Henry Lawson’s Short Stories

● MODULE A - Language, Identity and culture

Themes:
➢ Loneliness & isolation
➢ Bush life
➢ Class issues
➢ Home and belonging
➢ Identity
➢ Realistic portrayal of the Australian outback

THE DROVER’S WIFE

Quote Technique Effect

Setting
“The two-roomed house is built of round timber, Imagery Conveys the hardship in which they live.
slabs, and stringy bark, and floored with split slabs.”

“Bush all around - bush with no horizon, for the Repetition/Biblical Allusion
country is flat… The bush consists of stunted, rotten
native apple trees.”

Gender/carelessness of men
“She put on an old pair of her husband’s trousers and Symbolism The Drover’s Wife wears the pants as she completes
tried to beat out the fire with a green tree branch.” Antithesis the duties that a man would normally be tasked with.

“She is glad when her husband returns, but she does Cumulative list / Characterisation Points out that Drover’s Wife does not faze over
not gush or make a fuss about it.” much.
“Would take her to the city and keep her there like a Irony / Contrast Considering the circumstances, it is ironic that
princess” Lawson has mentioned this. It emphasises her
situation so that there is a sense of realisation.
● Drover - careless
● Wife - Hopeful

Man vs. Nature

“She fought a bushfire… she fought a flood… she Repetition Express man vs nature in an explicit way.
fought a mad bullock… She also fights the crows and Demonstrates the character of this woman and the
eagles.” brutality of life in the bush.

“She rushes out and aims a broomstick at the birds as Simile / Symbolism / Characterisation Whilst the woman doesn’t actually have a gun, the
though it were a gun… they are cunning, but a simile represents the woman’s tenaciousness and
woman’s cunning is greater.” strength.

Characterisation
“Gaunt, sun-browned bush-woman” Characterisation - Gives the readers a perspective of what the
characters look like
- It conveys that she has taken on the masculine
role of confronting danger forcing her to look
this way

“The land-as-woman” Metaphorical / Characterisation - The bush might seem sparse and monotonous,
yet it teems with life and vibrancy
- The Drover’s Wife appears simple, but
beneath her mind teems with memories,
wishes, and woes.

“Come here at once when I tell you, you little High modality / Metaphor Expresses a lack of compassion and kindness
wretch”

Resignation and Acceptance

The mother is never named and the third-person references to her as she ‘she’ universalises her bush experience and lifestyle.

“As a girl she built the usual castles in the air; but all Metaphor / Paradoxical The lady’s magazine is a fantasy for her: it provides a
her girlish hopes and aspirations have long been window into a dream that she has long given up on.
dead. She finds all the excitement and recreation she
needs in the Young Ladies’ Journal.

“As a girl-wife she hated it, but now she would feel Oxymoron It points out that in her early married days she could
strange away from it.” not imagine this would be her life.

“Everlasting madness of stunted trees” Descriptive language

THE LOADED DOG

Quote Technique Effect

“Dave Regan, Jim Bently, and Andy Page were Sibilance - Men are hopeful but their tasks may be a
sinking a shaft at Stony Creek in search of a rich gold Repetition fruitless endeavour.
quartz reef which was supposed to exist in the
vicinity”

“The result was usually an ugly pothole…” - Life was harsh

- All the steps they go through gives an ugly
result

“Why not blow the fish up in the big water-hole with - Shows Dave is not the smartest individual
a cartridge?” - Andy is blamed if Dave’s idea doesn’t work
“He thought the thing out and Andy Page worked it
out.”

“Big enough to blow” Alliteration - Criticism about the idea

“A big, foolish, four-footed mate” Alliteration - Mateship involving the dog being implied

“As bushmen do in all weathers, waiting till dinner Foreshadowing - How bushment act
should be ready. The retriever went nosing around - Collective experiences/ interests
after something he seemed to have missed.”
“His legs started before his brain did” Characterisation - Fight or flight response
- Body reaction

“The dog leapt and capered round him, delighted as a - Light-hearted

dog could be to find his mates, as he thought, on for a - Undermines the danger of the situation
frolic.”

“Went up it like a native bear” Simile - Humour created

- Carefully lays the bomb underneath him
- Danger heightened

“Time flew much faster in his simulated imagination - Heightened state of anxiety
than it did in reality”

“Tommy dropped the cartridge, gave one terrified - Tommy out of danger
yell, and took to the bush.”

“Spidery, thievish, cold-blooded kangaroo-dogs, Descriptive language

mongrel sheep and cattle-dogs, vicious black and
yellow dogs-”

➔ Lawson uses simple but provocative vocabulary

➔ Bushmen are miners (not drovers)
◆ Collective ownership of mine - equality factor
➔ Everything happens in order - story told chronologically
➔ Strong use of humour to minimise senses of danger
➔ Comical, light-hearted impression
➔ Perseverance, courage, and determination to make a living, seen as the modern Australian lifestyle
➔ Narrator is pointing out humour despite their sense of fear
➔ Three characters are distinct, individual and named - not anonymous
◆ Represents aspects of Australian culture

THE UNION BURIES ITS DEAD

Quote Technique Effect

 The carelessness of Bush Men
“Liquor, however, is stronger than Unionism… more Juxtaposition Points out where the priorities of the bushmen lie.
than two-third of the funeral were unable to follow” There is no sentiment for the dead.

