The domestic maid trope in The Housemaid
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden has been burning up the thriller charts on vendors for the last few years. What can it teach us about tropes, though?
Hi friends,
If you haven’t yet, you should consider reading my article about memoir trope to give this one more context.
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden has been burning up the thriller charts on vendors for the last few years. As I write this, it's #9 in the entire Amazon store.
Before we discuss specifics about McFadden's story, let's examine the domestic service trope more closely. First, contrary to Halloween costume supply stores, the domestic service industry is not sexy. It’s a perfect thriller trope because it’s unassuming yet has the potential to generate much more conflict.
The nature of domestic service is inequity; it's an employment option for the vulnerable. Several tropes are embedded in a housemaid's work: forced proximity, family, politics, across the tracks, and secrets. The position involves a family’s dirty laundry. Let’s take a look at how McFadden applied tropes in this story.
Here’s my trope synopsis for The Housemaid:
Millie (loner, fish out of water, scar, secrets) is a recently released ex-con who desperately needs a job (quest). When she interviews for Nina Winchester's posting for a live-in maid (forced proximity), the opportunity seems too good to be true (ticking time bomb). Nina (across the tracks, family, forced proximity) is a wealthy wife to CEO Andy and mother to young daughter Cece.
For the story’s first fifty percent, Nina (antagonist, boss) manipulates Millie (victim) through lies (the con) to isolate her (woman in peril). Nina’s lies drive a frustrated Millie towards her compassionate, attractive married boss, Andrew (opposites attract, protector). Once Millie and Andrew begin an affair (secrets), Nina's unstable behavior appears to threaten their happiness (found family).
However, when Andrew throws Nina out of the house in favor of Millie (second chance), another story angle opens up. Part two of the story is from Nina’s point of view (POV). She and Enzo, the hunky Italian gardener, have been manipulating Millie (woman in peril) to catch Andrew’s attention (macguffin); Nina (victim) knows the only way out is to find a replacement for her in his trap (antagonist). Andrew wants children of his own, Nina has him convinced she can’t have more children (the con, secrets). She plans to put the youthful Millie (victim) in his path while making sure Millie hates her (fake relationship) enough to overcome involvement with a married man. This section describes Nina’s backstory (scars, time travel) with Andrew and her intricate planning to be free of him (ticking time bomb).
Meanwhile, Part Three brings us back to alternating Millie and Nina POV’s. Now that Nina is out of the house, Millie (victim) is securely in Andrew's lair. He (the antagonist) locks her (the woman in peril) in the attic closet (forced proximity) for various brutal punishments. This was his punishment method for Nina also (hidden identity). Millie finds some hidden pepper spray (the con) and disarms Andrew, locking him in the attic (forced proximity). Then Millie refuses to release him until he performs similar horrible acts that he required of her (violence).
Free from Andrew, Nina begins planning her new life with Cece. Enzo, the gardener, has reservations about Millie being Andrew’s replacement torture toy (redemption). He tells Nina that someone has been in the attic for days; they know that means Millie. Nina returns to the house to check on Millie (reunion).
Nina finds Millie has left the now-dead Andrew in the attic (ticking time bomb). Nina thanks her and tells her to go; she will accept responsibility for Andrew's death (redemption). The detective arrives at the house; Nina is shocked to find that he accepts her explanation for Andrew's death in a locked attic. She also learns that the detective's daughter was Andrew's former fiancée who fled from him (hidden identity, secrets).
At the funeral, Nina prepares herself for recriminations from Andrew's overbearing mother, Evelyn (antagonist). However, Evelyn reveals she's glad Nina was able to teach Andrew the lessons about punishment that she failed to teach him as a child (secrets, scar).
Nina and Cece begin a new life in California (second chance). Millie receives a payout from Nina (second chance) while she also interviews for a new maid position. The potential employer is a bruised married woman who says Nina recommended Millie’s services (quest).
Tropes: across the tracks, antagonist, boss, the con, fake relationship, fish out of water, forced proximity, family, hidden identity, loner, love triangle, mistaken identity, macguffin, opposites attract, professions, protector, quest, red herring, redemption, reunion, revenge, secrets, scar, ticking time bomb, tortured soul, unrequited love, victim, violence, woman in peril.
The see-saw power between Nina, Andrew, and Millie fuels the tension in The Housemaid. Secrets are gradually revealed, mostly in the form of hidden identities. This is in keeping with the thriller genre expectation that the story stakes are life and death while peeling back the layers of the characters.
Combining the story tropes with character, goal, motivation, and conflict allows us to see how these elements work together to create plot twists. Here is an example of what I mean:
Millie
Goal: Retain her maid position
Motivation: survival; she's an ex-con, living in her car
Conflict: Her employer, Nina, is constantly lying and misleading her, threatening to fire her.
Nina
Goal: Lure Millie into replacing her as Andrew’s torture toy.
Motivation: Nina wants to free herself and Cece from Andrew.
Conflict: Andrew is a control freak who will eventually kill her or Cece unless she can make Millie hate her enough to overcome sleeping with her husband.
Andrew
Goal: Control Nina
Motivation: As his wife, she’s his possession.
Conflict: Nina's new maid, Millie, is young, beautiful, and smart. He wants Nina to have his child, but she pretends she cannot have more children. Millie is impossible to resist and living in his house.
As readers, the alternating POV allows us to root for each main character because we experience her reality. As storytellers, the alternating POV allows the story to unfold, with Millie providing the main storyline for the first half of the book. Then, when we switch to Nina's POV, her perspective opens up a new storyline. In part three, both POVs braid the two narratives together as Millie and Nina are no longer antagonistic.
The relationship triangle between Millie, Nina, and Andrew provides such a compelling story because alliances are constantly shifting between them. Those shifts are driven by love, jealousy, and revenge. It’s a great example of the complex characters and simple plot storytelling mantra. It works by peeling back the layers through revealing characters.
Millie isn't just a vulnerable woman; she's killed before to defend her friend. Nina isn't just a spoiled, insecure housewife; she's a mother committed to protecting her child. Andrew isn't just a charming, wealthy CEO; he's a violent man. We get to those character transitions by applying conflict to their goals.
McFadden’s use of the domestic staff trope plays with the power structure inside a family home. And in doing so, it provides a page-turning ride. We can find many other examples of these tropes in varying configurations in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966), a fantastic story about the different alliances among three thieves), The Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick employ the mistaken and hidden identity tropes. The locked attic as a forced proximity trope is in both Jane Eyre and Flowers in the Attic; I’m as surprised as you are to find those two examples in the same sentence. It just goes to show the power of tropes.
Sounds like a great book