The Dream House

Machado refers to the Victorian home in Bloomington, Indiana where she lived (on weekends) with her abuser as the Dream House. The house itself operates as a symbol throughout the book. In "Dream House as American Gothic," the author discusses this genre's convention of combining domesticity (a house) with a stranger (usually a husband) to create horror. She is working in the tradition of this trope when mythologizing the Dream House. She also weaves the theme of haunting or being haunted throughout the memoir, so the Dream House is meant to be seen as a haunted house. Machado suffered through numerous abusive events within the confines of the house, so it is understandable that the place itself has taken on a terrifying mystique in her mind. The emphasis on the house is so pervasive that it is used in the book title and every chapter...