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Personal Research Paper : Pyramid Head

  • 5 days ago
  • 14 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

Written by : Julian Irizarry


Introduction of Monster Text


Silent Hill 2 is a third person narrative horror game that was first released in 2001 on the PlayStation 2 and later re-released with updated graphics and additional content in early October of 2024. This game was developed by Team Silent and published by Konami. Upon release, the Silent Hill franchise separated itself from the other mainstream horror games of its time by prioritizing psychological horror over the action and survival horror of previous popular installments, such as Resident Evil (Stuart, 2019). The remake of Silent Hill 2 showcases the game’s cultural relevance as a cult classic, selling over two million copies twenty three years after the release of the original (Game Developer, 2025). Beyond its monetary successes, Silent Hill 2 is widely recognized as a pioneer in the shift of the horror genre. Per Game Informer, “It is, truly, a masterclass of horror, operating on multiple levels to put you, the player, on edge. Most importantly, it’s subtle. Many horror games – Dead Space and Resident Evil are prime examples – operate on excessiveness. That approach is only scary to a point. I’ve always thought the scariest parts of those games were the first 30 minutes and then no moment after. On the contrary, Silent Hill 2 makes you wallow in silence and dread so that by the time it finally breaks in its final third, and the whole thing becomes a cacophonous nightmare” (Game Informer, 2023). 


The game revolves around the main character James Sunderland, who travels to the town of Silent Hill due to a mysterious letter from his deceased wife. The Silent Hill franchise centers around the supernatural manifestations of different character’s psychological states. The Otherworld, the place in Silent Hill where subconscious fears, guilt, and shame manifest into villainous creatures and monsters, is led by Pyramid Head in this specific storyline regarding James. The game quickly embodies this aspect through the environment of the Otherworld, with a seemingly never ending fog covering the landscape, rustic buildings and prisons that crawl with horrors, and a storyline following an inescapable labyrinth (Baihaqi, Syarifudin, & Nurulaen, 2025). What Silent Hill 2 portrays through its main monster, Pyramid Head, is a physical manifestation of James’s emotions. Contrary to the horror texts presented throughout the year that require readers to infer psychological meaning by interpreting the author’s intentions via metaphors, cultural context, or underlying messaging, Silent Hill is very explicit in portraying Pyramid Head as a literal construct of what James’s emotions convey. He is someone of guilt, shame, lust, and the creators of this story do not hide that James is not a hero. He is someone who is fighting against the monsters in his head that the town of Silent Hill manifests into monstrous beings. 


Silent Hill 2 has continued its relevance through the immense amount of psychological depth it has to offer, keeping the game culturally impactful for over two decades. Silent Hill costumes such as Pyramid Head and the nurses of Silent Hill were seen as a trending theme across social media in 2025 (Mental Floss, 2025). This paper argues that Pyramid Head functions as a physical manifestation of James’s internalized guilt, sexual repression, and self punishment for the murder of his wife Mary. These aspects of the character reflect themes of masculinity, trauma, moral ethics, paranoia, parasites, and many other concepts learned throughout horror culture that this paper later addresses. Through Pyramid Head, Silent Hill 2 showcases how modern horror transforms internal psychological terror into physical monsters.


Historical-Contextual Factors


Silent Hill 2 was originally released in North America just two weeks after the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Although developed before the tragedy, the game embodies the mass hysteria, trauma, and unknown dangers of a post 9/11 society through its atmosphere and monstrous symbolism. A quote from Horror After 9/11 : World of Fear, Cinema of Terror states, “Horror After 9/11 refutes this outcome, highlighting not only the continuance of horror cinema but its increased relevance. Following the vapidity of much 1990s horror, the first decade of the twenty-first century has offered new thematic and aesthetic avenues for the confrontation of social anxieties” (Briefel & Miller, 2011). Pyramid Head is symbolic of confrontation with internal conflict after a mass national trauma, although this was more coincidental than intended. He has become a product and contributor to the post 9/11 landscape that shaped a new era of horror culture that targets a society’s collective shared trauma and fear of the unknown. 


