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19. Dream House as Bildungsroman
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
In the present, Machado lists three folktale characters: the Little Mermaid, a princess called Eliza, and the Goose Girl. The Little Mermaid has her tongue cut out and endures the knifelike pain of growing legs. Eliza must stay silent for seven years as she makes shirts out of stinging nettles for her brothers, who have been turned into swans. The Goose Girl has her identity stolen by a maid and can’t speak for fear of death.
Machado highlights a pattern of young female characters in folk literature struggling with disempowerment, usually in pursuit of a romantic partner. In each of these three stories, the female protagonist is at risk of pain or death. The ominous tone of these stories reflects Machado’s own experience.
Themes
The three stories end differently: the Little Mermaid dies, Eliza faints as soon as she is allowed to speak, and the Goose Girl eventually regains her identity and marries her prince. Machado says, “the story always looks a little different, depending on who is telling it.”
Though all these stories hinge on women’s disempowerment, Machado highlights the power of storytelling to transform a character’s fate. The person telling the story is the one who decides whether a character regains their name or identity, and that’s what Machado does for herself through this memoir.
Themes
