Analysis of Evangelion

Shinji as Arjuna.

Rei

Rei represents the physical body, epithumia. This seems contradictory, since she is the least emotional of the trinity, and the most stoic. But her lack of outward emotions is in keeping with her identity as the animal body. Specifically, Rei is the reduced epithumia in the form of the plant body. This is indicated by Rei’s vegetarianism.

This can be understood from a reading of Goethe, from whom Spengler derived his theory of civilizations as organic homologous structures. Rei is not a single individual, but a spirit distributed across a body of clones. As a part of the soul, she seeks unity with the other two parts. As the reincarnation of Lilith, she is the primordial female, Mother Nature, the origin point of all bodies. Following Paglia, she is like the Earth: a cold exterior containing a fiery core.