Themes
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
As Theo approaches Cambridge, the temperature drops. He goes to meet Paul in a seedy pub known as The White Bear—in the small space, Paul looks extra giant. The two men sit down, and Theo immediately points out the discrepancies between Paul’s account and Alicia’s diary. First of all, Paul claimed he hadn’t seen his cousin in years, whereas the diary suggests they saw each other just a few weeks before the murder.
Like Jean-Felix and Max, Paul is anything but honest; though Alicia seems to strive to tell the truth, her life is consumed by deceitful men. On a smaller (but no less vital) note, the cold temperature suggests that there might be snow…but as always, snow—and the childhood joy it represents—evades Theo.
Themes
Paul tells Theo that he asked Alicia for money, but he denies she gave him any, and Theo wonders why Paul would lie about this. Theo then circles around to the topic of Alicia’s father, Vernon Rose. Paul explains that he was never the same after Eva Rose died. “Neither was Alicia”; both father and daughter shared the same paranoias and anxieties. Finally, Theo brings up Tanya’s suggestion that Paul might have useful information. Theo realizes Paul has a crush on Tanya, and Paul agrees to take Theo to the Rose family roof, one of Alicia’s favorite childhood spots.
Increasingly, this murder (which initially seemed like a crime of passion) appears to have been committed for financial ends: either Max wanted to inherit Gabriel’s estate, Jean-Felix wanted access to Alicia’s paintings, or Paul wanted money to pay off his gambling debts. This exchange also shows that, in addition to inheriting some of her mother’s suicidal tendencies, Alicia also shared some of her father’s mental illness.
Themes
