Mae McSwiney Character Analysis in The Dressmaker

Mae McSwiney is Edward McSwiney’s wife and is the mother of 11 children, including Teddy and Barney. Mae is a kindly and practical woman who is gossiped about and treated like an outcast by the Dungatar townspeople because she and her family are poor and live beside the dump. Mae does not join in with the town’s malicious gossip about others, and she’s kind to Molly, even when everybody else ignores Molly and calls her crazy. Mae still takes food to the isolated, mentally-ill Molly. Mae has grown cynical and suspicious because of how she’s treated in Dungatar, however, and she won’t go out of her way to make friends outside of her family. She is wary of Tilly when Tilly returns to town decades later, and she distrusts Teddy’s relationship with Tilly. After Teddy dies in an accident, Mae is heartbroken by his death, and she and her family leave Dungatar soon after this incident.

Mae McSwiney Quotes in The Dressmaker

The The Dressmaker quotes below are all either spoken by Mae McSwiney or refer to Mae McSwiney. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Transformation, Illusion, and Truth Theme Icon

).

Then Sergeant Farrat left Tilly's side to stand and deliver a sermon of sorts. He spoke of love and hate and the power of both and he reminded them how much they loved Teddy McSwiney. He said that Teddy McSwiney was, by the natural order of the town, an outcast who lived by the tip. His good mother, Mae, did what was expected of her from the people of Dungatar, she kept to herself, raised her children with truth and her husband, Edward, worked hard and fixed people's pipes and trimmed their trees and delivered their waste to the rip. The McSwineys kept at a distance but tragedy includes everyone, and anyway, wasn't everyone else in the town different, yet included?

Related Characters: Tilly Dunnage, Teddy McSwiney, Sergeant Farrat, Edward McSwiney, Mae McSwiney

Page Number and Citation: 180

Explanation and Analysis:

Mae McSwiney Quotes in The Dressmaker

The The Dressmaker quotes below are all either spoken by Mae McSwiney or refer to Mae McSwiney. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

).

Then Sergeant Farrat left Tilly's side to stand and deliver a sermon of sorts. He spoke of love and hate and the power of both and he reminded them how much they loved Teddy McSwiney. He said that Teddy McSwiney was, by the natural order of the town, an outcast who lived by the tip. His good mother, Mae, did what was expected of her from the people of Dungatar, she kept to herself, raised her children with truth and her husband, Edward, worked hard and fixed people's pipes and trimmed their trees and delivered their waste to the rip. The McSwineys kept at a distance but tragedy includes everyone, and anyway, wasn't everyone else in the town different, yet included?

Related Characters: Tilly Dunnage, Teddy McSwiney, Sergeant Farrat, Edward McSwiney, Mae McSwiney

Page Number and Citation: 180

Explanation and Analysis:

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Mae McSwiney Character Analysis

Mae McSwiney Quotes in The Dressmaker

Mae McSwiney Quotes in The Dressmaker

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