Jungian analysis of Martha is Dead

This is intended for players of the game Martha is Dead:

Martha Is Dead on Steam

Martha is Dead is a psychological horror game, as too was its predecessor Town of Light by the same studio. Both games deal with severe trauma and abuse, so are intended for mature audiences. Town of Light is one of the few games I’ve played as an adult, and I was moved by it so much I left a video review several years ago:

Martha is Dead leaves much to interpretation, I hope my insights offers an interpretation that is useful to you.

What we observed:

1. It opens with Julia introducing us to her story
2. Julia is staying with her nanny for 3 years while Martha stays with her parents. Julia’s favourite story is of the white lady of the lake, a tale of vengeance, Julia identifies with the tale and loves the white lady of the lake
3. Julia’s next memory is photographing the lake, and spots a body in the lake
4. Martha died, Julia assumes her identity, this is the opening catalyst
5. In Julia’s perspective, the mother hates Julia and loved Martha (Julia sees Julia as a pariah, and Julia sees Martha as a martyr)
6. While Julia assumes Martha’s identity, several things occur
7. Society discovers Julia was pregnant with real concern, society blames Romeo and suspects Romeo of killing Martha (lady in the lake story)
8. Julia has a miscarriage but maintains it was Martha that was pregnant, and pregnant out of wedlock and to a forbidden romeo (Julia must be pure)
9. Romeo dies (attributed to germans) and Romeo is returned to Martha (lady of lake style)
10. There is now a narrative intermission by the grim reaper, indicating that he came for Julia and got Martha instead, but not to worry, Julia will eventually die too
11. The nana dies, attributed to the Germans
12. Julia engages in revolutionary acts, somewhat out of guilt for Romeo (lady in the lake style)
13. Society via mother express concern for Julia and a desire to help Julia get well
14. Julia believes the concerned help is harm (Julia’s paranoia)
15. Julia communicates with the lady of lake, and has a flashback to Martha planning to come clean to Mother about Julia’s pregnancy and Martha’s faked muteness, as the pregnancy can no longer be hidden from Julia. The inability to hide the pregnancy being an unavoidable catalyst for potential integration, so Martha expresses this will finally allow Julia to live the life she deserves, as that it is Martha’s fault that Julia is hated by mother. Julia is not ready to accept this catalyst for integration and wishes for evidence (Julia’s dissociation)
16. Julia eviscerates Martha, and takes a photo (which we never see developed), this confirms to Julia to her that her beliefs are true, that Martha was the whore, that Julia was pure, and that her mother was evilJulia confronts her mother, her mother again expresses sincere concern for Julia, and reveals Julia was self-harming in front of the piano (contrary to Julia’s belief of playing the piano after Martha’s funeral)
17. The mother dies, Julia’s immediately dissociates again (it wasn’t me who killed mummy) and clings to her paranoia (they would have locked me up) regressing into a the lady of the lake and using the dolls to associate her mother’s death with Julia’s own doing
18. Julia dissociation cracks to reveal her holding her mother’s head, and accept she murdered her concerned mother out of paranoia, she attempts suicide
19. The father dies, attributed to Julia’s revolutionary acts and finally the Germans
20. Julia regresses once more to her childhood coping mechanism of playing with her dolls, her play expresses several things: that Julia and Martha were one entity that could talk and hear and was called Martha, that when Martha expressed her needs and burst a balloon she was beaten horrifically by a mother that used the daughter as a scapegoat for the mother’s postpartum depression and difficulty pregame, the outer fragile and social shell that could speak became Julia and the inner pulp shell that caused the wrongdoing became Martha; to Julia, it was Martha that was impure and deserved the punishment as originally dished out (Martha made me spill the water), yet it was Julia that was misbehaving and receiving the punishment, Martha became Julia’s scapegoat, just as how Martha was the mother’s scapegoat; Julia’s dog is killed as punishment
21. Julia awakens from this association, doubting its recreation, referencing the white lady, and calls the priest, who refers to her as Julia, Julia confesses everyone is dead and she needs help
22. On Julia’s way to the church, Julia hears a broadcast supporting Martha’s revolutionary acts, and that the Germans killed her father and Julia, and that Martha was rescued and the Germans were killed; Julia then blames herself for the deaths of the Germans and expresses remorse on deciding between love for her father and Romeo; and now has a fear for both sides
23. Julia arrives at the church, but her mind is now cracked, she is at the asylum and engages in dissociative behaviour of deplorable acts
24. Julia eventually regains civility from treatments, and reconciles with a marionette in the mirror resembling Martha using sign language, who inquires about Julia’s recollection; Martha’s questions implies she is unsure about the events, and that Julia is the arbiter; Martha parts with some Jungian shadow commentary, and these phrases while her marionette breaks apart: “Ready for everything with open arms. Even ready to kill.”, “Legs always ready to run.”, “The womb thar conceived in sin.”, “The mind, to protect us it has turned us into monsters.”, “Don’t worry, I don’t need to worry, I’ll try to sleep if I can, I’ve got this” and proceeds to control Julia to self-harm with the Martha nametag.
25. We are now returned to the opening narration of Julia, indicating remorse for her paranoia and behaviours, that the evil is often within but for her it was untreated, and she wonders about her return home
26. The game parts with a message from the developers, indicating that unlike then, there are now options for mental health