By the early 2000s, horror culture had shifted from action heavy survival to psychological terror. In Silent Hill 2, this is showcased through the game’s manifestations of internalized fears. In an article from First Person Scholar, Kaitlin Tremblay references a quote from Bernard Perron’s Silent Hill: Terror Engine. Perron states, “Horror is compared to an almost physical loathing, and its cause is always external, perceptible, comprehensible, measurable, and apparently material, while terror is identified with the more imaginative and subtle anticipatory dread” (Perron, 2012). This quote is essential to understanding Pyramid Head. He is real, violent, and physical. What separates this monster from others, even in the same franchise, is how Pyramid Head interacts with James throughout the story. There are multiple instances in which the monster is able to kill James. The first occurs during Pyramid Head’s second appearance in the story. James attempts to hide in a closet, but Pyramid Head discovers him. James fires bullets at the invulnerable monster, and Pyramid Head leaves unharmed. This in and of itself is incomprehensible for a horror video game of its time, but more importantly, it shows that the monster is here for a reason. Pyramid Head is not only here to kill James, he is not a creature that is inherently evil for the sake of being evil. He is more imaginative, he is here to confront James’s own emotions in order to grow. Pyramid Head is a concoction of guilt, desire for self-punishment, and an embodiment of James’s sexual repression. This does not make Pyramid Head a moral character either. The Otherworld itself is not a place of moral judgment. As Youtuber FatBrett explains, “The Otherworld is a place that is morally neutral, it is a place of possibility, it is not inherently evil, instead it is a place of potential destruction or salvation” (FatBrett, 2024). 


Both Pyramid Head and James can be read as representations of toxic masculinity at the turn of the millennium, where questions about what it means to be a man were beginning to change. James is consumed by emotional weakness, he can’t process those emotions in a healthy way. Instead, they are manifested into a strong and violent masculine force that terrorizes him. A quote from The 7 P’s of Men’s Violence exemplifies these characteristics. Michael Kaufman states, “The personal insecurities conferred by a failure to make the masculine grade, or simply, the threat of failure, is enough to propel many men, particularly when they are young, into a vortex of fear, isolation, anger, self-punishment, self-hatred, and aggression. Within such an emotional state, violence becomes a compensatory mechanism. It is a way of re-establishing the masculine equilibrium, of asserting to oneself and to others ones masculine credentials. This expression of violence usually includes a choice of a target who is physically weaker or more vulnerable. This may be a child, or a woman” (Kaufman, 1999). Without being able to cope with his wife’s terminal illness, James resorted to violence and murder. Later, unable to cope with his actions, perpetuates that violence on himself in the form of Pyramid Head that Silent Hill brings to life. 


Monster Literature Review


There is plenty of scholarly literature regarding the themes and interpretations of Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2 that use theories surrounding horror culture . One of the most important that this paper is yet to cover, though mentioned briefly, is the abject, the body, and sexualized horror. One gaming journal expresses this in an article that heavily discusses the sexual repression of James’s psyche, stemming from the lack of intimacy with his terminally ill wife. JC Pass states, “Sexuality plays a significant role in Silent Hill 2, particularly in the way James relates to Mary and his own desires. Pyramid Head’s violent interactions with the female-coded monsters, such as the Mannequins, can be interpreted as an expression of James’s repressed sexual frustration. During Mary’s illness, James likely experienced a range of complex feelings, including sexual frustration and guilt for his desires while his wife was suffering. The Mannequins, made of pairs of feminine legs, and other creatures can be seen as physical manifestations of this sexual frustration” (Pass, 2024). The monsters that Pyramid Head was seen to assault are partial and feminine, but dehumanizing. They do not have genitalia, further blurring the lines between a sense of self. Kristeva writes in Approaching Abjection, “It is thus not lack of cleanliness or health that causes abjection but what disturbs identity, system, order. What does not respect borders, positions, rules. The in-between, the ambiguous, the composite. The traitor, the liar, the criminal with a good conscience, the shameless rapist, the killer who claims he is a savior” (Kristeva, 1982). Pyramid Head’s violence collapses the borders between sex, desire, disgust, and death. This is the collapse that Kristeva associates with the abject, among other characteristics that Silent Hill 2 presents throughout its story. The decaying environment, James’s disgust with his wife’s decaying body, and the form of the feminine monsters are all associated with the idea of the abject and the monstrous feminine. Even Pyramid Head as its own entity blurs the line between the self and other, and only when James acknowledges this is when he can finally defeat Pyramid Head. 


