Theory and Analysis:Rei's Monologue

Rei's Monologue, also known as Rei's Poem, occurs during the second half of episode 14, while Rei Ayanami is present in Eva-01 during the 1^st interchangeability test.

Rei's vision may be brought on by contact with the resident soul of Eva-01, Yui Ikari. At the end of the vision Rei looks up from within Eva-01 and is patently shocked, letting out a gasp.

Interpretation

Mountain... Heavy mountains. Things that change over time. 山。重い山。時間をかけて変わる物。

Sky... Blue sky. What your eyes can't see. What your eyes can see. 空。青い空。目に見えない物。目に見える物。

Rei compares Mountain and Sky, these are other terms for earth and heaven, terrestrial and the celestial, body and soul. One is visible to the eyes and the other isn't. Rei alludes to physicality's transience with the words "mountains. Things that change over time."

Sun... A unique object. 太陽。一つしかない物。

Water... Something comforting. Commander Ikari. 水。気持ちの良い事。いかり司令。

Mountain, Sky, Sun and Water. Rei has listed the four classical elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water under different names, the elements that compose the universe. Another aspect of these elements are reflected in Qabalah in the Four Worlds, as well as the in the trigrams of the Book of Changes which share the same names.

Flowers... So many of the same... And so many unneeded. 花。同じ物がいっぱい。要らない物もいっぱい。

It has been suggested this line refers to the clones in the Dummy Plug Plant.

Sky... Red, red sky. The colour red. I hate the colour red. 空。赤い、赤い空。赤い色。赤い色は嫌い。

During episode 26 Rei uses the image of the setting sun and the red sky again: "Sunset... vanishing life... My wish... I don't like it."

Red is the colour that Asuka exhibits throughout the series.

Water flowing. 流れる水。

Blood... The smell of blood. A woman who never bleeds. 血。血の匂い。血を流さない女。

Rei lists Flowers, Sky, Water and Blood, which partake of Fire, Air, Water and Earth respectively.

Man made from red soil. 赤い土から作られた人間。

Man made from man and woman. 男と女から作られた人間。

City... A human creation. 町。人の作り出した物。

These three lines are likely in reference to the first four chapters of Genesis, where these events occur in sequence.

Eva... A human creation. エヴァ。人の作りした物。

What is a human? A creation of God? 人は何？神様が作り出した物者？

Is man a human creation? 人は人が作り出した物者？

"Man made from red soil" to "Is man a human creation?" may describe a six-fold process of progressive creation that is akin to the Lesser Countenance, making "the woman who never bleeds" Aima.

The things I possess are a life and soul. I am a vessel for a soul. 私にある物は命、心、心の入れ物。

Following on from the above interpretation the vessel is allotted onto Kingdom, where the soul intersects the vessel.

Entry plug, the throne for a soul. エントリー?プラグ、それは魂の座。

The Entry Plugs act as a throne for the soul of the Lilim as the Evangelions are the highest forms of life on the planet besides Adam and Lilith.

Throne of the soul, or the seat of the soul, is a term Descartes coined to describe the pineal gland which he believed to be the place where the soul intersects the body. In more modern New Age thought the pineal gland is usually said to be the manifestation of the anja chakra, also known as the third eye or mind's eye.

See this external link for more information.

Who is this? This is me. これは誰？これは私。

"Who is this who is thinking these thoughts?" I think therefore I am, Rei says to herself, yet Rei is not satisfied with this answer and goes on to ask more directly:

At this point we see Rei's left eye, as we see in the opening credits. The left eye is associated with the moon.

See Rei and the Moon for more details.

Who am I? What am I? What am I? What am I? What am I? 私は誰？私は何？私は何？私は何？私は何？

I am myself. This object is me. 私は自分。この物体が自分。自分を作っている形。

Rei takes another shot at it, instead of the "I think therefore I am", she now goes for "I am that I am."

