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Part 4, Chapter 11
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
The following day, Alicia is more reserved as she works up to the topic of Gabriel’s death. Alicia was in her studio, trying and failing to paint; Gabriel called to let her know he was going to be home late. All of a sudden, Alicia noticed with a fright that the man from outside the house was standing behind her, reflected in her studio mirror.
Structurally, Alicia’s description of the day leading up to the murder parallels the beginning of the book, in which Theo did his best to reconstruct the facts of the case. But the facts Alicia tells are radically different, shifting the blame from herself to the masked man. Was the public misled—or is Alicia lying now?
Themes
The man forced Alicia to walk from her studio to the house. She tried to escape, but he tackled her, saying that he would kill her if she moved. Before Alicia finishes the story, she asks Theo to share a cigarette with her. When he is surprised that she knows about his smoking habit, she explains that she can smell it on him. The pair moves outside to the courtyard of the Grove.
In the novel, cigarettes have often symbolized that therapists are less healed—less distinguishable from their patients—than they would like to pretend. Now, Alicia’s desire to smoke with Theo suggests that in order to fully trust him, she will need to ensure that they are equals, not therapist and patient. And beyond that, her admission that she can smell cigarettes on Theo shows that she has sensed his damage long before this moment (indeed, perhaps that is why she has opened up to him).
Themes
