Chloe Guillaume Ms. McArdle Period 4, Language Arts 18 March 2023 Character analysis in The Silent Patient Silence bares the loudest screams. Alicia Berenson since she shot her husband, Gabriel Berenson, in the face 5 times. The Silent Patient By Alex Michaelides follows Theo Faber, a criminal psychologist as he attempts to uncover Alicia's silent mystery. He loses his mind in the process, but ultimately uncovers how your impact on someone's life can make deeper wounds than a bullet. Theo Faber changes exponentially as a person, due to his wife's infidelity, his incapability to process his emotions, and even though one may say Theos reaction to his predicament was rational, that is simply not true because his reaction killed Gabriel. …show more content…
He is so filled with love and instability, when all falls down he doesn’t know who to run to. He develops into someone he does not know, and this alter ego takes control of him. We see him lose control once again on page 287, Michaelides writes “ The man turned and walked in the opposite direction. I did not follow kathy. I followed him. [...] I acted without thinking - my body seemed to move on its own. My arm reached over the low wall garden and picked up a rock. [...] My hands knew what to do: they decided to kill him [...]” (Michaelides) Theo did not end up killing this man, Gabriel, but it is known that he cannot control whatever takes over him in these conditions. Theo loses himself, he stalks and follows this man and plans to kill him. This is a very different Theo than we see in the beginning of this …show more content…
Theo continues to stalk Gabriel and his wife Alicia , which drives her into silence, and finally abducts their house. We read “ Then she caught sight of my reflection in the window. I think she saw my knife first. She stiffened and slowly turned around. Her eyes widened with fear. We stared at each other in silence. This was the first time I came face-to-face with Alicia Berenson.” ( Michaelides 304) Before killing Gabriel, Theo terrifies and plays with Alicia like a toy, destroying her image of her relationship and home, just like Kathy did to Theo. As we read on Michaelides’ writes “ That night Theo broke into the house and tied me up and when Gabriel came home Theo knocked him out. At first I thought he'd kill him - but then I saw Gabriel was breathing. Theo pulled him up and tied him to the chair. He moved it so Gabriel and I were sitting back to back, and I couldn't see his face. " Please " I said, "Please don't hurt him. I'm begging you - I'll do anything, anything you want. “. ( Michaelides 308) Theo tormenting Alicia was a heated retaliation at his wife, yet he did it in a way that would physically kill Gabriel, Kathy’s paramour, and emotionally suffocate Alicia. All of Theos actions prove that he was not rational since his actions killed