Silence and Alternative Communication in Gallant: When Unspoken Language Becomes Agency

The Thematic Claim: Silence as a Language of Agency in Gallant

In V.E. Schwab's Gallant, silence is not merely the absence of sound—it is a contested space where power, identity, and connection are negotiated. The novel's protagonist, Olivia Prior, cannot speak, yet she communicates through sign, drawing, and writing. The story argues that silence can be both a cage and a key: it isolates Olivia at Merilance, but it also becomes the very medium through which she asserts agency, deciphers her family's secrets, and ultimately chooses her own home. By tracing how silence operates across the orphanage, the Prior estate, and the world beyond the wall, Gallant reframes unspoken language as a form of resistance and self-definition rather than a deficiency.

Silence as Barrier and Weapon at Merilance

Olivia's muteness is first established as a social liability. At Merilance School, the other girls mock her because she cannot answer their taunts. The incident with Anabelle, who reads Olivia's mother's journal aloud and tears pages, crystallizes this dynamic. Anabelle taunts, “All you have to do is ask,” knowing Olivia cannot form the word. Olivia's silence is weaponized against her, turning her into an object of ridicule and fear. Yet Olivia subverts this weapon: she attacks Anabelle physically, and later fills a jar with insects and ash to dump over her tormentor. This act is not verbal, but it is a devastating form of communication—a message of retaliation that requires no words. The matrons separate them, but Anabelle never touches the journal again. Olivia's silence becomes a strategic advantage; she learns to read people's fear and to use her perceived otherness as a shield.

The novel also shows Olivia's internal struggle with her own silence. In Chapter Three, she recalls deliberately cutting herself to test whether pain could force a scream, but it only produces a gasp. This moment reveals that her muteness is not a choice but a physiological condition, one she has tried to overcome. Yet she also finds power in it: she becomes an expert observer, learning the sounds of Merilance—the shuffle of feet, the tap of the matron's cane—and using her quietness to move unseen through the house at night. Her silence grants her a kind of invisibility that she wields for small acts of rebellion, like stealing cookies from the matron's room.

Alternative Languages: Sign, Drawing, and Writing

Olivia's primary alternative language is sign. She uses it with Edgar, the groundskeeper at Gallant, who signs back to her. This shared language creates a bond that transcends spoken words. When Matthew is having a nightmare, Edgar signs, “Go back to bed,” and Olivia asks, “What is wrong with him?” Edgar's reply, “Bad dreams,” is terse but sufficient. Sign becomes a private channel between two people who understand each other without vocalization.

Drawing is another form of communication Olivia has taught herself. In Chapter Seventeen, she recalls a drawing class at Merilance where the girls were told to draw themselves using mirrors. The results were “wrong” because the mirrors were cracked or shared, producing distorted reflections. Olivia, however, has already discovered that drawing is “a language of gestures that anyone could understand.” She uses sketching to process the world, and later, when she examines her mother's journals, she realizes that the delicate illustrations are not her mother's work but her father's. This revelation is crucial: the drawings are a silent conversation between her parents, a visual language that Olivia must learn to read. The journals themselves—the green one she carries and the red one she finds at Gallant—are repositories of unspoken words. Her mother's entries are addressed to a dead father, and the final letter is to Olivia, but the words are fragmented, torn, and coded. Olivia must reconstruct meaning from what is left unsaid.

Writing becomes Olivia's most powerful tool. In Chapter Twenty-One, after her mother's ghoul appears and she cannot touch it, Olivia takes the red journal and begins to write in the blank pages. She copies her mother's entries from memory, “resurrecting” them, and then adds her own words: “If you read this, I am safe.” This act is both a preservation of her mother's voice and an assertion of her own. She is not merely repeating; she is re-authoring her story. The journal becomes a bridge between the dead and the living, and Olivia's writing is a way to make her silence productive.

The Ghouls and Unspoken Communication

The ghouls in Gallant are silent beings, but they communicate through gesture and presence. Olivia learns that ghouls cannot stand being seen and cannot touch her—until she crosses into the world beyond the wall. There, a ghoul—a Prior ancestor—physically clamps a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet while a soldier searches for her. This ghoul then uses a form of gestural language that is not sign but is “slow, readable.” It signs, “You asked for help,” and Olivia realizes that her silent plea, a thought, was heard. This moment expands the definition of communication: even unvoiced intentions can be received.

