The Housemaid's Secret

Domestic violence is violence within an intimate relationship. Domestic violence can take place between romantic partners of all gender identities. It can also be violence perpetrated by an adult against a child. In this novel, McFadden explores the stories told about domestic violence, especially those that miss important details of how domestic violence occurs. The primary instance the novel seems interested in are those involving violence perpetrated by men on their female partners. The main character, Millie, after spending a decade in prison for protecting a friend from a rapist, has made it her life’s mission to save women from their abusive partners by helping these women escape. Millie is also studying to become a social worker in hopes of continuing this work in a legal capacity. It is this history of helping women that causes Millie to recognize the signs of abuse in Wendy Garrick and to push to save her.

The novel is told from Millie’s point of view, and it is easy to see why she would believe Wendy is abused. Wendy spends all her time locked in the guest bedroom of her home. Douglas, Wendy’s husband, refuses to allow Millie to interact with Wendy and he becomes angry when she does. Millie overhears sounds coming from Wendy’s bedroom that could be the sounds of conflict. Millie sees blood in the bathroom and bruises on Wendy’s face that appear to be the mark of long-standing abuse. From Millie’s point of view, there is no doubt that Wendy is abused and needs to be removed from the situation. Even Wendy’s reluctance to leave and her apparent disrupted escape only solidifies the situation for Millie. In the end, spurred forward by her past and her determination not to be someone who stands by and allows something bad to happen, Millie fires a loaded gun at Douglas when he attempts to strangle Wendy and believes she kills him.

Unfortunately for Millie, Wendy’s claims of abuse are all false. Like the New York Times article about Kitty Genovese that spurs Millie into action in regard to Wendy’s case, Wendy has manipulated Millie’s point of view to cause her to act in a specific way. From the beginning, Wendy has known that women experiencing abuse are Millie’s weakness, and she uses it to get what she wants out of Millie. Wendy carefully sets Millie up to take the fall for killing Douglas Garrick even though Millie has never met the real Douglas, nor did she shoot him. By using domestic violence to manipulate Millie, Wendy twists the truth in order to mold it to tell a story she wants told. Wendy does a despicable thing that turns a real tragedy among families into a game to get what she wants. In this way, McFadden opens up the narrative to broader definitions of domestic violence that include emotional manipulation and women perpetrators.