The Clean House

“It has been such a hard month. My cleaning lady—from Brazil—decided that she was depressed one day and stopped cleaning my house. I was like: clean my house! And she wouldn’t! We took her to the hospital and I had her medicated and she Still Wouldn’t Clean. And—in the meantime—I’ve been cleaning my house! I’m sorry, but I did not go to medical school to clean my own house.”

Lane’s first line is based on a comment Ruhl overheard at a cocktail party, which was the inspiration for the play. This statement demonstrates the initial problems with Lane’s character and the ways she will need to grow and change over the course of the play. Lane is too privileged to recognize that she isn’t experiencing real hardship. She demonstrates that she sees Matilde as an inferior human. She doesn’t use Matilde’s name, and identifies her by her nationality, as if Brazilians might have a different work ethic than her own. The word “decided” suggests that Lane suspects that Matilde’s pain isn’t real or significant, and she speaks about medicating her as if Lane has a right to control her employee’s body for the sake of productivity.

“If you do not clean: how do you know if you’ve made any progress in life?”

Virginia has a degree in Greek literature, a particularly esoteric topic based in the study of rhetoric. In rhetorical study, there is never a singular right answer, which is intimidating for someone who, like Virginia, is plagued with fear and self-doubt. She finds comfort in cleaning because it is a tangible achievement. Ironically, it is impossible to make continual progress in life through cleaning because dust and dirt always return.