"Este": near the person who is speaking "Ese": near the person(s) who is (are) listening. "Aquel": far from the speaker and the listener(s).

They're pronouns showing the distance with an object / person. Masculine (he / it): este = this (narrow distance) ese / eso = that (medium distance / closer). Eso only for it. aquél = that (long distance / far away) Feminine (she / it), same applies: esta; esa ; aquella.

este= this ese=that same use that in English. Este for the closer things or person, and ese for the further away ones. "Este" and "ese" could be either pronouns or adjectives, If adjectives, they must accord with the substantive ( eso, esto esa, esta esos, estos , esas, estas) But if you see an accent over the last "e" of esté, it means that you're facing the present of subjunctive of the verb estar. The Royal Academy has established that if there's a risk of confusion between este pronoun and este adjective, the pronominal form could be written with a diacritic accent over the first "e" = éstos son tus derechos (pronoun) but estos niños ( adjective).