Stephen Asma’s Monster and the Moral Imagination explore themes that heavily correlate with Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2. The topics of morality and ethics are most relatable to Pyramid Head and James. Pyramid Head’s job in the storyline is not to kill James, he is here to punish him. He acts as a moral judge that could lead to either salvation or destruction. Asma discusses these perfectly in Monsters and the Moral Imagination. He states, “The monster concept is still extremely useful, and it’s a permanent player in the moral imagination because human vulnerability is permanent. The monster is a beneficial foe, helping us to virtually represent the obstacles that real life will surely send our way. As long as there are real enemies in the world, there will be useful dramatic versions of them in our heads” (Asma, 2009). The emphasis on monsters being beneficial foes that pray on human vulnerability is exceptionally accurate to Pyramid Head’s role in James’s story. Although it would be improper to label Pyramid Head as a moral or just character, he is definitely essential to James’s emotional development as a human. Almost all of James’s repressed emotions are expressed through Pyramid Head. Once James comes to this realization and acknowledges what his true emotions are, Pyramid Head’s job is complete and he kills himself at the end of the story. Again, it is worth mentioning that not all characters in the Silent Hill franchise come to this conclusion. There are multiple characters in different installments of the game that don't want to accept it, they don’t allow the monster to be beneficial to them through means of ego or complete denial. 


Similarly, Donna Haraway’s The Promises of Monsters contribute more moral questions about the importance of what viewers can learn from monsters. In a secondary article that references The Promises of Monsters, Jayne Osgood states, “In the “Promises of Monsters” Haraway (2004) offers a mapping exercise and travelogue through mindscapes and landscapes of what may count as local/global struggles. The purpose of the exercise is to write theory: ‘to produce a patterned vision of how to move and what to fear in the topography of an impossible but-all-too-real present, in order to find an absent, but possible, other present’ (p.63). The optical features of Haraway’s theory produce effects of connection, of embodiment, and a responsibility for an imagined elsewhere that can be detected and built” (Osgood, 2019). The other present mentioned in Haraway’s work describes James’s liberation in a world where he can find redemption from his actions. The final line is Osgood’s wording describes James’s path to accepting his failures as a human, showing there is a responsibility to the idea of redemption and a hopeful future. James’s responsibility in this story is to face his repressed emotions in order to build a future where he can be redeemable, Pyramid Head was essential to his development in acknowledging that future. 


Sigmund Freud can be connected to Pyramid Head and the themes surrounding James’s story. Freud’s castration complex is a recurring theme between James and Pyramid Head, surrounded by ideas of gender and masculinity. An article titled Examining (And Destabilizing) Gender in Silent Hill 2 authored by Vrai Kaiser acknowledges these ideas, correlating Freud’s concept to the story. Kaiser states, “Two concurrent and interacting forces are at work throughout the story of Silent Hill 2. The monstrous Pyramid Head acts as both threat and motivator, stripping James of his Masculinity by means of castration and leaving him to resort to identity. He is a personification of the castration complex, as well as an image of idealized masculinity as threat and ridiculousness – a monstrous and deformed being alongside the feminized but sympathetic James. The equally monstrous but more subtle Maria attempts to muddy the perception of what female identity is or should be, complicating James’ struggle and identification with the ‘real’ female identities of Angela and Mary” (Kaiser, 2015). 


Critique


As explained in the previous section, the abject is a clear theme throughout Silent Hill 2. Pyramid Head embodies the abjection of the self, which differs from the typical abject examples that many monster texts and media portray. There are some examples of Pyramid Head being a literal abject being, he is dirty, bloody, and deathly. However, it is more appropriate to apply this literal concept to the nurses and other monsters of the story. The nurses are feminine, but have no genitalia. They are partial, sexualized, and dehumanized, all clear indicators of abject monsters. Pyramid Head is different because he is focused on disturbing the boundaries that Kristeva writes about in her text. He collapses the boundaries between sex and death, as well as desire and disgust. James is disgusted with his wife’s illness, Pyramid Head acts as a confrontation with the sexual repression James feels as inhumane as it may be. The environment is a projection of James’s emotional state, with a decaying, dirty, and rusty atmosphere that reflects his inner abjection and refusal to accept his guilt. Pyramid Head allows James to confront his repressed emotions, making him a physical manifestation of abjection. It is also worth noting that Pyramid Head is a symbol of James’s unstable identity, he is for a lack of better words, all of the worst aspects of James’s character and personality. 


