Henry Lawson: The Drover’s Wife

Distinctively Visual

Distinctively Visual

As part of this study you will be asked to explore the ways the images we see and/or visualise in texts are created.

You will consider how literary form and structure and the language used

in different texts create these images, affect

interpretation and shape meaning.

Distinctively Visual

Russel Drysdale- Australia (1912)

Distinctively Visual

Russel Drysdale- Australia (1912)

1- What is the atmosphere of the painting? (use adjectives and descriptive language)

2- Describe the setting using language that is Distinctively Visual. (use the notes from the unit 'Deconstructing Visual Text' on our Google site to help you)

3- What does this painting say about what it may be like to live in the Australian bush?

Henry Lawson

Who is he?

What are his views?

What does he value?

Look at the Historical Context of the text to gain insight into Lawson and his work.

Henry Lawson and the Australian bush

By the 1890s Australia had been settled for a little more than 100 years and Lawson was arguably the first Australian-born writer who really looked at Australia with Australian eyes, not influenced by his knowledge of other landscapes. He was the first perhaps to give voice to interpretations of an 'Australian' character.

He was also from the bush, had lived on a selection, had been brought up in bush poverty, had suffered hardship and unemployment, and knew of the characters and lifestyles he talked about. His work reflected Australian experience with an integrity readers recognised.

Information from: http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/henry-lawson

The Drover’s Wife

In “The Drover’s Wife,” Lawson acknowledges the hardships of

Australian women living in the bush. This story was unique in its time, as a female protagonist was uncommon.

Stories from this period focused on the men living in the outback; the drovers and their struggle, they dismissed the

life of the woman waiting at home suffering in silence during their

husbands' long periods of absence.

The Drover’s Wife

In The Drover’s Wife, Lawson sheds light on the life of such women, allowing the

reader insight into their often heroic actions as he creates authentic depictions

of their existence in the bush, and their fight to make it a home. In this story, we learn about one such woman, struggling

against all odds to protect her family against the elements and being shaped

by the landscape that she inhabits.

The Drover’s Wife: Form

• With a simple plot, emphasis on the character and her experiences.

• Short sentences

Short Story

• omniscient - third person, mostly written in present tense.

Narration

The Drover’s Wife: Setting

• The Australian Bush

Setting:

• unrelenting, monotonous, isolated, harsh, bleak, uninviting 

Descriptive Language:

Australian Bush

•  "bush all round"• “The bush consists of stunted,

rotten native apple-trees”• "everlasting, maddening

sameness"• “no horizon”, “no ranges in the

distance” and “no undergrowth”

Bush Landscape

Setting: The House

•  quaint, minimalist, having just the bare necessities of life. “The kitchen has no floor - or, rather, an earthen one - called a "ground floor"

• ”The two-roomed house is built of round timber, slabs, and stringy-bark, and floored with split slabs. A big bark kitchen standing at one end is larger than the house itself, veranda included”

The House

The Drover’s Wife

• Protagonist, unnamed

The Drover's Wife:

• Stoic, protective, heroic, hardened, strong, independent. 

Descriptive Language:

The Drover’s Wife

•  "gaunt sun-browned bushwoman"

• "she is not a coward"• "she is used to being left alone"• As a girl she built the usual

castles in the air; but all her girlish hopes and aspirations have long been dead.”

Characterisation:

The Drover’s Wife

• "all days are much the same to her"• "used to the loneliness of it all"• "she seems contented with her lot"• "she loves her children, but has no

time to show it. She seems harsh to them"

• "Sunday afternoon she dresses herself, tidies the children, smartens up baby, and goes for a lonely walk along the bush-track"

Daily Life:

Characters

• "big, black, yellow-eyed dog-of-all-breeds"• ""he is afraid of nothing on the face of the earth or

under it"

Alligator

• "four ragged, dried-up-looking children"• “They are two boys and two girls - mere babies”

The Children

• “a sharp-faced urchin of eleven”

Tommy

• "he is careless, but a good enough husband"

The Drover

Language

• "Tommy's skinnin' me alive wif his club.", "d'yer"

Vernacular Colloquialisms

• Sometimes vulgar, "Shet up you little ---!” “I'd like to screw their blanky necks”

Terminology

Literary Techniques

• The surrounding landscape as described by Lawson provides the reader with a visual image of the Australian Bush; this image also extends to reflect the appearance of the persona and her children – a product of the environment and their experiences.

Imagery

Literary Techniques

• In her husbands absence "she fought a bushfire", "a flood", "the pleura-pneumonia", and "a mad bullock". She has also needed to protect herself and the family from the odd "villainous-looking sundowner", "gallows-faced swagman" and black bellied snake. She also finds time to shoo the "crows and eagles" from her chickens.

Flashbacks

Literary Techniques

• She has had to make many sacrifices, including her femininity in order to live in the bush

• "her surroundings are not favourable to the development of the 'womanly' or sentimental side of nature.”

• “She put on an old pair of her husband's trousers…”

• The Young Ladies Journal shows her interest in a different life; she has made sacrifices for her family.

Femininity

Literary Techniques

• The dam breaking; “her heart [is] nearly broken too, for she [thinks] how her husband would feel when he [comes] home and [sees] the result of years of labour swept away. She cries then”

Metaphor: The Dam

Literary Techniques

• The weather and the surrounding landscape reflect the mood and the appearance of the persona.

Pathetic Fallacy

Literary Techniques

• References to the bible may be seen in the use of the snake/serpent as symbol of evil. Also in the walks taken on a Sunday, as the day of rest.

Biblical Allusion

Literary Techniques

• ‘’Bung! The crows leave..’’ “crash” “Thud, thud”

Onomatopoeia

• "Snake! Mother, here's a snake!"

Repetition

The Drover’s Wife

• “One of the children died while she was here alone. She rode nineteen miles for assistance, carrying the dead child”

Sympathy

• "Mother, I won't never go drovin' blarst me if I do!” … And she hugs him to her worn-out breast and kisses him”

Empathy