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Chapter 1
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
On Saturdays, the Dungatar high street is crowded with shoppers and the town seems busy and lively. Sergeant Farrat makes his way down the strip and passes William Beaumont, who sits dejectedly in his mother’s car. As Sergeant Farrat approaches Pratt’s General Store, he bumps in Mona Beaumont and remarks to Mona that her brother, William, is home. Mona is a slow, graceless girl. She says that now that William is home, they can fire Edward McSwiney, who helps them with the grounds.
Everyone knows one another’s business in Dungatar and, although William has been away returned, everyone knows who he is and has an opinion about his return. Meanwhile, Edward McSwiney is considered an outcast in Dungatar because his family is poor and lives at the garbage dump. Therefore, although Edward is a useful and employable man, he is treated flippantly by the Beaumonts, who feel they are too good to employ him. This further suggests that Dungatar is a superficial and judgmental place.
Themes
Sergeant Farrat says that they shouldn’t be too hasty because William may become engaged to one of the local women soon. Mona replies that her mother, Elsbeth, doesn’t want William to marry an unrefined, local girl. Sergeant Farrat says that times have changed and that it is now important for women to specialize in things other than being refined. He says that the “Pratt women” are fine examples of this and he leaves Mona to enter Pratt’s General Store.
The snobbish Beaumonts, who feel that they are better than Dungatar’s other residents, are, in fact, old-fashioned. While Elsbeth feels that Mona should live a genteel and leisurely life, Sergeant Farrat points out that it is no longer viable for women to just be refined. Due to changes in society, which occurred throughout the 1950s, women began to participate in a range of practical activities, and more women went out to work and became financially independent. While Elsbeth feels she is superior to the Dungatar residents, really, she is irrelevant and stuck in the past because she has not given Mona a broad or practical education which would allow her to become independent as times change.
Themes
Inside Pratt’s store, there are several counters. Alvin Pratt, his wife, Muriel, and his daughter Gertrude serve behind the dry goods and hardware counters. The butcher, Reginald Blood, works at the meat counter. Although Alvin is polite with his customers, he is very tight and always keep careful track of everything they owe him. Sergeant Farrat approaches the counter where Muriel and Gertrude stand. He asks them for a length of gingham for some curtains.
Although Alvin appears kind and considerate, he is really a hypocrite and is only kind to his customers so that they keep spending money and running up debts. This suggests that people in Dungatar are not always what they appear.
Themes
Muriel serves Sergeant Farrat, who often comes in and buys fabric to make tablecloths and linen for his house. As Sergeant Farrat leaves the counter, Gertrude notices William in the car parked outside. She makes for the door, but Alvin calls for her to serve a customer. Gertrude approaches the farm section of the store and finds Elsbeth and Mona Beaumont waiting there and talking to Muriel.
Fabric is a symbol of transformation in the novel, as it can turned into many different things when people rework it. This suggests that people and situations are not always what they appear and that some things can be transformed.
Themes
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Muriel tells Gertrude that Elsbeth needs feed for William’s horse and Gertrude begins to portion it out. Muriel says teasingly that the Dungatar women will be pleased that William is home. Elsbeth glances at Gertrude and she says icily that William will be far too busy to think about that. Elsbeth is from a poor family and she thought she had married a rich man. However, he did not turn out to be as wealthy as she believed.
Although Elsbeth believed her marriage would transform her into a wealthy woman, instead she was tricked by her husband’s wealthy appearance (he was from a prestigious, upper-class family) and she ends up poorer than she would have the other Dungatar residents believe. Elsbeth, therefore, wants to appear as something she is not so that she will not become an object of gossip and ridicule among the townspeople.
Themes
Muriel leans over and brushes something off Elsbeth’s fox fur, which she always wears. Elsbeth says it is probably chaff, but Gertrude plucks some fur from the scarf and says that she will get Elsbeth something to keep moths away. Elsbeth watches Gertrude indignantly as bits of her fox fur float in the air between them. Muriel says that they will put the horse feed on Elsbeth’s account, as always.
Everybody knows one another’s secrets in Dungatar. Although Elsbeth tries to hide her poverty, Gertrude makes it clear that she knows about it, even if she will not say anything. Although people know one another’s business in the town, people are reluctant to openly disclose other people’s secrets because they likely have secrets of their own which could then be disclosed in retaliation. Here, Gertrude subtly reminds Elsbeth that she knows her secret (by pointing out that her fox fur is shabby) without openly drawing attention to this.