The ghouls also serve as repositories of family history. They are the Priors who died to keep the darkness beyond the wall, and they appear as fragmented echoes. Olivia's mother's ghoul is particularly significant. In Chapter Fifteen, the ghoul sits beside Olivia and runs a transparent hand over the journal's illustration, as if trying to speak. Its mouth opens, but no sound comes out. Instead, it gestures, and Olivia understands that the drawings are her father's. This silent exchange is more profound than any spoken explanation could be. The ghoul's inability to speak is not a limitation but a mode of transmission—it communicates through touch, gesture, and presence.

The Wall and the Other House: Silence as Threshold

The wall and iron gate that separate Gallant from the other house are physical manifestations of silence. The wall is a barrier that muffles sound; when Olivia pounds on the iron door, the noise is swallowed “like silk.” The other house is a place of oppressive quiet, where even the wind holds its breath. This silence is not peaceful but threatening—it is the silence of death, of the Master of the House, who communicates through shadows and soldiers rather than words. Olivia's journey beyond the wall forces her to navigate a world where silence is the only language, and she must rely on her instincts and her ability to read non-verbal cues.

The key, a symbol of access, is also tied to silence. Olivia picks locks at Merilance, and later she finds a hidden passage in the music room that leads to Matthew's room. The act of unlocking is a silent transgression, a way to move through spaces without permission. The key represents agency—the ability to open doors that others have sealed.

Complexity: Silence as Both Prison and Freedom

The novel complicates the idea that silence is either wholly oppressive or wholly liberating. For Matthew, silence is a refuge. He tells Olivia that playing the piano makes something in him “go quiet, to make room for the song.” Music becomes his alternative language, a way to express what he cannot say aloud. Yet Matthew is also trapped by silence—he cannot speak of his brother Thomas, or of the dreams that torment him. His silence is a symptom of trauma.

Olivia's own silence is similarly double-edged. It isolates her, but it also allows her to observe and to act without being noticed. At the end of the novel, she chooses to stay at Gallant, tending the garden and playing the piano with her mother's ghoul beside her. She has not found a voice, but she has found a home. The final image of her playing music in the music room suggests that she has integrated silence into a fuller form of expression—one that includes sign, drawing, writing, and now music.

The novel ultimately argues that silence is not a lack but a different kind of language. It can be used to wound, as Anabelle does, or to protect, as the ghoul does. It can be a prison, as it is for Matthew, or a key, as it is for Olivia. By the end, Olivia has learned to read the silences around her—the ghouls' gestures, her mother's journals, the house's whispers—and to write her own. She is no longer defined by what she cannot say, but by what she chooses to communicate.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Olivia's silence function as both a vulnerability and a strength at Merilance?

At Merilance, Olivia's muteness makes her a target for mockery, as when Anabelle reads her mother's journal aloud and taunts her to ask for it back. However, Olivia turns her silence into a weapon by using stealth and physical retaliation—she attacks Anabelle and later dumps insects on her. Her quietness also allows her to move unseen through the school, enabling small acts of rebellion like stealing food. Thus, silence is both a social liability and a tool for covert agency.

2. What role do the mother's journals play in the theme of alternative communication?

The journals are a written record of Grace Prior's thoughts, addressed to her dead husband and later to Olivia. They contain fragmented entries, torn pages, and illustrations that Olivia initially mistakes for her mother's work. She later discovers the drawings are her father's, revealing that the journals are a silent collaboration between her parents. Olivia uses the journals to reconstruct her mother's story and eventually writes her own entries, transforming the journals from a relic of the past into a living dialogue.

3. How does the ghoul's gesture in Chapter Nineteen expand the definition of communication?

In the other house, a ghoul physically silences Olivia to protect her from a soldier, then uses slow, readable gestures to tell her she asked for help. Olivia realizes her silent plea was heard, even though she neither spoke nor signed. This moment shows that communication can occur through intention and presence, not just through conventional language. It also establishes a connection between the living and the dead that transcends words.

4. In what ways does Matthew's relationship with music parallel Olivia's use of sign and writing?

Matthew plays the piano as a way to quiet his mind and express emotions he cannot verbalize, particularly his grief over his brother Thomas. Olivia uses sign to communicate with Edgar and writing to preserve her mother's words. Both characters find alternative channels for expression when spoken language fails them. Music, like sign and writing, becomes a form of agency and a means of connection.

5. How does the novel's ending reconcile the theme of silence with the idea of home?

In the epilogue, Olivia stays at Gallant, tending the garden and playing the piano with her mother's ghoul beside her. She has not gained a voice, but she has found a place where her silence is accepted and even meaningful. The act of playing music, combined with her earlier use of sign and writing, suggests that she has integrated multiple forms of communication into her identity. Home, for Olivia, is not a place where she can speak, but a place where she can be heard in her own way.