The Dream House is the memoir’s central motif and organizing force. Not only is the memoir named after it, but every chapter title is a unique inflection of the concept ("Dream House as…”). The Dream House’s nature and significance shifts so continually that it is less a unified symbol than a vehicle for exploring Machado’s many and sometimes contradictory experiences of domestic abuse. Sometimes, the Dream House is her Iowa City residence, where she lived when she met her partner. Elsewhere, it is her partner’s house in Bloomington. Other times, the Dream House is a psychological situation or condition: a naïve fantasy, an aspiration, an imprisonment, a sense of guilt.

In most cases, however, the Dream House is a setting, whether psychological or physical. In Chapter 43, “Dream House as World Building,” Machado elaborates on this idea, explaining, “Places are never just places in a piece of writing. If they are, the author has failed. Setting is not inert. It is activated by point of view” (72). The Dream House begins as a symbolic setting for Machado’s experiences, but once her partner’s abusive tendencies are revealed, this setting reflects Machado’s

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