Life is Strange: Before the Storm: All Books, Theater Plays, Literature and Quotes mentioned ingame

“Awake, dear heart, awake!”
The first episodes title is a phrase from Act 1 Scene 2. Interestingly, Prospero says this right after Ariel leaves the stage. We play exactly this scene in episode 2 with Rachel on stage before this line gets dropped.

Chloe mentions the US Constitiution twice in Episode 1 which (adding the pranking victoria option) shows how intelligent she actually is.

Third Amendment (in David Madsen’s car)
Chloe: “Doesn’t the Constitution say, “No soldiers shall be housed in civilian homes without consent”? Because just for the record? I don’t agree.”
Fourth Amendment (In backtalk with director Wells)
Chloe: “How did you become a school principal without knowing the constitution? The Fourth Amendment: Illegal Search and Seizure?”

Blackwell Campus
For anyone who has played BtS at least once, this will be nothing new, but both one of the leitmotifs and half of the game are inspired by the Shakespeare play The Tempest.
When we first enter the Blackwell campus we learn that the school is putting on the play…
Remember Shakespeare because “its not the lasteth timeth thee shall heareth from that gent” 😉

Drama Lab
When we enter the drama lab with Rachel we stumble straight into a rehearsal of Act III Scene 1.

Hayden: I do beseech you, chiefly that I might set it in my prayers: what is your name?

Dana: Miranda… Oh, my father! I have broke your hest to say so!

Hayden: Admired Miranda! Indeed worth what’s dearest in the world! Many a lady I have eyed with best regard, and many a time hath listened—many a time the harmony of their tongues—hath I listened to—

After Hayden was scolded by Mr. Keaton because hes still not off book, Dana had a question about Scene 2.

Dana: Mr. Keaton, I’m still having trouble with, “My affections are then most humble; I have no ambition to see a goodlier man.” I mean…does she really mean that?

Drama Lab
Although I’m not sure here, since all posters for plays in the Drama Lab apart from The Tempest are fictional, I think that this refers to the 1969 autobiographical novel with the same name. This work is known to a wider audience through the 1973 film adaptation with Steve McQueen.

Drama Lab
Chloe “to internet or not to internet”
She says that when you look at the laptop.
The original “To be, or not to be” is a speech by Prince Hamlet and one of the most famous quotes out there.

Drama Lab (Laptop)
The actors for The Tempest are presented on the Drama Lab website. Rachel Amber performed a reading of A Streetcar Named Desire at her audition. The New York Broadway is also mentioned here for the first time.
(In theater, “reading” is simply reading the text with vocal expressions without costumes or a tableau vivant).

Drama Lab (dressing room)
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be” is a quote from Hamlet Act IV, Scene 5 and is spoken by Ophelia the daughter of Polonius.

(The origin of the quote is often mistakenly attributed to various Asian countries. But it comes from the genius brain of Shakespeare!)

(dressing room)
Rachel: So, did you bring flowers for my dressing room?

Rachel is obviously alluding to the custom of bringing the lead actor a bouquet (flowers) before the show. In Episode 2, Victoria mentions a similar custom in which in ancient Greece the understudy brought tea to the lead actor.

Chloe’s diary (page 7)

On the train with Rachel Amber
In this book Mark Twain simulates the perspective and language of a boy who is attached to his time and his environment, but also questions them. This suits a lot of students at Blackwell, really…
Also the cliché requires that there is a copy of Huck Finn on a freight train lol.

On the train with Rachel
Rachel: “Hear me roar!”
This is not certain but it could be a reference to Game of Thrones, or rather the books. “Hear me roar” is the motto of the House Lannister.

Train, 2 Truths and a Lie game
If Chloe claims Leo is a lie, she will explain that Rachel is “way too lucky to be a Leo” and must be a Sagittarius; Rachel will say, “The Archer? That’d be cool, like Artemis. But I’m afraid I was telling the truth.”

Artemis is the Greek goddess of hunting, wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation and, like Sagittarious, an archer. In itself an interesting anecdote about the gods in ancient Greece, but anyone who is familiar with the topic will find some similarities to Chloe and Rachel here.

Rachel compares herself to Artemis who is one of the three major virgin goddesses. She preferred to remain an unmarried maiden and was one of the goddesses over whom Aphrodite had no power. If we look at Aphrodite we see that one of her major symbols are roses and she is associated with love, lust and passion. Well, doesn’t that sound like Chloe? Do whatever you want with this information.

