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
As the play draws closer, Tilly works long hours and grows tired and stiff from sewing. She is almost cheerful, though, as she enjoys her work. Sergeant Farrat tells her that the play is going badly. Everyone despises Gertrude, who is mean to everyone, and Lesley has become very arrogant. Sergeant Farrat helps Tilly take costumes down to the hall and they find Gertrude screaming at the frightened-looking cast.
The townspeople are spiteful, jealous, and vindictive. Therefore, they are incapable of successfully organizing the play because this requires teamwork and connection. Instead, the Dungatar residents want to bring one another down in order to help themselves. This is particularly evident in Gertrude, who has gone mad with power and alienates the cast by abusing them.
Themes
Fred Bundle nervously says his line, and Gertrude explodes and shrieks that he has got it wrong. The other cast members defend Fred and they say that Gertrude is wrong. She turns on them furiously, howling like a demon and cursing them with pox and sores.
Gertrude is ambitious and controlling. Although she finally gets what she wants—power over a large group of people—this does not make her happy, but instead drives her mad. This suggests that it is better to connect and work with people than to dominate and control them.
Themes
William suddenly steps forward and slaps Gertrude hard. He says that if she does not stop screaming, he will fetch the doctor and they will have her committed. Mona says that William will take Gertrude’s baby as well, and the cast stomps out of the hall and leaves Gertrude behind. Gertrude spins around and gapes at Tilly. Tilly shrugs and leaves the hall. None of the cast can sleep that night, as they are all worried about the play.
William uses the threat of medical intervention to silence Gertrude, who has gone mad with power. The other cast members do not stand up for Gertrude, and side with William against her, because she has treated them badly. In this sense, Gertrude’s power-hungry attitude alienates her from the cast and she is punished because she has treated others badly.
Themes
