Silence is defined as the state of saying nothing but in some cases the silence screams without any words. Any individual can sit silently for hours and days but what could happen if they sustain their silence for years?
Well, this is what happened to Alicia Berenson that she shot her husband in the head five times? Since then she hadn't spoken a single word and her silence created a mystery for the rest of the world.
The silent patient is the debut novel of Alex Michaelides which had won millions of hearts all around the world and millions of copies were sold worldwide.
Alicia Berenson and her husband Gabriel both were artists. Alicia was a painter and Gabriel was a professional fashion photographer. Alicia was living a seemingly perfect life with her husband. The love and care of her husband was the most precious thing that she had but the question is what happened to Alicia that she brutally killed her husband? Further, she remained silent for many years. Alicia was admitted to Grove hospital for treatment woefully. Many psychotherapists became fail to interact with her since she refused to speak.
A psychotherapist, Theo Faber was fascinated by the myth of Alicia Berenson then followed his gut and applied for the job in Grove. Luckily, he got the chance to treat Alicia. During their first session, Alicia became too much angry at Theo's statement and attacked him. Theo didn't give up and continued his therapy until he succeed to win the trust of Alicia. She didn't speak but handover her diary to Theo. Her diary reveals so many things that helped Theo to understand Alicia's psyche but the last pages were incomplete. Theo asked Alicia about the story that what happened that day. Alicia opened her heart and started speaking that how a man was following and spying her until he entered their house, killed Gabriel then disappeared. Theo knew that Alicia was telling lie and teasing him, after all, he himself was also the part of that story.
Theo Faber was a married man, he loved his wife the most than someone else until he became aware that his wife was deceiving him. She was in a relationship with someone else. He couldn't believe it that how she could betrayed him. He started following his wife's lover and reached his house. There he saw his wife's lover with another lady and he understood that he was not alone to be betrayed, there was another innocent person like him. So he wanted her to know what her husband was doing behind her so entered in the house. The tragedy of the story took place when he saw Alicia, it was the first time when they unpleasantly met each other since Alicia was afraid to find a stranger, wearing a mask on the face. Tragically, Theo and Alicia both were being deceived by their partners. Theo wanted to awake Alicia from the long sleep of blind trust. As he was an unknown person to Alicia so he didn't want to take any risk and tied Alicia to the chair. When Gabriel arrived at home then Theo made him unconscious by beating Gabriel's head with a heavy thing and tied him at the opposite side of Alicia. After some moments when Gabriel opened his eyes. Theo put the gun on Gabriel's forehead and said that he was going to shoot one of them today. He asked Gabriel that he can save his wife by sacrificing his own life. Alicia was pretty sure that Gabriel was a devoted husband and he couldn't let someone to hurt or harm her. painfully, he refused to do so. He said that he didn't want to die, he wanted to live longer. Alicia couldn't believe it and went out of her sense. Theo went near to Alicia and told her that it was the real face of her husband, moreover, he was deceiving her for a long time by having a relationship with his wife. He apologized and pull the trigger then went away after throwing the gun on the floor.
Gabriel was thinking that Alicia was no more so he started screaming and calling her name but she didn't say a single word. Alicia stood up and took the gun. She went in front of her husband. Gabriel was too surprised to see her alive. He said thank God she was completely fine. Alicia was still silent and said, " you have killed me, Gabriel". She pulled the trigger and shot her husband five times. After that she was arrested by the police.
After six years, Theo came back to Alicia's story and start treating her as a psychotherapist. Now, when Alicia started talking again so Theo became afraid that may she would tell everyone that he was the man who revealed Gabriel's truth in front of her. So he didn't want to take any risk. Unfortunately, she didn't die but went into a permanent coma.
Theo's fate didn't support him since before being unconscious, Alicia wrote the complete story in her diary and her diary went into the wrong hand. The inspector, who was supposed to handle Alicia's case, found out the diary, and Theo was caught.
Overall, this novel was just smashing. It taught what could be the consequences of deceiving or betraying your beloved one as Gabriel pays the price of deceiving his wife by losing his life. So it's become one's responsibility that if someone trusts you, you should never break their belief because trust is like glass if once it breaks you can never fix it again I just want to request everyone to read out this masterpiece which is full of suspense.
Faiza Rasheed
Turbat, Kech
Comments