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Evan Pettyman
Gertrude Pratt is the daughter of Alvin and Muriel Pratt, who run Pratt’s General Store in Dungatar. Gertrude is an unattractive but vain and ambitious young woman. She decides to marry William Beaumont, who is from a supposedly wealthy family, and she pressures and manipulates William until she gets her way. Once Gertrude is married to William and friendly with William’s mother, Elsbeth (who views herself as a very refined, upper class lady) Gertrude becomes extremely pretentious and looks down on her own parents. Gertrude and Elsbeth set up a Ladies Social Club in Dungatar and put on a series of cultural events. However, Gertrude is shocked to learn that Elsbeth is not as wealthy as she has made out, and instead of using the Beaumont’s money, Gertrude begins to rely on Alvin’s business to fund her extravagant lifestyle. Throughout the novel, Gertrude is mean and ungrateful toward people who help her; she only cares about making herself appear refined and cultured, when really, she is ignorant and shallow. Gertrude eventually goes mad with power when she becomes the director of the local play (a version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth). Gertrude treats the cast horribly and loses her mind when they eventually fire her; she is dragged off to the insane asylum after she tries to attack the actors. In this sense, Gertrude’s demise mirrors the character of Lady Macbeth that she has chosen to play in Macbeth: in Shakespeare’s drama, Lady Macbeth goes mad after convincing her husband, Macbeth, to kill the King to satisfy her own ambitions.
Gertrude Pratt Quotes in The Dressmaker
The The Dressmaker quotes below are all either spoken by Gertrude Pratt or refer to Gertrude Pratt. 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 13
Quotes
Every female seated in the War Memorial Hall that afternoon had listened hard, waited with bated breath for the name of a seamstress or dressmaker. She wasn't mentioned.
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Gertrude stepped out of her wedding gown and hung it on a coat hanger. She caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror an unremarkable brunette with quiver-thighs and unbeautiful breasts. She let the tea-colored silk negligee slide over her chilly nipples and looked in the mirror again. 'I am Mrs. William Beaumont of Windswept Crest,' she said.
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Chapter 30
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Trudy circled them, her seventeenth-century Baroque cast of the evil sixteenth-century Shakespeare play about murder and ambition. They queued on the tiny stage like extras from a Hollywood film waiting for their lunch at the studio canteen.
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Get the entire The Dressmaker LitChart as a printable PDF.
Gertrude Pratt Quotes in The Dressmaker
The The Dressmaker quotes below are all either spoken by Gertrude Pratt or refer to Gertrude Pratt. 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 13
Quotes
Every female seated in the War Memorial Hall that afternoon had listened hard, waited with bated breath for the name of a seamstress or dressmaker. She wasn't mentioned.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Gertrude stepped out of her wedding gown and hung it on a coat hanger. She caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror an unremarkable brunette with quiver-thighs and unbeautiful breasts. She let the tea-colored silk negligee slide over her chilly nipples and looked in the mirror again. 'I am Mrs. William Beaumont of Windswept Crest,' she said.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30
Quotes
Trudy circled them, her seventeenth-century Baroque cast of the evil sixteenth-century Shakespeare play about murder and ambition. They queued on the tiny stage like extras from a Hollywood film waiting for their lunch at the studio canteen.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
