He is working against himself, which I find really interesting. He is the antagonist, protagonist and in a sense the ‘princess’ that is meant to be saved.
http://silenthill.wikia.com/wiki/James_Sunderland
Before going over the other characters it should be pointed out that every character James meets along the way seems to each represent a part of James psyche; which I found fascinating as it made the small amount of characters that are in it even more integral to the plot.
The character I started analysing first was Maria, as she is essentially the heroine of sorts to the game, she is also one of the most in depth characters I found.
Maria’s link to James psyche is without a doubt his desire and longing for his wife; her appearance also further emphasises that the game does revolves around James sexual repression. As the game progresses it appears as though Maria is beggining to suffer for the same ailment as James' late wife.
She is essenttially a bit question mark to the game as, the player is always skeptical whether Maria is real or not.
http://silenthill.wikia.com/wiki/Laura
Next to Maria, Laura is probably the most important side character in the game as she is the only other person who actually knows Mary ( his deceased wife), She is bratty and blunt, however most interactions with her makes the player question Mary’s death.
Laura is essentially the voice of reason, the truth that James is seeking out. James’ whole reason for going to Silent Hill is to clarify whether or not his wife is actually dead.
Another interesting fact about Laura is that she seems to not see the monsters nor Maria, due to her being such an innocent of mind, she see the town how it really is.
The first character met in the game, Angela is a strange character, she’s a teenager looking for her ‘Mama’ and the rest of her family. James meets her just before entering Silent Hill, she warns him of the town.
She is definitely suffering from psychological instability, foremost being a manic depressive; one scene she is see wielding a bloody knife – it is strongly implied she is trying to kill herself.
I had a bit of trouble breaking down what Angela could represent, what I managed to come up with was that she was James’ need to be punished, his guilt and fear; she also possibly represents the comfort James wishes to seek out.
Angela frequently apologises during many conversations, mentioning it was ‘her fault’, It isn’t directly mentioned, however but it appears as though Angela also killed her father; Making her and James even more relatable to each other.
Finally there is Eddie; his initial meeting is possibly the most memorable, throwing up in a toilet.
From the word go the audience know Eddie is a coward. I made the assumption from this, Eddie is James whole running away from the problem. James doing so by repressing the memory of killing his wife.
Although with Eddie he takes it to more of an extreme and outright denies killing a man and a dog, although still mentioned that fact he fled from the police to Silent Hill.
To begin with Eddie is merely seen as a coward, as the game progresses he gets much more extreme and violent; I think this puts some perspective in James’ eyes, that he needs to be more rational and that his own actions in that past can’t be absolved be ignoring it.
Along with is that the multiple ending also correspond with each character.
For instance, the ‘correct’ ending, the ‘Leave’ ending is Laura, James overcomes his problems and leaves the town with Laura
‘In water’ ending is representative of Angela, James is begging for his wife’s forgiveness still unable to let her go, who appears to commit suicide after that.
‘Maria’ ending is, actually Eddie, his dead wife blamed him for killing her, however he dismisses it and leaves with Maria, who is miraculously alive again; she starts coughing- showing James is just going to go through the same events once again.
‘Rebirth’ is Maria, throughout the game the player collects items to help resurrect Mary.
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