Monster Symbolism.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 11 Feb 2006

I've had a tough time figuring this out, so maybe some forums members can shed some light on it / tell me I'm over-analyzing things.
What are the counterparts of the various creatures in Silent Hill 3, in the real world? Why do they appear as they do?
For example, I'd always called the Closers 'mothers' before I knew their official name. Their towering figure would be related to a child's view of a tall female, the blunt, oversized hands resembling something one was constantly struck by. If you consider this a fear of Allessa's, what does the figure of a tall and literally striking skirted woman represent?
The Insane Cancers are, to my mind, visualizations of greedy or villanously gluttunous men, swollen with the weight of their ever-increasing sin. Numb Bodies I have no idea on, at least no idea that isn't exceedingly bizarre. The Pendulums and Scrapers/Missionary interest me in particular.

If you need a look at some of the monsters... http://www.translatedmemories.com/bookp ... eature.jpg

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 11 Feb 2006

Thats cool i didnt know all that. Thanks

Post by **Hjartu** » 11 Feb 2006

Actually, that's interesting about the closers...
Never thought of it that way.

Post by **amphreded** » 11 Feb 2006

Yeah there's something feminine about Closers.

Post by **The Adversary** » 11 Feb 2006

>Numb Bodies I have no idea on
Take a look at what the foetus looks like.

Post by **Goodnight** » 11 Feb 2006

Yeah there's something feminine about Closers.

Many people suggest their outfits might be remenicent of the traditional apron-esque outfit donned by Pyramid Head and Valtiel. Your comparison to Alessa was very intriguing. I suppose it is very similar to Heather's own outfit.

I actually always had that opinion about the height of Closers, too. Forming your own opinions about the monster origins is far more entertaining and stimulating than being told and removing all speculative doubt by Konami.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 11 Feb 2006

the Adversary wrote:>"Numb Bodies I have no idea on."
Take a look at what the foetus looks like.

A fetus, you say - So another way of symbolizing childhood or underdevelopment, furthermore emphasizing it not as a person, but a thing?
That fits in with my idea of what they could be. I don't want to get too graphic or descriptive with this, so let's say I see them as related to Silent Hill 2s leg Mannequins, who's meaning is obvious in comparison. A waist-high, child sized gaping mouth on legs...? If you have a sick mind, you should be able to reach a conclusion.
The Slurpers now....those things weird me out, I hate shit that crawls around...the Slurpers have a name that I think could relate to what they actually are. They remind me of a Japanese movie in which the main character severs the feet and hands of the people which she captures, leaving stumps reminescent of the Slurpers. Furthermore, these wasted wrecks of people are forced to eat by licking and slurping things off of the floor. You may have noticed that there's a slit in the back of a Slurper's hotpants things...and some of us may know that a certain kind of criminal will dismember his victims. The combination of pants, severed limbs, and their tendency to slurp leads me to believe a Slurper is that sort of victim, or a representation of a person with a similarly wounded psyche.
But somebody help me out with these Pendulums here. I got nothin'.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 13 Feb 2006

Raithien wrote:
A fetus, you say - So another way of symbolizing childhood or underdevelopment, furthermore emphasizing it not as a person, but a thing?

I wonder if this has anything to do with why there are big and small versions.."immature" and "mature," if you will. This also happens with the Pendulums. As for what the Pendulums actually are, judging from the concept art they look like two humans stuck together at the waist, with stumps where the arms should be and blades attached. Maybe something to do with the split identity of Alessa, and her being trapped and burned.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 13 Feb 2006

Interesting thought Nevermore, I hadn't considered their duality important. As for the burning, well....they look wounded, but everything does, really.
I'd like to know why they fly, and why this flying causes that awful metallic screeching noise. It's like they're suspended on a metal cable or something, and the joints that attatch them are rusty. Those weird blades could propel them along it, maybe. Too bad that doesn't really make sense.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 13 Feb 2006

I really can't think of why they fly, but I did consider this: a lot of the imagery in SH3 deals with birth. This gave me an idea, so I looked up C-sections in wikipedia and got this about when they're used:

* prolonged labour (or failure to progress) (dystocia)
* apparent fetal distress
* apparent maternal distress or complications such as pre-eclampsia, eclampsia
* multiple births
* abnormal presentation, i.e.breech presentation
* failed induction of labour
* failed instrumental delivery
* the baby is too large (macrosomia)
* the mother has a low-lying placenta or placenta praevia
* contracted pelvis
* evidence of intrauterine infection
* previous caesarean section (though this is controversial â€“ see discussion below)
* prior problems with healing of the perineum, such as from childbirth or Crohn's Disease

Some of those reasons fit with the birth of God. Multiple births, failed labour, a large baby, fetal and maternal distress. Blades = knives for c-section?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 13 Feb 2006

So if we went with that idea, a Pendulum could be considered a sort of nightmare midwife?
That's insane, and extremely farfetched. I love it, however. Rather than an externalization of Alessa's, we have something more dangerous and alien, the will of the god to be liberated from it's mother. On the other hand, it could be seen as an unconscious desire to excise the parasitic god from the body of the mother, be it Heather or Alessa. It doesn't mesh with the dual-headedness much, and not at all with the spinning or flying....but it's extremely interesting, and although I didn't like the idea at first the more I consider it the more brilliant it seems.

