The Crucible of Conformity
If you go in search of analysis and interpretation of the themes of this novel, it is inevitable that you will stumble across comparisons with that play almost every American read in high school: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The story of witch hunts in Puritan Salem may seem as distant from the story told in the novel as Australia is from Massachusetts, but thematically speaking the two stories are sister cities. The bridge one must cross to get from the novel’s Dunagatar to the play’s Salem, Mass is old and a little rickety, but it more than does the trick. At the heart of the narrative is the inexorable and dangerous process of transforming a sense of community into a sense of conformity. The profoundly iconoclastic Tilly represents a threat to the conformist nature of society working its predictable path in the community. Her very independence is viewed as a threat to the stability of that community and so she must be ostracized like those deemed to be witches in Salem.
Suspicion IS Guilt
The novel explores the themes surrounding the concept that one need not necessarily actually be guilty of a crime or sin in order to be thoroughly punished for having committed it. It is enough for much in the community that suspicion fell on Tilly for the death of Stewart Pettyman. Actual evidence isn’t required, much less a trial and verdict. History has proven well that if enough people believe in the suspicion of another’s guilt, that guilt becomes the de facto truth to the point that in some cases even a literal not-guilty verdict in a literal trial is not enough to change minds. Enough people in Dungatar believe in the suspicion of Tilly some being “guilty” for Stewart’s death that no matter how altruistic her reason for returning home, she is forever tainted and there’s not a single blessed thing she can do about it. This also applies, of course, to those who were believed to be witches in colonial Salem, communists in 1950’s America, and election thieves in the 21st century. If you can the right people to believe the suspicion, it has a way of becoming the truth for even more.
Fire is the Cleanser
Tilly’s motivation for returning to her home has nothing to do with revenge, though it is revealed she more than enough reason. Those reasons come bubbling back to the surface as Tilly realizes the real tragedy of life is that you can go home again, but you probably shouldn’t. Most of the townspeople were jerks who bullied and tormented her the first time around and haven’t changed at all in the intervention. By the time she prepares to make her second exit from Dungatar, revenge is not just uppermost in her mind, it is all-consuming. The desire to mete out punishment is just one aspect of her plans for vengeance, however. Tilly has come to the conclusion that the psychological state of her hometown is corrupted and poisoned beyond redemption. So, what do you do if you face a problem like Myrtle Dunnage? The town can’t be fixed, it can’t be redeemed, and leaving it to be is clearly out of the question. As another great example of how to properly carry out revenge—the title character of the animated series Dan vs.—once observed: fire is the cleanser. If a problem can’t be solved, burn it.
