In the Dream House: 58. Dream House as 9 Thornton Square 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.

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.