Tilly (Myrtle) Dunnage

Tilly (Myrtle) Dunnage is the glamorous outcast and the novel’s protagonist. As a child, she was banished from her hometown of Dungatar after the townsfolk believed she had murdered a fellow school student Stewart Pettyman. From her unhappy education at a school in Melbourne, Tilly ‘ran away… to London… then Spain, Milan, Paris’ (Part 2) and learnt the skill of creating haute couture outfits, training under the prestigious fashion designers in Europe.

Tilly offers the small-minded women in Dungatar the chance to transform themselves but this does little to alter their petty meanness and judgmental behaviours. Having experienced the world outside the parochial limitations of Dungatar, Tilly is worldly and understands the power of creativity and flair. Likewise, she is confident in her own ability and is not threatened whatsoever when she ‘see[s] there is a new seamstress in town’ (Part 3), Una Pleasance.

Despite the promise of promotion in Europe, Tilly is drawn back to her childhood home to care for her mother who in her absence has become a ‘skeleton’ (Part 1) with ‘sunken eyes’ (Part 1) and a mouth like a ‘charcoal hole’ (Part 1). Tilly navigates her mother’s madness expertly, treating her with a healthy dose of tough love as she cleans up both the decrepit residence atop The Hill and also the woman that the townsfolk have been referring to as ‘Mad Molly’ (Part 1). No task is too revolting or confronting as she ‘evicts snug families’ (Part 1) of pests from the house, cleans her mother’s dentures and ties her to the outside toilet with the rope of her dressing robe to avoid her wandering off. Although the relationship between mother and daughter is strong, Tilly, like many children of elderly and eccentric parents, resorts to sarcasm and derision as a coping mechanism. Mother and daughter banter back and forth but their reciprocal devotion for one another, albeit bruised, is evident. In the final chapters, Tilly’s adoration for her mother who endured so much hardship is still present and their commitment to one another is cemented when Teddy passes away and Tilly ‘got on her knees in front of her mother and buried her face in her lap… Molly stroked her head fondly and they wept’ (Part 3).

Tilly’s reluctance to become involved with her childhood friend Teddy derives from a belief that she is ‘cursed’ (Part 3) and that should she become involved with anyone, it would be to their detriment. Tilly believes that her actions as a child and the unfortunate death of Stewart Pettyman plagues her and this notion is precipitated by the townspeople who treat her with disdain and suspicion. Her belief in her ill-fated luck is only confirmed when she loses her own son Pablo, who she finds dead in his cot at seven months, whilst still living in Paris. However, Tilly’s strength of will is to be admired. Her devotion to her mother, her acceptance of those such as Sergeant Farrat and Barney McSwiney show her to be a woman of tolerance who has felt the brunt of societal stigma and is keen to be a far more accepting member of the town. Although the sudden loss of Teddy and her mother shake her resolve and she is at risk of being propelled along the same path as Molly, she dismisses the bitterness that begins festering inside her and channels an inner discipline and conniving spirit that allows her to wreak a havoc that provides satisfying revenge.

Tilly (Myrtle) Dunnage Quotes

Little Myrtle Dunnage had alabaster skin and her mother’s eyes and hair. She seemed strong, but damaged. (Sergeant Farrat upon seeing Tilly again as a grown woman) Part 1

‘It’s not that – it’s what I’ve done. Sometimes I forget about it and just when I’m… it’s guilt, and the evil inside me – I carry it around with me, in me, all the time.’ (Tilly speaking to Teddy about the affect her past has on her) Part 2

Bitterness rested on Tilly’s soul and wore itself on her face. (after Teddy’s death) Part 3

‘Well then I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake,’ said Tilly. ‘ I’m a qualified tailoress and dressmaker. You just need someone handy with a needle and thread.’ (Tilly to Una Pleasance) Part 3

She could tie up the loose ends, leave, go to Melbourne, take a job with the traveller who’d visited last autumn. Yet there was the matter of the sour people of Dungatar. In light of all they had done, and what they had not done, what they had decided not to do – they mustn’t be abandoned. Not yet. (Tilly considering to herself after Teddy and Molly have passed and she is on her own) Part 3

Molly Dunnage

Molly is first introduced to the reader through the eyes of her daughter, Tilly. She lives in a small shack on The Hill, an overwatch for the village that ‘was dank and smelled like possum piss’ (Part 1). At first, Molly is reticent to have her daughter help her and this is primarily because, despite missing her terribly, Molly had always hoped that her only daughter ‘wouldn’t come back to this awful place’ (Part 3).

