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119. Dream House as Equivocation
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in In the Dream House, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Queer Visibility
Christianity and Shame
Abuse, Trauma, and Healing
Storytelling, Responsibility, and Freedom
Summary
Analysis
Machado tells a story she “learned from a squid.” In it, a lonely queen requests her counselors to find her a companion. They bring her a squid. She’s delighted, as is the squid. But soon the queen gets bored and turns cruel, sometimes locking the squid outside as it yearns for water. The squid slips into a mop bucket and wheels herself around, eventually finding a room that smells terrible, in which she sees something horrific. She hurriedly wheels herself back to the queen’s room.
This chapter demonstrates Machado’s love of dark fantasy, a genre that allows her both to escape from reality and to reflect reality in a more concentrated way. The squid’s visceral, often disgusting experiences echo Machado’s own sensations of horror in her abusive relationship.
Themes
Later, the squid sees the queen with a bear and knows she can’t compare. She runs away. The queen writes her a letter, saying that just because she now loves a bear, it doesn’t mean her time with the squid meant nothing. The squid doesn’t reply, so the queen writes another letter which contains profuse apologies for failing the squid. She begs the squid to return to her. The squid writes many draft letters in reply, and after finally finishing a suitable letter, she sends it and leaves town. The letter reads, “Your words are very pretty [but] they cannot obscure the simple fact that I have seen your zoo.”
The squid’s blunt, concise letter in response to the queen’s florid excuses echoes the experiences of Machado and the woman from the Dream House. Machado now sees the relationship for its true violence and cruelty, while the woman still refuses to acknowledge or admit the dark reality she’s created through her coercive behavior.
Themes
