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
Edward and Mae McSwiney have 11 children: Teddy is the eldest, then they have three girls, then Barney. There is a gap because it took them a while to get used to Barney. After Barney, however, there are six younger children. Teddy is dashing and popular; he’s an excellent salesman and a sharp, cheerful young man. The Dungatar girls like him, but he is a McSwiney, so Beula Harridene says that he’s a criminal.
The McSwineys are outcasts in the Dungatar community because they are poor. It is also implied that they are travelling people because they live in caravans, and travelers are often seen as outsiders in conventional society. The Dungatar residents are hypocritical, however, because they all make use of the things that Teddy sells and use Edward McSwiney’s handyman services, while still rejecting the McSwineys personally because they are not local. Dungatar residents will not let their daughters marry Teddy because he is a McSwiney, and Beula spreads malicious rumors about him, which suggests that being an outsider has very real, negative consequences for people in Dungatar.
Themes
Teddy sits on his caravan roof and watches Tilly, who is in her garden at the top of the Hill. Mae hangs washing up in the yard and looks up at Teddy. She asks if he remembers Tilly and what happened with Stewart. Teddy replies that he does, and Mae says that she saw Tilly taking stuff to the dump the day before. Teddy asks if Mae spoke to her, but Mae says that Tilly doesn’t want to speak to anyone. Teddy climbs down and gets ready to go out hunting rabbits for dinner. As Teddy sets off, Mae can tell that he is plotting something.
Tilly is haunted by her past because everyone in Dungatar also remembers it. Though the reader does not yet know the details of this incident with Stewart, Mae clearly reminds Teddy about it to warn him away from Tilly, who is considered an outsider and is a victim of malicious gossip in Dungatar. Mae worries that if Teddy associates with Tilly, he too will be ostracized. This suggests that people cannot escape their pasts, especially in a small, conservative town like Dungatar in which people who do not fit in are harshly judged and gossiped about.
Themes
Molly wakes up and hears the possum scratching in the ceiling. She totters to the kitchen and sees Tilly stirring porridge, which Molly thinks is probably poisoned. Molly looks around and sees that the room is empty. She asks Tilly where her friends are, and Tilly says that they left. Molly sits at the table and Tilly puts the porridge in front of her. Molly says that there is nothing in Dungatar for Tilly, but Tilly replies that she has come for some peace. Molly throws a spoonful of porridge at Tilly, which scalds Tilly’s arm.
Molly is a social outcast in Dungatar and is extremely lonely and isolated before Tilly’s return, and this isolation drives her mad and causes her to hallucinate that she is surrounded by friends. This supports the idea that human connection is essential to people’s happiness and mental health. Molly wants to drive Tilly away because she does not believe that Dungatar will ever change. While Tilly believes she can ignore the townspeople and start a new life in the town, Molly knows that Dungatar is a narrow-minded place which will never be positively transformed.
Themes
After this, Tilly goes to the dump, where she ties a sack around her face and climbs into the trash. As she’s trying to pull a wheelchair out from amid the rubbish, she’s interrupted by Teddy, who calls out from the bank above her. Teddy tells Tilly that Mae has a wheelchair which she can have. He persuades her to climb out of the dump and he catches her when she almost tumbles back in. Tilly says that Teddy frightened her, and Teddy jokes that he’s the one who should be afraid.
Tilly plans to transform the abandoned wheelchair into something she can use, which demonstrates Tilly’s determination and her ability to transform things through hard work. Teddy jokes that he should be afraid of Tilly because the townspeople see her as a threat—she is an outsider and someone who they feel challenges their conservative way of life, even though Tilly just wants to be left alone.
Themes
Get the entire The Dressmaker LitChart as a printable PDF.
Tilly watches Teddy wander down the road. She clambers home, burns her clothes, and takes a long bath. When she gets out, Molly asks her if she saw anyone at the dump. Tilly doesn’t say anything, and Molly warns her that people cannot keep secrets in Dungatar. Everyone knows one another’s secrets, Molly says, but no one will tell because they are afraid of being told on themselves. People in Dungatar say whatever they want about “outcasts,” though. The next morning, Tilly finds a wheelchair outside the front door.
Dungatar is a very judgmental place where behavior that’s considered outside the norm is not tolerated. However, Molly’s statement suggests that no one can live up to these high standards of behavior because everyone exhibits preferences or behavior which could be considered strange by others. Rather than openly admit this, the townspeople choose to judge and persecute those who do not fit in to deflect attention from their own unconventional behaviors. This suggests that the townspeople are afraid of being ostracized, and they cast out other people to prevent this from happening to themselves.
Themes
