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Chapter 1
Themes
and Colors
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
On Saturdays, the Dungatar high street is crowded with shoppers and the town seems busy and lively. Sergeant Farrat makes his way down the strip and passes William Beaumont, who sits dejectedly in his mother’s car. As Sergeant Farrat approaches Pratt’s General Store, he bumps in Mona Beaumont and remarks to Mona that her brother, William, is home. Mona is a slow, graceless girl. She says that now that William is home, they can fire Edward McSwiney, who helps them with the grounds.
Everyone knows one another’s business in Dungatar and, although William has been away returned, everyone knows who he is and has an opinion about his return. Meanwhile, Edward McSwiney is considered an outcast in Dungatar because his family is poor and lives at the garbage dump. Therefore, although Edward is a useful and employable man, he is treated flippantly by the Beaumonts, who feel they are too good to employ him. This further suggests that Dungatar is a superficial and judgmental place.
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Sergeant Farrat says that they shouldn’t be too hasty because William may become engaged to one of the local women soon. Mona replies that her mother, Elsbeth, doesn’t want William to marry an unrefined, local girl. Sergeant Farrat says that times have changed and that it is now important for women to specialize in things other than being refined. He says that the “Pratt women” are fine examples of this and he leaves Mona to enter Pratt’s General Store.
The snobbish Beaumonts, who feel that they are better than Dungatar’s other residents, are, in fact, old-fashioned. While Elsbeth feels that Mona should live a genteel and leisurely life, Sergeant Farrat points out that it is no longer viable for women to just be refined. Due to changes in society, which occurred throughout the 1950s, women began to participate in a range of practical activities, and more women went out to work and became financially independent. While Elsbeth feels she is superior to the Dungatar residents, really, she is irrelevant and stuck in the past because she has not given Mona a broad or practical education which would allow her to become independent as times change.
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Inside Pratt’s store, there are several counters. Alvin Pratt, his wife, Muriel, and his daughter Gertrude serve behind the dry goods and hardware counters. The butcher, Reginald Blood, works at the meat counter. Although Alvin is polite with his customers, he is very tight and always keep careful track of everything they owe him. Sergeant Farrat approaches the counter where Muriel and Gertrude stand. He asks them for a length of gingham for some curtains.
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Muriel serves Sergeant Farrat, who often comes in and buys fabric to make tablecloths and linen for his house. As Sergeant Farrat leaves the counter, Gertrude notices William in the car parked outside. She makes for the door, but Alvin calls for her to serve a customer. Gertrude approaches the farm section of the store and finds Elsbeth and Mona Beaumont waiting there and talking to Muriel.
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Literary Devices
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Muriel tells Gertrude that Elsbeth needs feed for William’s horse and Gertrude begins to portion it out. Muriel says teasingly that the Dungatar women will be pleased that William is home. Elsbeth glances at Gertrude and she says icily that William will be far too busy to think about that. Elsbeth is from a poor family and she thought she had married a rich man. However, he did not turn out to be as wealthy as she believed.
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Muriel leans over and brushes something off Elsbeth’s fox fur, which she always wears. Elsbeth says it is probably chaff, but Gertrude plucks some fur from the scarf and says that she will get Elsbeth something to keep moths away. Elsbeth watches Gertrude indignantly as bits of her fox fur float in the air between them. Muriel says that they will put the horse feed on Elsbeth’s account, as always.
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William Beaumont arrived in Dungatar the previous night, just before Tilly. He has been away at agricultural college. Elsbeth is delighted to have William home and she says that he will make a great future for himself in Dungatar. William is not so sure; he sits despondently in the car, reading the local paper. He looks up at the house on the Hill and thinks that it would be nice to live up there, separate from the town.