Molly’s appearance is haggard, her ‘wayward grey hair’ (Part 1) and scrawny features belying her as a nervous, scattered woman suffering the first affects of dementia. Despite her mental infirm, Molly still has a fighting spirit and a wicked sense of humour, providing comedic relief to parts of the novel and teasing Tilly by constantly referring to her as her ‘captor’ (Part 1). Molly’s crudeness and impropriety is renowned and a constant cause of embarrassment for Tilly, such as when Molly insults the three visiting women from Winyerp with ‘there’s a bunch of old stools from out at fart hill trespassing out here’ (Part 3) and Tilly makes an attempt to disguise her mother’s incivility to the visitors – ‘can I help you… the ash is very good and we get the sun up here’ (Part 3). Nevertheless, Molly understands far more about the town dynamics then anyone, predicting the damage of the rumour mill – ‘you can’t keep anything secret here… everybody knows everything about everyone…’ (Part 1).

Despite the heartache, Molly is a kindly woman who makes cakes laced with drugs to alleviate Irma Almanac’s pain – ‘Irma felt light…she could hear her bones scraping inside her body but they no longer hurt and the aching had stopped’ (Part 2) and tolerates the simple-minded Barney McSwiney. She is staunchly proud of her daughter Tilly and her skills in dressmaking and the women share an affinity for creating things to enhance the dull life they find themselves in.

However, the sad story of ‘Mad Molly Dunnage’ is not known until the latter half of the novel when it is revealed that she got pregnant to Evan Pettyman and because she wouldn’t give her baby (Tilly) away, ‘I [she] had to leave my [her] home and my [her] parents’ (Part 3). But her humiliation was not complete there, Pettyman ‘came after me [her] and used me [her]’ (Part 3); in turn for this privilege, he supported Molly and Tilly in early childhood.

When Evan and Marigold’s only child Stewart died, Tilly had to be sent away. Molly’s admittance that she ‘went mad with loneliness’ (Part 3) for the loss of Tilly means she is seen as a character that evokes great sympathy – she has lost everything and had no where to run away to so living atop The Hill in squalor amidst rumour and prejudice became her only option.

Like many of the woman from Ham’s text, Molly is a product of her circumstances and is subjected to ridicule and insult unfairly; unlike Pettyman (the elected town councillor) who was just as much at fault for the illegitimacy of Tilly’s birth but escapes their wrath because of his gender and status.

Molly Dunnage Quotes

She [Molly] gestured at a crowd of invisible people around her bed. (When Tilly arrives and first sees her mother, she is shocked at how mad she is acting) Part 1

As food has nourished her body and therefore her mind, some sense had returned to her. She realised she’d have to be crafty, employ stubborn resistance and subtle violence against this stronger woman (Tilly) who was determined to stay. Part 1

‘Dunny’s mum’s a slut, Dunnybum’s Mum’s a slut.’ (Stewart Pettyman and the other school children tease Tilly as a child) Part 1

‘She has good days and not-so-good, but she’s always entertaining and things come back to her from time-to-time’. (Tilly talks to Farrat about her mother) Part 2

‘…we’re used to being badly treated.’ Part 3

Sergeant Horatio Farrat

Horatio Farrat was raised in inner city Melbourne that may explain his more open-minded approach to the town’s goings-on. His posting to the remote town of Dungatar was an urgent response to him approaching his superiors in the Metropolitan Police Force with patterns and swatches of a design for a new and improved police uniform. Naturally, he was swiftly reassigned to the community of Dungatar where he kept to himself, ‘settled at his Singer, pumping the treadle with stockinged feet, and guided the skirt seams beneath the pounding needle’ (Part 1) rather than attend the weekend football game. He is a kind character, who allows the guilt of sending Tilly away when the Pettyman boy died to riddle him and become the motivation for his befriending Tilly.

