What's your take on this? As in plot, characters....whatnot?

To get things rolling, I read something basically calling James a selfish, cruel man for killing Mary. I disagree, because if he's as bad as this guy said, why would he have even bothered? And it says, to bolster this fact, that Maria was an "ideal" creation....pretty, slutty, a stripper...my rebuttal is that he spurns Maria at pretty much every turn...so he, in my mind, truly did/does love Mary. Any other opinions?