Piranesi

“Piranesi. It is what he calls me. Which is strange because as far as I remember it is not my name.” 

This quote will later be revealed to speak to the three names/identities of the narrator. Here, early in the novel, it foreshadows the narrator’s lost memories. Piranesi is also the name of an 18th century Italian artist who created etchings of an imaginary prison (Carceri d’invenzione), and Ketterley using this as a nickname is a snide hint to his imprisonment of the amnesiac narrator.

“Question: when I feel myself about to die, ought I to go and lie down with the People of the Alcove?” 

The narrator feels a deep responsibility to care for the bones he found in the labyrinth, aka his “Dead.” This is because he believes he is the “Child of the House” inhabited by these bones, rather than having a former life in London. This early moment foreshadows how the narrator will prioritize the care of the People of the Alcove over comforting Sorensen’s family near the end of the novel.  

“I write down what I observe in my notebooks. I do this for two reasons. The first is that Writing inculcates habits of precision and carefulness. The second is to preserve whatever knowledge I possess for you, the Sixteenth Person.” 

This passage speaks to the theme of writing (which the narrator capitalizes to emphasize its importance). The narrator’s journal is what reveals and ultimately contains his initial personality (Sorensen). His desire to communicate to another person speaks to the loneliness that the labyrinth and forgetting his past have created.