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 dreams that her baby, Pablo, sits on her pillow beside her. She reaches out for him, but he seems to hear something far away and he says “mother” before he disappears. Tilly wakes up and drifts into the kitchen. Molly is there, burning pieces from her wheelchair. Molly tells Tilly that she had a dream about Tilly’s baby. Molly says that she also lost a child, and Tilly sits down beside her and begins to tell her story.
Although Tilly has tried to start a new life in Dungatar, she is still haunted by events in her past. Despite her negative experiences in the town, her connection with Molly has had a positive impact on her life because it is built on mutual love and acceptance—it helps Tilly to open up and come to terms with her past experiences.
Themes
Tilly explains that before coming back to Dungatar, she lived in Paris, where she had her own shop and a boyfriend named Ormond. They had a baby named Pablo who died when he was seven months old. Ormond blamed Tilly and he left her, so Tilly came home to Dungatar, hoping she could help Molly and do some good. She laments that nothing seems fair.
This revelation adds another layer to the trauma that Tilly has experienced in the past. Here, it’s clear that she has experienced extreme loss and grief in addition to the ostracization she faced after Stuart’s death. These experiences have impacted the course of her life and influenced her decision to return to Dungatar.
Themes
Tilly says that life hasn’t been fair on Molly either. Molly says that she was naïve when she fell in love with Tilly’s father. She asks if Tilly knows who her father is, and Tilly replies that Prudence Dimm told her when she was at school. Molly says that she tried to escape Tilly’s father, but that he followed her. He gave Molly money and she had no option but to take it because she was a single mother. Molly says that he sent Tilly away because he lost his own boy.
Dungatar is very small, and everyone knows one another’s business. Unlike the other inhabitants, Tilly keeps secrets to herself because she realizes that although knowing other people’s secrets may give one power over others, keeping secrets also gives one power as others wonder about how much one knows. Meanwhile, although Molly has tried to escape her past, it has determined the course of her life. Molly was a single mother with an illegitimate child (something which was considered sinful in the 1950s, when the story is set), and Tilly’s father used his power against her because he knew that Molly would be socially shunned and have no one to defend her.
Themes
Molly says that she began to hope that Tilly would not come back because Dungatar is such a dreadful place. Tilly asks Molly why she never left, and Molly says that she didn’t know where to go. Molly says that Tilly’s father would never tell her where Tilly had been sent—she only knew that Tilly had been taken away in a police car. The two women break down crying, feeling deep sorrow for each other.
Although Molly loves Tilly, she did not want her to come back to Dungatar because she knew that the spiteful townspeople would not accept her. Molly’s grief over her loss, coupled with her isolation once Tilly was sent away, gradually drove her mad. This demonstrates the importance of human connection, which is virtually impossible in a judgmental place like Dungatar in which diversity is not tolerated and people are not accepted for who they are.
Themes
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Later that day, Molly collapses, and Tilly carries her to bed. Tilly rushes to Pratt’s and finds Sergeant Farrat, who goes to fetch Mr. Almanac. Tilly hurries back to Molly’s bedside, but Molly grows worse throughout the day and never fully regains consciousness. Mr. Almanac says that Molly has had a stroke. He callously explains that Molly will be dead in the morning and that he cannot prescribe anything for her pain. Tilly lunges at him, but Sergeant Farrat catches her.
Mr. Almanac clearly abuses his power as the only person in the area who can provide medicine. He does not prescribe medication to help his patients—rather, he uses it to take out his own frustrations and enforce his own moralistic beliefs on people.
Themes
Tilly and Sergeant Farrat put Molly back to bed, and Sergeant Farrat fetches some painkillers for Molly. He tells Tilly that he tried to call the doctor, but that the nearest one is 30 miles away in Winyerp. Tilly prepares herbal medicines for Molly to ease her suffering. Sergeant Farrat sits with Tilly all night, and Molly dies before morning.
Since there is no doctor in Dungatar, the residents rely on the pharmacist, Mr. Almanac, for medical care. Mr. Almanac is a spiteful man, however, and abuses this power by refusing to treat people if he disagrees with their way of life. This demonstrates that even the best medicine can be rendered useless if people do not have access to it, and it can do more harm than good if it is in the wrong hands. Tilly challenges the power of men like Mr. Almanac by making her own herbal remedies with the intention of healing people rather than controlling them.
Themes
Tilly sits out on the porch, shivering with grief. She knows there is nothing for her in Dungatar now and that she should leave and get a job in Melbourne. She looks down at the town, however, and feels that she cannot leave until the Dungatar townspeople have gotten what they deserve—there needs to be retribution for the things that they’ve done and that they’ve refused to do. Tilly weeps for Molly and screams “like a Banshee” as morning breaks over the town. That night, it rains heavily. Tilly sleeps in Molly’s bed and dreams that Teddy, Molly, and Pablo visit her. They smile at her and wave, and then they disappear.
Although, at first, Tilly did not want to take revenge on the townspeople despite their cruel treatment of her, Molly’s death causes Tilly extreme pain. This suffering makes her want to take her pain out on the townspeople, whom she holds responsible for Molly’s death because they shunned and neglected Molly while she was vulnerable and sick. Tilly feels that the townspeople neglected their social responsibility toward Molly and ostracized her when they should have helped her. A banshee is a mythical creature which is believed to prophesize death with its scream. In this sense, Tilly’s grief prophesizes suffering for the townspeople, whom she plans to take revenge on. Tilly’s dream is a painful reminder of all the people she has loved and lost in the past, and whose loss has driven her to plot revenge on Dungatar.
Themes