A complex character that is immediately attracted to ‘little Myrtle Dunnage’ (Part 1) and her perchance for fashion yet he is the first to observe that despite her guise, Tilly has returned to Dungatar ‘strong, but damaged’ (Part 1). Their affinity with fashion and the concept of transformation gives Farrat the confidence to emerge as a cross-dresser in a town that would undoubtedly shun his oddity instead of embrace him like the cosmopolitan Tilly does. The burden of holding this secret to himself explodes when he is in the presence of Tilly as ‘he clutched it to his heart and ripped the brown paper apart and freed yards of brilliant magenta silk organza’ (Part 2), before checking himself, his face reddened ‘appalled by his abandonment’ (Part 2). But with Tilly, Molly and even Teddy, Farrat finds a safe space to admit his skill with sewing and stitching. In return for their acceptance, when Molly and Teddy die, Farrat omits Tilly’s role in Teddy’s unfortunate accident and uses the burial as a platform to lecture the townsfolk in their treatment of outcasts, reminding them that they loved the outcast Teddy and therefore should try and find it within themselves to love another outcast – Myrtle Dunnage, just as Teddy had loved her.

Despite his attempts to make amends for his actions, Tilly remains unforgiving and Farrat re-groups with the other townsfolk to watch their town burn, and with it, all the frocks and fabrics he had cherished so secretly.

Sergeant Horatio Farrat Quotes

They [the townsfolk] were used to the sergeant’s bachelor ways; he’d often purchased materials for tablecloths and curtains. Muriel said he must have the fanciest linen in town. (Gertrude when Sergeant Farrat buys a bolt of blue gingham fabric from the Pratt’s General Store) Part 1

‘I don’t care, Tilly,’ he said. ‘I’m beyond caring what those people think or say anymore. I’m sure everyone’s seen what’s on my clothes line of the years, and I’m about due to retire anyway.’ (Tilly confirms that Farrat wants to attend Molly’s funeral in a black knee-length frock) Part 4

Evan Pettyman

‘Dungatar’s richest man’ (Part 3), Town Councillor Evan Pettyman is Tilly’s real father. We learn about his mistreatment of Molly later in the novel when it is revealed that upon getting her pregnant and coming to live in Dungatar, Evan ‘used me [her]’ (Part 3) in exchange for him keeping the two women, until the untimely death of his only son Stewart causes him to become vindictive and force Farrat to take Tilly away to a reform school in Melbourne.

Evan is a known philanderer who drugs and mistreats his wife, while scandalously parading with other women. His most recent affair is with Una Pleasance, the new dressmaker in town and direct business adversary to Tilly. His wife Marigold murders him viciously and upon inspecting the house, Farrat discovers a cornucopia of filthy movies and photos as well as illicit drugs in the house.

Marigold Pettyman

Marigold has compulsive OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), which was precipitated by the sudden death of her only son, Stewart. Marigold’s preoccupation with people leaving footprints on her bi-daily washed floor and the possibility the visitors might ‘leave fingerprints on her polish’ (Part 3) blinds her from seeing the truth of her horrid husband Evan. But her insistence of having Tilly make her a dress ‘better than everyone else’ (Part 4) means that like all the other townswomen, Marigold is vain and competitive.

Once reminded of Evan’s impregnation of the sweet Molly Dunnage and how he manipulated the blame of his son’s death to land on Tilly, Marigold’s repressed memories come flooding back and she goes on to seek terrible revenge on Evan. The reader’s initial perceptions of her as weak and mentally unstable are only suspended for a brief moment as she callously leaves her husband in the kitchen of their house bleeding out and she concocts a draught of a half bottle of her sleeping tonic and sherry in an attempt to end her own life.

Stewart Pettyman

A school bully, who relentlessly teased Tilly Dunnage when they were children and in an effort to wind her by running toward her like a bull, died by slamming his head into the wall. Even as a child, his vileness was evident as he often called her a ‘bastard’ (Part 3) and Edward McSwiney (Teddy’s father) recalled ‘your [Evan’s] Stewart [he] had the poor little thing [Tilly, Myrtle as was] cornered beside the library…’ (Part 3). The progeny of Evan, it is not hard to imagine the young boy as a brute bully who made Tilly’s childhood a living nightmare, in the same way as his father destroyed Molly’s life.

