Content Warning: The novel contains descriptions of emotional and domestic abuse, anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and references to suicide.

In a key scene at the end of the novel, Emma reenters the Palmer estate, leaving the gate open because “it had never been protection for anyone here. The danger never came from the road” (320). This observation highlights the text’s central theme of The Domestic as a Dangerous Space. The author shows how the notion of the domestic space can be misused to exert patriarchal control on women and children. Further, in the novel, the notion of the safe domestic space operates as a front covering family violence. Emma’s leaving the gate unlocked recalls the rule that she keep the doors to her home locked, first by her parents, and then Nathan. However, as Emma notes in this scene, the locked doors have not prevented her from danger or trauma, because the danger came from within the house, rather than the world outside.

Randolph and Irene Palmer use the idea of a safe domestic space to control their daughters throughout the flashback scenes. Emma notes, for example, that she and her sisters can only apply to colleges within an hour of home.