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Plants and herbs symbolize the ability for good to triumph over evil. Tilly is characterized as a genuinely good person who’s been misunderstood, mistreated, and ostracized by the community in her hometown of Dungatar. Tilly also has a seemingly natural (and perhaps even magical) ability to grow plants, and she maintains an extremely lush garden while staying at her mother, Molly’s, house. The ability to sustain these plants even in the midst of her emotionally difficult stay in town reflects Tilly’s resilient inner goodness and ability to nurture; the garden itself acts as a symbol of resistance, positivity, and beauty that starkly contrasts the inner ugliness of the cruel townspeople who reject Tilly.
Additionally, Tilly makes herbal remedies for other people in town, which further suggests that she’s managed to remain a nurturing and kind person despite the abuse she’s faced. Whereas men like Mr. Almanac and Evan Pettyman use traditional medicine to manipulate and abuse women, Tilly uses her plant remedies to help them. For instance, she makes herbal cakes to treat Irma, who has painful arthritis (and who it’s implied was beaten by her husband, Mr. Almanac, for years). Tilly also drugs Evan using marigold water in order to weaken him and stop him from sedating and raping his wife, Marigold. In this way, Tilly is able to show solidarity to people who’ve been mistreated just as she has, and her use of plants to help others rather than to hurt them represents the ability of this kindness and selflessness to overcome evil. Rather than succumbing to the toxic environment of Dungatar and the abuse that’s rampant around her, plants enable Tilly to resist and to ensure that the town’s few good people triumph over those who hurt them.
Plants and Herbs Quotes in The Dressmaker
The The Dressmaker quotes below all refer to the symbol of Plants and Herbs . 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:
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Chapter 4
Quotes
Tilly Dunnage had maintained her industrious battle until the house was scrubbed and shiny and the cupboards bare, all the tinned food eaten, and now Molly sat in the dappled sunlight at the end of the veranda in her wheelchair, the wisteria behind her just beginning to bud.
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Chapter 8
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She eats birdseed and fruit and other things she has sent from the city. She gets things from overseas too, from places I've never heard of. She mixes things up—potions—says they're herbs, "remedial", and she pretends to be an arty type, so why would she want to stay here?
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Chapter 28
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‘l used to be sick, Evan, you used to make me sick, but Tilly Dunnage has cured me.’
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Chapter 29
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Then her round soft babe was still and blue and wrapped in cotton-flannel and Molly, pained and cold in her rain-soaked coffin turned stiffly to her, and Teddy, sorghum-coated and gaping, clawing, a chocolate seed-dipped cadaver. Evan and Percival Almanac stood shaking their fingers at her and behind them the citizens of Dungatar crawled up The Hill in the dark, armed with firewood and flames, stakes and chains, but she just walked out to her veranda and smiled down at them and they turned and fled.
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Plants and Herbs Symbol Timeline in The Dressmaker
The timeline below shows where the symbol Plants and Herbs appears in The Dressmaker. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
That morning, in his house, Sergeant Farrat tries on the new gingham skirt he made. It fits perfectly, and Sergeant Farrat is very pleased. Beula Harridene presses...
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Chapter 8
...of expensive lace and a novel by Hemmingway. Ruth examines a tin that contains brownish herbs, which says “mix with water” on the label. She puts the tin aside and hides...
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...and Teddy drink their tea. Molly complains that Tilly makes her drink tea made from herbs and roots that Tilly gets sent over from Europe. Teddy says that women like Tilly...
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...to drink the tea Ruth has made from Tilly’s powder. They have also tried some herbs that Tilly was sent, but these put them to sleep. The tea also makes them...
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...cream away after they have gone and she makes up her own potion from garden herbs and ointments that she owns.
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Chapter 10
...soaks in his bath and rubs eggs into his hair. His bath is full of plant sprigs, and he drinks herbal tea and sketches a new outfit in his notepad. He...
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Chapter 13
...of cloth that she pulled from the furniture and bits that she tore off garden plants. She calls Tilly “Cinderella” and asks her how the “ball” was. Tilly says that it...
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Chapter 26
...the doctor, but that the nearest one is 30 miles away in Winyerp. Tilly prepares herbal medicines for Molly to ease her suffering. Sergeant Farrat sits with Tilly all night, and...
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Chapter 27
...Dungatar Ladies Social Club in her garden. They try to flatter Tilly and compliment her plants. Tilly listens cynically as Elsbeth explains that they are putting on a play (Shakespeare’s Macbeth)...
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That afternoon, Tilly picks marigolds, cuts the stems off, and boils them in a pan of water. She bottles the...
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Chapter 28
...Melbourne. Later that morning, Tilly arrives at Marigold’s door and gives her a bouquet of marigolds. Tilly explains that the sap from marigolds kills worms by making them go limp. Marigold...
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...daughter. Marigold explains that Tilly has poisoned Evan to make him weak and powerless—she put marigold water in his pitcher at work. Evan follows Marigold into the kitchen and Marigold drops...
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