Summary: In Kensington Gardens, the still-bleeding Silas breathes a final prayer for Aringarosa, then dies.
Analysis: This brief chapter uses rain as a nearly baptismal image—“Raising his bloody hands to pray, he watched the raindrops caress his fingers, turning them white again” (p. 459)—to suggest that Silas is being cleansed of his sins, “forgiven,” to adopt the language of his last conversation with Aringarosa. Although he thinks of himself as a ghost, he is actually being reborn. Significantly, this chapter marks the first time we see Silas praying for someone other than himself: after pleading for God’s mercy, he also requests that God will grant Aringarosa time enough to continue his important work. One of the novel’s “villains,” therefore, arguably ends up finding a measure of redemption by its close.
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