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Walter
Raphael is the Hotel Caiette’s manager. He hires Walter to be the night manager three years before Ella Kaspersky hires Paul to write a threatening message on the lobby’s glass wall. Raphael receives Walter’s incident report detailing the message and commends him on his thorough work. Although Raphael doesn’t particularly like Walter, he supports Walter’s offer to become the hotel’s caretaker in the aftermath of the collapse of Jonathan Alkaitis’s Ponzi scheme in 2008.
Raphael Quotes in The Glass Hotel
The The Glass Hotel quotes below are all either spoken by Raphael or refer to Raphael. 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:
).
Chapter 3: The Hotel
Quotes
“Very few people who go to the wilderness actually want to experience the wilderness. Almost no one.” Raphael leaned back in his chair with a little smile, presumably hoping that Walter might ask what he meant, but Walter waited him out. “At least, not the people who stay in five-star hotels,” Raphael said. “Our guests in Caiette want to come to the wilderness, but they don’t want to be in the wilderness. They just want to look at it, ideally through the window of a luxury hotel. They want to be wilderness-adjacent. The point here—” he touched the white star with one finger, and Walter admired his manicure—“is extraordinary luxury in an unexpected setting. There’s an element of surrealism to it, frankly. It’s a five-star experience in a place where your cell phone doesn’t work.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Raphael Quotes in The Glass Hotel
The The Glass Hotel quotes below are all either spoken by Raphael or refer to Raphael. 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:
).
Chapter 3: The Hotel
Quotes
“Very few people who go to the wilderness actually want to experience the wilderness. Almost no one.” Raphael leaned back in his chair with a little smile, presumably hoping that Walter might ask what he meant, but Walter waited him out. “At least, not the people who stay in five-star hotels,” Raphael said. “Our guests in Caiette want to come to the wilderness, but they don’t want to be in the wilderness. They just want to look at it, ideally through the window of a luxury hotel. They want to be wilderness-adjacent. The point here—” he touched the white star with one finger, and Walter admired his manicure—“is extraordinary luxury in an unexpected setting. There’s an element of surrealism to it, frankly. It’s a five-star experience in a place where your cell phone doesn’t work.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
