Grief as a Main Theme of Silent Hill 3

[Burning Man]

If guilt is one of the main themes of Silent Hill 2, grief could be one of the main themes of Silent Hill 3. In SH2, two supporting characters were introduced to push the guilt narrative: Angela and Eddie. In the beginning, we do not know why they ended up in Silent Hill, but later we see that they share something in common with James, namely guilt.

For the second half of the story in SH3, the characters' purposes are updated to fit the grief narrative. We learn at the Amusement Park that Douglas has prior experience with grief, having lost his son. He's the one who understands Heather's loss and tries to help her come to terms.

Claudia herself loses her father and experiences grief as well. However, she's torn between her grief and her sense of obligation to the Order, which Vincent uses to his advantage. It's likely she started harboring resentment toward Vincent since. Claudia avenges her father by killing him toward the end.

The Confession Lady also has a story to tell of grief. Astute players may notice similarities between the Confession Lady and Claudia by changing a couple of words in her confession. A note of interest is that her confession has very little to do with repenting sin. She is actually bargaining with God to be reunited with her daughter. In literature, Bargaining is one of the five stages of grief as outlined by the Kübler-Ross model. The other four stages are Denial, Anger, Depression and Acceptance.

The Normal ending represents Heather being able to come to terms with her father's passing and move on with her life. The Possessed ending, on the other hand, represents her being unable to let go. She is possessed by grief in a sense.

[The Adversary]

ORIGINAL

Dear God, please forgive me. I know I’ll be put to death for the sins I’ve committed. And I’ll go to my death gladly and with a peaceful heart. But please grant me just a small piece of your everlasting mercy.

Let me see my child once within your Golden Gates. Deliver me not to Hell, but to Purgatory. Allow me to atone for my sins there. I’ll stand within the very Flames of Redemption, no matter how they burn me.

Forgive me for my wicked act of revenge. And deliver the soul of my poor murdered daughter. Please also care for the soul of the girl whose life I have taken. God, I am a child, trembling with fear as I stare at death. Soothe my tortured soul with your infinite mercy. Please forgive me.

REVISED

Dear God, please forgive me. I know I’ll be put to death for the sins I’ve committed. And I’ll go to my death gladly and with a peaceful heart. But please grant me just a small piece of your everlasting mercy.

Let me see my [father] once within your Golden Gates. Deliver me not to Hell, but to Purgatory. Allow me to atone for my sins there. I’ll stand within the very Flames of Redemption, no matter how they burn me.

