Headscratchers / The Stanley Parable

• Is Stanley an actual person? At least one ending implies that he literally can't do anything without player input, but The Narrator also describes Stanley doing things outside of the player's control (granted, he's not always reliable, and in the sequel he's even capable of doing things when The Narrator is gone (he has dreams in the "Bottomless Hole" ending, at the very least). So what's the deal with Stanley?
• If nobody besides Stanley showed up in the building, then who let him inside in the first place? It's highly doubtful that they would give keys to the entire building to a lowly office worker, or that they would just leave the building open for the night.
  • Some places have automatic doors that open with a lanyard - it could have been that he was able to get in with his emplyee ID. Either that, or everyone else was spirited away after Stanley got in.
  • Or it's all in his head like the Narrator says in one ending.
  • The very simple answer (and the creepiest) is that Stanley didn't have to be let into the office because he came into existence in the office and doesn't exist outside the office. With the exception of the ending where the Narrator said he was found dead in a street, which is something the Narrator invented. Stanley's wife, kids etc are fake backstory and only ever described by the Narrator. He presses buttons "as if it was a job he was made for" because it is the job he was made for. He only exists for as long as you boot the videogame and play it - and his co-workers never even existed.
    • Assuming the Narrator was telling the truth in the Countdown ending, Stanley DID once have co-workers. He says that he erased them. So they may have existed, but not been real people. He could very well be lying about this, despite saying that he was telling the truth.
  • Ignoring the metafiction for a moment, the idea is that they all disappeared while Stanley was working in his office, and would have been there to let him in normally before that.
• What is the parable of The Stanley Parable? Is there a parable?
  • From the Freedom ending, the Narrator wants the parable of The Stanley Parable to be: a man enslaved by his soul-sucking office job listens to his curiosity, digs a little deeper, finds the truth of the mind-control machine and frees himself, walking into a beautiful day outside. The intended lesson is "be free! Be creative! Follow your dreams and your impulses! Don't be tied down to boring work and a boring home life!" What the actual lesson or moral of the game is... well, it's anybody's guess.
• If the mind control facility is really just a monitoring system for silly birds, why does it initiate a nuclear self-destruct sequence for the entire facility if someone unauthorized tries to use it?
• Why does the door leading to the crusher/Museum ending read “escape” anyway? The Narrator doesn’t try to hide that it’s a lie, so what purpose would trying to trick someone do?