He is dead when the novel begins but is the reason why Tilly had been sent away from Dungatar. Any information we learn about him is in retrospect.

Teddy McSwiney

Despite his family’s status as outcasts, Teddy is the much-loved son of Dungatar. Captain of the local football team, his rambunctious ways seem to charm most of the residents. His involvement with ‘the card game on Thursday nights and two-up on Fridays… organising the Saturday night dances, owning all the sweeps on Cup Day and the first to raffle a chook if funds were needed’ (Part 1), Teddy was additionally ‘cheeky, quick and canny’ (Part 1) and incredibly kind to the undeserving townsfolk of Dungatar. His devotion to caring for Barney, his brother and inheriting some of the responsibility for feeding his impoverished siblings, Teddy takes it upon himself to care for Molly in Tilly’s absence. He is thrilled for the return of his school friend Myrtle and for weeks on end at the beginning stages of Tilly’s return, he delivers yabbies, eggs and Murray cod fillets to feed the ladies who had yet to establish a healthy income and avoided venturing into town for fear of ridicule. He even delivers a ‘freshly scrubbed’ (Part 1) wheelchair to The Hill for Molly’s use, a testament to his kindly nature.

His logical approach to Tilly’s soiled reputation is refreshing but Tilly is unconvinced that things are that easy and that all can be solved by ‘have[ing] a big wedding in Dungatar’ (Part 2). His flippancy is born of a naivety about the world and although at first Tilly finds this charming, she is reluctant to enter into a relationship because she does not want to tarnish his reputation as he aligns himself to the ‘murderess’ (Part 3). In his attempts to release her of this notion and to convince her that she is not cursed, Teddy childishly dives into what he believes to be a wheat silo to reinforce his devotion to her but sinks in the grain and dies by suffocation.

Teddy McSwiney Quotes

‘Girls like her [Tilly] need a bloke like me about.’ (Teddy speaks to Molly about wanting to go on a date with Tilly) Part 1

‘I can look after you… that is, if you want me to.’ (Teddy’s proposal to Tilly) Part 2

He could sell seawater to a sailor. (Teddy’s entrepreneurial skills) Part 1

She [Tilly] thought about Teddy McSwiney, and wondered if the rest of town would be as friendly. Part 1

‘…we’d jump into the grain trucks as they pulled out of the loading dock then stay on top of the wheat until we crossed the creek, where we’d jump in…’ (Teddy moments before he dies) Part 2

But it wasn’t a bin brimming with wheat. It was a bin filled with sorghum…. And Teddy vanished like a bolt into a tub of sump oil and slid to suffocate at the bottom of that huge bin in a pond of slippery brown seeds like polished liquid sand. Part 3

Barney McSwiney

Teddy’s younger brother, Barney, is considered an outcast amongst the community due to him being ‘… not quite finished… crooked, with an upside-down head and a crooked foot’ (Part 1). Despite his slow-mindedness, Barney is loyal and although he lacks the means to effectively communicate, he understands a lot more than people give him credit for. Although not fully understanding why, Barney is sensitive to the town’s aversion to Tilly and when her name is scribbled out on the table list at the town’s social gathering, he childishly writes his and her names at the bottom of the list in an effort to include her.

Barney is understandably distraught when Teddy dies; he’s lost his brother, best friend and someone who promised to always watch out for him. He leaves town with his family after Teddy’s funeral, leaving the family cow and a handful of chickens on Tilly’s doorstep as a gesture of peace between them.

Barney McSwiney Quotes

‘Mum says I’m not quite finished. Dad says I’m only five bob out of ten.’ (Barney explaining himself to Tilly) Part 2

She [Tilly] stood unsteadily and held out a hand to him [Barney] but his mouth screwed open and he turned and stumbled away, yowling, holding his arms across his chest. (The final time Tilly sees Barney after Teddy’s death) Part 3

Una Pleasance

A rival dressmaker that arrives in Dungatar; for a time the women prefer using Una as their tailor but her commissioned dresses lack the finesse and speciality that Tilly’s creations do – ‘…no one was ever displeased with anything you [Tilly] made them here, not like that Una…’ (Part 4). She has an affair with Evan Pettyman that ends quickly as Marigold discovers them and murders her husband.

