The Wife is the Artist's spouse, the Baby's mother and the primary antagonist in the game.
She appears several times before she is actually encountered, though she never seems to inflict any harm to the Artist, only returning him to the Circle.
According to newspaper clippings and other items, the Wife was in a department store when it caught fire. She survived, though horribly disfigured.
History
Not much is known about her life before the marriage, aside from the fact that she was exceptionally talented as a musician, despite her family looking down on her career. While critics at first saw her as an amateur, she became praised for her musical abilities. Her talents helped inspire the Artist to paint, and became a crucial source for his talent. They moved into a large mansion, and decided to have a child together.
Later in their marriage, she was in a department store buying items for their baby when it caught fire and burned her severely, causing her to become permanently disfigured. Her painful recovery, along with the loss of her beauty and ability to play, led to further tensions in their household.
She was largely wheelchair bound, and suffered from chronic pain and random muscle spasms. Despite the Artist's attempts to seek medical help that could restore his wife, the medical technology available was not enough to undo all of the fire's damage. He became an alcoholic, which exacerbated his declining mental state.
The Wife, with her burned and disfigured appearance, and torn down from his abusive behavior felt that the Artist thought her a monster and hated her. Due to these feelings, she ended up treating the Artist in the same manner (shown in a note that she wrote herself). The Artist began to avoid her presence, and locked himself away as he tried to revive his work.
Fate
Tired of her husband's abuse and obsession with her past self, she met her end when she committed suicide in the bathroom. This is clearly shown when the Artist enters into The Bathroom and examines the bloody knife, triggering an echo of the past in which one can hear the Artist attempting to get into the bathroom (believing his wife is taking way too much time), and then entering to see his wife's body.
Her death, along with the child's removal from the house and placed in The St. Marlin Home for Problem Children, led to the Artist's attempt to create his Magnum Opus. Using his wife's remains as artistic material, he attempts to "take back what life took from him".
Trivia
Newsclipping showing the news for the Department Store fire.
Through past dialogue, it is known that the wife played the violin, piano, and could sing.
The relationship with her husband before the accident appeared to be stable, but could be tense due to her husband's ego. In his marriage proposal, he decribes her as a beautiful work of art that he would like to own. He also decided to purchase a dog despite her wife suggesting purchasing a cat instead.
After the fire, she was verbally and psychologically abused by her husband, The Artist, who ignored her cries and criticized her appearance. Several artifacts narrated by the Wife suggest that her husband was more in love with her talents and beauty than with her humanity. This cold behavior eventually led to her suicide.
Due to the discarded paintings in the Neutral Ending and the letter sent by a doctor familiar with her surgeons, it is belivied that the Wife's disfigurement was not as pronounced as The Artist's hallucinations would suggest, at least after the plastic surgery.
Her monster form may instead represent his horror at seeing her beauty marred and her talents gone, a living corpse that paled in comparison to what she used to be.
Photos
