Maria (Silent Hill)
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| Silent Hill character | |
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| Maria | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Age | Late 20s |
| Hair color | Dyed blonde with red tips. (In the Making Of DVD, it is revealed she is a natural brunette) |
| Eye color | Blue |
| Occupation | Stripper/pole dancer at Heaven's Night(?) |
| Appearance/s in Silent Hill Series | Silent Hill 2 as Maria and Mary Shepard-Sunderland, James' wife |
| Voice by/ Protrayer | Monica Horgan |
Maria is one of the main characters in Silent Hill 2. She meets up with James in Rosewater Park and stays with him sporadically after that. She is physically identical to James' late wife, Mary, although her appearance and personality is more sexually extoverted. Maria is a very enigmatic character, and she could be seen as some sort of reincarnation or ghostly form of Mary, as a supernatural and possibly sinister creature of unknown origin, or some combination of these. At times she seems to channel Mary's memories, and, like Mary, she suffers from an unspecified illness. The booklet accompanying the game describes her as the opposite of Mary, "cheerful and energetic," but she is actually a rather dark and moody character and as the game goes on her illness makes her less energetic. Her personality is highly unpredictable: sometimes she is fearful and clingy, at other times she speaks tenderly to James, and at other times she is more teasing or even cruel. She seems consistently concerned about Laura, the little girl who is running loose in Silent Hill. Through the game James is both attracted to her and fearful of what Maria might represent, and he struggles to understand her. Maria appears to be some sort of phantom created by James' desperation to see Mary again, an idea arguably supported by the title of the Silent Hill 2 minigame, Born From a Wish. The minigame suggests that, in the beginning at least, even Maria isn't really sure who or what she is, but by the time she first encounters James she is beginning to "remember" him somehow. When she learns she's not a real person and was created for James, she briefly considers suicide but ultimately decides to go see James.
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[edit] Born From a Wish
Chronologically speaking, the Born From a Wish minigame serves as Maria's introduction in the Silent Hill universe, although this prequel game was created after Silent Hill 2's release. The Maria we see in Born From a Wish is much less sassy and confident than in the main game, and it is suggested that she has no memory of who she is or how she came to be there, furthering the amibguity of the character's origins.
Maria wakes up alone and frightened in the "Heaven's Night" club. After pondering to herself about what she should do, she eventually decides to try and find someone else in the town. She begins to wander through the streets of Silent Hill until eventually she enters Baldwin Mansion, an area out of bounds in the main game. Here she meets the owner of the mansion, Ernest (although she never actually sees him; all their conversations are shared between a locked door). Ernest speaks in a strange monotone, and asks her to find him the "white liquid" to help him bring back his dead daughter. Maria helps him with this, even though it may not work, stating, "I don't mind fighting for an impossible cause." After Maria brings back the "white liquid" to Ernest, he reveals slightly more about Maria to her, and tells her about James. This seems to stir something in Maria, who begins to remember something about him. Ernest then warns Maria that James is a bad man, and that he's looking for the "part of you that isn't you." Nevertheless, this cryptic message fuels new hope in Maria, and she leaves Baldwin Mansion with her focus on finding James. Ernest, meanwhile turns out to have been a ghost all along.
[edit] The Main Game
Some ways into the main game, Maria's story begins (or resumes, following the prequel minigame) when James, the game's protagonist, stumbles across Maria himself in Rosewater Park; seeing her in the fog, he mistakes her for Mary. He is taken aback by how much she resembles Mary, and her response is seductive and somewhat mocking. James is about to leave when she then turns clingy, pointing out that there are monsters everywhere, and she asks if she can stay with him. He agrees. James and Maria eventually make their way to Pete's Bowl-O-Rama' from Rosewater Park. When James is about to enter, Maria stays behind, her excuse being that she "hates bowling". When James states the obvious by saying that he "didn't come here to play", Maria still firmly insists that she just wants to wait outside. James then goes into the building alone. When he returns a few minutes later, after an encounter with the mysterious little girl Laura and another human, the lunkish Eddie, Maria says she saw Laura emerge and she insists that James help look for her. After James follows Maria to the path she says Laura headed off in, they eventually end up in an alley, which only leads off to a very narrow wall and a locked door. Maria points out to James that Laura crawled through the wall and out to the other side. Seeing as there is no way either James or Maria can fit through it themselves, James asks Maria if there is any other way. Maria says there is, and points to the locked door again, where she unlocks it with a key she had been carrying herself. Inside the building is the backstage of a seedy strip club called Heaven's Night, which Maria seems to be very familiar with. After exploring the club briefly, they both exit and eventually find the same route Laura followed again.
