Previous
Barney McSwiney
Edward McSwiney is Mae McSwiney’s husband and the father of Teddy, Barney, and the nine other McSwiney children. Edward is a cheerful man who works as a delivery man in Dungatar and lives in a caravan near the dump with his family. He is well-liked in the community and does many odd jobs for people. However, Edward and his family are still treated like outcasts in Dungatar because they are poor and live out by the dump. People believe that they are thieves and criminals, even though Edward often helps people and just wants to live his life peacefully in the town. As a young man, Edward witnesses Stewart Pettyman bullying Tilly Dunnage and he tries to stop Stewart. However, Edward arrives too late—by the time he gets there to intervene, Stewart has died in an accident. Although Edward tries to defend Tilly, who is wrongly blamed for Stewart’s death, he is silenced by Evan Pettyman, Stewart’s father. Edward is crushed by his own son Teddy’s death decades later, and he and his family leave Dungatar shortly after this.
Edward McSwiney Quotes in The Dressmaker
The The Dressmaker quotes below are all either spoken by Edward McSwiney or refer to Edward 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:
).
Chapter 19
Quotes
He wasn't able to offer any sense of anything from his own heart to them, no comfort, and he understood perfectly how Molly Dunnage and Marigold Pettyman could go mad and drown in the grief and disgust that hung like cob-webs between the streets and buildings in Dungatar when everywhere they looked they would see what they once had. See where someone they could no longer hold had walked and always be reminded that they had empty arms. And everywhere they looked, they could see that everyone saw them, knowing.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Dressmaker LitChart as a printable PDF.
Edward McSwiney Quotes in The Dressmaker
The The Dressmaker quotes below are all either spoken by Edward McSwiney or refer to Edward 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:
).
Chapter 19
Quotes
He wasn't able to offer any sense of anything from his own heart to them, no comfort, and he understood perfectly how Molly Dunnage and Marigold Pettyman could go mad and drown in the grief and disgust that hung like cob-webs between the streets and buildings in Dungatar when everywhere they looked they would see what they once had. See where someone they could no longer hold had walked and always be reminded that they had empty arms. And everywhere they looked, they could see that everyone saw them, knowing.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
