The Housemaid

A third major theme in the book is the idea of victimhood. Initially, the story presents two apparent victims: Andrew, as the hen-pecked husband, and Millie, as the tortured domestic help. Sympathizing with these characters is easy in the face of Nina’s volatility and occasional cruelty. When Nina’s recollections reveal the truth about Andrew, however, it becomes clear that Nina is the one experiencing abuse. Her relationship with Andrew is, in some ways, a fairly typical experience of women trapped in abusive relationships: She’s held hostage in more ways than one. Not only does Andrew control the narrative to the extent that everyone around them believes his version of events, but he initially gaslights Nina into believing it, too.

A cruel irony is that Nina’s relationship with Andrew started when he stepped in to save her from a different situation in which she was being victimized. By Nina’s own confession, what initially attracted her to Andrew were his good looks; his initial attraction to her was the opportunity to step in and play protector. These initial points of attraction play out over the course of their relationship as well: Nina is trapped in an abusive marriage by Andrew’s overwhelming charm, while Andrew abuses the power he holds as protector and turns into a perpetrator himself. Eventually, Nina recognizes Andrew’s need to be with someone he can easily victimize, and she uses this to plan her escape. Her search for a young, beautiful, desperate young woman whom she can victimize in Andrew’s eyes leads her to Millie. Nina makes sure to not just treat Millie badly but also confer on her the other trappings of Andrew’s victims, including the white dresses and residence in the attic room. Through Nina’s orchestrations, Andrew comes to view Millie as a victim and repeats his pattern by stepping in to rescue Millie from Nina—and then abusing this power in turn. However, he’s unaware of Millie’s past, and she ends up turning the tables on him in a subversion of expectations.

Millie’s long history of violent retaliation against abusers and how it has been received is further significant when contrasted with Andrew’s past. Millie’s actions have been solely in reaction to an inciting incident and motivated by self-preservation; nevertheless, her account was often dismissed, and she was unable to escape the consequences. Andrew’s violence, however, was always instigated by him as an overreaction to slight or imagined transgressions. Nevertheless, he found it exceedingly easy to maintain the facade of being right, and the truth was not discovered until the very end—and then hidden from the general public. This hints at the role of gender in the context of abuse and victimhood and how the accounts of women often go ignored, suppressed, or trivialized. The ultimate revelation about Evelyn and Andrew’s relationship binds not just this theme but all three. It serves as a final instance of The Seen and the Unseen theme; it explains the roots of Andrew’s obsession with The Interrelationships Among Discipline, Power, and Perfection; and it presents one more, unexpected instance of victimhood: a young Andrew being abused at the hands of someone meant to safeguard and protect him—his mother.