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Part 1, Chapter 7
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Silent Patient, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Empathy, Identification, and Boundaries
Tragedy and Destiny
Honesty vs. Deception
Childhood Trauma
Silence vs. “The Talking Cure”
Summary
Analysis
Theo returns to his freezing cold office, where the broken radiator makes him sympathize with Elif’s frustration over the pool cues. Reluctantly, he looks at Diomedes’s case notes on Alicia. The notes reveal little, except that Alicia had tried to harm herself many times after she first arrived. Eventually, she stopped trying to hurt or kill herself and grew distant instead, isolating herself from the rest of the patients.
Just as the facts of the murder—the time, the number of shots—left Theo with little clarity, he is frustrated by the nuts-and-bolts information in Diomedes’s notes on Alicia.
Active
Themes
Only one moment sticks out to Theo in the files: soon after she was admitted, Alicia had violently attacked Elif, without clear motivation. Theo decides he will ask Elif about what really happened that day.
For the most part, Alicia’s violence seems directed against herself, as evidenced by the multiple suicide attempts. The only exceptions are her murder of Gabriel and her attack on Elif—so what kind of provocation makes Alicia turn her anger outwards instead of inwards?
Active
Themes
As he prepares to dive deeper, Theo takes out a notepad and organizes his thoughts. He knows that the Alcestis painting will be a crucial clue. But he also writes down the word “childhood.” Theo is convinced that Alicia’s murderous rage towards her husband has roots in her youth; such rage, he believes, “originates in the land before memory […] with abuse and mistreatment, which builds up a charge over the years, until it explodes—often at the wrong target.”
Active
Themes
To understand Alicia’s childhood, Theo wants to talk to the people close to her. Her nearest relative is an aunt named Lydia Rose; Alicia’s mother Eva had died in a car crash while Alicia had been in the car. The only other contact in her file is Max Berenson, Gabriel’s brother and Alicia’s lawyer. Theo decides to call his office.
Active
Themes
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In retrospect, Theo understands that trying to contact all these people was already crossing a professional boundary. “But even then it was too late to stop,” he admits. “My fate was already decided—like in a Greek tragedy.” The receptionist at Gabriel’s brother’s office answers and informs Theo that Max will be away all week. Theo then tries Lydia Rose, but as soon as she learns who he is, she tells him to “fuck off” and hangs up the phone.