Forgive me for my wicked act of revenge. And deliver the soul of my poor murdered [father]. Please also care for the soul of the [woman] whose life I have taken. God, I am a child, trembling with fear as I stare at death. Soothe my tortured soul with your infinite mercy. Please forgive me.

~~~~~~~

I've always interpreted the confessional as a parallel to Heather losing Harry, her father, and then the "wicked act of revenge" is her plan to kill Claudia.

Thus, the woman in the confessional is Heather, and we're giving her the chance to forgive herself.

[Burning Man]

> Please also care for the soul of the [woman] whose life I have taken.

I feel this doesn't fit exactly unless you've taken it figuratively here. Heather hasn't murdered any woman. She seems like someone who would threaten but would never go through with those threats. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so terrified when Vincent suggests that she may have been killing real people.

Claudia acts calm when Heather pulls a handgun on her because she knows that. Douglas has to tell Claudia that he's killed before, implying that he will go through with his threat if necessary.

[Jonipoon]

Silent Hill 3 has many central themes, but if we focus solely on Heather's story I think grief is just one of them: revenge, motherhood, identity and self-discovery are all very important parts of her journey.

[The Adversary]

>Heather hasn't murdered any woman.<
Not yet. And regardless of if she has or has not, she explicitly tells Douglas her intent is to kill Claudia.

"When I find her, I’ll kill her myself."

That's what the confession is for—to show that she has the desire to.

And, I don't know about you, but my first ending playing SILENT HILL 3 was a big game over when I had Heather kill Claudia. . . .

[Burning Man]

I'd wager many players obtained the "phantom" ending on their first playthrough. Not because they actively attacked Claudia, but because the game doesn't make it clear that the Pendant is supposed to be used there. You get that ending if you don't use the Pendant in time, too.

I don't think we're supposed to take Heather's claim to kill Claudia literally there. She's clearly upset and understandably so. However, she's shown to be mature enough to know that this is not something Harry would want for her if you examine his deathbed. I'd say Douglas was fortunately there for Heather to help her with her grieving process. By the time she arrives in Silent Hill, her initial anger had somewhat subsided as she starts smiling somewhat, too.

[The Adversary]

>I don't think we're supposed to take Heather's claim to kill Claudia literally there.<
Yet, that's her mindset at the time. And even though you think she isn't capable of going through with it, that doesn't mean, in her mind, that she isn't capable.

She literally says to Claudia's dress before the confrontation with God: "You can't be dead, I was going to kill you!"

Seems that even after her entire journey since Harry's death she's still harboring that resentment that led her to Silent Hill. Which, you know, was the intent of killing Claudia.

Thus why I believe the confession booth is meant to resound with Heather, even if as a reminder that, no, revenge doesn't solve anything. It didn't for the woman in the confessional, after all.

[Burning Man]

>She literally says to Claudia's dress before the confrontation with God: "You can't be dead, I was going to kill you!"

There's a "flavor text" that happens when you try to leave the room, if you remember.

I want to get out of here, but I just can't. This is for Dad... and for myself.
And... for Claudia, too.

Heather clearly shows that she cares about Claudia at some level. By this time, Heather remembers Claudia as a friend from Alessa's childhood, too.

Heather also has this to say when examining Vincent's corpse:

Vincent's dead.
I hated him too, but it doesn't mean this makes me happy.
Why couldn't I have stopped Claudia...?

Heather isn't a cold-blooded killer.

[The Adversary]

Except that “flavor text,” as you call it, occurs before Heather finds Claudia’s abandoned dress, knowing that she’s dead.

And she still says she was going to kill her.

And in doing so wouldn’t make her a “cold-blooded killer.” She would be doing so for revenge, which is the entire point of this conversation, because the woman in the confession booth is asking for forgiveness for killing in the name of revenge, which is exactly why Heather came to Silent Hill.

[Jonipoon]

[And... for Claudia, too.]

I interpret this as Heather telling herself that Claudia dying is the best thing for Claudia herself...
She's clearly pitying her for being brainwashed, but knows that she'll never change her mind.

[The Adversary]

>She's clearly pitying her for being brainwashed, but knows that she'll never change her mind.<
And kill countless other people.

[phantomess]

For sure, I agree about grief being a running theme in SH3. A running theme -- I don't know that I'd necessarily peg it as THE main theme, but I wouldn't really dispute someone having that take either. I agree about all the mentioned characters being tied to grief.

I did always relate the confession lady's spiel to Claudia, but I don't think I ever related it to Heather before.

There's a "flavor text" that happens when you try to leave the room, if you remember.

I want to get out of here, but I just can't. This is for Dad... and for myself.