Yet Rei mistakes her form that is the result of the bonds between herself and others for her self, she mistakes the veil for the tabernacle, and so goes on to say:

This is the me that can be seen, yet I feel as though I am not myself. 目に見える私。でも私は私で無い感じ。

Rei recognises her previous mistake and that the visible "this object is me" isn't her self, and that there's something beyond it, which is her unseen soul. Rei peers past the veil:

Very strange. I feel as if my body is melting. とても変。体が溶けて行く感じ。

I can no longer see myself. My shape is fading. 私が解らなくなる。私の形が消えていく。

I feel the presence of someone who is not me. 私でない人を感じる。

Is someone there, beyond this? 誰かいるのこの先に。

After recognising that her self is not merely "this object is me," her form melts away, revealing something that at first appears to not be part of herself, "I feel the presence of someone who is not me," as it is not the result of the bonds between her and other people. This is her soul, or Rei's true self as Lilith.

The line "very strange. I feel as if my body is melting," is reminiscent of one of Shinji's lines in episode 25:

“

Shinji: What is this sensation? I feel like I've experienced it before, as if the shape of my body is melting away.

„

Ikari? 碇君？

I know this person. Major Katsuragi. この人知ってる。葛城さん。

Doctor Akagi. 赤木博士。

Everyone. Classmates. 皆。クラスメート。

The pilot of Unit 02. 二号機パイロット。

Commander Ikari? 碇司令？

Who are you? あなた誰？

Who are you? あなた誰？

Who are you? あなた誰？

Rei lists the bonds she shares with other people in order, she feels closest to Shinji, then Misato, then Ritsuko, then the world "the Eva is a bond with all people," with Asuka and Gendo at the bottom of the heap. Even though Rei seems closest to Gendo in the show, at least to begin with, she now recognises that he is in fact the furthest person away from her, so far away that she doesn't even know who he is, as Rei openly says in the next episode:

“

Shinji: Say, what kind of person is my father? Rei: I don't know.

„

Notes

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• What causes Rei to recite her internal, self-examining poem while in the Entry Plug of Eva-01? Is it possibly somehow related to the fact that Rei is a physical clone of Yui Ikari, and Yui Ikari's soul is contained inside of Eva-01?
  • Rei asks "Anata dare?" - "Who are you?" as Eva-01's exposed head is shown, implying that Rei is asking the Eva the question. In Episode 19, it is heavily implied that Rei physically does not dream. So if Rei isn't dreaming or having a "day dream" of sorts, what is this vision-poem she seems to have? Rei is normally totally stoic, but she actually seems surprised at the end of her poem - was it because Ritsuko roused her or is it because she came to realize what the Eva truly is?
• What does Rei mean in the middle of her poem when she refers to "a woman that doesn't bleed"? No corresponding image is displayed on the screen when she says this, just a shot of a tunnel formed by tiny red dots receding to infinity, etc. Is this meant to imply that Rei does not menstruate?
  • It's not really clear what it is referring to. Certainly, Rei has been seen to "bleed" normal human blood from wounds (she doesn't just have LCL running through her veins). Episode 19 did heavily imply that Rei doesn't dream; it's possible that there are other things normal humans experience that she doesn't.
  • However, this line could also be referring to Lilith, who "bleeds" LCL, not human blood.
• In her poem, Rei says that she doesn't like the color red. Asuka pilots Eva-02, which is red, and wears a matching red Plug suit; is it possible that this means Rei doesn't like Asuka?
• Perhaps the montage of images that Rei saw while in Eva-01 were not internal, but the "mental imprint" left behind by Shinji, and she just composed her "poem" on the spot in response to what she was seeing. Indeed, many of the images during Rei's montage were images from when Shinji ran away to the countryside around Tokyo-3 in Episode 04 (of course, they could just be reusing those images here for economical reasons, but it does raise the question of if the production team made conscious choice to use those specific scenes and not just another one).
  • However, Rei didn't see a floating image of Shinji the way Shinji sees a vision of Rei. Thus Rei's montage of images was probably not meant to be connected to Shinji's experience in Eva-00.