The Drovers Wife: Hardship of Life in the Outback :: Drovers Wife Essays

The Drovers wife  Hardship of Life in the Outback             The short-story The Drovers Wife is written by Henry Lawson, Australias most noteworthy short-story writer and poet. The Drovers Wife is probably Lawsons best-known work, and was first published in the collection entitled While the Billy Boils in 1892. Lawson was deeply elicit in the effects of the harsh Australian outback on peoples lives, having himself pass 18 months in the bush. This was expressed in a number of questionable bush ballads and stories, The Drovers Wife being one of them. This short-story has the Australian bush or outback as its setting. This is revealed in the two first paragraphs, where the author makes a short and precise description of the little house and the surrounding landscape. To branch the time of the story is, however, more difficult. The text gives us only a few clues to when it might have happened. The most obvious one is, The drouth of 18 - ruined him. First I thought that 18 meant 1918, that considering that the short-story was written in 1892, this must be wrong. The year referred to is most probably 1818. The main conflict in The Drovers Wife is perhaps not so evident as we may think. At first it is quite slack to imagine that there is a conflict between the bush woman and the snake in the grass. The reason for that is that the snake is a threat to the woman. If she does not kill it, the snake can bite one of the children, which will be a mishap since it is nineteen miles to the nearest neighbor. The child would be dead before they could number help. However, this conflict is only a consequence of the main conflict, which is mentioned in a sentence early in the text, The drover, an ex-squatter, is away with sheep. His wife and children are remaining here alone. The main problem is that the wife is left alone to divvy up with the hardships of life in the Australian bush. In my opinion Lawson uses t he incident with the snake to uncover the bush womans struggles against the outback.   The point of view used in The Drovers Wife is the Third person Limited voice. Lawson has told the story form the bush womans perspective. That allows us to see into her thoughts and feelings.