On the train with Rachel
Rachel: “Last summer I performed a one-woman Doctor Who homage entitled Weeping Angel”
That’s what she tells you on the train when you tell her that you broke your hand hitting someone.

Something tells me this has a deeper meaning but reading the Doctor Who wiki page on weeping angels didn’t really highlight anything. Except that weeping angels feed on the energy that their victims would have left behind if they had lived. This kind of brings me to the theory that Rachel passed her power on to Max. If anyone thinks of anything about it, let me know!

At the overlook with Rachel Amber
At the lookout, Chloe says, “I know the whole world’s a stage and ♥♥♥♥, but I’m not an actor.” This is a line from the monologue in the pastoral comedy “As You Like It”, spoken by Jaques in Act II, Scene VII, line 139. Well… at least the first half of the sentence.

Viewfinder with Rachel Amber
While the two are playing improv, Chloe says “And the lord saideth: thou shalt make a burnt offering of your first born son” which is a direct reference to Genesis 22:6.

“O brave new world, That has such people in’t”
The episodes title is a phrase said by Miranda in Act V Scene 1.

Btw its also the title of the dystopian novel “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley from 1932.

Wells Office
This european fairy tale is mentioned by Chloe in the Wells Backtalk.

Don’t tell me what to do. I’m not one of your sycophants. I’m a lone wolf, and you’re Little Red Riding Hood. Welcome to grandmother’s house, ♥♥♥♥♥.

Some think the Brothers Grimm invented the fairy tale. The French region is actually considered to be the origin in the 10th century. The first printed version called “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge” was by Charles Perrault. It was published in his collection “Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals. Tales of Mother Goose” in 1697.

American Rust junkyard
The license plate of Chloe’s truck is a reference to the pirate Anne Bonny. How fitting!

Now to the literature. Virtually everything that is known about Anne Bonny comes from the biographical collection A General History of the Pyrates from 1724.

The quote “Because life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” is mentioned twice. The first time by Rachel on the junkyard in Episode 2 but only if Chloe was suspended. The second time by Chloe in her fourth dream of William in Episode 3.

Frank’s RV
Although not a “real” book, this is one of the typical legal handbooks loved by law school freshmen and legal firm interns.

Blackwell dormitories
In the book with Steph’s drawings for the tableau vivant for The Tempest, Mr Keaton mentioned the milanese sun. Prospero is the Duke of Milan.

Blackwell dormitories
“All hope abandon ye who enter here.” is a famous sentence from Dante’s Inferno. Inferno is the first part of the Italian narrative poem “Divine Comedy” (1321) one of the most famous books in Western literature.

Writing this sentence on the floor of the school grounds shows once again what Chloe thinks of Blackwell.

Blackwell dormitories (Samuel’s Office)
The first book is The Pharsalia, or also called De Bello Civili (almost all roman war books begin with “De Bello”). It is an epic poem written around AD 60 by Lucan and describes the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great in Greece.

This book is most likely a reference to Life is Strange 1. Or it is intended to indicate that Samuel already suspected what was going to happen in LiS 1.

Fictional, no author. If i got my latin right its “Fire and Raven” (corvus is raven but the -que at the end is an “and” so its “and Raven”).
Tell me what you think but it pretty much sums up the game. Maybe add a “tempastas” for storm.

Eliot’s dorm room
“Broken Places” is not a real biography of Hemingway but the quote below is.
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” is from A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway written 1929.

Mr Keaton calls Chloe this if she got all lines correct in The Tempest. The word means actor and comes from the theater world of ancient Greece.

Also, Victoria talks about tea customs of the thespians in ancient greece before the play.

A leitmotif throughout the game, The Tempest gets its showdown in Episode 2 when it is performed in Blackwell. Before Rachel gets off script and metaphorically marries Chloe on stage, the script follows Act I, Scene 2.

In the Amber house next to James Amber
A law review is a lengthy, comprehensive treatment of subjects (referred to as “articles”), that are generally written by law professors, and to a lesser extent judges, or legal practitioners.

Typical stuff you’d find in the house of the district attorney.

Amber house
Oh man, James Amber has some nice books! The first one is a general compilation or summary of law-related information. Standard DA stuff.

