The Clean House

Lane’s house is a metaphor for her life and her marriage. It is sterile, white, and clean. The house represents Lane’s and Charles’s financial and professional successes as doctors. It demonstrates Lane’s elite social status. White décor is particularly difficult to maintain, so a white house is a show of wealth. It requires either a hired cleaner or a spouse who earns enough money to allow the other spouse to keep the house full time. White must be perfectly clean, as the smallest amount of dirt is impossible to hide. Lane presents herself as impeccable as well, from her white clothing to her impossibly clean white underwear. Pure white suggests a setting that is cold and emotionless, designed to be viewed but not touched. As Matilde neglects her cleaning duties, Lane becomes anxious because the dirt of her life spreads visibly through her house.

Charles does not appear in the house or onstage until the second act. Even before his affair is revealed, Charles is absent from his marriage and Lane is alone. When Matilde and Virginia discover Ana’s underwear in the laundry, Virginia is horrified at the speculation that Charles might have brought another woman into the sanctuary that is the house he shares with his wife.