The concept of the uncanny is a very obvious route to go down when talking about this game. Sigmund Freud’s concept of the uncanny focuses on the return of repressed emotions in strange, but identifiable ways. Something that this paper is yet to focus on is the true ending of Silent Hill 2, the players of the game go through the entire story without knowing that James killed his wife. It is only late into the game, through a video tape, he sees himself choking Mary to death. This is a clear sign of him repressing his emotions and actions so deeply, he was in denial that he had any part in her death. Freud talks about how the uncanny can be symbolic of suppressed memories, which is exactly what happens in the latter half of the game. Pyramid Head shows up right at moments when James is trying to avoid the memories of Mary’s death. Pyramid Head’s appearances throughout the game show that he knows what James hides, his presence alone is motivated through James’s guilt. Through the use of Pyramid Head as an uncanny monster, James is able to acknowledge and face his guilt head on. Pyramid Head is clearly familiar, but unrecognizable further proving the point. He is male, but never shows his face because I believe it resembles James. He is James’s dark side, an uncanny double as Freud would call it. To go even deeper, although Pyramid Head is clearly violent and terrifying as a monstrous being. I believe the scariest part of Pyramid Head to James is seeing himself in the monster, not the violence he exhibits. Pyramid Head is the return of the part of James he was trying to avoid and bury, so much so he was in complete denial making this monster essential for James’s development as a person. Sigmund Freud writes, “This uncanny is in reality nothing new or foreign, but something familiar and old—established in the mind that has been estranged only by the process of repression. This reference to the factor of repression enables us, furthermore, to understand Schelling’s definition of the uncanny as something which ought to have been kept concealed but which has nevertheless come to light” (Freud, The Uncanny). 


Asma’s Monsters and the Moral Imagination is also very important, allowing the players of the game to view the monsters in a different light. Asma argues that monsters are manifestations of human struggle, something that Silent Hill 2 does not hide. Although some of the horror culture theories that we have gone over in class overlap on some level, it is essential to apply them each to Pyramid Head in their own ways. How I differentiate this from the previous two examples is the emphasis on Pyramid Head’s specific role to James. He is here to judge and punish, something I would argue James wanted on some level. Asma argues that monsters externalize our moral failures, fears, and vulnerabilities. In ordinary monster texts or media, this would help us imagine the consequences of our actions. In this game, there is no need for imagination. Pyramid Head punishes James not only physically, but mentally as well. In the Otherworld during James’s mission to free himself, he comes across a female heroine that resembles Mary. They attempt to escape the grip of Pyramid Head, but in storybook fashion Pyramid Head catches Maria as they try to escape him through an elevator. Maria is meant to be a new form of Mary, James’s deceased wife. This is punishment in itself, forcing him to find love once again and then stripping it away from him. Pyramid Head kills Maria in one of the final scenes in the story, where James finally understands Pyramid Head’s purpose. This is truly spectacular writing, Pyramid Head is forcing James to witness a reflection of his own actions as a third party. Through this scene, James finally holds himself accountable. Thus, Pyramid Head commits an act of suicide, coinciding with James’s acceptance. Asma allows us to view Pyramid Head through a lens that is deeper than most people would assume the game to be, helping us understand the monsters that plague our own lives. A quote from Asma speaks on this, “Monsters can stand as symbols of human vulnerability and crisis, and as such they play imaginative foils for thinking about our own responses to menace. Part of our fascination with serial-killer monsters is that we (and our loved ones) are potentially vulnerable to sadistic violence—never mind that statistical probability renders such an attack almost laughable. Irrational fears are decidedly unfunny. We are vulnerable to both the inner and the outer forces. Monster stories and films only draw us in when we identify with the persons who are being chased, and we tacitly ask ourselves: Would I board up the windows to keep the zombies out or seek the open water? Would I go down to the basement after I hear the thump, and if so, would I bring the butcher knife or the fireplace poker? What will I do when I am vulnerable?” (Asma, 2009). This quote is interesting because it asks us to hypothesize a situation where we inhabit the shoes of the protagonist. I like to think about it in this way. What type of monster would appear in Silent Hill 2 if I had been the protagonist in this situation? Excluding the crimes James committed of course. Not incredibly profound in any way, but interesting food for thought. 


This class has allowed me to think about monsters, and society, in a different way. It has helped me look at the underlying theories that play a bigger role in our understanding of media, societal fears, culture, and of course monsters. I had previously never given much thought to how monsters can affect our culture, apart from surface level impact of certain creatures. It is fascinating to engage in conversation that gives a deeper meaning to horror, and I will apply these concepts to more horror media as I continue to learn and grow as a person.     





Works Cited : 


 
 

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