Silent Hill 2 - Mary's Memory

The Silent Hill games are renowned for their beautifully done atmosphere of horror be it within the town itself or within the player through their use of turning people's fears against them. The town of Silent Hill is one of the most notorious places in the horror genre along with others such as Raccoon City (Resident Evil), Brennenburg Castle (Amnesia: The Dark Descent), SCP Foundation (SCP Containment Breach) and whatever locations the Slenderman games are set in.
But what makes Silent Hill rise above the others in terms of horror is that it actually makes links with the players themselves through their use of psychological techniques in design. The monsters themselves are usually all based off things that relate to people and their fears. For example in Silent Hill 2 there is a creature known as a 'Mandarin' which highly symbolises sexual frustration and perversion of men as does quite a few of the other creatures, more famously the bobble head nurses. The Mandarins have noticeably long, thick arms with what appear to be vagina's or lips on the ends. These easily symbolise the thoughts of lust and sexual desire not only from sex itself but from the intimacy of kisses and feeling close.

James Sunderland

The main point of this piece of writing is more to touch upon one creature which appears at the end of the game to serve as the final boss and to provide closure to the character of James Sunderland. Depending on the players actions and choices throughout the game James will either end up meeting his late wife Mary Shepherd or a woman who is her double, Maria. Whichever ones he meets initiates the final battle. To keep things simple I will refer to her as 'Dead Mary.'
Mary or Maria suddenly transforms into Dead Mary that is spead out over a metal frame, similar to a bed, her legs end in short tentacles rather than feet and she is suspended upside down screaming. Dead Mary attacks James with a swarm of black moths that appear from her mouth, using her tentacles to try and strangle him or slams into him with the metal frame she is in.
Before why I go into why the Dead Mary battle is very symbolic allow me to give you a quick recap on James and Mary's past.

James and Mary became a couple when they met at a house party many years ago and later got married. During their time together they vacationed in the town of Silent Hill and stayed at the Lakeview Hotel. Shortly after their blissful vacation Mary contracted an unknown, terminal disease and was forced to become bedridden in hospital. The doctors told her that she was given at most three years to live in which she must stay in the hospital for care. As time went on her appearance noticeably changed. Her skin became a sickly colour and she began to suffer hair loss. Because of this Mary began to act hostile towards the closest people to her, especially James. This caused James to stop visiting her in the hospital as he believed that it brought the worst out in her and caused tension in their marriage.
To keep herself happy and sane she thought of the joyful memories that she and her husband spent in Silent Hill. She would often talk about this to a young girl who kept her company in hospital, Laura, who would also often be there for her when James did not show up for visits. During the final days of Mary's life she was allowed to go home for a short while because the nurses thought that her death would come soon and she was afraid that she would not see James again before she died. James looked after Mary for the final few days. The disease was not what killed Mary as it was James who had suffocated her with a pillow as she lay in bed. James would then repress this memory and later on search for her in Silent Hill.

Many people who would be playing the game just thought that the final boss is just the last obstacle before beating the game and would possibly miss out on what is symbolised in the final moments.
Let's start first with the appearence of Dead Mary.

'Dead Mary'

First thing that you would notice is that the metal frame around Mary instantly screams that she is lying in a bed. Mary was bedridden for years in hospital and this was a massive part of her life to which James was not around for. Dead Mary is forcing James to see what she was put through in her time in hospital, confined to a flat cage to which she could not escape from.
The clothes she wears greatly resembles the apparel of what patients wear in hospital. It is also similar to the nurses that roam Brookhaven Hospital in Silent hill. Instead of flaunting the sexual side of the outfit, the nurses had their breasts pushed up and very short skirts, this outfit appears more blank and covers her chest and most of her head, excluding her face. The skirt remains short possibly representing that she still retains some part of her sexual attraction. The clothes are a dull shade of rustic brown like it has been left to rot and decompose which is what Mary felt like in hospital when she believed James had abandoned her to die.
Along with the thoughts that she has been left to rot, her skin is also a sickly colour like she has been dead for a while. Her disease caused her skin to change while she was still alive and Mary believed herself to look like a monster. It also represents that Mary feels like she is dead already to James as well as herself. As James was not around a lot when she was dying he would only think of her in good memories of when she was well therefore her face is not like the rest of her body. Dead Mary's face is beautiful with clear skin and deep red lipstick showing that James wants to kiss her once more. As I said before, her legs end in short tentacles which have turned a rotten black colour symbolising Mary being bedridden and being immobilised.