What we may take away:

1. Julia is the narrator, before the story, during the story, and after the story. Everything is Julia’s recollection as an adult; of her childhood receiving abuse, teenhood achieving revenge, and adulthood in the asylum.
2. Her mother had a difficult pregnancy and untreated postpartum depression, resulting in a maladaptive belief that the child was a bad seed, and as such the child became a scapegoat (someone of innocent purity we sacrifice to absolve us of our own sins).
3. When the child spoke her needs and burst the balloon, she was abused by her mother and due to insufficient physiological maturity that was incapable of integrating the jungian shadow (the evil within us all), it resulted in trauma for the child and a maladaptive coping mechanism of dissociative identity disorder. Read Jung this interests you.
4. This failure to integrate the jungian shadow, results first in a maladaptive belief that we are pure, that we are not evil, that any bad deed we do is not within us but an external evil force that made us do bad things. Read Arendt and Milgram if this interests you.
5. When punished by authority, we can either accept the punishment believing it as just and integrating our sin, or rebel against the authority and reject the punishment believing it as unjust, which we can either seek justice adaptively and absolve our sins by evidence and a fair trial, or we can seek justice maladaptive and manifest our sin by revenge. (Read Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky if this interests you)
6. At an age unable to challenge the authority of the god-like qualities of her mother, but yet receiving unjust punishment, the child instead reorganises her personal mythology to maintain her innocence; she uses the only coping mechanism she has learnt so far, that of a scapegoat, so she invents her own personal scapegoat to maintain her innocence, just as how her mother did to her.
7. For the girl to maintain her and her mother’s innocence, it could not have been her that was punished originally, it must have been someone/something else. Martha is invented as the sinner, the evil force that has Julia do bad things. This allows Julia to maintain her and her mother’s innocence even while Julia is being abused by her mother. It was always Julia, but Julia is not yet capable of integrating the shadow.
8. Eventually there is an intervention, the mother gets treatment, however Julia does not. Julia lives with her nanny, and identifies with the vengeance tale of the white lady of the lake.
9. The story fast forwards to Julia as a teenager, now at an age where one can challenge authority in the maturation into independent capable agents (adults), but she still has maladaptive coping mechanisms; failure to integrate the shadow that resulted in dissociative personality disorder, that resulted in a pariah complex and finally paranoia, murder and self-harm.
10. Julia becomes pregnant out of wedlock to a forbidden romeo, but to hold onto her purity she attributes that to Martha. Once the pregnancy is unavoidable, Martha attempts to force integration. Julia is not ready for integration and kills Martha. Now that she does not have her scapegoat, she also shatters her ability to use her prior maladaptive coping mechanism of scapegoating everything to Martha. She struggles to reconcile and integrate, but without any coping mechanism, and with severe unjust trauma, she regresses into the white lady of the lake, and murderously scapegoats to all those who she believes have wronged her.
11. The marionette in the mirror scene, is her finally integrating that her shadow was inside her all along, and that it is now time to cut Martha, the scapegoat of her shadow, out of her. Remember that Martha was the inner shell.
12. The final commentary is of Julia, remarking how first we tend to cast the stones outwards without ever looking for the evil within first. She has now integrated her shadow. She looks forward to a life as an independent capable agent, an adult.