Silent Hill Shattered Memories is the story of Cheryl Mason’s disturbed psychological state and how the absence of her father twisted her psyche and affected her social life. Much like other survival horror games, this game too has monsters but those monsters are symbolics of Cheryl’s inner demons. Let’s take a look at the monsters in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories & what they mean in the grand scheme of things.
PS:- The game takes place inside one of Cheryl’s hallucinatory episodes which she experiences during her psychoanalysis with her therapist.
Silent Hill Shattered Memories Monsters and their meaning
1. Cheryl’s Mother
During one of the game’s cutscenes, it is evident how close Cheryl and her dad, Harry Mason were to each other and a few seconds later the separation of her parents is shown – this painful memory is eating up Cheryl’s inner peace like how rust eats up a once perfect piece of metal. Cheryl’s extreme fondness for her father made her believe that her mom consciously sabotaged her relationship with her dad – Cheryl’s mother is a monster according to her. In Cheryl’s hallucination, her mother could be seen as a cynical woman who wants to control every aspect of a person’s life – Cheryl thinks that she’s going to end up a lonely cranky lady just like her mother.
Cheryl blames her mother for annoying the living wits out of her dad. The symbolic monster of her mother means a lack of self-esteem in Cheryl that accrued from being nagged through her childhood – the monster also symbolizes the sexual frustration & loneliness of her mother that made her so irritable.
2. The Spirit
In Cheryl’s vision, she sees her dad looking out for her through an imaginary town with haunted locations and he suddenly sees a spirit or a shadow-like figure running away from him. The spirit that her dad saw is a metaphor for the childhood that was stolen from Cheryl – the child-like playfulness is evident in the spirit’s demeanor, it seems like the spirit is playing hide and seek with Harry Mason. The monster is Cheryl’s inner child that represents how quickly Cheryl matured without a fatherly figure – no one pampered her and she quickly abandoned the reckless, carefree, childish & playful behavior post-separation from her dad.
The spirit monster is what Cheryl wants to be i.e. playful & act without thinking much – she has become an uptight person and a people pleaser. The spirit is a metaphor for how badly Cheryl wants to shed the skin of this boring, scared and insecure person that she has become.
3. The Policewoman
The Policewoman appearing and interacting with Harry Mason in Cheryl’s hallucination is an indication of Cheryl’s conscience – it is the moral police that arrives with sirens blaring whenever Cheryl thinks selfishly for herself. The policewoman is a metaphoric monster that justifies Cheryl’s inner demon of overthinking & indecisiveness – Cheryl doesn’t listen to her heart and gets caught up in the loop of “What ifs” or “Am I worth it ?” whenever the universe requires her to take a plunge. Later in the game, the policewoman is shown frozen which means that Cheryl has finally overcome her inner demon of self-doubt. The therapy session begins to work wonders for Cheryl’s self-esteem.
Another meaning of the policewoman monster is Cheryl’s suspicious behavior – she(Cheryl) always keeps suspecting that her boyfriend is cheating on her despite him being the nicest guy ever. Even the tiniest of quarrels between Cheryl and her boyfriend makes her worried about being cheated on – just like a policewoman, she’s constantly vigilant & doesn’t trust blindly.
4. The Creatures
The Creatures are the only monsters that look like an abomination – they represent the instincts and basic nature of Cheryl’s father Harry Mason. These monsters cannot be defeated, they can only be pushed back just like how a human can only temporarily hide his true nature – Cheryl constructed these monsters because she thinks there are enough vices in her dad’s life that will get to him and end his pursuit of her i.e. he will give up on Cheryl eventually and accept his fate.
In the game, Harry tends to struggle with the Creatures as they cling onto him from every direction – Cheryl is confused about whether his dad is trying hard enough to reach her or has his affection for her evaporated with time.
5. Dahlia
Dahlia is a young lookalike of Harry’s wife who is trying to seduce him in one of Cheryl’s hallucinatory dreams – it is a metaphor for saying Harry Mason left his family for a young & attractive girl who is sexually proactive and knows how to entice her man in bed, Cheryl thinks that her dad is a sinful person who cared more about the pleasures of the flesh than the fulfilling warmth of having a family. Dahlia looking like Cheryl’s mother also means that Harry is lonely and reminisces of all the passionate nights they spent together before the divorce – Cheryl is confused about whether to forgive her dad for leaving her mother or assess their divorce like an adult.
Dahlia represents Cheryl’s lack of sexual experience in a relationship – she(Cheryl) is sexually frustrated and has a regressive mindset about the carnal needs of people in a relationship. She thinks of her dad as some person of loose character who can’t resist his urges & Dahlia represents exactly that.
6. Harry Mason
It is later revealed in the game that Harry Mason died 18 years ago but Cheryl couldn’t stop thinking about him – the trauma of losing her dad made her dream about him. Cheryl’s hallucinations painted Harry as the perfect family man – she imagined a beautiful family life that was never real. Everything she thought about Harry Mason was a figment of her imagination – the therapist advises Cheryl to stop making make-believe scenarios in her head to maintain her sanity.
Harry Mason as a monster represents Cheryl’s fear of abandonment – she fears that she’s going to end up all alone like her mother. Even after having near-death experiences, Harry manages to meet Cheryl at the therapist’s office in spirit form – it represents that Cheryl has conquered all her inner demons. She is liberated from the clutches of her traumatic past.
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