Characters of Silent Hill 2

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The plot of Silent Hill 2, the second installment of Konami's Silent Hill survival horror series, uses a story with heavy psychological influences which is mostly unconnected to that of the first game. The player character is James Sunderland, a clerk who has entered the town to search for his late wife Mary.^[1] During James' search in the town he encounters several human characters as well as monstrous manifestations created by the town based on his own memories and thoughts. In his dealings with these characters James is gradually driven to the truth about his wife Mary. A sub-scenario added in a later version of the game allowed the player to play as one of the original scenario's supporting characters.

Silent Hill 's characters were created by series producer Team Silent. The characters were entirely computer generated in the game based on motion capture work from the voice actors.^[2]

Contents 1 Human characters 1.1 James Sunderland 1.2 Angela Orosco 1.3 Eddie Dombrowski 1.4 Laura 2 Supernatural characters 2.1 Pyramid Head 2.2 Maria 2.3 Mary Shepherd-Sunderland 2.4 Ernest Baldwin 3 References

[edit] Human characters

[edit] James Sunderland

Main article: James Sunderland

James Sunderland is the protagonist and player character of Silent Hill 2. James has come to Silent Hill after receiving a letter asking for him to come from his wife Mary, despite her being dead for three years prior.^[3] By the end of the game it is clear that in fact Mary had actually been dying from a terminal disease for three years,^[4] and had actually died within a week of the game's events.^[5] More importantly, she had been murdered by James himself, exhausted from caring for her and desperate to reclaim his life.^[6] The player takes control of James at a bathroom on the outskirts of Silent Hill and is not informed of Mary's real cause of death until the final level. James' scenario has a total of six possible endings depending on the player's actions.

The making-of DVD included in the original European release of Silent Hill 2 does not identify James' portrayer. Internet Movie Database credits Guy Cihi for the role, who is also listed as a voice actor for the game on Gamespot.^[7][8]

[edit] Angela Orosco

Angela is another character drawn to the town after committing murder. She is a disturbed, unstable teenage girl who is ostensibly on a search for her mother.^[9] It is strongly implied in the game that Angela was abused and raped by her father with her mother turning a blind eye.^[10][11] Backstory material provided by Konami states that Angela had run away from home prior to the game's events,^[12] and after being brought back kills her father, leading to her being drawn to Silent Hill.^[1]

James first meets Angela in a cemetery, where she warns him that there's "something wrong" with Silent Hill. She is next seen in the apartment complex area with a knife contemplating suicide. James takes the knife from her at her request, and she flees in panic after he initially tries to take it out of her hand. Examining the knife is one of the factors which enables the "In Water" ending of the game, in which James kills himself. In the "labyrinth" area James fights a monstrous version of Angela's father who is about to attack the girl. After the creature's defeat Angela acts with disdain and general hatred towards James, and accuses him of abandoning Mary for another woman.^[13] She is last seen at a burning staircase in the Lakeview Hotel, again unable to carry on living and unable to forgive herself for killing her father. Angela ascends the burning staircase, her fate unclear. Many fans believe that a body seen in Silent Hill 3 in the mall area is actually Angela, but this could just be a recycled character design.

Angela is voiced in the game by Donna Burke.^[14] Her appearance in the game and the choice of her portrayer were made by Team Silent with the intention of making her appear unnaturally aged.^[2]

[edit] Eddie Dombrowski

Eddie is the third murderous character in Silent Hill during the game. He is an obese young man with an apparent connection to the character Laura. His dialogue during the game reveals that he had suffered verbal abuse for much of his life prior to his arrival in Silent Hill, and his arrival was preceded by him finally snapping, killing a dog, shooting a football player and going on the run from the police.^[15] Backstory material provided by Konami describes Eddie as being usually calm but with "another side that he cannot control when angered" and listing his former occupation as being a gas station attendant.^[12][1]

James first meets Eddie in the apartment complex vomiting into a toilet and aggressively denying any involvement with the death of a man stuffed in a refrigerator in an apartment. He is next seen talking to Laura in a bowling alley, ignoring insults and disdainful comments from Laura and James while doubting that his then-unspecified crimes will be forgiven. His final appearances are in the prison/labyrinth area, where he confesses to killing the man in the apartment and another victim on the grounds that they were mocking him,^[16] and apparently has no moral issues with killing.^[17] By the end of the level he is dangerously unstable and threatening to kill anyone who he sees as mocking him, leading to a fight to the death with James after a poorly received comment from the latter.^[18] In the final cutscene before his death Eddie seems to conclude correctly that James too was a murderer, telling him that they were both "called" to Silent Hill as they're "not like other people".

Eddie is portrayed by David Schaufele.^[14]

[edit] Laura

Laura is an eight-year-old girl wandering the town. She is apparently the only "Innocent" human character in the town, in contrast to James, Angela and Eddie, and consequently does not see any monsters or serious abnormalities in the town.^[1] Laura is an orphan who befriended Mary during her last year alive, having been a patient at the same hospital as her,^[12] and like James appears to be searching for Mary in the town as well (unaware of her death). She acts rudely towards James and Eddie, the two characters she encounters, motivated with the former by a belief that he did not really love Mary.^[19]