Mr Percival and Mrs Irma Almanac

Being the town chemist, Mr Almanac has access to the citizens’ medical history and as such, believes he is in a more lofty position then the other residents. Ironically, advanced Parkinson’s disease has left him a ‘curved, mumbling question-mark, forever face-down…’ (Part 1) who comically bumps into most things in his shop and most people who roam the main street are wary of his ‘balding head’ (Part 1) hurtling toward them with unstoppable momentum.

Despite his comical relief throughout the novel, he is known to have beaten his wife Irma senseless and although as his condition worsened, her ‘injuries ceased’ (Part 1), the beatings haunt her and she is riddled with the guilt her husband plies her with, believing her to be a sinner and deserving of his violent wrath. Despite the hypocrisy of his claims, her husband believes it is her own sins that have crippled her thusly, and refuses to medicate her pain leading her to resort to eating food that Molly provides her that is laced with narcotics.

Her husband’s sinister methods of dealing with the medical afflictions of the townsfolk leave readers questioning his qualifications in pharmacy, choosing to treat any ailment with the ‘contents of his refrigerator’ (Part 1) and taking it upon himself to punish loose women – this is seen when Faith O’Brien attends the chemist with a vaginal itch brought on by promiscuity and he prescribes ‘White Lily abrasive cleaner’ (Part 1) in disguise. A pious man who embodies the traditional ideology of an aged era – ‘[Drugs are] addictive… all that’s needed is God’s forgiveness, a clean mind and a wholesome diet, plenty of red meat and well-cooked vegetables’ (Part 1).

In a freak accident, Mr Almanac drowns in the small creek in the back yard of his home. As he is retrieved from the mire by Sergeant Farrat, he forms a grotesque image with ‘yabbies’ clinging to his ear lobes and leeches hanging from his lips’ (Part 4).

In her older years, his wife Irma is riddled with arthritis but is still relied on by farmers as a means to predict the weather – a superstition that is not extraordinary in small rural towns.

Miss Prudence Dimm and Miss Ruth Dimm

As the schoolteacher of all the children in Dungatar, Miss Dimm is not thought of fondly, especially by Tilly who remembered her to be a nasty woman who bullied Tilly as a child – ‘Miss Dimm came, cuffed Myrtle [Tilly] over the head and dragged her from the room by her plait’ (Part 2). Typical of a small town, in addition to being the Dungatar teacher, Prudence also held the station of being librarian on Saturday mornings and on every other Wednesday.

Her sister Ruth, another meddlesome woman, works at the post office and telephone exchange and thinks nothing of opening Tilly’s mail and snooping around to unearth information on the other citizens of Dunagatar. Her taboo affair with the pharmaceutical assistant Nancy Pickett is ignored with most of the women refusing to acknowledge the possibility of a lesbian relationship in their midst.

Beula Harridene

Beula is the atypical sticky-beak that every small town has – relentless in her pursuit of gossip and hearsay, thriving off being a loud busybody that is difficult to please. As she lives a decidedly dull life herself, she finds pleasure in creating drama with others’ lives and is a problematic citizen to Sergeant Farrat who must constantly deal with her meddling complaints to him as the law in town. At times, Beula is more like a petulant child then a grown woman, ‘stamped[ing] her feet’ (Part 1) with disappointment that Tilly has returned to town. She is full of nervous energy, constantly ‘hopped[ing] from one foot to the other’ (Part 1) in an action that Farrat suspects is due to her being buck-teethed and therefore ‘starving… malnourished and mad’ (Part 1).

Gertrude (Trudy) Pratt

Beginning the novel as a shy girl who works diligently behind the counter of her parent’s general store, she is transformed by Tilly’s creation for her and insists her ‘gown’ (Part 2) will cement William’s affection for her and erase any suspicion that he was only marrying her because she was pregnant to him. Her ‘dark chestnut locks… swept up in a poised wave’ (Part 2) and ‘the bodice… wrapped firmly about her waist and snugly around her hips…’ (Part 2) is a sharp contrast to the ‘full-faced girl with [the] soft brown eyes’ (Part 2) who worked at the smallgoods counter of her father’s store and made every attempt to woo William by reapplying red lipstick in his presence and speaking in breathy tones.

