The Silent Patient Part III - Part V
Part III
The whole of part 3 consists of Alicia’s diary entries from August, leading up to the day of Gabriel’s murder.
Alicia goes to the play with Jean Felix, despite Gabriel’s insistence that she doesn’t, and immediately begins to regret her decision. Jean appears to be angry, and he spends all of his energies trying to get her to reminisce about her initial days as an artist. While these memories are positive for Jean, Alicia sees them as reminders of a time when she was deeply depressed. Alicia is deeply moved by the play, and especially the end, when the heroine adopts silence, although she can’t quite put her finger on why it resonates so deeply with her. Before they part, Jean warns her to not be too trusting of the people around her.
Alicia begins to catch glimpses of a man that seems to be watching her and following her when she leaves the house. She discusses the matter with Gabriel, who thinks that it might be Jean, but Alicia insists that it isn’t him. She becomes extremely paranoid and begins to feel like she is constantly being watched. She continues to confide in Gabriel, but since he is never able to see any such stalker, he begins to disbelieve her. He forces her to consult with a doctor, Dr. West, who had treated Alicia in the past. West is convinced that this paranoia is quite similar to the one that Alicia had experienced in the past following her father’s death. Alicia attempts to dispute this theory but she is overruled by the doctor who reminds her of the consequences that her deteriorating condition had on Gabriel. He prescribes anti-psychotics, and Alicia pretends to take the medicine for Gabriel’s sake but decides to forego the medicine for the sake of alertness. She later begins to entertain the idea that the stalker is Max, and confronts him about the stalking when they go out for dinner with Gabriel. Max vehemently refuses the accusation, and Alicia believes this to be true. On the night of Gabriel’s murder, Alicia hears someone breaking into the house.
Part IV
Theo reads the journal and concludes that Dr. West, is in fact, Christian. He confronts Christian with the information and learns that Christian had been treating Alicia at the behest of Gabriel, who had been his old college friend. Christian had chosen to remain quiet about his history with Alicia because he had been charging Gabriel off the books. Theo asks Christian to elucidate his whole history with Alicia. Christian believes that Alicia had struggled with mental illness from a young age, and he does not believe there had ever been any stalker. He even disbelieves the account of her attempted suicide after her father’s death and describes it as an attempt to garner more attention for Gabriel. Theo then approaches Alicia and tells her that he has some questions for her.
Theo follows Kathy as she meets her lover, and follows them into the woods where he overhears them making love. He is tormented by their sounds and begins to entertain the notion of killing the man since that is the only means he has of ending their affair.
Theo uses the information that he gleaned from the diary to confront the people that had been involved in Alicia’s life. He confronts Jean Felix, about the information that she had wanted to end their professional relationship. He then calls John Paul for a meeting, telling him that he had uncovered some important information. Finally, he calls Max, telling him that he had read a journal that Alicia had kept that detailed aspects of their relationship that had as yet remained undisclosed. Max hangs up the phone abruptly, and Theo journeys to Cambridge for his second interview with Paul. They meet at a local pub, and Theo asks him about his last meeting with Alicia. Theo questions him specifically about the day after Alicia’s mother died since Tanya had told Theo that Paul had some crucial information about that day. Paul takes Theo to the rooftop of their home and reveals that Vernon had told Alicia that he wished she had died instead of Eva in that car accident. Alicia had told Paul that her father had killed her that day.
Theo finally understands what had happened with Alicia and the relationship she shared with Alcestis. He goes to see her in secret and informs her that he had learned of the incident with her, and he tells her that her father had killed her. Alicia begins to speak, and Theo approaches Diomedes with this breakthrough. Diomedes expresses pride in Theo uncovering the formative trauma in Alicia. He encourages him to continue.
The first question that Theo asks Alicia is about her silence, and she explains that it had been a shock at first, but then later on she had seen no point in talking. The thing that had changed in the recent past had been Theo’s arrival. She takes charge of the session, and Theo realizes that she is now in control of their dynamic because she has the upper hand in information. She tells him that the person she had heard in the house had been Jean Felix, but she had gotten rid of him quite quickly. Over the next couple of sessions, Alicia and Theo begin to discuss the relationships in their lives, as Alicia is deeply interested in Theo’s past.
Then one day, she chooses to reveal the details of the day. She explains that she had been taken hostage by a man with a knife in a mask on the day of the murder. The man had made her tie her up, and take hold of the gun that she had kept in the kitchen. The man had then simply waited for Gabriel’s arrival and had ambushed him immediately as he came in. The man had then simply shot Gabriel in the head several times and left. Theo doesn’t believe Alicia’s account because some aspects of her directly contradict what had been discovered by the police. He seeks advice from Diomedes, who believes that everything Alicia is telling him is a lie, including the existence of a stalker. He encourages Theo to confront her about this dishonesty and forces her to take accountability.
