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
Prudence Dimm teaches in the Dungatar school opposite the post office. Her sister, Ruth, works in the post office and often covers the night shift. Beula Harridene also works at the post office. One morning, Ruth and Nancy wake up together on the couch in the post office phone exchange. Nancy is naked, and the women are cuddled up together. A twig breaks outside, and Nancy whispers to Ruth that Beula is sneaking around in the yard.
Nancy and Ruth are clearly in a relationship, but they hide the fact that they are lesbians because Dungatar is extremely conservative and intolerant of any behavior, like homosexual relationships, that’s considered outside the norm. Beula is a gossip and tries to learn people’s secrets so that she can have power over them—they are afraid that their secrets will get out, and that they will be judged and alienated because of them, so they will do anything she wants to stop her from telling on them.
Themes
Ruth shouts out a greeting to Beula, who hides in the bushes outside. Nancy dresses hurriedly, dashes out of the post office and across the road, and climbs into her mother, Lois Pickett’s, house through the bedroom window. Lois, who suffers from acne, lies in bed in her own room and picks her spots. Nancy goes downstairs and finds her brother, Bobby, feeding his pets. Nancy bought Bobby a dog for Christmas because he kept sucking his thumb and she thought a pet would help. Since then, Bobby has taken in several other injured animals, whom he nurses back to health.
Nancy and Ruth try to hide the fact that they are lesbians because they know that, if their secret gets out, they will face judgment and alienation from the Dungatar community. Beula wants proof that Nancy and Ruth are gay because knowing other people’s secrets gives her power over them—they will do what she wants to prevent her from spreading these secrets. Although Lois is also a gossip, she also engages in unpleasant behavior that she would not want anyone to know about (like picking her spots) in private. This supports the idea that no one is perfect, including those who judge and gossip about others. Meanwhile, Bobby is portrayed as kinder and more nurturing than character and his care heals and transforms his animals.
Themes
Nancy drinks some milk and she leaves for work. As she opens the pharmacy, Beula Harridene marches up to her. Nancy teasingly greets her as “Mrs. Harriden” and Beula mutters “one of these day—” in return. Beula looks up at Nancy, suddenly looks shocked, and dashes off. Nancy is confused, but when she gets inside the shop, she notices that she has milk on her top lip.
Beula is frustrated because she has not succeeded in gaining evidence that Nancy and Ruth are lesbians, which she wants because she feels that knowing people’s secrets gives her power over them. If she can prove that Ruth and Nancy are lesbians, she will be able to threaten them with social ostracization if their secret gets out. Nancy’s use of “Harriden” a play on Beula’s last name, is an old-fashioned term for a vicious and unkind woman. Meanwhile, Beula is horrified because she mistakenly believes that the milk on Nancy’s lip is bodily fluid from her sexual encounter with Ruth.
Themes
That morning, in his house, Sergeant Farrat tries on the new gingham skirt he made. It fits perfectly, and Sergeant Farrat is very pleased. Beula Harridene presses her face to his window and tries to peer in. She hammers on the door, and Sergeant Farrat quickly changes his clothes and lets her in. Beula complains bitterly that drunken footballers and barking dogs kept her up all night and that the McSwiney children have been throwing seed pods at her roof.
Sergeant Farrat is secretly a crossdresser. He hides this from the Dungatar residents because he knows that they are intolerant and will not accept any behaviors which are considered outside of the norm. In the 1950s, when the novel is set, conservative gender roles were extremely rigid, and it was socially unacceptable for men to dress in women’s clothes. Beula suspects that Sergeant Farrat has a secret and she wants to learn it so that she can wield power over him. Beula knows that people are afraid of being ostracized or gossiped about and, therefore, they will do anything she asks to stop their secrets getting out.
Themes
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Sergeant Farrat listens to Beula patiently. Beula is an unfortunate-looking woman, and Sergeant Farrat believes that she can’t eat properly because her mouth is slightly deformed. Therefore, Beula is always hungry, and this makes her “vicious.” Sergeant Farrat says that they will check her roof for seeds and then go and visit the McSwineys. There are no seeds on Beula’s roof, but she insists that the wind blew them away. She makes Sergeant Farrat drive her to the McSwineys’ yard.
Sergeant Farrat believes that Beula lashes out at the world because she herself is in pain and suffers with her deformed jaw. This supports one of Ham’s main points throughout the novel: that suffering makes people cruel and often causes people to unfairly take their own pain out on others. The McSwineys are outcasts because they are very poor and therefore are an easy target for Beula—the townspeople, who dislike outsiders, will not defend them.
Themes
In the McSwineys’ yard, the children help Mae round up and kill chickens. The dogs begin to bark as Sergeant Farrat’s car approaches, and the children immediately rush to their marbles and hopscotch and pretend to play. Sergeant Farrat and Beula get out of the car and the McSwineys come to the gate.
It is implied that the McSwineys are poachers and that they hunt and steal other people’s animals. They want to hide this from Sergeant Farrat because it is illegal. However, although the townspeople judge the McSwineys and call them criminals, the McSwineys are really forced to be poachers because they are poor and because the townspeople alienate them and make it hard for them to work and earn money in the town. This implies that social ostracization often causes people to partake in criminal activities, as this is the only way that they can survive without social support.
Themes
Sergeant Farrat offers the children sweets, but Beula says that these are the children who vandalized her house and she goes to strike them. Sergeant Farrat stops her and says that these children are not wearing school uniforms—as Beula said the assailants were—and the children reply that they do not go to school yet.
Sergeant Farrat is sympathetic with the McSwineys and knows that Beula tries to unfairly take her frustrations out on them because they are social outcasts and, therefore, easy targets who have no one in the town to stand up for or defend them.
Themes
Mae McSwiney cynically asks Sergeant Farrat what he plans to do with the children and Sergeant Farrat jokes that he could publicly thrash them. The McSwineys’ laugh, and Beula storms back to the car. Sergeant Farrat bids the McSwineys good day and he goes back to the car himself. He drops Beula off at the bottom of the Hill, opening the door suddenly so that she topples onto the pavement.
Sergeant Farrat sympathizes with the McSwineys and dislikes Beula. He understands that Beula tries to take her frustrations out on the McSwineys because they are social outsiders in Dungatar. Therefore, she believes that they are easy targets because nobody will stand up for them and everyone will believe her over them. Sergeant Farrat refuses to pander to Beula, however, and he defends the McSwineys against her.
Themes
