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What does Alcestis represent in the silent patient?
Why did Alicia sign her self-portrait with Alcestis?
What does Alcestis symbolize in Alicia Berenson?
Why is Alicia's silence called Alcestis?
Thus even as Alicia turns to Euripides’s Alcestis for a lesson in silence, her own painting is a way of letting people “understand” her, showing them the reasoning—the unbearable betrayal—behind her lack of speech.
Alicia’s choice to sign her self-portrait with “ALCESTIS” highlights her recognition of this symbolic relevance. Alcestis represents “the silent patient,” the woman scorned, the person betrayed. She is voiceless, but her silence alone is a message, expressing disappointment, hurt, and rage.
- The Good Stuff
- Some Criticisms
- Read It Or Skip It?
Let’s start with the good stuff. The premise of this book is fantastic. I was engaged right away. The ending is surprising, even if you guess the twist (I didn’t, but some might), and the way the crucial scene of the book plays out is well done. I was skeptical of whether the book would come together, and I pleasantly surprised that it ultimately d...
So, the flaws in this book are numerous, but they’re also pretty standard for the genre. The characterizations of characters are sort of silly or cartoonish (the motherly female doctor! the arrogant doctor who gets in the way! and so on). Michaelides throws in so many red herrings and false starts that the book begins to have an unintentionally cam...
The Silent Patient is a thriller that nails the ending, and for that reason alone I’m inclined to forgive a lot of its imperfections. I was perplexed by the main mystery in this book and felt that gratifying “oh man, I should have guessed this!” feeling when it was revealed. For me, this goes a long way. As a fan of thrillers, I’m fairly forgiving ...
To understand why Alicia named her painting after it, Theo buys a copy of ‘Alcestis’ by Euripides. He discovers that, like Alicia, Alcestis stays mute after she dies for her husband and returns to life. Theo provides Alicia with painting materials and a private room. She paints herself and Theo escaping a fire at the Grove.
The childhood homes of Theo and Alicia, the sites of their early life trauma, symbolize their respective relationships with the past. As a young woman, Alicia left her childhood home in Cambridge for London, and avoids returning to it. This avoidance, which makes her feel guilty, reflects her broader attempts to repress her painful memories.
Theo asks to see the Alcestis painting again, and Jean-Felix obliges. Theo notices a small bowl of fruit filled with maggots, something that he didn’t catch when he first saw the painting. Jean-Felix recommends that Theo read Alcestis , and that he provides Alicia with painting tools so that she might “speak” through her art.
