Molly's House (Symbol)
When Tilly first arrives in Dungatar, she goes to her mother's house. "Mad Molly" has not maintained the place very well, and it is a completely chaotic mess. The frame of the house is in a state of disrepair and it is filled with old, useless objects that have not been well-cared-for. This house represents Molly's mental state, the fact that her mind is muddled and she is a pariah in society. As Tilly spends more time in Dungatar, she cleans her mother's house and makes it more livable, which coincides with Molly opening up about her past and regaining sanity. The cleanliness of the house is directly correlated to Molly's mental clarity and her ability to live in society.
Evan Pettyman's Death (Symbol)
Throughout his life, women have been Evan Pettyman's Achilles heel. He is a compulsive womanizer and philanderer and blackmails and harms others to keep his own scandals a secret. The wound that causes his death—a slash across the Achilles tendon—symbolizes the fact that his metaphoric "Achilles heel" (that is, his extramarital affairs) has ruined Tilly's life and is the root cause of her being banished from town. The Achilles heel is traditionally a symbol of a formidable person's weakness. By killing Evan Pettyman by slashing his Achilles heel, Mrs. Pettyman decisively takes down a malevolently powerful member of the community.
Red Fabric (Symbol)
When Tilly comes back to town, she is wearing a beautiful red couture dress that she has made. At the end of the film, she soaks a roll of the red fabric in paraffin and sends it down the hill to town, where it burns everything to the ground. This fabric is a symbol of Tilly herself, who has blazed into town wearing a red dress, cleansing herself of the curse she has been under and taking down everyone in Dungatar who has done her wrong. The red fabric represents not only her ability to create, but also to destroy; not only her beauty, but her rage as well.
The Silo (Symbol)
When Teddy jumps into the silo at the beginning of the film, lying in a pile of mice, it represents his scrappy and brave sensibility, and the fact that he is not afraid of the rodents that inhabit the silo. Later, he tries to impress Tilly and get her to admit that she is no longer cursed by jumping into the silo again. However, this time he drowns in the wheat below. The silo is alternately a site of innocent fun and of tragedy. It is its own curse within the town.
Dresses (Symbol)
An important group of symbols throughout the film is the dresses that Tilly makes. Each dress enables her to do something particular; the red dress causes a stir and announces her entrance as a woman who can be dangerous and is untamable. The black dress is less challenging but has the same effect and also serves the purpose of distracting the opposing football team to such a degree that Dungatar wins the match. It catches the eye of Teddy McSwinney, reeling him in and beginning a love relationship.
The dresses that Tilly makes for different people in Dungatar transform their lives. The dress she gives to Gertrude allows Gertrude to attract the attention of William, the man she loves and thinks could never love her back. Tilly's other dresses have similar effects in the town, allowing the wearers to become more powerful versions of themselves. The dresses have a transformative power, and represent Tilly's polarizing powers, her ability to manipulate, create, and change her outward reality. Also, because they are fine couture dresses, they represent a specifically feminine power, a woman's harnessing of her allure and sexual and social powers to achieve her aims.
