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57. Dream House as Cottage in Washington
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 investigates the word “gaslight,” which has become widely used as a verb to describe the psychological abuse of making someone feel like their experience of reality isn’t accurate. The use of the word comes from the 1940s film of the same name, directed by George Cukor, in which a woman sees the lights in her home flickering—something that should only happen when someone has turned the lights on elsewhere in the house—and believes she’s losing her grip on reality.
Machado’s research into abuse is varied, including pop culture, film and literature as well as pure academic exploration. Her method of considering many different forms of storytelling reminds the reader of her desire to see more diverse stories of abusive relationships across the archive, so as to allow people in similar situations to find their ways out.
Themes
In the film, the lights are actually flickering because the woman’s husband is searching the attic for jewels. Though people sometimes think the husband’s only motivation is to drive his wife mad, Machado asserts that he actually does have a reason for what he’s doing—and yet he enjoys manipulating his wife. She understands the film as a reminder that abusers are rarely “cackling maniacs.” Most of the time, they just want something very badly.
Machado’s precise analysis highlights the fact that viewers and readers are prone to oversimplifying the themes and characters of the stories they consume—and if they do, they don’t appreciate the complexities of those stories. On the other hand, Machado can absorb the full extent of the husband’s character—presumably because he echoes some of the qualities also present in her abusive partner.
Themes