Once this transformation has occurred, Gertrude (not unlike Tilly) changes her name to Trudy to symbolise her new self and insists everyone, including her family and new husband call her this. Interestingly, Ham is careful to remind us that glamour is fleeting as ‘pregnancy had added almost three stone to Trudy… her face had swelled… [and] fluid bobbed about her stern like lifebuoys of rough waves…’ (Part 2).

Power and ambition play havoc with her inherent ambition to elevate beyond her ranks and she becomes and casualty of these ambitions. By manipulating William into a hasty marriage, they grow further apart from one another until William finally admits over a drink at the bar that ‘I [he] don’t’ [doesn’t] really love my [his] wife’ (Part 3) to which the reply is ‘you’re [he’s] not alone there.’ (Part 3) Trudy is barely tolerated by her husband and his family, becomes an embarrassment to her father and mother and, rightfully, plays a dedicated portrayal of evil Lady Macbeth in the town play.

Gertrude (Trudy) Pratt Quotes

At home, Tilly sat by the fire with a glass of beer and a cigarette, thinking about her schooldays with dumpy little Gertrude who had to wear extra elastic in her plaits because her hair was so thick. Part 2

She let the tea-coloured silk negligee slide over her chilly nipples and looked in the mirror again. ‘I am Mrs William Beaumont of Windswept Crest,’ she said. Part 2

Trudy stepped close to Elsbeth and, leaning down over her, yelled, ‘ You’re always telling me what I can’t do. I can do anything I want.’ (Trudy as the play director) Part 4

Elsbeth Beaumont

Elsbeth is a controlling woman who resides outside of Dungatar on her husband’s farm. Despite her having high hopes that her ‘travelled… worldly’ (Part 1) son William will ‘need to look much further than here to find suitable companionship’ (Part 1), he gets Gertrude Pratt pregnant and there is a hasty wedding to disguise their infidelity.

Predictably, she and her daughter-in-law Gertrude argue about most things and when it is established (albeit foolishly) that the cast of the Eisteddfod no longer require Elsbeth’s funding for the play, she exits the novel calling the residents ‘a bunch of fools… half-wits… uncouth, grotesque and common…’ (Part 4) in a sudden barrage of truths.

William Beaumont Junior

William, an eligible bachelor in the Dungatar town, returns from agricultural college in the first half of the novel. Although Gertrude is originally infatuated with him, William is relatively ambivalent toward the ‘girl leaning over a bin shovelling chaff into a hessian sack’ (Part 1) and believes a man who has ‘mixed in society’ (Part 1) will be able to snag a wife from better circles than the Pratts. William, typical of many young men of the era is pressured to be successful and his mother reminds anyone that will listen that he must ‘work towards our [his family’s] future’ (Part 1) but self-doubt overwhelms him and although he toys with the idea of Tilly as a potential match, in an effort to lose himself in blissful oblivion, he and Gertrude sleep together and a hasty marriage much ensue. Interestingly, in the Eisteddfod, William is cast as King Duncan in the Scottish play, a role of the great King that is betrayed by his loyal friends and dies in the first act.

William Beaumont Junior Quote

‘My future,’ muttered William determinedly, ‘I will make a life worth living here.’ Then self-doubt engulfed him and he looked at his lap, his chin quivering. Part 1

Muriel and Alvin Pratt

The Pratts are owners of the Pratt General Store, the mercantile shop in the centre of Dungatar. Alvin was said to have ‘a courteous manner, but he was mean’ (Part 1) and this is probably why he was not liked by the townsfolk and they usually turned their backs on him. He refers to his daughter as a ‘great calico bag of water…’ (Part 1) and exhibits very little affection toward her throughout the rest of the novel.

His wife Muriel is a pushy snob. She is a meddler and an opinionated gossip who, despite her husband’s insistence that there’s no ‘chance of unloading her [their daughter, Gertrude] to anyone’, pushes her daughter to attend the dance on Saturday in hopes to strike a connection with the town’s newest bachelor, William Beaumont.

Muriel and Alvin Pratt Quote

‘This is the Pratts’ store,’ said Lesley, breaking the trance. ‘The only supply outlet for miles, a gold mine! It’s got everything – the bread monopoly, the butcher, haberdashery, hardware, even veterinary products…’ (Lesley introducing the town to Una) Part 3