Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Dressmaker, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Transformation, Illusion, and Truth
Vengeance and Suffering
Secrets, Hypocrisy, and Conformity
Memories, Progress, and the Past
Healing, Medicine, and Power
Summary
Analysis
Tilly sits on the veranda and watches the train roll into Dungatar station. The trains transport grain away from the silo, which is visible from the Hill. Around Winyerp, the fields grow sorghum, whereas the fields around Dungatar are covered with wheat crops. Children play near the silo, and the air is full of golden dust when the wagons are being filled. The wheat gets made into flour elsewhere and the sorghum is fed to cows. The cycle continues with the seasons, and Tilly remembers its pattern.
Tilly’s memory of the trains, and the fact that they still operate in the same way, reflects the fact that nothing really changes in Dungatar. This supports the idea that the townspeople dislike social and technological change and actively discourage and fight against it. At the same time, however, the farming process still involves transformation (the wheat is made into flour, the sorghum into cow feed) and this suggests that even when things are seemingly the same, some level of change is inevitable.
Themes
Tilly goes shopping in town and, on her way, she passes Beula and Marigold. They make disparaging comments about Tilly’s dressmaking. Tilly ignores them and climbs back up the Hill with her groceries. When she reaches the top, she finds Lois Pickett waiting for her on the porch. Lois has brought a dress for Tilly to mend. While Tilly and Lois discuss the worn, shabby dress, Purl barges in and asks if Tilly can make her a new lingerie set. Tilly says that she can.
The townspeople are hypocritical—although they are happy to gossip about Tilly and they refuse to befriend her publicly, they’ll still make use of her services when it suits them.
Themes
After Lois and Purl have gone, Tilly hits golf balls from the top of the Hill down toward the town. Molly and Barney sit on the porch and watch her. One of the golf balls flies past Prudence Dimm, who is stumbling up the Hill. She has a bundle of school uniforms with her and she asks if Tilly can fix them up. Tilly agrees, and Prudence totters away. Barney takes Tilly’s golf club and hits a ball over the hill’s edge. It hits Prudence on her way down the Hill, and she collides with Teddy, who is on his way up.
Prudence is a hypocrite because she is happy to make use of Tilly’s dressmaking service even though she never stood up for Tilly when Tilly was bullied as a child. Like many of the Dungatar residents, Prudence won’t defend ostracized people because she fears being cast out herself. Meanwhile, Tilly’s golf ball is a kind of minor cosmic justice: it punishes Prudence because she has not treated Tilly kindly in the past.
Themes
The next day, Faith O’Brien comes to see Tilly to have a dress fixed up. While Tilly works, Faith asks her about where Tilly trained—she has heard that Tilly worked for a famous fashion designer in Paris. Muriel Pratt arrives next and asks Tilly to make her a stylish “day wear” look.
Faith, like many Dungatar residents, is hypocritical because she will not publicly befriend Tilly, who is an outcast in the town—but Faith will still make use of Tilly’s services when it suits her. Tilly represents the fashionable outside world in contrast to Dungatar, which is old-fashioned, conservative, and provincial.
Themes
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Down at the post office, Nancy and Ruth look over a fashion magazine that Nancy has ordered. Nancy is fascinated by the beautiful models. First thing the next morning, Nancy rushes up to Tilly’s house and asks if Tilly can make her a colorful pant suit like one that one of the models wears on the runway in Vogue magazine. Nancy tells Tilly to keep the design a secret because she does not want people to copy her look.
Like Prudence and Faith, Nancy is a hypocrite in her use of Tilly’s services. Furthermore, Nancy is vain and mean—she wants to look better than her neighbors and to keep this improvement to herself rather than share this knowledge around.
Themes
That evening, Tilly works on her orders while Teddy sits on the veranda and Barney weeds the garden. Teddy asks Tilly if she wants to go fishing the next day, but Tilly replies delightedly that she needs to run her business.
Tilly starts to believe that she can run a successful business in Dungatar despite the cruelty and rejection she faces from the inhabitants. This suggests that Tilly craves social acceptance and that, although she has been scarred by past experiences of rejection and ostracization, she still hopes to make a positive difference in Dungatar and transform the town into a better place.
Themes
