The Silent Patient

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Epigraph-Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-10

Part 2, Chapters 1-5

Part 2, Chapters 6-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-21

Part 2, Chapters 22-34

Part 3

Part 4, Chapters 1-8

Part 4, Chapters 9-14

Part 4, Chapters 15-21

Part 5, Chapters 1-3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3 Summary: “Alicia Berenson’s Diary”

Two quotes preface Part 3. One, from Jean-Paul Sartre, reads: “I mustn’t put strangeness where there’s nothing. I think that is the danger of keeping a diary: you exaggerate everything, you are on the look-out, and you continually stretch the truth. Jean-Paul Sartre” (217). The other is from William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale: “Though I am not naturally honest, I am sometimes so by chance” (217).

Part 3 consists of the remainder of Alicia’s diary, with entries ranging from August 8-25. Alicia notices a man stalking her. After seeing him on multiple occasions, she tells Gabriel. He suggests it might be Jean-Felix, but Alicia is sure this isn’t the case. Alicia then tells her neighbor, Barbie. Finally, Gabriel—thinking that Alicia is delusional—takes her to see a psychoanalyst, Dr. West. Dr. West also doesn’t believe Alicia, reminding her of the fact that she suffered paranoid delusions (thinking people were following her) after her father’s death as well. He prescribes an antipsychotic drug but she secretly doesn’t take it because she wants to be alert in case of a possible threat: “I need my wits about me now. I need to be prepared” (234). Alicia’s fear is palpable as she starts hiding her diary and stays indoors for three days straight.

On August 24, the night before the murder, Alicia joins Gabriel for dinner with Max and his new girlfriend, Tanya. Alicia has become convinced that Max is the stalker and confronts him. When he leaves the table to go to the toilet, she follows him and accuses him of spying on her. He laughs and calls her a “crazy bitch,” and she slaps him in response (238). Tanya witnesses the incident and, upset, leaves the restaurant. After this, Alicia no longer believes Max is the stalker—but she has no idea who it might be. On August 25, she writes in her diary that the stalker is trying to enter the house. The diary ends with these words: “He’s inside the house” (239).

Part 3 Analysis

Part 3 focuses on Alicia’s fear that someone is spying on her and following her. While this is in fact true and she really does have a stalker, Gabriel doesn’t believe her. In this context, the quotes prefacing Part 3 offer a juxtaposition that leaves the reader unsure of how to view Alicia’s paranoia. On one hand, her diary entries come across as hysterical, suggesting the Sartre quote to be apt—is she simply putting “strangeness where there’s nothing” and exaggerating? On the other hand, her diary entries—hysterical as they may seem—are actually true. As the reader will come to learn, Alicia really does have a stalker. Her past history of delusions makes her an unreliable narrator and her hysterical behavior makes her claims of a stalker even more dubious—but in her heightened state of awareness, fed by hysteria, she is indeed being honest, perhaps “by chance” as the Shakespeare quote suggests.

Part 3 is unique in that it consists solely of Alicia’s diary entries, offering a peek at the rapid escalation of her paranoia in the weeks before Gabriel’s murder. Theo’s voice is totally absent and the narrative immerses the reader fully in Alicia’s world, allowing for an uninterrupted experience of Alicia’s fear. The reader remains uncertain of how to receive Alicia’s claims.

For one thing, Alicia is an unreliable narrator who has a past history of delusions. It’s revealed that she had psychotic episodes after her father’s death. Then, neither Alicia’s husband Gabriel nor the psychiatrist, Dr. West, believe her. The neighbor, Barbie, seems more inclined to accept her story. However, the photo that Alicia shows Barbie also serves to discredit her: Alicia is convinced the photo is valuable evidence, showing a man, but to Barbie (and, later, to Theo, when Barbie shows it to him) it’s just a blur.

Part 3 ends on an intense cliffhanger, as Alicia’s diary reveals that her stalker is in the house. The fact that the diary’s date is August 25 also ramps up the suspense: This is the date of Gabriel’s murder. Ending a chapter on a cliffhanger is a stylistic trademark of thrillers.