscene from after Alpha Omega directly after the BO2 Origins ascent. Because it is immediately "undone" by timetravel.

So we get the ascent there instead: 

(but of course we know Sam and Richtofen are being reused (the writers knew that as well) so they don't get a "beautific vision" ending sadly. Just a tunnel.

Read into that as much as you like...

 

Big TLDR; 

Tempest = Tag Ending Explained

Divine Comedy = Richtofen's Journey Explained (and whole Aether story explained tbh)

Faust = Richtofen's character flaws explained