Insecurity and uncertainty are two main themes that come out throughout the story “The Resident.” Not only is the uncertainty obvious inspections, but it is also written in where the readers become uncertain and insecure in the reading of the text. “The woman I did and did not recognize called herself by a name that I immediately forgot. I do not mean that I wasn’t paying attention; rather, she said her name and as my mind closed around it, it slipped away like mercury from probing fingers.” At two points in the story, our narrator — who has an issue remembering things as we see through no one who is important to her gets a name — mentions a line along the lines of deserving better than her. This is where the insecurities first show up in the story. The insecurities usually remain closely related to the uncertainty of what she remembers. Slowly, the narrator slips into a madness like state. She begins to question everything, including her wife.
Both insecurity and uncertainty are common in life, and this is clearly a story with realistic characters, yet the narrator — the writer — is the only one who seems to be as affected by Devil’s Throat to this extent. Lydia asks our narrator at once point, “’Do you ever worry,’ she asked me, ‘that you’re the madwoman in the attic?'” This ‘madwoman in the attic’ comment shows up more than once. Part of the craziness of this story is the repetition of small things. The madwoman, the rabbit, speeding, and fevers are recurring more than once in the story, leading the readers to question the sanity of our narrator and if she is a reliable narrator.
I agree with your points about uncertainty and insecurity being important to the story. These feelings add to the whole “madwoman” trope, leaving readers wondering whether or not the narrator’s feelings are actually related to the situation or just all in her mind.