Amber house
This book was published in 1847 under her pen name “Ellis Bell”. Haven’t read it but it sounds like it could have parallels to Chloe and Rachel’s relationship.

Amber house
Here we have the divine comedy from which we had a quote earlier. This italian epic completed around 1321, shortly before the author’s death, is one of the greatest works in western literature!

In the story, Dante travels through hell (Inferno) and through purgatory to find his love.
That sounds a lot like what Chloe goes through in both games.

Amber house
A well-known and very long book by the famous Charles Dickens. I haven’t read this (very LONG) book but one of the topics is court cases and corruption.
The book is probably a reference to James Amber and his corruption while he always boasts about his “ethical and fair processes”.

(In Chloes mind: haha…DICKens…)

Amber house
The rest of the books are all 15 books (I-XV) of the Metamorphoses by the roman poet Ovid written in AD 8.
Drawing parallels to the game here could be like writing a dissertation, but an interesting passage is the apotheosis (deification) of Julius Caesar towards the end of the work. Here you could perhaps argue that this is the same thing that Chloe does with Rachel (this becomes even clearer in the first game where Chloe raves about Rachel almost constantly). She puts Rachel on a pretty high pedestal and even calls her her angel. Not without reason if I may add.

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here”
The episodes title is a phrase from Act 1 Scene 2. Chloe said this in episode two at the The Tempest performance.

Rachels room
On the pinboard we can find the following quotes and musicals:

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!”
― Audrey Hepburn
(It is attributed to her but I couldn’t find a source of when or where she said it)

“The beginning is always today”
― Mary Wollstonecraft
(Her full name is Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, better known as the author of Frankenstein. The quote comes from her book Short Stories, vol II)

Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
― Douglas Adams
(This quote is from his 1987 novel “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.” He is also known as the author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”)

“Is it well that I should wish to leave this dreary world behind, seeking for your fair utopia, which perchance I may not find?”
― Henry Kendall
(This quote comes from the poem “Mountains” by Henry Kendall, which was published in “Poems and Songs” in 1862)

This Broadway musical is about the production of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” and the on and off stage conflicts between the producers and the stars.
That pretty much sums up episodes 1 and 2 of Before the Storm, doesn’t it?

Anyone who has been paying attention knows that Rachel Amber read a Tennessee Williams work for her audition for The Tempest. She seems to like his works…

Furthermore, it is extremely interesting for another reason: one of the main characters in this play is histrionic (excessive attention-seeking, beginning in early adulthood, inappropriate seduction, excessive desire for approval)

Doesn’t that sound like someone we know and who is also a Tennessee Williams fan?
Tip: Shes a leo, meow

This refers to the ABC series “Once Upon a Time” from 2011. As far as I know there is no musical for it but the two characters on the poster are clearly Snow and Prince Charming from the TV show.

It could even be that the poster is based on the cover of the 2013 book “Once Upon a Time: Behind the Magic” as the two figures look exactly like they do on the cover.

Rachel’s Room
“Before all else, be armed”
This quote comes from the 1513 book “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli.
It may be that the sentence is probably not one-to-one correct, but it is still from Machiavelli!

Also, this is so typical of Rachel sticking a post-it with something from Machiavelli on a positive saying lol

Rachel’s Room
At this point, a whole bookshelf full of Shakespeare works in Rachel’s room shouldn’t surprise anyone…

James Amber’s Office
As far as I know, James Amber studied in LA County (possibly Long Beach). But these books look exactly like the Harvard Law Review books. Both the old ones (brown) and the newer ones (cream colors with red label). However, it may also be the case that a DA can do more with Ivy League books than with those from California State University.
I’m not sure about the green ones though. California state law books are usually blue. Green could be legal reading from Oregon?

Outro with the “Happy Nathan” ending
In the outro, Nathan reads a book about the photo secessionists. This was a group formed by Alfred Steiglitz in 1902 to get photography accepted as a fine art.

That’s pretty basic photography history stuff so you could probably assume that Nathan Prescott started getting interested in photography right here.

Outro
Rachel reads it in the outro in Chloe’s room. But the book is also read by Samantha in Ep. 1 on campus.

Act 1 of the piece is very reminiscent of the table scene in the Amber House in episode 2 when everyone at the table is screaming at each other.

Chloe finds this play funny, Samantha thinks its sad. Im with Chloe on that one.