The Housemaid

Nina is the story’s other central character and the second narrator. A woman in her late thirties, she consistently dresses in all-white and sports blonde hair. Nina is married to Andrew and has a nine-year-old daughter, Cecelia, who preceded her marriage. At first glance, Nina appears to be just a wealthy housewife with a volatile nature. She treats Millie terribly, making her question why Andrew would be with someone like Nina. Eventually, the narrative reveals that Nina’s behavior is an effort to drive Andrew into Millie’s arms.

Millie and Nina share some similarities. Both are desperate to change their situations, though for different reasons: Like Millie, Nina is seeking a way out of her current life, and she’s willing to sacrifice someone else for her survival. Notably, Nina is driven by her motherly instinct. She feels immensely protective of Cecelia, and her willingness to do anything to escape Andrew is as much for Cecelia’s safety as for her own (if not more so). In fact, she even seeks out a woman without attachments, like Millie, as her replacement, knowing that such a person could more easily leave Andrew.

However, Millie and Nina are classic foils to each other too. Although Nina comes across as having a perfect life, with a rich, handsome, loving husband, she’s actually the one who’s trapped. Millie, with her seemingly dull life, having just been let out of prison, is far freer than Nina is. Although Nina wishes Andrew dead multiple times, she doesn’t have the stomach to kill him herself; instead, she employs Millie, who is more than capable of doing so, and goads her into the act. Furthermore, unlike Millie, who feels no remorse over killing Andrew and is only looking to escape imprisonment, Nina feels some responsibility and even decides to take the fall for Millie. Nina and Millie’s character arcs work together to set up two of the book’s main themes, The Seen and the Unseen and Notions Surrounding Victimhood and Abuse.

Nina’s husband and eventually Millie’s lover, Andrew is initially portrayed as a henpecked husband looking to escape a loveless marriage and finding solace in Millie; he’s eventually revealed as the story’s true villain.

Andrew’s character exemplifies the book’s theme of The Interrelationships Among Discipline, Power, and Perfection. His character was deeply shaped by his childhood and the kind of upbringing he had with his mother, Evelyn. In the pursuit of perfection, this involved cruel and torturous punishments packaged as discipline, at the hands of someone who was supposed to keep him safe—his mother. As an adult, Andrew still craves Evelyn’s approval; meanwhile, he looks for partners whom he can fashion in the image of the most impactful female figure in his life. Andrew is drawn to women who are clearly vulnerable and in need of protection, as he himself once was as a child. He molds his lovers’ appearance to match his mother’s, dressing them in white and asking them to lighten their hair. In addition, in an unconscious desire to reclaim the power that his mother took from him, he replicates the methods of punishment she used, perpetuating that dynamic.

Because the methods used to punish him as a child were carried out by an authority figure who was supposed to love him, his actions are entirely conflated with morality. Andrew’s understanding of right and wrong was completely shaped by his experience with Evelyn; thus, he feels no remorse for his actions and in fact views them as right or justified. Andrew thinks he’s shaping his lovers into better people. His character is undoubtedly painted in villainous shades; however, as is the case with the genre, no character is entirely black or white. Thus, by exposing the truth about Andrew’s childhood at the very end, the book achieves the aims of its genre: it leaves the reader with questions about the “darkest corners of the human mind” (Dukes, Jessica. “What Is a Psychological Thriller?” Celadon Books).

Nina’s nine-year-old daughter, Cecelia isn’t Andrew’s biological daughter, and he never legally adopted her, but he’s the only father she has ever known. Like her mother, she’s blonde and blue-eyed and dresses in impartially pale or white clothing most of the time, on Andrew’s directive.

Cecelia initially comes across as a peculiar child lacing in social niceties and exhibiting strange and rigid demands. In revealing more of her story is revealed, the narrative shows that these behaviors resulted from her having been traumatized as an infant after nearly being drowned and then being separated from her mother during Nina’s subsequent hospitalization.

In addition, Nina’s frequent absences (when she’s locked in the attic) leave Cecelia insecure, clingy, and mistrustful of adults in her life. Furthermore, she’s perceptive enough to understand that Andrew orchestrates her mother’s disappearances and that Cecelia’s own behavior can sometimes cause them. Thus, though Andrew is never directly abusive toward Cecelia, she’s still petrified of him and feels the pressure to be perfect around him, causing her to act out around other people. By the end of the book, after escaping Andrew and the Winchesters, Cecelia is happier and freer.