The Dressmaker

Beula Harridene is a gossiping, vindictive, malicious woman. Beula’s surname “Harridene” symbolizes her malicious nature because it is close to the word “harridan”—a term for a vicious, spiteful woman. Beula goes out of her way to find out people’s secrets so that she can judge them, spread rumors about them, and rile other people up against them. She is jealous and vicious toward anyone who is doing well. Beula tries to use the law against people whom she considers to be outcasts or who behave in ways she finds socially unacceptable—she is extremely conservative and judges anything that she does not deem respectable. She constantly harasses Sergeant Farrat and tries to convince him to arrest people based on gossip and suspicion, and she also writes a gossip column in the local paper where she exposes people’s secrets. Beula hates Tilly and Molly, and she particularly resents Tilly’s beauty and dressmaking skills—even when Tilly’s efforts as a dressmaker benefit the community. Beula locks Tilly out of the Dungatar Ball, which Tilly has tried to attend with Teddy McSwiney. When the townspeople will not let Tilly in, she and Teddy go to the silo together, where Teddy ultimately dies in an accident. In this sense, the townspeople, and Beula in particular, contribute to Teddy’s death. Beula meets an unpleasant end, however: one night, when she is spying on Tilly, Tilly gets drunk and throws her radio out of the house. The heavy machine hits Beula in the face and seriously injures her, and Beula goes blind and is forced to be institutionalized in a local hospital.