Themes
William Beaumont arrived in Dungatar the previous night, just before Tilly. He has been away at agricultural college. Elsbeth is delighted to have William home and she says that he will make a great future for himself in Dungatar. William is not so sure; he sits despondently in the car, reading the local paper. He looks up at the house on the Hill and thinks that it would be nice to live up there, separate from the town.
Elsbeth, like many Dungatar residents, is close-minded and conservative—she cannot imagine that there may be more opportunities for William elsewhere and does not want him to go out into the world, where he will be beyond her control. William, who has experienced the world beyond Dungatar, doubts that the town can really provide him with a positive future, as it is an old-fashioned place which does not like change and is out of step with modernity. This implies that once people have opened their minds, it is hard for them to be satisfied with old ways of doing things.
Themes
William goes to help Elsbeth load the chaff into the car and he notices Gertrude smiling at him from the doorway of Pratt’s. As he and Elsbeth drive out of town, William asks who lives at “Mad Molly’s” now. Elsbeth screams for him to stop the car so that she can look. In the street, the townspeople gather to look up at the Hill: there is smoke coming from Molly’s chimney. Evan Pettyman, the town councilor, is horrified when he sees this. Beula Harridene, the local gossip, rushes between houses telling people that Tilly is home. In the McSwineys’ yard, Mae McSwiney watches her son Teddy as he gazes up at Tilly.
The townspeople are clearly bored and seek scandal and gossip to entertain themselves, which explains their eagerness to gossip about Tilly’s return. The townspeople like to have someone to gossip about and they use gossip to deflect attention from their own secret behavior—which, often, does not line up with Dungatar’s conservative behavioral standards. However, they also feel threatened by Tilly’s return. Tilly, in this sense, represents modernity, change, and the outside world, which threatens to infringe upon Dungatar’s conservative and provincial society.
Themes
In his house, Sergeant Farrat works at his sewing machine, using the gingham fabric he bought. Sergeant Farrat was posted to Dungatar soon after he joined the force, after he showed his superior designs for new police uniforms. Sergeant Farrat loves his home; in the peaceful town, he has plenty of time to make himself exciting outfits. He does not wear these outfits outside, however, and he only uses them when he goes on vacation to Melbourne, where he attends fashion shows.
Sergeant Farrat’s love of fashion is considered unconventional because conservative gender roles in the 1950s (when the story is set) dictated that fashion was considered a feminine pursuit. It is implied that Sergeant Farrat is posted to Dungatar (a small, unimportant town) because his superior is worried that Sergeant Farrat will embarrass the police force by openly sharing his unconventional love for clothes. Sergeant Farrat learns from this past experience and hides his love of fashion from the Dungatar inhabitants because he correctly suspects that the townspeople will judge him and use his secret against him if they find out.
Themes
All the other Dungatar residents are at the football pitch cheering their team on. Fred Bundle, who runs the hotel and pub, can hear the yells and cheers from the crowd from across the street. Fred used to be an alcoholic, but he stopped drinking after suffering a nasty fall when he was drunk. His wife, Purl, washes greens in the kitchen sink. She is a beautiful woman who takes pride in her appearance. Dungatar women sometimes criticize Purl for this, but she thinks it is because they are jealous. A cheer from the football crowd tells them that Dungatar has won the match.
Football unites the Dungatar community and symbolizes their conservative belief in conformity. The women’s attitude to Purl suggests that the Dungatar residents are spiteful, jealous, and close-minded—they dislike anyone who seems extraordinary in some way, such as Purl, who considers herself exceptionally beautiful and works hard on her appearance. Although Purl is gossiped about, she is not alienated by the town women because her husband, Fred, runs the pub, which the Dungatar residents hypocritically enjoy and make use of despite their criticism of Purl.
Themes
New stock has just arrived for Mr. Almanac, the pharmacist, which he sorts through in his shop. The townspeople rely on Mr. Almanac for medicine because the closest doctor is 30 miles out of town. Mr. Almanac looks through the photos he’s developing for Faith O’Brien: there are pictures of Faith with her husband, Hamish, and with the butcher, Reginald Blood. Mr. Almanac grumbles that Faith is a sinner and he puts the photographs away. He begins to make up a pot of medical cream that Faith ordered from him to treat vaginal itching. Mr. Almanac adds some bleach to the mixture.
