*Spoilers for Silent Hill 2. I know it’s a tad ridiculous to put that there for a twenty-year old game, but this is the kinda game that you really need to experience for yourself first. You’ve been warned.*
When it comes to character writing in horror, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better example than Silent Hill 2. Unfortunately, it’s hard to talk about it without spoilers. Lucky us then that I’ve already written the disclaimer.
Characters in Silent Hill are rarely what they appear to be. Good, bad, kind, sinister, it usually isn’t anything so simple. Those who wander the fog have much more going on upstairs than what meets the eye.
And I can think of no better – or at least more obvious – example than the lead of Silent Hill 2: James Sunderland.
The Wound: She Was Sick…
The beginning of James’ story is tragically simple. He lived a presumably happy life with his wife Mary. Then Mary got sick. Really sick. And it only ever got worse.
Her disease pushed both James and Mary to their emotional limits. Mary began to lash out at James, verbally abusing him with surprising brutality for a dying woman. James, in turn, becomes distant from his wife. There are even hints in the game that he developed lustful urges towards the nurses at the hospital due to his sexual frustrations.
On and on it went until it reached its boiling point. Until it reached the moment James snapped.
Until Mary died.
The Want: Could Mary Really Be Here?
In my restless dreams, I see that town. Silent Hill. You promised you’d take me there again someday. But you never did. Well, I’m alone there now. In our ‘special place’… Waiting for you.
Mary’s Letter
Three years after Mary’s death, James gets a letter from her telling him to come to Silent Hill. Any man in their right mind would write this off as a tasteless prank or a heartless scam. They’d tear the letter apart and never think about it again.
But James is not in his right mind. Far from it. The man is in a daze. Not only that, but he’s so depressed that it becomes his sole life line. Even when warned that the town might be dangerous, he doesn’t care. The hope of finding Mary is the only thing keeping him going.
Well, that and…
The Lie: That Damn Disease
At the beginning of the game, after we get that little excerpt from Mary’s letter, James provides us with important context. Namely one piece of important information: Mary died three years prior to the game beginning. But surely that isn’t important, right?
Well, no. It is. Because as it turns out: Mary didn’t die three years ago. Nor did the disease kill her.
James did.
Did he do it out of rage and hatred? Or out of love, in an effort to alleviate her suffering? The game leaves it intentionally ambiguous; it’s up for you the player to decide. Regardless of his intent, the truth remains the same: he was the one who killed Mary. An act which would leave him dazed and his mind on the brink of shattering.
*Fun fact: at the beginning of the game, you pick up the map of Silent Hill from James’ car. Also in that car is Mary’s dead body. In one of the endings, James decides he can’t live without her and drives into the lake with her corpse in tow to be with her again.*
Yeah, that wasn’t a fun fact, it was actually super depressing and messed up, but that’s Silent Hill for ya.
The Need: Someone to Punish Me
I was weak. That’s why I needed you… Needed someone to punish me for my sins… But that’s all over now. I know the truth. It’s time to end this.
James Sunderland
I should probably talk about Pyramid Head, huh?
See, one detail that makes Silent Hill 2 so incredible is the symbolism behind all the enemies. The nurses represent James’ sexual frustrations, as mentioned earlier. The bed thing represents Angela’s trauma regarding what her father… did to her. So on and so forth.
Pyramid Head represents James himself. Specifically, his killing of Mary. All of the guilt, horror, self-loathing, and every other terrible emotion that led to that action are personified in that monster. That’s why it’s the primary foe pursuing him across Silent Hill; everything we’ve talked about so far that makes James who he is is packaged within this monster.
Why? Simple. Guilt. James needs to be punished for what he did. He needs someone – or something, in this case – to make him face what he did and accept it. Nothing he can do will ever change it. He’s got to look it in the eye and decide how he’s going to live with it.
Or, depending on your ending, whether he’ll live with it or not.
Conclusion
James’ fate is entirely dependent on how you play the game. If you take good care of him, healing when you take damage and generally caring for him, he’ll find peace, move on, and presumably face justice. If you leave him on the brink of death and generally let him suffer, he’ll decide he can’t live without Mary and drive into the lake. It’s up to you.
Or you could find a dog manipulating all the events of the game. Or try to use dark cult magic to bring Mary back to life. Or go off with Maria and do the whole thing again.
Silent Hill 2 has a lot of endings and most of them are insane.
James is one of the greatest characters in video game history. Throughout the game, you grow attached to the man. Then it drops a bomb that huge on you and forces you to think: is the guy I’ve been playing as a bad person? Other mediums could do it, but only in a video game could it be so damn shocking and engaging.
Here’s hoping the remake doesn’t mess it up.
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