Dead Mary's face is left unaffected.

Dead Mary's head appears to be clamped into place by a large metal sheet which resembles a pillow. There are two ways that this can be taken. Either the head clamped into place shows that as Mary's disease went on her body began to shut down slowly and over time she was unable to move from the deterioration which fits well with her being confined to a metal frame also during the final encounter. It could also show that while James suffocated her with a pillow she could not defend herself or do anything as her head was held forcefully into place but succumb to James' murderous intent as she died.

The next important thing to note on is the way Dead Mary attacks James through out the fight.
One of her attacks is to spew out a swarm of black moths that attack James and stun him in place as they try to eat at his flesh. In many customs around the world moths usually represent death and decomposition, a symbol which appears many times in Silent Hill 2. One notable example is that Maria, a manifestation of James' will based on a wilder, sexier Mary, has a tattoo of a butterfly, which is usually known to represent rebirth, on her abdomen not unlike how a caterpillar is reborn into a beautiful butterfly. Maria is a creation of James to be a lustier more desirable version of Mary therefore reborn. But Dead Mary is a decomposed version of Mary and Maria so has lost it's desirability.

Mary afflicted with a terminal disease

The black moths are also clear to show the death of Mary and her basically decomposing from the disease not only physically but also mentally. The way that she uses black moths as an attack is what it was like during her life in hospital. She would lie there losing who she was not just in body but in mind which she would spread to James as well by acting hostile towards him. James' memories would rot away of Mary and their relationship would deteriorate for the next three years.
The fact that the moths appear to come out of her mouth is interesting as it represents Mary's dying thoughts and feelings which could not be expressed to James both out of fear and the fact that James didn't visit her any more. The moths represent the final breaths that Mary took during the last moments of her life before she was suffocated by James.

Nurses with a more sexual appearance

A somewhat unusual but plausible interpretation of the attack of the black moths would be James' desire to once again feel the passion and intimate touch of Mary, the bonding and sexual lust that he craves. Since Mary was ill and he loved her greatly he could not have his   frustration taken care of which pained him greatly and would take a large negative effect on their relationship namely it dying from lack of intimacy. It also would go on to create other sexual based manifestations in Silent Hill such as the aforementioned Mandarin, the hospitals nurses and to an extent, Maria.
The frame that Dead Mary uses represents her bed from the hospital and how she was bound to it. I believe that the attack in which she hits into James using it deeply represents the violent and malicious feelings she had while lying there. The negative feelings were anger at life for giving her the disease, the frustration at being forced to live in constant pain physically and mentally and a great anger at James for his abandonment of her.
The fact that she stays trapped in the frame while in monster form shows that she still feels trapped in her pain of being there and wants to punish James but showing him what it was like for her.

Dead Mary uses a tentacle to grab hold of James and wrap it tightly around his neck to strangle him. This is Mary's anger at James for smothering her and wants him to feel what her did to her.
Examining it futher it goes deeper than just symbolising her own death.
While Mary was in hospital James' life was put on hold and he felt like he could not move on without her and ended up resorting to alcohol abuse. After three years, her expiration date approaching, James was forced to look after her at home which further caused him more feelings of being tied down and not allowed to live his own life with Mary also yelling at him all the time. Having to pay her constant attention he felt somewhat angry at her and began to despise what she had become even though he knew it wasn't her fault. James felt like Mary was suffocating him and causing him nothing but pain and misery at taking over his life and forcing him to watch his own wife die before his very eyes. Even though he had deep feelings of hatred he killed her because he wanted to end her suffering.
Eventually James had broken down and sadly smothered her in her sleep causing him sadness but gave him an even greater feeling of relief and gratitude like her grasp had been released from round his neck.

Dead Mary uses her tentacle to strangle James

There is a secret part to the boss fight which isn't as well known.
If the player stays alive long enough (it doesn't matter if he damaged Dead Mary or not just along as her death is not caused by player inflicted wounds) then she will just fall to the ground and repeatedly whispers James' name. James then puts her out of her misery.
This represents James and Mary's life during the three years of pain. James tries to live a seperate life and runs away from her because he is scared and upset while Mary is bound to the hospital feeling trapped and lonely, desperately wanting James with her even with all the hostility. But eventually she comes towards the end of her life and is left to James' care. James puts her out of her misery as she relives her memories of their time together in Silent Hill...

                            "When will you ever stop making that mistake? Mary's dead. You killed her." - Maria