James first encounters Laura in the apartment complex, where she kicks a key out of his reach and stomps on his hand. He confronts her in frustration after the level is cleared, where her connection with Mary is revealed, but she runs away before James can get more out of her.^[19] She is next seen at the bowling alley with Eddie, and after she leaves James pursues her at Maria's request. He finally finds her at the hospital, where James accuses her of lying when she details her connection to Mary.^[20] Laura then asks him to pick up a (nonexistent) letter from Mary inside a hospital room. When James enters it, she slams the door behind him, unknowingly locking James in with several dangerous monsters. Laura is seen again at the Lakeview Hotel with a letter confirming her friendship to Mary,^[21] and she becomes furious with James when he tells her he has discovered he killed Mary.^[22] In the "Leave" ending, James leaves Silent Hill with Laura, possibly intending to carry out Mary's wishes to adopt the girl.^[21]

Laura is portrayed by Florence Minowa.^[14] Early promotional articles incorrectly named the character as "Lauren."^[12]

[edit] Supernatural characters

[edit] Pyramid Head

Main article: Pyramid Head

The Pyramid Head is an incarnation of James' consciousness that feels he deserves to be punished.^[23] His image is based on past executioners from the town's region. When James visited Silent Hill three years ago the executioner figure overlapped with his own feelings of guilt, later the Pyramid Head appears in the otherworld as the representation of this figure because of his desire to be punished, created out of James's subconscious. The Pyramid Head persists in tormenting James and killing Maria over and over again to get James to wake from his delusion.^[24] He is a constant boss enemy in the game, but remains for the most part unkillable.

[edit] Maria

Main article: Maria (Silent Hill)

Maria is a sexualized manifestation of Mary created through James' mind based on an exotic dancer and through the stress in his mind after killing his wife.^[1][25] She first appears in a scenario prior to the events in the main game with James, entitled "Born from a wish" in the expanded versions of Silent Hill 2. It shows that Maria wakes up in Heaven's Night club deciding if she should continue to live and fight, or to let herself die at the hands of monsters.^[26] Eventually she decides to venture out to search for someone alive. Her search takes her to an old mansion, where she meets a schizoid man by the name of Ernest.^[27] Upon their second meeting Maria inquires about a letter she has discovered which was written by a little girl named Amy.^[28] Ernest reveals that he is her father and that Amy died a while ago. He then comments that perhaps there is hope because Maria can see him and instructs her to obtain a white liquid in an apartment next door as he is unable to retrieve it himself.^[29] When Maria brings the white liquid back, it is revealed that Ernest is not able to leave his house because he is a spirit of a dead person and that he is attempting to resurrect his dead daughter, Amy. Before he departs he warns Maria of James, saying that he is "a bad man" and that he is looking for the her that isn't her.^[30] The end of the scenario depicts Maria in Rosewater park comtempleting suicide by putting the gun to her head before she meets James, but she is unable to deny her strange attraction to James and throws the weapon over the wall.

James first meets her in the Rosewater Park, his first suspect for the "Special place" Mary claims to be in. Maria accompanies James after this point, seeking protection from the monsters in Silent Hill,^[31] and after reaching the bowling alley she leads James on an attempt to find Laura ending in Brookhaven Hospital.^[32] Maria is killed by Pyramid Head before she can escape the hospital. She reappears again, inexplicably alive and with no memories of her apparent death,^[33] in the Labyrinth in a jail cell, seductively beckoning James to rescue her.^[34] Before he can reach her, however, she is killed again. She appears a third time in the Lakeview Hotel, where she is killed by two Pyramid Heads promptly after James finds her.

In the "Leave", "In Water" and "Rebirth" endings James confronts Maria a final time, dressed as Mary and trying to get James to take her.^[35] James conclusively rejects her,^[36] and she transforms into the final boss with intent on killing him. In the "Maria" ending, Maria returns alive again after James has killed the final boss and James decides to leave Silent Hill with her.^[37] As they leave she begins visibly coughing, a hint that she has the same disease Mary had and the events of the game may repeat themselves.^[38]

Maria is portrayed by Monica Horgan.^[14]

[edit] Mary Shepherd-Sunderland

Mary is the late wife of the protagonist James Sunderland. The player first sees Mary in a photograph James has with him, and spends much of the game searching for her. In the game, she is said to have died from a mysterious cancer-like illness three years prior to James' return to Silent Hill, which the couple visited in the past. Throughout the course of the game, widower Sunderland is haunted by various memories and apparitions of his deceased wife, including Maria, her apparent doppelgänger. Mary does not appear in person until the end of the game: in the "Leave" and "In Water" endings she is shown forgiving James for killing her after the final bossfight while in the "Maria" ending she fights James as the final boss in revenge for her murder.^[39][40] James is quick to dismiss the latter scenario as being a hallucination.^[41]

Mary may have a connection to Silent Hill 5 Protagonist Alex Shephard, the reason being that her maiden name is "Shephard"

Mary was portrayed by Monica Horgan, who also portrayed Maria.^[14] The producers have acknowledged that Mary and Maria were designed to be almost completely identical.^[2]

[edit] Ernest Baldwin

Ernest is a lonely, rather misanthropic man living in a mansion of the West South Vale district. Baldwin appears only in the expanded version of the game in the "Born From A Wish" scenario as a voice coming from a room in his mansion requesting aid from Maria for what appears to be a ceremony to resurrect his late daughter Amy and discussing her nature and her role in the rest of the game. By the time of Silent Hill 2 he appears to only exist as a ghost, indicated by the fact that he is never seen by Maria (and thus, the player), he claims to be unable to leave his mansion, and when Maria finally enters the room he's apparently in it is empty.

Ernest Baldwin is voiced by Ward Sexton.^[14]

[edit] References