Munch: The Scream

After a couple of good nights, last night was a very difficult one. I went to bed with my brain in full swing, going over and over all the deep thinking I had done during the day. My body was restless and agitated, and the feeling was strange, something like this:

I am wondering about this picture. What does it represent? Is it a person about to scream but as yet silent? Is it really a person screaming? Can it be that the person is so terrified that the scream is silent or barely inaudible? The other possibility, of course, is that it is none of these. It could just be the artist's imagination of any of these things. In any case there is some sort of invisible barrier between ourselves and the subject of the painting.
The colours are strident and harsh. That world looks cold and unforgiving. The characters in the background seem entirely unaware of the person who faces us. He fails to communicate with them and there is no eye contact between them. The line of the picture is clear, but the composition fluid. There is rigid order somewhere in the confusion.
I know exactly what I am describing. It is my world.