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
Auditions open for the Dungatar production of Macbeth. Gertrude announces that she is the director and so she has full creative control. Elsbeth adds that she’s the producer—therefore, she’s in charge the director. Gertrude reads the casting list out. She, herself, will play Lady Macbeth, and Lesley will be Macbeth. Sergeant Farrat will be Banquo. Mona complains that she doesn’t have a speaking part, and Elsbeth snaps at Gertrude to get the cast under control.
Gertrude and Elsbeth are both selfish and ambitious; they want to control others rather than address their own unpleasant behaviors. This means that genuine connection and cooperation is impossible between them because, rather than help and support each other, they try to bring each other down to make themselves look better.
Themes
Tilly and Irma sit at the back of the hall to watch. Irma wears a flaming red dress. It’s announced that Irma is head of wardrobe, and Irma glances worriedly down at her swollen hands. Tilly promises that she will make Irma some more cakes to ease her arthritis. During the first rehearsal, Gertrude asks Hamish, who is head of props, why he has built a balcony. Hamish thinks the play is Romeo and Juliet. When he learns that it is actually Macbeth he rushes, terrified, from the hall.
Tilly is associated with witchcraft throughout the novel because she uses herbal remedies to heal people. Historically, witches were often women who were outsiders in small, conservative communities and who were persecuted because they were believed to have magical powers and were thought to use plants and herbs to cast spells. Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet are both plays by William Shakespeare. Macbeth is set in Scotland (where it is implied Hamish is from) and is believed to be a cursed play because of several disastrous productions when tragedy struck the crew and cast. This reflects the idea that things and people can be haunted by even distant occurrences in the past.
Themes
Tilly works from morning until night on the costumes. Sometimes, in the evenings, she goes and watches the rehearsals, which are quickly descending into chaos. Gertrude is bossy and demanding with the cast, who struggle to remember their lines. Elsbeth keeps interrupting and causing fights—eventually, Gertrude tries to fire her. Elsbeth argues that without her, there is no money for the play. Ruth suggests that they use the town’s insurance money—she hasn’t sent it to the insurance company yet. The cast reluctantly agrees, and Elsbeth storms out.
Although Dungatar is a very insular and close-knit community, individually, the townspeople are spiteful and selfish and would rather bring each other down than support one another. Therefore, the cast cannot bring the play together because such productions require connection and teamwork to produce, something that the townspeople do not understand.
Themes
As February turns into March, the days grow hotter. William goes to Tilly to be fitted for his costume. He is very drawn to her and he can’t sleep that night after spending the day in her work room. Gertrude’s attitude grows more intense and she keeps the cast for hours rehearsing the play, which they still have not mastered. She has lost weight and bitten off all her nails. The next day, cast gather for the dress rehearsal. Purl, William, and Lesley struggle on stage, wearing their ornate 17-century costumes. Gertrude says that they look very authentic, and Tilly smiles and agrees.
Tilly represents the outside world and life experiences beyond Dungatar. William has had a taste of a life beyond Dungatar in his time away at college. Although he hoped to make a future for himself in Dungatar when he returned home, he finds life in the town disappointing and still aspires to something better beyond this. This suggests that once people have had a taste of new and exciting things, it is hard for them to return to their old way of life. Although Tilly knows the costumes are from the wrong century (Shakespeare was active in the 1500s), she does not tell the townspeople because she wants revenge on them for the way they have treated her. She wants them to make fools of themselves and reveal their ignorance to publicly at the performance
Themes
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