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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Chapter 27
Explanation and Analysis—Shakespeare:
The Dressmaker contains a number of allusions to Shakespeare. Macbeth receives the most attention, since the townspeople put on a production of it, but they also refer to other works—such as his sonnets and Romeo and Juliet. Over the course of the novel, Ham combines these Shakespearean allusions with dramatic irony to mock the townspeople's lack of awareness. Despite their eagerness about the production, they don't seem to know much about either the play or playwright. This creates a bond between Tilly, the narrator, and the reader, who together witness the townspeople's stubborn ignorance.
The first allusion to Shakespeare comes early in Chapter 13. After the narrator explains William's hope that "Gertrude would adjust, learn," an exchange between the couple reveals that this may be challenging. William reads her Shakespeare's sonnet 130 and asks what she thinks of it. To begin with, she merely responds "Lovely." When he invites her to elaborate on her opinion, she says, "Most poems are too long; that one wasn't." This exchange feels extra ironic later in the play, as Gertrude assumes the role of director in Dungatar's production of Macbeth. Even then, she doesn't seem to pay attention to the actual text of the play—she merely sees her role as a way to claim power.
The dramatic irony of the townspeople's misplaced interest in Shakespeare is especially pronounced when they approach Tilly to make their costumes. In Chapter 27, Gertrude shows her a page from a book called "Costumes Throughout the Ages" and says that's how they want the costumes to look. Tilly, an expert on clothes, reacts to their choice: "But this is Baroque, seventeenth century." Rather than recognizing her as a source of authority, Elsbeth, Gertrude, and Muriel act like she doesn't know what she's talking about. After Mona admits that she hadn't heard of Shakespeare "until last week," Tilly recites a number of lines from the play off the cuff.
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog . . .
In Act IV Scene 1 of Macbeth, three witches stand around a cauldron brewing a potion. It's notable that Tilly chooses to recite the witches' incantation. Her knowledge of plants and herbs, and seemingly magical abilities to transform fabrics into elaborate dresses, leads the judgmental and suspicious townspeople to see her as a sort of witch. She seems to be playing on this with her quotation, but this goes far above over the heads of the women in front of her. After Tilly finishes, they look at her, "confused," and admit that they "haven't actually read the play yet." Their interest in what they're going to wear over what they're going to perform reveals their vanity and ignorance. When Tilly smiles to herself as the women "waddle off down The Hill," Ham places Tilly, the narrator, and the reader in a position of shared understanding that the other characters are excluded from.
In the subsequent chapters, Ham plays up the irony of the townspeople's costume vision. Although Macbeth is set in the 11th century, Gertrude is determined that the actors wear Baroque costumes. When she confirms with Tilly that "that's the type of thing they wore in the seventeenth century," Tilly responds "Yes. That’s definitely what aristocrats wore in the late seventeenth century, at court." Tilly tells the truth in this line, but the reader can sense that she speaks with an ironic tone—which the other characters fail to detect.
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