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The Housemaid by Freida McFadden is a twist-filled domestic thriller that subverts several conventions of the thriller genre to explore themes of power dynamics, class disparity, and misogynistic violence. The novel tells the story of Millie Calloway, an ex-convict who takes a job as a live-in maid for the wealthy Winchester family, where she finds herself entangled in a web of manipulation, abuse, and dark secrets. Millie’s desperation for employment due to her criminal record and financial struggles leads her to overlook the warning signs surrounding Nina Winchester, her employer, and Nina’s volatile behavior. As the novel progresses, shifting perspectives reveal that the situation is far more complex than Millie first realized, subverting the reader’s expectations and common genre conventions.
Read an in-depth character analysis of Millie Calloway.
Through Millie’s eyes, Nina seems like the villain of the story. Nina is presented as a spoiled housewife who takes her frustrations out on Millie, while her husband Andrew appears calm, kind, and supportive. She frequently berates Millie, creating impossible standards and shifting the rules on a whim. The turning point comes when Millie discovers that Nina has been institutionalized in the past, and a fellow nanny suggests that Nina once tried to kill her daughter, Cecelia. The tension in the household escalates, especially when Millie begins an affair with Andrew, and Nina’s behavior becomes more erratic. Andrew’s sympathy for Millie appears to deepen as his relationship with Nina deteriorates, and Millie starts to fantasize about taking Nina’s place in the family, convinced that Andrew deserves better.
Read an in-depth character analysis of Nina Winchester.
However, the novel takes a sharp turn when the narrative shifts to Nina’s perspective in the second half of the book. Through Nina’s eyes, we learn that she is not the spoiled, erratic housewife Millie believes her to be but rather a victim of Andrew’s abuse. Andrew has been controlling and terrorizing Nina for years, locking her in the attic and manipulating her into believing she’s mentally unstable. Nina’s outward appearance and behavior are the result of years of psychological torment. Nina reveals that she hired Millie with the hope that Andrew would fall for the younger woman and that Millie would replace her, allowing Nina to escape his abuse. In this way, the stereotype of the jealous housewife is turned on its head, as Nina is not competing with Millie but using her as a means to get away from her abuser.
Read more about the Limits of Perspective as a theme in The Housemaid.
As the story unfolds, Millie realizes that Nina was never the true villain—Andrew was the abuser all along. This recontextualization of the story forces Millie to confront the limits of her own perspective and recognize that her initial judgments were based on incomplete information. Millie’s past, including her violent outbursts, comes to light, and we learn that Millie has a history of fighting back against male abusers. Her sense of moral justice ultimately leads her to imprison Andrew in the attic and make him endure the same psychological torture he inflicted on Nina.
Read more about the Attic as a symbol in the novel.
The climax of the novel occurs when Millie locks Andrew in the attic, forces him to pull out his own teeth, and ultimately leaves him to die. The novel then shifts back to Nina’s perspective as she returns to the house to check on Millie, only to discover Andrew’s dead body. Nina helps Millie cover up the crime, but in the final chapter, Nina is interrogated by the police. The story culminates with Nina’s realization that she will not be prosecuted for Andrew’s death because one of the investigating officers, Detective Connors, knows about Andrew’s history of misogynistic abuse and decides to call Andrew’s death an accident.
Read more about the novel’s motif of Locks and Keys.
The resolution of the novel suggests that both Nina and Millie have gained a semblance of liberation from Andrew’s abuse, but the introduction of Lisa Killefer in the epilogue reveals that the cycle of abuse is ongoing. Millie interviews for a new job at Lisa’s home, and it becomes clear that Lisa is trapped in a similar situation to Nina, implying that Millie’s story as a protector of women will continue.
By taking Millie’s perspective and highlighting the power dynamics, the narrative intriguingly flips typical horror genre conventions. Rather than focusing on the fear of inviting a mysterious, dangerous figure into the home (as seen in stories like Single White Female), the story centers on Millie as the interloper. However, Millie, the vulnerable outsider, quickly becomes the sympathetic figure in danger, making the reader align with her plight instead of fearing her.
The Housemaid also subverts the motif of the "madwoman in the attic," a concept popularized by Victorian literature, particularly in Jane Eyre. In the first half of the novel, Millie perceives Nina as a version of the stereotypical “madwoman”—volatile, irrational, and controlling. However, the narrative turns this trope on its head when it reveals that Nina is not the "madwoman" she appears to be. In reality, she has been systematically abused and psychologically tormented by her husband Andrew. The "madness" that Millie, and by extension the reader, attributes to Nina is not an inherent mental illness but a product of Andrew’s deliberate efforts to control her. By trapping her in the attic and gaslighting her, Andrew turns Nina into the very image of the madwoman society is conditioned to expect. The attic, instead of being a place for an unhinged woman, becomes a symbol of Andrew’s cruelty and manipulation. The true "madman" of the story is Andrew, who uses psychological abuse to imprison Nina.
Read an in-depth character analysis of Andrew Winchester.
McFadden’s subversion of the “madwoman in the attic” trope highlights the novel’s central themes of power dynamics and psychological control. Rather than perpetuating the image of the uncontrollable, mentally unstable woman, The Housemaid exposes the real source of madness: the men who abuse and manipulate women to maintain control. The attic, as a recurring symbol, underscores the dangers of psychological abuse and the ways in which women are often falsely portrayed as mad to justify their mistreatment. Through the shifting perspectives of Nina and Millie, McFadden challenges the reader’s assumptions about sanity, victimhood, and the true nature of power.
Read about the Power of Psychological Control as a theme in The Housemaid.