And... for Claudia, too.

I don't think I've ever seen this! Is this if you try to leave the church room through the door before jumping down? It's so cool to learn new tidbits that I missed! (Repeatedly for years!)

[The Adversary]

I don't think I've ever seen this! Is this if you try to leave the church room through the door before jumping down? It's so cool to learn new tidbits that I missed! (Repeatedly for years!)

Yup. After Vincent is killed and Claudia is pulled into the opening by Valtiel, if Heather tries to leave the nave that will be her way of saying she can't just bail on the whole situation.

And, I'm sorry, it just doesn't really add up for me for it to be a parallel to Claudia.

First of all, Claudia doesn't have a child that was killed. She also has no intention of going to hell or purgatory—everything she's done is to bring Paradise to everyone. The only direct parallel would be the "soul of the girl whose life I have taken," that being (potentially) Heather, yet she still believes Heather/Alessa should want to birth God and that Heather would eventually come around.

Sure, we can make a parallel for the confessor's people—as I have for Harry—I just don't see a consistent way of doing so for Claudia.

[phantomess]

She also has no intention of going to hell or purgatory—everything she's done is to bring Paradise to everyone.

I remember Claudia saying, "No, I don't expect to be saved." She also says, "Alessa, for the pain I've caused you, I deserve no mercy." Of course, Alessa isn't her daughter.
But anyhow, I never considered it an exact parallel or took that comparison too seriously. I meant it just tended to vaguely remind me of Claudia.

[Burning Man]

The confession scene served several purposes as a game mechanic. It put the players in a morally uncomfortable situation; also, it added 1000 points to getting the Possessed ending on the second playthrough and onward if the player decides to forgive the woman.

From a narrative perspective, the scene seems to serve an important purpose for Heather to ask herself if she should forgive Claudia after all that she's done. Stories of revenge are generally complemented with the notion of forgiveness. It was probably deliberate that the confession booth was placed right outside the Chapel after Heather spoke with Claudia. When Heather decides to forgive the woman in the confession booth, it could suggest that she has opened up her mind enough to forgive Claudia, too.

[The Adversary]

>the scene seems to serve an important purpose for Heather to ask herself if she should forgive Claudia after all that she's done<
It seems to me that, regardless of whether you forgive her, Heather chooses not to forgive Claudia, especially after the line, "You can't be dead, I was going to kill you!"

[Burning Man]

It's a figure of speech. The precise translation for the Japanese script is, "How could you die without my permission? Didn't I say I was going to kill you?" If you watch enough Japanese anime, this speech is usually said between bitter rivals, siblings, and so forth. One of them meets an untimely death, and the surviving person says a line like this. Clearly upset that the other one died, but doesn't want to show that they care or anything. Baka.

I think Heather cares about Claudia at this point. Heather seems to want to save Claudia's soul.

[The Adversary]

It's a good thing Silent Hill is set in an anime universe where this explicitly applies.

Regardless of the translation, or Japanese script, Heather would not be so quick to forgive Claudia for killing her father—the one person who did everything to keep her alive.

[Burning Man]

> Heather would not be so quick to forgive Claudia for killing her father—the one person who did everything to keep her alive.

It depends. When Heather first vows to kill Claudia, she has no idea who Claudia is. For all she knows or cares, she's a religious nutjob from Silent Hill, who took her father away. However, once Heather remembers Claudia as her childhood friend, there is an emotional conflict within Heather. She wants to avenge her father, but she also doesn't want to harm her childhood friend. My point is that Heather may have lost her intention to kill Claudia by that time. And if Heather no longer has that intention, maybe she can eventually learn to forgive her, too.

The novel dedicates several pages of Heather remembering her time as Alessa with Claudia during their childhood. She begins to feel sorry for her. There's even a sentence that says, "[...... my dear little sister.] The feeling of revenge toward her opponent who killed Harry had quickly withered." Afterwards, it goes into a flashback scene where Alessa comforts Claudia after seeing her bruises from Leonard's abuse. The novel even has Heather praying for Claudia's soul to rest in peace right after delivering that line of "You can't be dead! I was going to kill you!"

The game, unfortunately, doesn't dedicate as much resources to expand on Alessa and Claudia's childhood friendship. It's too easy to miss. There's the birthday card, of course. Then, there's Heather reminiscing in Alessa's room about having drawn pictures together and fondly remembering that Claudia cried when she lost a game. This doesn't sound like Heather still wanting to kill Claudia.

[Droo]

I'm sorry but I don't care how good friends we were as children, if a childhood friend of mine killed my dad I would be far from forgiving or understanding.