Mr. Almanac is an extremely powerful person in Dungatar because he controls people’s access to medicine. As there is no doctor nearby, the townspeople rely on Mr. Almanac if they fall ill. Therefore, people can potentially suffer greatly if Mr. Almanac withholds treatment from them or treats them with the wrong medicine. Mr. Almanac’s power is demonstrated here as he cruelly contaminates Faith’s treatment because he disagrees with her infidelity. This shows the dangers of personal agendas being involved in medicine, as this can lead to people being hurt rather than healed.
Themes
Mr. Almanac gets up and begins to stumble through the shop—he has Parkinson’s disease and so he’s stooped and unsteady on his feet. His head is hunched over so that cannot see where he is going. Mr. Almanac’s assistant, Nancy Pickett, arrives back from the football game and she helps him. She tells him cheerfully that the injured players will come to him to buy pain relief and ointments.
Mr. Almanac is a cruel and twisted man who treats other people badly. His Parkinson’s disease reflects this physically (it twists his body), and this potentially suggests that he is a victim of a kind of cosmic justice: he suffers a fate which reflects the unkind way that he has treated others. Mr. Almanac’s power as the only person able to distribute medicine in Dungatar—and his ability to profit financially from this position—are reflected by the fact that the footballers have nowhere else to buy treatments for their injuries.
Themes
Nancy leads Mr. Almanac to the door and she sits him down in a wheelchair. She wheels him to the curb and then looks both ways for traffic. Seeing that the street is clear, Nancy shoves Mr. Almanac’s wheelchair across the street. His wife, Irma Almanac, waits with a cushion at the Almanacs’ garden gate on the other side, and Mr. Almanac comes to a stop with his head against the cushion.
Mr. Almanac suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and his body is twisted and immobile as a result. This reflects Mr. Almanac’s internal state: he’s a twisted person inside and has always been cruel to others and abused his power over them as the only pharmacist in the area. Again, Almanac’s disease makes his body rigid and twisted, much like his personality, which suggests that fate has punished Mr. Almanac for his cruel behavior.
Themes
In her house on Windswept Crescent, Elsbeth Beaumont prepares a roast dinner. William Beaumont is in the changing rooms at the football pitch, laughing and joking with the other players. He drinks watermelon spirits with Scotty Pullit, who brews this drink himself on his own still.
Although William has experienced the world outside of Dungatar, he fits in well with the community, and therefore it is easy for him to slot back into his old way of life. Dungatar residents value conformity and team spirit, which William displays.
Themes
The footballers tumble into the pub after the game, and Purl and Fred Bundle serve them drinks and celebrate with them. Purl notices William in the crowd and, for a moment, she thinks he is his father, Bill. She seems stunned—like she has seen a ghost. Fred notices her expression and he says that William looks just like his father. Teddy McSwiney arrives, and Purl turns unsteadily to him and congratulates him on the win—Teddy is the team’s “full forward.”
It is implied that Purl is haunted by her past relationship with William’s father, Bill Beaumont, who is now dead. Although Purl knows that Bill is dead, her memory of him affects her very strongly when she sees William. This supports the idea that although the past may be gone, people are often haunted by their memories of people and events.
Themes
Sergeant Farrat, who is also in the bar, reminds Fred that it is six o’clock. Fred nods, and Sergeant Farrat makes to leave. On Farrat’s way to the door, Purl stops him and asks if Tilly Dunnage plans to stay in town. Sergeant Farrat replies that he doesn’t know and he steps outside. Fred and Purl put blackout blinds on the pub windows, and the celebration continues inside as Sergeant Farrat wanders off to do his nightly lap of Dungatar.
Although Dungatar enforces a six o’clock curfew on the pub, Sergeant Farrat ignores it because of the football victory. This suggests that while Dungatar inhabitants hold others to extremely strict behavioral codes (and judge anyone who steps outside of these), they are hypocritically willing to bend these rules themselves.
Themes
Sergeant Farrat drives down past Scotty Pullit’s spirits still and parks near the cemetery. Reginald Blood’s car is parked nearby and Sergeant Farrat can see Reginald having sex with Faith O’Brien in the back seat. Faith’s husband, Hamish, is in the bar drinking with the footballers.
It was illegal to brew alcohol for personal use in Australia in the 1950s (when the story is set). Sergeant Farrat ignores Scotty’s still, however, and this again suggests that, although Dungatar inhabitants hold outsiders to a very strict behavioral code, they are hypocritically willing to bend these rules themselves if the rules interfere with their own pleasure. Faith’s infidelity supports the idea that everyone has a secret in Dungatar, although all the residents want to appear virtuous and moral.
Themes
