Transformation, Illusion, and Truth Theme Analysis

Rosalie Ham’s novel The Dressmaker is set in Dungatar, a remote Australian town, in the 1950s. The residents of Dungatar undergo a variety of transformations throughout the story. These transformations begin when Tilly Dunnage, a young woman who left the town as a child after she was wrongly accused of murdering a classmate, returns and sets up a dressmaking business. Her fashionable creations cause a stir in Dungatar, and her caring presence causes genuine positive change across the community. However, while Tilly’s dresses transform some characters on the surface, many of these transformations are only temporary illusions that do not reveal, but instead disguise, those characters’ true natures. Through these contrasting examples, Ham suggests that changing one’s appearance isn’t enough to create genuine transformation; real change can only come from meaningful human connections.

Love and friendship have the power to transform people in the novel. Tilly returns to Dungatar to stay with her mother, Molly, who is mentally ill. When Tilly arrives, Molly is extremely sick. The townspeople ignore and ostracize Molly because she is unwell, and Molly’s house has fallen into disrepair. Tilly’s diligently remodels the house and cares for Molly, and Molly becomes much calmer and healthier. This suggests that Tilly’s power to transform others is the result of her hard work and caring spirit. Tilly’s arrival also affects the broader community and allows for genuine transformation among certain individuals. For example, Sergeant Farrat (the local policeman) is a cross-dresser who loves fashion and makes himself extravagant outfits in private. Sergeant Farrat hides his passion from the townspeople, however, because he fears he will be ostracized if his secret comes out. Through his friendship with Tilly, Sergeant Farrat gains confidence and learns not to care what the townspeople think. His transformation is demonstrated when, after Molly’s death, he wears a black gown to her funeral. This suggests that, through his connection with Tilly, Sergeant Farrat is genuinely able to change for the better. Tilly is also transformed through her relationship with Teddy McSwiney, a young man from the town. Although Teddy dies shortly after they confess their love for each other, Tilly’s connection with Teddy helps her to open-up and tell Molly about her past—Tilly lost a child before she returned to Dungatar. Confessing this to Molly brings the two women closer together and it suggests that love and connection have a transformative effect on people and can help them to heal old wounds.

However, not all the transformations in the novel last—most are only temporary illusions. When Gertrude Pratt (the daughter of Alvin Pratt, Dungatar’s grocer) gets engaged to William Beaumont (a young man from a prestigious Dungatar family), Gertrude asks Tilly to make her wedding gown. Although Gertrude is not beautiful and William does not really love her (he agrees to marry her because Gertrude pressures him), the gown that Tilly creates temporarily transforms Gertrude and makes William believe that he does love her and that his reluctance to marry her is just “nerves.” This demonstrates that people can be temporarily fooled by appearances. However, despite the success of the wedding (which is largely due to Gertrude’s dress), the illusion soon wears off and Gertrude’s true character—which is vain and manipulative—shows through in her marriage. Similarly, William’s temporary belief that he truly loves his wife also proves illusory, as he tearfully admits one night in the local pub. This supports the idea that although appearances can be powerful, they quickly lose their power if they do not reflect reality. Furthermore, Gertrude believes that her marriage to William will transform her into a refined and powerful person in Dungatar. The Beaumonts appear to be very wealthy, and Elsbeth Beaumont, William’s mother, is a snobbish woman who believes she is superior to everyone in Dungatar. However, Elsbeth’s pretentions of grandeur are discovered to be illusory when Gertrude finds out that the Beaumonts are, in fact, heavily in debt and almost bankrupt. Elsbeth tries to disguise her poverty beneath her haughty persona and through luxurious items of clothing like her fox fur—which, from a distance, appears expensive, but up close is ancient and moldering. This suggests that although illusions can be maintained for a time, if they are not based on reality they will eventually wear off and reveal what is really underneath.

Ham suggests that despite the power of illusions, the truth usually comes out. This is demonstrated by the play that the Dungatar residents put on (a version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth) to compete with their neighboring towns in a cultural event. Although the townspeople commission elaborate costumes for the play in order to show how sophisticated they are, the costumes are from the wrong time period and showcase the cast’s ignorance rather than their worldliness. This suggests that it is impossible to conceal things forever and that people’s unpleasant characteristics, or unkind motives, usually surface at some point. People’s illusions about life are also destroyed throughout the novel. For example, Tilly tries to believe that she can make a life for herself in Dungatar, even though the townspeople are cruel and unwilling to accept her. Tilly releases these illusions at the novel’s end and understands that there is no hope for Dungatar—it is rotten through and through—and so she burns it to the ground. This suggests that illusions about happy endings and idealistic escapes will usually turn out to be temporary and fleeting. When Tilly sets fire to the town, she transforms it one final time and reveals Dungatar’s true character, which is wicked and morally bankrupt. The rural, picturesque landscape is turned into a smoking ruin, which makes Dungatar’s internal reality match its external appearance. This suggests that illusions cannot hide the truth forever and that it is only through genuine connection with others that one can hope to grow and change in a meaningful way.