Essay Questions

What does the housemaid symbolize beyond her literal role in the story?

Myung-sook, the housemaid, functions as much more than just a character, as she becomes a symbol of everything the main family wants to keep hidden. On the surface, she’s a lower-class woman hired to help around the house. Still, as the story unfolds, she personifies suppressed desires, class anxiety, and the uncontrollable forces that lie just beneath the polished surface of domestic life.

Her presence disrupts the household's strict structure, which challenges both traditional gender roles and social order. She’s unpredictable, emotional, physical, and intrusive, in many ways, the opposite of the calm and self-sacrificing wife. While the wife tries to maintain order through quiet endurance, the housemaid upends it through chaos and obsession.

By the time she’s sleeping outside the couple’s bedroom and threatening their children, she’s no longer just a character; she’s a threat that has been invited into the home by the husband’s weakness. So she doesn’t just symbolize temptation, she becomes the consequence of ignoring boundaries and the explosive nature of repressed instincts.

Why is the twist ending framed as a “lesson,” and what effect does that have on the film’s overall impact?

The ending of The Housemaid suddenly pulls back from the entire nightmare and reveals it to be a cautionary tale. The protagonist, Dong-sik, turns to the camera and speaks directly to the audience, warning them about the dangers of temptation. On one level, this ending feels like a moralistic wrap-up, as if the director is offering a tidy conclusion: “Don’t let this happen to you.”

But the impact of this move is far from tidy. Instead of softening the horror, it deepens it. It forces viewers to see the story not just as a strange tragedy that happened to someone else, but as something that could happen to anyone. That’s where the film becomes especially powerful: it doesn’t let the audience escape. It pushes us to reflect on how easily the desire to "have more," whether it's a better home, status, or forbidden pleasure, can unravel a seemingly solid life.

Rather than closing the door on the story, the twist leaves it wide open. It turns the house into a mirror, asking viewers: What would you do in his shoes?

How does the film use the home’s architecture to build psychological tension?

The two-story house in the film is a reflection of the characters’ inner lives and the social tension bubbling beneath the surface. The staircase, in particular, becomes a central visual and symbolic element. It's where key moments of danger and manipulation happen, and it often signals a turning point in power dynamics.

For example, when Myung-sook is forced to climb the stairs repeatedly to induce a miscarriage, it’s a grotesque reversal of the family’s “climb” toward success. Later, when the housemaid threatens the children or lurks at the top of the stairs, the verticality of the space emphasizes instability. The higher you go, the further you have to fall.

In a deeper sense, the staircase represents the illusion of progress. The family believes they’re moving upward — socially, economically, morally — but the home itself becomes a trap. The design of the house, meant to suggest achievement, instead becomes a pressure cooker. The more the characters try to keep things under control upstairs or downstairs, the more everything spirals.

So the house is a stage where repression and ambition collide, and the staircase becomes the path where fear moves freely between floors.