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
One day, a group of women from Winyerp gather outside Tilly’s house and admire her garden. It is amazingly lush and fertile given the time of year. Molly comes to the door and shouts that they are trespassing, but Tilly greets them politely. The women want Tilly to make them some clothes. Tilly agrees to work for them and invites them in.
Tilly is associated with growth and flourishing plant life because, unlike the Dungatar residents, she is open to emotional growth and helps others to change through her tolerant attitude—something the Dungatar townspeople do not exhibit. However, although the Dungatar townspeople have persecuted Tilly and tried to drive her away, news of her talent has spread. This suggests that genuine talent and hard work usually shine through and win recognition.
Themes
Molly is pleased to see Tilly working again. One evening, a thin woman appears at the gate. She drags a suitcase behind her and asks Molly where Tilly is. The woman introduces herself as Una Pleasance, but Molly shouts to Tilly that Gloria Swanson is at the door. Tilly appears, and Una explains that she cannot keep up with her orders and needs someone to finish hems and sew on buttons. Tilly says that she is overqualified for that, and she goes back inside.
Like the Dungatar townspeople, Una is a hypocrite and is willing to use Tilly when she needs help—even though, not long ago, she was willing to take Tilly’s job and to side against her with the rest of the townspeople. Gloria Swanson stars in the film Sunset Boulevard, which Teddy took Molly and Tilly to see. The movie is about a forgotten film star (played by Swanson) who yearns for the glory of her younger days, just as the Dungatar townspeople dislike change and want to return to a romanticized, conservative version of the past.
Themes
One day, while Tilly works on an outfit for a woman from Winyerp, the woman tells her about the cultural event organized by the Dungatar Ladies Society. They are putting on a poetry reading, but the woman says that Winyerp’s is not very good. Tilly suggests they put on plays instead, because plays always bring out interesting sides of people.
In the bar, Purl pours drinks and listens to a drunken William tearfully exclaim that he is not really in love with Gertrude. He also complains that Gertrude had a baby girl—he wanted a son. Purl says that the baby might grow up to be like William’s father, who Purl “knew very well.” William bursts out crying, and the other men in the bar buy him drinks.
William did not really love Gertrude when he married her but was forced to propose due to social pressure. Although, at first, William believes that he might build a happy future in Dungatar and that he might fall in love with Gertrude, these hopes prove illusory—William gradually realizes that he does not love his wife and that she only married him for his prestigious family name. It is implied that Purl had an affair with William’s father before his death. This supports the idea that everyone in Dungatar has a secret of their own.
Themes
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