Dahlia Gillespie

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Dahlia Gillespie (1938?-1986) is a fictional character from the PlayStation video game Silent Hill and the film of the same name.

Dahlia Gillespie
Game series	Silent Hill series
First game	Silent Hill
Voiced by	Deborah Kara Unger - Silent Hill (film)
Information
Occupation	High priestess of The Order

Dahlia Gillespie is an eccentric old lady found wandering the streets of Silent Hill. She is believed to be a prophet, though many others think that her sanity was lost due to the loss of her daughter who had been burned in a fire. Dahlia never gives a clear explanation of what is going on, though, she does lead Harry in the "right" direction. Dahlia always talks in riddles, and gives strange clues to what is, and will happen. Here is an example.

"Was it not as I said? I see it all now. Yes everything! Hungry for sacrifice, the demons will swallow up the land! I knew this day would come! And what's more, the task is almost finished! There's only two left... to seal this town into the abyss, the Mark of Samael! When it is completed, all is lost! Even in the daytime, darkness will cover the Sun! The dead will walk and martyrs will burn in the fires of hell! Everyone will die!"

—Dahlia Gillespie

Dahlia is first met at the church, and reappears several times thereafter, usually once the player character (Harry Mason) accomplishes something important. She assists Harry by giving him keys that enable him to progress, as well as a Flauros which comes into play late in the game.

Contents 1 History 2 Role 3 Lingering influence 4 Silent Hill: Origins 5 In The Film 6 References

[edit] History

Dahlia Gillespie is a priestess of The Order, a doomsday cult that worships a single major god as well as minor gods and angels. Although her given age is 46, her physical appearance looks much older than that.^[1] Dahlia is the mother of Alessa, whose presence has summoned poltergeist activity since she was a child. These disturbances, along with Alessa's latent telekinetic powers, saw her branded a witch by her classmates. Hoping to "birth" her god through Alessa, Dahlia used occult rituals to impregnate her daughter. To expedite the summoning of God, Dahlia set their house on fire with Alessa trapped inside. Although the fire was ruled an accident, Alessa was left completely disfigured from the resultant burns.

Through the use of a magical incantation invoked by her mother, Alessa lingered despite her injuries (which should have been fatal) and was placed in the care of Dr. Michael Kaufmann, a cult affiliate. While the constant torture of her wounds helped refine Alessa's reality-bending powers, she resisted being used as a container for the 'God', and her soul split in two halves, using a form of Bilocation in order to escape her torture. Her other form, a newborn was discovered by Harry Mason and his wife, who named her Cheryl and raised her as their own.

At some point over the course of her captivity, Alessa overhears a conversation about a 'special visitor' she is to receive, and becomes aware of her mother's intent to still carry out her plan to use her to 'birth' the God. Alessa realizes that for however long she continues to live, this remains a possibility. Knowing that Cheryl holds the other half of her power, Alessa summons her telepathically back to Silent Hill so she can end her life and prevent the God's birth.

During this time, Kaufmann grew impatient after waiting for the return he had been promised (wealth, presumably) for his role in the conspiracy, leading to a falling out with Dahlia. Kaufmann stashed vials of Aglaophotis, a substance capable of 'aborting' the demon in Alessa and ending Dahlia's plans, if she ever turned on him.^[2]

[edit] Role

Dahlia gives hints to Harry Mason throughout the game of where he might find his daughter. She also confides that the town is being absorbed by darkness. During the game, seals are carved throughout the town, and Dahlia refers to them, misleadingly, as "the mark of Samael." She tells Harry that if all of the seals are complete, all is lost. In reality, Alessa is using the mark (correctly known as the Seal of Metatron) to seal herself and the town of Silent Hill into the abyss so that the god of The Order will not be born.

Dahlia first appears at the Balkan Church after Harry explores the elementary school. Dahlia emerges a second time in Alchemilla Hospital. She appears twice more before the finale: on a small boat where Harry meets up with Officer Cybil Bennett again, and at the Lakeside Amusement Park after Harry uses the flauros to subdue Alessa.

