Silas

Silas is the narrator of the story. He is an academic who is pursuing a career as a professor – likely of English, but his discipline is never fully specified – but is having a difficult time finding a job in New York. Silas lives with his older sister, Bernice, in her apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he sleeps on the loveseat. Silas cares deeply for Bernice but also worries about her; he does not trust her whimsical behavior and he doubts that she is actually sick when she claims that she feels off. Silas is very critical of Bernice's husband, Dove, whom Silas suggests does not deserve his sister. Throughout the story, Silas develops an air of superiority through his interior thoughts about his sister and Dove. By the end of the story, this sense of superiority and knowledge is challenged by Bernice's hospital stay and eventual death...