The Gown

Miriam is a Jew who survived Nazi-occupied France by hiding her identity. Nonetheless, she was arrested for aiding the French Resistance and imprisoned in Ravensbrück. She arrives in England after the war tired, afraid, traumatized, and filled with survivor’s guilt. She left France because of the continued hatred toward the Jews. The man who was responsible for her family being interred in the concentration camps wasn’t sentenced for his crimes, and after his trial, Miriam realized things hadn’t changed in France: “What she had seen instead was hatred. Corrosive, incendiary hatred, and she had looked around the courtroom and recognized it in the eyes of others there, too” (20). Miriam is afraid and tired of living on edge, so she leaves France to start over in England.

At first, Miriam is terrified to be in England because she is scared somebody will know she is a Jew. It isn’t until Ann invites Miriam to live with her that Miriam starts to come out of her shell. Ann’s kindness causes Miriam to start to heal. Miriam also begins to change through her relationship with Walter Kaczmarek. She meets him on the street and is immediately drawn to him despite not wanting to be. The day of their first date, when she impulsively decides to call and meet him for lunch, is when Miriam first encounters other Jews in England. She is shocked that they are outwardly congregating in the streets and synagogues. The sight triggers Miriam’s fear that somebody will attack, but she calms down by reminding herself that this isn’t Nazi-occupied France. Miriam longs to connect with her people and heritage but isn’t ready to face the trauma of the past: “To hear and see and sign would be to remember. To let the wounds be opened once more, and the bitter pain of loss consume her. Not today. Not yet” (160). This sighting starts to draw Miriam back to the past and influences her choice to tell Miriam and Walter her story. Ann and Walter’s steadfast love and patience help Miriam heal. After Miriam tells them about her past, the survivor’s guilt she holds starts to dissolve.

When Ann’s pregnancy is revealed, Miriam supports her friend as Ann did for her in the beginning. Miriam comforts Ann and helps give her the strength to move to Canada. In the conversation with Ann about the pregnancy, Miriam reveals how she healed and the steps forward for Ann:

‘So is distance the cure? To simply take myself to the opposite side of the world?’

‘It will help. It helped me, and I did not go so very far. But time is also important. Time will help you to heal, and it will wash away some of the memories that trouble you.’

‘I don’t think I can ever forget.’

‘No,’ Miriam admitted. ‘You will not. But the weight of it is not so much after a while. Perhaps it is the case that you grow stronger? For you will. I promise you will.’

‘And until then?’

‘You endure. You have done it before’ (330-31).

Miriam was able to heal from her past with time, distance, and friendship. She endured and found something better on the other side, and her change allows her to be there for Ann in her time of need.

After Heather’s grandmother dies, she goes into a tailspin with the discovery of the embroidered flowers that she left for her, which hinted at an important past that her grandmother never told her about. Heather told her grandmother everything, so she grieves not only the loss of her grandmother but also the feeling of the floor being ripped from under her. The grandmother Heather thought she knew is gone, and Heather is grappling with this new grandmother she never knew. Heather takes the gift as a sign that her grandmother wanted her to discover her past.

Heather’s quest is accelerated by losing her job. Instead of being depressed about a jobless future, Heather is excited that she will finally discover her purpose and find what she’s passionate about. The narrator observes,

Maybe this would give her a break. A chance to step off the hamster wheel and think about what she really wanted to do with her life. She hadn’t stopped scampering on that wheel for years. From high school to university to internship to job to job to job, she’d always said yes to the offers she'd been given, always convinced that forward was the only way to go. She’d had her head down for more than a decade now, staring at the wheel beneath err feet, so sure she’d trip and fall if she ever looked up (131-32).

Losing her job is the catalyst for her finding her purpose, and she does that by looking into her grandmother’s past. Heather pushes through the doubt she has about digging into Ann’s life to find out why her grandmother made the choices she did.

Meeting Miriam helps Heather come to terms with who her grandmother was in England, and why she kept things from her. Her grandmother had been badly hurt and couldn’t face revealing it to her grandchild, so she left a clue for Heather to figure out. In the end, Heather accepts that her grandmother sent her on a quest to find out who she was, and Heather wants to share that knowledge with the world. Heather decides she wants to write stories that she is passionate about, the first one being about Ann, Miriam, and the women who worked on the royal wedding gown. It is Heather’s tribute to Ann and one that she had to go on a personal journey to create.

Captain Jeremy Thickett-Milne is introduced as the man who sweeps Ann off her feet by singling her out and dancing with her. Ann isn’t the prettiest in the room, and she isn’t wealthy, so this rich army captain wooing her seems like a fairy tale. Jeremy at first seems to be the charming, romantic hero that a woman in Ann’s position could only dream of.

Things quickly change when Ann calls him and a woman picks up telling her not to call again. Jeremy runs into Ann outside of work and sweeps the incident under the rug by saying his sister was playing a cruel prank. Ann is hurt still but agrees to go out with him. At the Italian café, Jeremy again appears charming, calling Ann pretty and nice, so Ann agrees to go out with him again. The fancy restaurant Jeremy takes Ann to makes it seem like Jeremy is a true gentleman and serious about his intentions, but when a rich couple stops by their table and he doesn’t introduce Ann, his character is thrown in doubt again. Ann wants to believe him when he says they are snobs, but she can’t help feeling this relationship will never work out because of class differences.

Jeremy’s character is revealed when he refuses to acknowledge Ann in front of his friends at Hartnell. Jeremy begs to be forgiven. Ann blames herself for the snub because of their difference in class, again showing Jeremy’s manipulation. Jeremy reveals his true colors to Ann when he says she’s been a waste of time for not telling him about the royal wedding gown, which is the only reason he was dating her. All the suspicions about what lies behind Jeremy’s charming façade are confirmed: Jeremy is manipulative and insincere, and he eventually becomes a rapist and fugitive.

Walter is a steady presence in Miriam’s life from the moment he is introduced. Since he’s a journalist, it would be easy to assume that he would pressure Miriam for an inside look into Princess Elizabeth’s gown, but he doesn’t. Unlike Jeremy, who doesn’t seem like a threat to expose the royal dress, Walter’s profession as a journalist might make him seem dangerous. But he soon dispels the reader’s worry that he will try to get the details from Miriam. He keeps his word that he won’t ask and even warns his friends from asking.

Walter is also patient with Miriam. He senses that she is reluctant to talk about the war, and he doesn’t push her to do so until she’s ready. When he finds out she’s terrified of dogs, he has his friends put them away. He assumed Miriam was Jewish because of her name and the fact she wouldn’t talk about the war, but he waits for her to tell him. When she finally does, he comforts her and reminds her that she shouldn’t feel guilty for surviving. He’s the unassuming hero that Miriam needs to help her heal, and their happiness seems well deserved.