Henry Lawson was arguably the first Australian-born writer who really looked at Australia with Australian eyes, not being influenced by his knowledge of other landscapes. He was the first to give voice to interpretations of an “Australian” character. Lawson was also from the bush, growing up in bush poverty, he had suffered hardship and unemployment. He knew of the characters and lifestyles he talked about. His work reflected Australian experience with an integrity readers recognised.
In his short story “The Drovers Wife”, Lawson acknowledges the hardships of Australian women living in the bush. This story was very unique in its time as a female protagonist was very uncommon. Lawson sheds light on the life of 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 “The Drovers Wife”, we learn about a woman struggling against all odds to protect her family against the elements and being shaped by the landscape that she inhabits.
The story runs a simple plot, yet elaborates with many elements of ‘loneliness and solitude’ while enduring ‘pain and suffering’ obstacles that the persona undergoes. The anonymous nature of the character told by the narrator in third person “Bush all round – bush with no horizon, for the country is flat” gives the audience a graphic view of the landscape in which the Drovers Wife lives in. Lawson doesn’t give her a name because he wanted to encompass all bush women. The quote “she fought a bushfire once while her husband was away” gives the persona qualities to her character and allowing her to tell a story within a story creating empathy to the audience.
Lawson helps the reader to distinctly depict the harsh experience of life in the