The Dream House Symbol Analysis

The Dream House represents the way trauma and fear can overwhelm someone and shape their circumstances. Each chapter of In the Dream House has a title that begins, “Dream House as…” and explores the idea of the Dream House through a different lens, whether that’s a trope in pop culture, like the “mystical pregnancy,” or a kind of narrative, like a murder mystery. That means the Dream House is a concept that shapes Machado’s whole experience in her relationship with the woman from the Dream House, as well as her memories of that experience. Machado is quick to remind the reader that the Dream House is a real place: it’s the house in Bloomington, Indiana that the woman from the Dream House moves into, in which Machado experiences most of the verbal and psychological abuse that ultimately defines their relationship. But it expands beyond just that house. When the woman comes to visit Machado in Iowa, the shadow of the Dream House follows her, becoming a complex and ever-changing symbol that, more often than not, evokes feelings of danger and dread. In this way, the Dream House demonstrates that a victim of domestic abuse can’t easily isolate their trauma to one incident or place. That trauma has the power to become the overarching structure of a huge portion of their life.