Website · Post by **Wynne** » 13 Feb 2006

Wow.. I hadn't even really thought about it too closely! The monsters are pretty subtle in this thing... I mostly just looked at them and thought, "cool, that looks more ----ed up than anything else I've ever seen." Which is plain silly, because it's never done without an idea when you're talking about Silent Hill. But I guess it just seemed easier to connect the Silent Hill monsters with Alessa and James with Pyramid Head and so on... I probably thought if they spent that much energy on uniqueness it couldn't be as psychological. It seems I was quite wrong.

I love your idea about the closers--I'll never look at them the same way again! And you got me thinking about the insane cancers... how much that must've been buried in Heather's psyche, what she had in her womb. It must have really felt like having cancer. Something growing inside of you that you can't control or stop, and you know it will eventually kill you... and the scraper, with his scalpel-like hands, so reminiscent of a doctor! Pendulums, with the same sort of appendages, only they spin and spin and spin in an endless cycle, like her life, like death and rebirth...

I feel like slapping myself in the face. I can't believe I never thought about it before. I must've really underestimated the psychological elements of the game.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 14 Feb 2006

Yeah, that's the way they roll it in Silent Hill...glad to hear that you've discovered some deeper elements.
So you think the Insane Cancers could also be birth element? Another good connection - the god is like a cancerous growth. I prefer to think of them as actual people who've lost their identities (note the sunken and non-existent face) to their unholy desires, their inner cancer. Of course, I had a tendency to believe that all the creatures were people due to some misconceptions I had the first time I was playing though - I thought that the god in Heather resonated with the darkness in some people's hearts, bringing them to the Otherworld in the forms which were most fitting for their sin. In essence, I thought I was killing bad people throughout the entire game.
Hell, I guess I still believe that.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 14 Feb 2006

Raithien wrote:It doesn't mesh with the dual-headedness much, and not at all with the spinning or flying...

My guess is that it's because Alessa first split in two when they attempted to birth God, then the two halves combined when God was born in SH1, and now Heather is the product of Alessa/Cheryl put together and reincarnated, and is about to give birth again. I'm clueless about the flying for the moment, though.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 23 Feb 2006

Since there's no headway on the Pendulums, let's consider a more intriguing and controversial monster...Leonard Wolf.

Heather knows Leonard is a human, she spoke with him on the phone mere hours before she met him in his cell. She even talks to him before he reveals his monstrous form. Despite this knowledge, Heather percieves Leonard as a creature...why is this?

There are two popular options. The first is transfiguration by Claudia's power - Claudia causes Heather to see Leonard not as he is, but as a monster. I've read the reasoning for transfiguration several times on these boards, that Heather is unable or unwilling to take a human life...but considering her eagerness to murder Claudia, a person, isn't this idea a bit doubtful by that point? This logic hole also applies directly to the second option, that Heather would be unable to defend herself against and kill a human being, causing a mental shield of distorted perception which makes Leonard appear as a monster. I say, she can and will defend herself against and kill humans.

We get a little peek into Leonard's consciousness when we see the note in the Otherworld. There's a cheerful and childish page of stick figures drawn in crayon, one standing with a sword and the rest dead in a pile. The page reads that 'the world is full of unnescessary people,' and that it is the artist's god-given mission to cleanse the earth of them. Considering the note on Leonard found earlier in the hospital which comments on his strong sense of justice, there's no question who authored the page. Heather remarks that she 'hates this kind of person' and wants to ask them whether they're nescessary or not. We're also told by Vincent (ugh, what a sicko) that Leonard was a child abuser who would frequently hit, kick and 'made you (Claudia) cry'.

As I expressed in my last post, I believe that the contents of one's heart can determine percieved form in the Otherworld. It's my theory that as a child abuser and potential murderer, Leonard took on the appearance suited to his nature, a monster.

Post by **Burning Man** » 25 Feb 2006

Regarding the Closers, the Adversary had a kick-ass theory back before SH3 was released. I still pretty much agree with it.

Post by **The Adversary** » 25 Feb 2006

Which one was that? It's been so long.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 26 Feb 2006

I want to know too, bring the theory to bear.

Post by **NightFlutter** » 26 Feb 2006

amphreded wrote:Yeah there's something feminine about Closers.

Wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that there's vaginas on it's head and hands, would it?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 26 Feb 2006

See, I've never been able to draw that comparison. And if it's there I should be able to.