Theo follows his wife and her lover to their usual rendezvous. He waits for them to come out of the woods, and then begins to follow the man. He follows the man home, and nearly kills him with a stone but is interrupted by noise on the street. He observes the man going into his house and having dinner with a woman who appears to be his wife.
Theo goes to work the next day intending to confront Alicia about her lies but he finds chaos. He learns that Alicia has tried to kill herself and is currently in a coma. They believe it's an overdose of drugs that are being illegally dealt by Elif in the ward. Theo blames himself, but everyone assures him that it isn’t his fault. When he is alone with Alicia, Theo notices a pinprick on her wrist and understands that someone has tried to kill her.
He goes to see Diomedes and Stephanie, the ward manager, and he tells them about his assessment of the events. He believes Christian is involved, and so the police are called. He learns that Jean Felix had been waiting to see Alicia since the morning but he doesn’t find him there when he goes to the waiting room. As he leaves the Grove, Max Brenson finds him and hurls abuses at him for being negligent of Alicia who he appears to feel very deeply about.
Theo observes the house of his wife’s lover, and he begins to feel sympathy for his wife. He understands that they are both being betrayed and so wishes to expose the truth of her husband’s nature. One day he enters her house, and she finds him with his knife out as she begins to paint.
Part V
The last excerpt from Alicia’s diary explains that she had recognized Theo from the words he used when he had first come to the thew ward.
“I want to help you see clearly."
She had attacked him as soon as she had made the connection that he had been the same man who had come into her house. Later on, she had become uncertain but finally confirmed that Theo had indeed been her stalker through his reaction to her account of Gabriel’s murder. She reveals that Theo had tied up her and Gabriel in the house that night, with their backs against one another, and forced Gabriel to either choose his death or that of Alice. Gabriel had chosen himself, then Theo had pretended to shoot Alicia and secretly untied her. He left the house then without a second glance. Alicia had understood then that she could never have Gabriel again, and that she was truly alone in the world, so she had shot him in the head five times.
Alicia then reveals that Theo had come to her after their session and injected something in her wrist. She was fighting disorientation even as she wrote her final words. He had made him choose
Theo confesses that he hadn’t meant for her to kill him, but he had only been trying to help her. He had learned that Gabriel had triggered a deep trauma in Alicia when he had chosen to save himself, and doomed Alicia to death. He is certain that he would have never done it if he had known about that trauma. His only objective in coming to the Grove had been to aid Alicia. He attempts to find Alicia’s diary as he helps the staff clear out her possessions, but he cannot find it. As he is leaving the Grove, a member of the trust approaches him with an offer to the directorship of a new psychiatric facility, and Theo gladly accepts. He returns home to Surrey, to the same house he had lived in as a child. He had moved into it after his father died and had intended to start a new life with Kathy. However, Kathy had changed quite a bit after Gabriel’s death, and they had still never discussed the matter outright. Theo is regretful about the things he has done, and he feels shame at what his therapist, Ruth, would think of him. A police inspector comes to the door with Alicia’s diary and reads him the entry that exposes his role in Gabriel’s death.
Analysis
The boundaries between Theo and Alicia begin to fade as they interact more often, and Alicia gives Theo the diary. Theo realizes that the things Vernon had said to Alicia had caused a deep trauma that was comparable to a psychological death. This trauma had resided in her throughout her life, and even though the memories associated with it had faded, Alicia had retained the hurt and anger she felt then as a child. This hatred for her father later transformed into anger for the only male authority figure in her life who had similarly failed her. Betrayal is the other major theme of the novel, Alicia and Theo’s parents betray the responsibility parents have towards their children. They attempt to recover from the trauma, but then encounter partners that they both idolize only to face betrayal yet again. This time around, they are not helpless children, but capable adults who can fight back and exact their sense of Justice.
Theo’s dilapidated state is accurately depicted in these final sections of the book. He continues to believe that he had helped Alicia, first by revealing the true nature of her relationship with Gabriel, and second by exposing the trauma that had induced her into murdering Gabriel. The only remorse he seems to experience is at the thought of his therapist’s reaction at discovering what he had done. Furthermore, Theo’s move back home suggests that he is unable to shed the childhood trauma much like Alicia. Lastly, Theo had never managed to fool anyone about his smoking, as Alicia can recognize him primarily through his smell.