“Put the hat down, my friend; is not the memory of Rhetorical question It is a question where the bushmen’s priorities lie and
our departed brother worth more than my whether they actually care about the dead.
complexion?”

“There’s the devil” Antiphrasis / Irony Conveys disrespect to the Priest and to the Roman
Catholic religion.

“Perhaps not one of them possessed a soul any more Tone - careless Suggesting a reason for why they did not care about
than the corpse did - but that doesn’t matter.” the death.

Isolation & Loneliness

“Deep enough to drown” Irony Said as a joke the man did actually end up drowning.

“It doesn’t matter much - nothing does. The fall of Tone - cynical Unrespectful to the dead pointing out it means
lumps of clay on a stranger's coffin doesn’t sound any nothing.
different from the fall of things on an ordinary
wooden box…”

“We were all strangers to the corpse.” Motif / repetition The word 'stranger’ is pointed out to emphasise the
isolation of the bushmen.

“We did hear it later on, what his real name was; but Tone - disregard The dead does not matter much to them.
if we ever chance to read it… for we have already Present the notion that they are hardened to adversity.
forgotten it.”

Challenging the notion of a Romantic Australian Landscape

“I have left out the wattle - because it wasn’t there.” Allusion - Lawson is alluding to Banjo Patterson
romanticising of the bush
- Lawson is confronting it and emphasising the
realities of the bush

“I have left out the ‘sad Australian sunset’ because Personification - It mocks Patterson for his portrayal of the
the sun is not going out at the time.” bush.
- It emphasises a sense of harshness and
unsympathetic feeling toward this burial.

SHOOTING THE MOON

Quote Technique Effect

“We lay in camp in the fringe of the mulga, and Adjectives - Importance of relationships in the bush
watched the big, red, smoky, rising moon out on the - Smoking: united in experience
edge of the misty plain, and smoked and thought - Reflects calm mood
together sociably.” - Shows resilience of the bush

“He lit up; he was always lighting up when he was - Connection between smoking and storytelling
reminded of something.” as a social interaction

“I carried the rope in case of accident, or in case of - Dark humour

fire to lower my things out of the window - or hang - Mental illness evident
myself, maybe”

“I’ll stoush yer!’ Colloquial language - Australian idioms present

- Violence is normalised and accepted

“I was frightened the swag would make a noise; - Senses of difficulty and hardship faced in his
anyway, I’d have to drop the rope, and that was sure life
to make a noise. So we agreed for one of us to go
down and land the swag.”

“Well, you see, we didn’t know you, boss.” - Honestly legitimised

- Willing to own up to mistakes
- Reflects Australian identity

“Well, he was white, any road” Metaphor - Racial judgement

“Dead. - Give us the matches.” - Lack of emotion

➔ First person used throughout

➔ Dialogue between two men
➔ Collective and unifying experience of smoking
➔ Persona interjects with humour
➔ ‘Shooting the moon’ - stealthy run away during the night without paying for something

➢ Love of relaxation
➢ Mateship & friendship
➢ Aussie character trope
➢ Landscape/environment being ‘consuming’
➢ Hardship & poverty in Australian bush

OUR PIPES

Quote Technique Effect

“The moon looked like a big new copper boiler.” Simile - Setting the context
Motif
Domestic imagery

“We had tramped twenty-five miles on a dry stretch Repetition - Harsh reality of life in the bush
on a hot day - swagmen know what that means.” - Collective identity
- Shared culture of the bush

“We cursed society because we weren’t rich men” Cynical tone - Describing the way society shunes bushmen

“The old folks were alive then, and we were all at - Reference to death
home, except Tom. - Reflecting back on his childhood
He reflected.” - Pause for also the audience to reflect

“Mother was at work out in the kitchen at the back, - Mother playing stereotypical roles
washing up the tea-things” - Holds the most power in the
 household

“Small and cold and pure-looking, and had floated Rule of three
away back out amongst the stars.” Elegant imagery

“Kids get rum ideas.” - Reflecting on child-life innocence/naivety

“We was sort of pensioned off by mother” Euphemism - Mother being dominating force

“She kept him pretty well inside his income…” - Source of authority in household
- Lawson challenging gender stereotypes

“Ah! Many a solemn, thoughtful old smoke we had - Sacred/ritual

together in the quiet - the old man and me.” - Creating a bond

➔ Cultural identity of swagmen

➔ Individual relationships
➔ Use of idioms
➔ Playing around of gender stereotypes
➔ Cultural context of smoking
◆ Creating a sense of community
● Allowed opportunities for reflection