The trail leads them to Brookhaven Hospital, which Laura has entered herself. Fearing for her safety, they explore the hospital together before Maria becomes sick and asks to rest. James leaves her in one of the hospital rooms. If the player checks on her after that she will still be there, looking very unwell. Eventually, when you return to the room, Maria is nowhere to be found. Fortunately Maria soon bumps into James again but grows angry at James' lack of concern towards her, and his devotion to Mary. Their time together though is short-lived as while running through the hospital's basement Maria is apparently killed by Pyramid Head in front of James. After witnessing this tragedy, James is very upset, explaining that once again he couldn't do anything to help a person he cared for. However, he realises that his main priority is to find Mary, and decides to head to the Lakeview Hotel. However, he finds that the road to the hotel is blocked, and the only other way is through Silent Hill's historical society building and then travelling through the lake by boat. He explores the society briefly, but ends up delving deeper underground, into an ancient, abandoned prison and labyrinth.
While exploring the Labyrinth however, James stumbles in on Maria, locked behind a cell wall. She starts to confuse James talking to him in a very peculiar manner and behaving in a way similar to Mary's personality. She then reverts back to her old self and tries to seduce James very suddenly, hinting sexual favors if he gets her out of the cell. Desperate and confused, James promises to return once he's found a way to rescue her from the cell, but when he does finally return, Maria is dead again. This time her head seems to have been bashed in.
Toward the end of the game James finds Maria alive again, this time strung up and being tortured by the Pyramid Heads. Maria calls out for James to help, but he can only watch as one of the Pyramid Heads impales Maria in front of him with its spear. It's then though, he realises that Maria isn't real, she is just another soulless creation of the town, made from James' desire to see his wife and his frustrated lust. He also understands that the Pyramid Heads keep killing Maria as a punishment for him killing Mary. After he realizes this (and fights the two Pyramid Heads) the Pyramid Heads kill themselves as they are no longer needed.
[edit] Outcomes of Maria
There are two very different outcomes for Maria, depending on the ending achieved. They are as follows;
In the In Water, Leave and Rebirth endings, when James goes up to the platform at the end, Maria is there, although she disguises herself as Mary, as a final, desperate attempt to make him stay with her. However, James tells her he no longer needs her, as she could never substitute the true love he shared with Mary. Angered at this, she transforms into a monster and tries to kill James, and the player must defeat her as the final boss.
In the Maria ending, when James goes up to the platform at the end it is Mary. He tells her that he doesn't need her any more, stating that she was a burden when the disease got its grip on her. Disgusted at James, Mary tells him she will never forgive him for what he did and transforms into the final boss. After she is defeated it cuts to James looking out over the lake from Rosewater Park, where he first met Maria. Here, he reunites with Maria, who is once again alive and apparently well and they leave Silent Hill. As they leave Silent Hill, however, Maria starts coughing, hinting that maybe she will come down with the same disease Mary did, if she is even real at all. This implies that James learned nothing from his experiences at Silent Hill and that he may suffer the same pain that he had in the beginning of the game.
The ending achieved is partly based on subtle aspects of how the player treats Maria during the game. For instance, visiting Maria frequently while she is feeling sick at the hospital is likely to get the "Maria" ending. The creators of Silent Hill have said that none of these endings are the "true" one; each is meant to be true for the individual player.
[edit] Notes
- Maria's outfit almost exactly resembles the one Christina Aguilera wore during the 1999 Teen Choice Awards. The image can be seen here.
- There is persistent butterfly and moth symbolism surrounding Maria in the game. She has a butterfly tattoo on her abdomen, and in many cultures, butterflies represent rebirth, which is relevant in her case for her being a new form of Mary (not unlike how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly). In the final bossfight, Mary/Maria attacks with a swarm of black moths, a symbol of death in some cultures.
- Maria is never present whenever James encounters another human; she is aware of Laura and claims to have seen her, but the two characters are never seen together. Her isolation from the other characters enhances her phantom-like qualities and furthers the idea that she was created for James alone.
