Chap­ter 45 offers a pro­found explo­ration into Nina’s inter­nal and exter­nal tur­moil as she finds her­self trapped in an emo­tion­al­ly and phys­i­cal­ly oppres­sive sce­nario orches­trat­ed by her part­ner, Andy. This chap­ter focus­es on the com­plex nature of Nina’s rela­tion­ship with Andy, which, while once found­ed on love, has devolved into manip­u­la­tion, con­trol, and psy­cho­log­i­cal war­fare. Nina’s hopes for heal­ing and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion are con­tin­u­ous­ly shat­tered by Andy’s actions, which blur the lines between care and cru­el­ty. As Nina enters the attic, an unset­tling sense of dread builds, as the room rep­re­sents not only her lit­er­al con­fine­ment but also her emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal impris­on­ment with­in a rela­tion­ship that once held promise but now drags her deep­er into despair. What begins as a manip­u­la­tion under the guise of help­ing her over­come her fears quick­ly turns into a dis­play of Andy’s pow­er and con­trol over her, leav­ing Nina to won­der if her escape from this tor­ment is even pos­si­ble.

The attic, which was ini­tial­ly pre­sent­ed as a place of heal­ing by Andy, quick­ly trans­forms into a cold and oppres­sive sym­bol of Nina’s psy­cho­log­i­cal state. The exag­ger­at­ed con­trast between light and dark­ness rep­re­sents Nina’s inter­nal bat­tle. The blind­ing light Andy forces upon her in the attic, designed to dis­ori­ent and break her down, becomes a form of pun­ish­ment, designed not to help Nina but to trap her fur­ther in his con­trol. The harsh arti­fi­cial light­ing is not just a phys­i­cal dis­com­fort, but a psy­cho­log­i­cal tool used by Andy to dom­i­nate Nina, forc­ing her to face an envi­ron­ment where she can’t escape the feel­ing of suf­fo­ca­tion. As Nina’s under­stand­ing of her envi­ron­ment shifts from one of poten­tial heal­ing to one of impris­on­ment, she begins to inter­nal­ize the tor­ment and emo­tion­al manip­u­la­tion, feel­ing iso­lat­ed in her own mind, unable to trust her per­cep­tions or the man who once offered her affec­tion.

As the ten­sion builds, Andy’s manip­u­la­tion becomes even more sin­is­ter. He presents Nina with an impos­si­ble choice: endure the oppres­sive light or sub­mit to the suf­fo­cat­ing dark­ness. This manip­u­la­tion push­es Nina to the brink, as the choice between two tor­tur­ous con­di­tions seems to high­light her lack of con­trol in the sit­u­a­tion. Andy’s actions go beyond phys­i­cal confinement—they strip Nina of her agency, rein­forc­ing the pat­tern of abu­sive behav­ior that has char­ac­ter­ized their rela­tion­ship. By mag­ni­fy­ing small griev­ances into grandiose claims of dis­re­spect, Andy erodes Nina’s self-worth and fur­ther iso­lates her from real­i­ty, leav­ing her unable to dis­cern her true feel­ings from the nar­ra­tive Andy forces upon her. The final emo­tion­al blow is when Nina real­izes that Andy has com­plete­ly restruc­tured her world, forc­ing her to ques­tion every­thing, includ­ing her own san­i­ty, as she is now trapped in a fab­ri­cat­ed real­i­ty.

Despite the over­whelm­ing odds stacked against her, Nina’s inter­nal resolve becomes evi­dent. She draws upon her strength and emo­tion­al for­ti­tude to sur­vive the psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ment. Her deci­sion to endure the sit­u­a­tion, how­ev­er excru­ci­at­ing, is ground­ed in the hope that one day she will escape not only phys­i­cal­ly but also emo­tion­al­ly from the clutch­es of Andy’s manip­u­la­tion. Nina’s love for her daugh­ter Cecelia becomes the pri­ma­ry source of her will to sur­vive, fuel­ing her desire to escape and cre­ate a bet­ter future, one that is free from the oppres­sive con­trol of Andy. While her hope wanes and her cir­cum­stances seem dire, Nina’s deter­mi­na­tion to pro­tect her daugh­ter and to find a way out of her suf­fo­cat­ing exis­tence remains strong. The chap­ter con­cludes with Nina caught between moments of despair and the faintest pos­si­bil­i­ty of escape. The silence after Andy’s return marks a chill­ing moment of help­less­ness, yet also hints at a pos­si­ble turn­ing point in Nina’s quest for lib­er­a­tion from the prison that Andy has cre­at­ed for her, both men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly.