“I reckon you came home for one of two things, revenge or me.” Teddy says this gently to Tilly as they begin to start a new story together. The Dressmaker is a film about a young woman who returns to her hometown, Dungatar, Australia in 1951. Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage (played by Kate Winslet) was accused of murder when she was ten years old. Tilly returns to Dungatar to find her home, and her mother, in disarray. Her mother, Molly, has forgotten Tilly as well as the rest of the town. Tilly makes a dress for a young girl named Gert. This stunning dress changes how Tilly is seen. Tilly falls in love with a poor man named Teddy. Tilly is convinced she is cursed, Teddy is convinced she is not. He tries to prove this to her by jumping into a silo …show more content…
Near the beginning of the movie, Gert sees Tilly in a beautiful dress, the dress is scanty. Tilly intends to help her football team win by wearing this dress. Gert says to Tilly, “ A dress can’t change anything.” She is, of course, wrong. When, indeed, their football team does win because the other team was too busy looking at Tilly in her dress. Because of this occurrence Gert wants Tilly to make her a dress that will impress a boy. This action set the story in motion. Violence is a common happening at the house of the top of the hill, where Tilly lives with her mother. Molly often forgets that Tilly is her daughter and will lash out at her. This violence, and Tilly’s insistence for her mother to remember her, pushes the characters forcefully forward. At a turning point in the film Teddy and Tilly are on top of a silo. Teddy says he will jump into the silo, to prove that he is Tilly’s superman. Tilly believes that he won’t survive if he jumps into the silo, neither know what is inside it. Teddy says to Tilly, “I told you, I don’t believe in curses.” and he jumps into the silo, never to be seen … until the next morning when a whole is cut in the silo and they fish out his body. This action, this fearless jump, this sets the tragic events into spiraling …show more content…
The fear that leads the audience through this story is the fear that everyone you know could inexplicably turn against you. Without any evidence at all, the townspeople of Dungatar assumed it was the crying ten year old who killed the boy lying on the ground with a broken neck. They all turned on her, they called her a murderer and sent her away. The pity that encapsulates The Dressmaker is the fate of the citizens of Dungatar. The old hunchbacked pharmacist drowns in a pond because his wife had a little too much of medicinal drug-laced fudge. Evan Pettiman, the father of the boy who died, was killed by his wife for being unfaithful. The ladies of the town, cruel and petty, come home from a town contest find find their grovels burning to ashes. Pity is invoked because, as an audience member, you are shaken by domino effects of Tilly’s revenge, but glad that it is not you who’s house is being torched in the Australian desert.
The Dressmaker is a tragedy because it has a relatable protagonist, the characters actions speak louder than their words, and pity and fear reign supreme in the end. Tilly is an exiled outsider, come back to remember why she was exiled in the first place. Teddy’s jump for love truly proved Tilly’s point of her being cursed. The fate of all tragedies is to instill their audiences with fear and pity. After
When the narrator arrives to give his speech, he is forced to participate in a fight with fellow classmates to entertain the most prominent town leaders who were “quite tipsy” and out of control. As the narrator and the other boys – all of them black – are rushed into the ballroom for the fight, he notices a naked white woman dancing in the room. Most of the boys are hesitant to look. Some passed out while other pleaded to go home. The narrator lusts for the woman and at the same time wishes she would go away; he wishes to “caress her and destroy her.”
The story began with the picture of Sunday's night after church, at eleven o'clock in the evening. Delia was still working. As a washwoman, Monday's morning was important for her because she would return all the clean clothes and earn her money. That money was to pay for the house, her food, and the pony which Sykes, her husband, had gone with. After 15 years of marriage, Delia had lost all hopes in Sykes. The countless beatings and painful acts of Sykes had brought her to her limit. Sykes had gotten home, and as usual, the fight happened between two former lovers. Sykes's appearance by a scary scene was like the ev...
The theme that has been attached to this story is directly relevant to it as depicted by the anonymous letters which the main character is busy writing secretly based on gossip and distributing them to the different houses. Considering that people have an impression of her being a good woman who is quiet and peaceful, it becomes completely unbecoming that she instead engages in very abnormal behavior. What makes it even more terrible is the fact that she uses gossip as the premise for her to propagate her hate messages not only in a single household but across the many different households in the estate where she stays.
...ns. The audience is surprised to find out that God forgives and lets her go to Heaven with her family. The readers are passing judgment along with the Misfit and believe that because she cannot justify her sins; she should go to Hell. By using this plot twist the author shows how society has sinned similar to the Grandmother, yet how they can still be saved.
“In a simple allegory, characters and other elements often stand for other definite meanings, which are often abstractions” (Kennedy 234). Since everyone in the town is involved in the stoning, they do not view their sacrifice as murder, but as something needed to be done. “‘All right, folks,’ Mr. Summers said, ‘Let’s finish this quickly.’” (Jackson 259). The young boys in the town are excited about the lottery, but the girls stand off to the side because it is in a boy’s nature to be brutal, yet the women of the town seem just as excited as the boys, and the men calm down as the girls. “The boys’ eager and childish cruelty will turn into the sober reluctance of their fathers, whereas the childish apartness of the girls will become the grown women’s blood lust” (Whittier 357). Most people associate winning a lottery as coming into a large sum of money; but on the contrary, the winner of this lottery must pay with their ultimate sacrifice. “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (257). Jackson’s use of allegories is sublime, drawing her readers to the central
'Tender Mercies,'; written by Horton Foote, is a screenplay, which presents to the reader ordinary people, who are trying to live decently in an unpredictable and violent world. The reader comes to be aware of many dramatic scenes where the central characters have come to experience many complex but yet fascinating situations in their lives. Reading this screenplay the reader will come to acknowledge one of the centralized themes in 'Tender Mercies,'; which is the theme of redemption. For those who are unaware of the word, redemption as it applies to the screenplay 'Tender Mercies'; is the literary word meaning to be saved or saving someone from an experience or a situation. The reader can observe this redemption at various times through many characters, such as: Mac, Rosa Lee, Sunny, and Dixie. Each one of these characters has been redeemed by other characters or has been the redeemer of other characters. Thus, in the paragraphs to proceed, the reader will be introduced to these exact characters and to the situations from which these characters were redeemed from or whom they had redeemed. Alongside, the reader will also come to recognize how this theme provides the clearest reason why 'Tender Mercies'; is neither a Tragedy nor Pathos.
Traditions demonstrate a set of social norms that have been followed and adapted to for an elongated amount of time. In each of the plots, Medea, The Piano, and The Age of Innocence, the standard set by society was broken and the consequences imposed took form in varying degrees and shapes of violence. Whether it was outright murder as in Medea, or a more subtle but intense struggle as in The Age of Innocence, these consequences serve as the community's opinion of this breach of its expectations for its members.
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...
The next theme used by the author to inspire a feeling of despair in this story is the randomness of persecution. By making the villagers draw these slips of paper once a year would provoke a feeling of hopelessness. Because they know that no matter what they do one day they may be subjected to this brutal death. And it woul...
Suffering from the death of a close friend, the boy tries to ignore his feelings and jokes on his sister. His friend was a mental patient who threw himself off a building. Being really young and unable to cope with this tragedy, the boy jokes to his sister about the bridge collapsing. "The mention of the suicide and of the bridge collapsing set a depressing tone for the rest of the story" (Baker 170). Arguments about Raisinettes force the father to settle it by saying, "you will both spoil your lunch." As their day continues, their arguments become more serious and present concern for the father who is trying to understand his children better. In complete agreement with Justin Oeltzes’ paper, "A Sad Story," I also feel that this dark foreshadowing of time to come is an indication of the author’s direct intention to write a sad story.
Such a series of tragic events has a great toll among the two main characters (Cox ) . For a vicious, careless indivi...
The story shows you how an unexpected twist in the plot can affect the whole out of the story. The story is about a woman, who has heart problems, and she learns about his death, and when she finds out he is alive she dies of joy the doctors think. Also, this story shows you how women were treated back in the 1800’s. The USA has changed dramatically over time because women are treated equal. Therefore, the moral is to never not expect the unexpected, and all ways treat others with respect because it could hurt you or others.
Literary elements are demonstrated throughout the story and further improve our understanding of the central idea. The setting is important to the central idea because it shows the reader the type of society being described in the story. The language is also important to the central idea because it contains metaphors which further prove that the people are afraid of going against tradition because they are scared of being the target of violence. The conflict contributes to the central idea as well, because there are many examples of the society going against character, Mrs. Hutchinson, for not respecting the traditions put in place. The central idea is important to our understanding of the story because it sums up the main objective and furthers our
In Kate Chopin’s short story, a woman named Louise Mallard suffered of a heart disease. When her sister Josephine reveals to Louise about her husband’s tragic train accident, causing his death, her reaction was bizarre. After she is notified about her husband’s decease, she goes upstairs and locks herself in her room. She sits on her armchair, looks out her window, and fantasizes about what her life will be like without her husband, Mr. Mallard. Shortly after, Josephine comes for her, thinking Louise will get ill about the news and they both walk down the stairs. To Mrs. Mallard’s dismay, the door flings open: Mr. Mallard was alive! Mrs. Mallard was in shock but mostly disappointed, for the future she dreamed of without her husband was ruined, and dies. According to the doctor she had died of the joy that kills. There is no doubt that Kate Chopin included an abundant of symbolic and ironic references in her short story “The Story of an Hour.”
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...