As the player uncovers evidence, it gradually becomes evident that Dahlia is hiding her true motives. She is a priestess of Silent Hill's cult, which is devoted to engineering the birth of their "God". Although Dahlia envisions a "paradise", the benevolence of the cult's deity is in doubt. Adding to the urgency of Dahlia's mission is the Seal of Matatron (incorrectly referred to as the Mark of Samael), a mystical crest which Alessa is allegedly laying throughout town. Dahlia is most anxious to capture Alessa before she can create any more. She later confesses that the talisman Alessa is using does not belong to Samael, but to Metatron.^[3] Dahlia fully intends for Harry to survive, despite Alessa using her reality-bending powers to hinder his progress. In that sense, Harry is Dahlia's pawn.

"But Mommy didn't know how much you'd grown. That's why I couldn't catch you all by myself. But what a pity, yes? Now you're half indebted to this man for his help."

—Dahlia Gillespie

Dahlia ransacked Kaufmann's office at the hospital and destroyed his sample of Aglaophotis, but Kaufmann merely left it there as a decoy. If Harry saves Kaufmann from a demon attack (this is fully up to the player), the Doctor leaves immediately to retrieve another vial.

When Harry reaches Dahlia at the end of the game, Cheryl and Alessa are preparing to merge. Dahlia explains their connection, but her cryptic speech only frustrates Harry. The ritual is performed, and Cheryl and Alessa join. At this point, the player's actions affect the outcome of the scene, although Dahlia's fate is the same:

• If Kaufmann is dead, Alessa morphs into her Incubator boss form and sets Dahlia on fire (possibly as poetic justice).

• If Kaufmann lives, he appears unexpectedly and shoots Dahlia with a revolver. He then throws his vial of Aglaophotis at Alessa, which shatters and causes her to mutate into the Incubus, which resembles a winged Baphomet (a 'premature' birth, of sorts). Wounded but still living, Dahlia is then set aflame by the demon and dies.

In strict justice, Dahlia's character can be considered influenced, at the very least, by another fictional character: Dr. Enoch Bowen, of H.P. Lovecraft's The Haunter of the Dark- both are intensely fanatic people who initiate cults in small towns, preaching about their knowledge, when in reality, their true objectives and deities are monstruous. Both also reach questionable limits to fulfil their agendas; Bowen had a journalist killed to protect the church's secrets, while Dahlia resorted to drug-trafficking a derivative of Silent Hill's indigenous flower, the White Claudia, in order to increase the ranks of her cult. While it is only implied Bowen perished in a horrifying ritual in his own church, it is known Dahlia died at the hands of her daughter in a bizarre form of poetic justice.

[edit] Lingering influence

Beyond her involvement in the first Silent Hill game, Dahlia has also been given connection to the serial killer Walter Sullivan, who, when he was just a young boy, was told by Dahlia that Apartment 302 was the Mother he lost. Throughout the diary entries in the Forest World, the writer wrote of an important lady with the beginning syllable "Dah".

Further connection of Dahlia and Walter can be found in The Wish House just before the death of Jasper Gein, where Henry finds a note beside a bookshelf close to the stairs asking if Alessa was found and if Walter was ready, possibly implying that Alessa Gillespie and Walter Sullivan were initially intended to be used together in a ritual to descend the god of The Order.

[edit] Silent Hill: Origins

Dahlia features in the prequel to the series, and appears much younger (the story is set around 7 years before the original game). She sports shorter black hair in this installment. She explains to Travis that Alessa deserved what she had coming to her, and that what she did was necessary to get rid of "The Devil".

[edit] In The Film

In the Silent Hill movie, Dahlia is a much more sympathetic character. Christabella tricked her into allowing the cult of puritanical witch hunters to "purify" Alessa. Realizing her mistake too late, Dahlia ran to get help, showing up with the police. But the fire had grown out of control, and though Alessa survived, she suffered horrible burns all over her body.

Over the next thirty years, Dahlia remained in Silent Hill, shunned by both the cult, and the monsters that gripped the town in the decades since Alessa's union with the demon. When Rose showed up in the town looking for her daughter, Dahlia realized Sharon had some connection to Alessa, and sheltered the little girl briefly before they were both taken to the church.

At the film's climax, Alessa has her bloody revenge on the cult, slaughtering them all with barbed wire, but sparing Dahlia. When she wonders why she was not taken with the others, Rose tells her: "You're her mother. Mother is god in the eyes of a child."

[edit] References

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