Gramophone and rocking chair symbolism

**Kawwah85** · **Missing since:** 21 Feb 2012 **Notes left:** 19

Ive been doing some thinking, about the symbolism of the gramophone and the rocking chair. I think they are presented in a way that they have to mean something. Im not sure what it is though.

Until I heard the song that the gramophone most often plays.

Andy Williams - Born Free
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32w5iVYjxB0

[Reveal] Spoiler:

My own conclusion is that it could symbolise the life Murphey could have had if he hadn't been convicted. Growing old in peace and as a free man. Maybe it even try to tell the player that Murphey actually is innocent. Since its Silent Hill, it can go waaay deeper than that.

Have you guys noticed a possible symbolism in that scenery? And if so, please share.

**taketheworlddown** · **Missing since:** 09 Apr 2012 **Notes left:** 21

Very nice theory, wouldn't have thought of that myself.

The only other thing I think of at the moment is this -

[Reveal] Spoiler:

It symbolizes Frank's restraint to his wheelchair after Sewell injured him beyond repair. Forever rocking back and forth, doomed to be a vegetable for the rest of his life. If you think about it, there's a lot of bloody chairs in that game! The wheelchair on top of the roof, the two "skid marks" of the wheelchair that you follow, the one stuck in the lift, and even using chairs as a weapon!

[Reveal] Spoiler:

Of course, as you know, I'm sure... the Born Free song comes from the scene where Sewell walks off in a flashback away from Murphy's cell and starts singing it to himself.

[Reveal] Spoiler:

"Born Free" could also be a taunt against Murphy - since he isn't really free from his cell throughout the game (he's still a prisoner) and he isn't free of his guilt.

Very interesting view on symbolism, though :-)

Nice one! Then, of course, there's the toilet flushing, which I always saw as -

[Reveal] Spoiler:

Murphy flushing away his past/guilt/the shit that wont free his mind.

TTWD

**Aerith Gainsborough** · 10 Apr 2012

You see the chair rocking back and forth often throughout the game. I simply think it means confinement, whether it be confinement to a wheelchair, behind a prison cell, to your own past, or all of the above. That could serve for both Murphy and Anne, in that case.

**therednurse** · 11 Apr 2012

I get really uneasy around the rocking chairs that are moving in this game, because it makes me think of a moment in the original Alone In The Dark where you walk into a room with a chair where a ghost is sitting...except you don't know he's there unless you get close to him and he kills you instantly.
I've been wondering what they're supposed to mean, and the confinement thing definitely makes sense. It's like, even when body isn't here anymore, they're still stuck in this chair.

Also it makes me think of a mother rocking a child to sleep. Perhaps Murphy is confronted with the image of an empty rocking chair because of the loss of his wife and child. Actually, the only time I remember seeing one of those chairs that wasn't rocking was in the orphanage...children without mothers. Or rather, "mothers" that were not very nice to them according to the notes/voiceovers we find.
Just an idea.

**Thommy Razor** · 11 Apr 2012

I caught a mocking tone of Born Free, with the lines: "... and life is worth living, but ONLY worth living because you're born free." Several points of the game make me feel the town has a sarcastic, playful way of tormenting Murphy.

**Yoshata** · **Missing since:** 25 Jan 2010 **Notes left:** 448

Gramophone and rocking chair symbolism
Moderator: Moderators

Who is online

Gramophone and rocking chair symbolism Moderator: Moderators

Who is online

Gramophone and rocking chair symbolism
Moderator: Moderators