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William goes to help Elsbeth load the chaff into the car and he notices Gertrude smiling at him from the doorway of Pratt’s. As he and Elsbeth drive out of town, William asks who lives at “Mad Molly’s” now. Elsbeth screams for him to stop the car so that she can look. In the street, the townspeople gather to look up at the Hill: there is smoke coming from Molly’s chimney. Evan Pettyman, the town councilor, is horrified when he sees this. Beula Harridene, the local gossip, rushes between houses telling people that Tilly is home. In the McSwineys’ yard, Mae McSwiney watches her son Teddy as he gazes up at Tilly.
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In his house, Sergeant Farrat works at his sewing machine, using the gingham fabric he bought. Sergeant Farrat was posted to Dungatar soon after he joined the force, after he showed his superior designs for new police uniforms. Sergeant Farrat loves his home; in the peaceful town, he has plenty of time to make himself exciting outfits. He does not wear these outfits outside, however, and he only uses them when he goes on vacation to Melbourne, where he attends fashion shows.
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All the other Dungatar residents are at the football pitch cheering their team on. Fred Bundle, who runs the hotel and pub, can hear the yells and cheers from the crowd from across the street. Fred used to be an alcoholic, but he stopped drinking after suffering a nasty fall when he was drunk. His wife, Purl, washes greens in the kitchen sink. She is a beautiful woman who takes pride in her appearance. Dungatar women sometimes criticize Purl for this, but she thinks it is because they are jealous. A cheer from the football crowd tells them that Dungatar has won the match.
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New stock has just arrived for Mr. Almanac, the pharmacist, which he sorts through in his shop. The townspeople rely on Mr. Almanac for medicine because the closest doctor is 30 miles out of town. Mr. Almanac looks through the photos he’s developing for Faith O’Brien: there are pictures of Faith with her husband, Hamish, and with the butcher, Reginald Blood. Mr. Almanac grumbles that Faith is a sinner and he puts the photographs away. He begins to make up a pot of medical cream that Faith ordered from him to treat vaginal itching. Mr. Almanac adds some bleach to the mixture.
Mr. Almanac gets up and begins to stumble through the shop—he has Parkinson’s disease and so he’s stooped and unsteady on his feet. His head is hunched over so that cannot see where he is going. Mr. Almanac’s assistant, Nancy Pickett, arrives back from the football game and she helps him. She tells him cheerfully that the injured players will come to him to buy pain relief and ointments.
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Nancy leads Mr. Almanac to the door and she sits him down in a wheelchair. She wheels him to the curb and then looks both ways for traffic. Seeing that the street is clear, Nancy shoves Mr. Almanac’s wheelchair across the street. His wife, Irma Almanac, waits with a cushion at the Almanacs’ garden gate on the other side, and Mr. Almanac comes to a stop with his head against the cushion.
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In her house on Windswept Crescent, Elsbeth Beaumont prepares a roast dinner. William Beaumont is in the changing rooms at the football pitch, laughing and joking with the other players. He drinks watermelon spirits with Scotty Pullit, who brews this drink himself on his own still.
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The footballers tumble into the pub after the game, and Purl and Fred Bundle serve them drinks and celebrate with them. Purl notices William in the crowd and, for a moment, she thinks he is his father, Bill. She seems stunned—like she has seen a ghost. Fred notices her expression and he says that William looks just like his father. Teddy McSwiney arrives, and Purl turns unsteadily to him and congratulates him on the win—Teddy is the team’s “full forward.”
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Sergeant Farrat, who is also in the bar, reminds Fred that it is six o’clock. Fred nods, and Sergeant Farrat makes to leave. On Farrat’s way to the door, Purl stops him and asks if Tilly Dunnage plans to stay in town. Sergeant Farrat replies that he doesn’t know and he steps outside. Fred and Purl put blackout blinds on the pub windows, and the celebration continues inside as Sergeant Farrat wanders off to do his nightly lap of Dungatar.
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Sergeant Farrat drives down past Scotty Pullit’s spirits still and parks near the cemetery. Reginald Blood’s car is parked nearby and Sergeant Farrat can see Reginald having sex with Faith O’Brien in the back seat. Faith’s husband, Hamish, is in the bar drinking with the footballers.
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