Preview

The Drovers Wife

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
803 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Drovers Wife
The two Australian composers, Henry Lawson and Russel Dyrysdale effectively convey two powerful yet contrasting images of characters and the way the environment can inpact their sense of isolation and hardship in there respective composition of the same title ‘The Drovers Wife’ .
The different forms allow each of the composers to create an intensly visual experience for the responder and encourage a sense of personal connection to the subject. The techniques used by Lawson including, powerful textual imagery, onomateopoia, narrative structure and juxtapostion convey the character and the experiences of the drovers wife.
Lawson’s story evoked a strong desire in Drysdale to bring his own interpretation of these images and bring them to
…show more content…
These language devices allow the drover’s wife character to be fully revealed as a three dimensional character, allowing us to feel emathy for her emotions and experiences.
The effect of the hardships of the environment on the drover’s wife is clearly seen through Lawson’s description of her physical appearance, “The gaunt sun-browned bush women”. This is further reinforced by the brutal and comfronting imagery used to portray her children as having a “ragged, dried up look”. Powerful imagery of the physical toll on this “once young city woman” is effective in establishing a strong impression of the woman battling against isolation in the bush.
This juxtapostion of this distinctively visual impression of her appearence in the depiction of her “Sitting with her sewing basket and a copy of the young ladies journal”. This seeming paradox of the bush women who has been physically and metally shaped by her surroundings and her feminine side, makes the responder build an image of the drover’s wife as more than a one dimensional woman which is suggested by Lawsons decision not to give her a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Maestro

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Distinctively visual images evoke profound ideas and notions about society, culture and values which enables responders to perceive reality in a new light, challenging or reinforcing their own ideas and attitudes. Through the use of distinctively visual images, composers are able to add depths and complexity to the characters within their respective texts in a way that shapes and deepen their responder’s perceptions of these characters. In the postmodern novel “Maestro” by Peter Goldsworthy, distinctively visual images is used to convey Edward Keller’s traumatic and shady past, allowing the audience to perceive his distressing past experiences with greater depth and clarity. Additionally, Goldsworthy uses distinctively visual images to illustrate Keller’s isolation and displacement in Darwin while also highlighting the complex and nebulous relationship between him and his student, Paul. Similarly, I have used distinctively visual images to represent how Goldsworthy’s characterization of Keller has shaped perceptions of him, allowing the audience to see both his past as a musician in Vienna and his life as an exile attempting to escape his traumatic past.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem ‘Drifters’ depicts the restless life of a transient and a rouseabout family. The poem demonstrates the destiny of the family’s existence. ‘Drifters’ is about a household who move from place to place, as the father needs to move to find work ‘notice how the oldest girl is close to tears’ shows that the hardship that the eldest sister has to go through, she realised that her nomadic lives may never change, she cannot live as a normal teenager as she is not stationed in one place long enough, to become friends with the same age as hers, she is gradually frustrated…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Distinctively visual elements convey concepts and ideas presented by composers in texts which are expressed through the construction of writing within a novel or through symbolic artworks. In the novel ‘Maestro’ by Peter Goldsworthy and the sand art performance by Kseniya Simonova, distinctively visual images are generated thorough various techniques which convey the concepts of love and lust, the significance of loving bonds and the impact of war.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Elizabeth Keckley

    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages

    (4)Xiomara Santamarina Feminist Studies 28, no. 3 (fall 2002) In Search of Our (5)Mother’s Garden: Womanist Prose, Alice Walker…

    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Run Lola Run Essay

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Composers use distinctively visual techniques to convey distinctive experiences within our lives, such as the race against time, duties imposed by relationships and making choices. This is exemplified through the film ‘Run Lola Run! ‘ and the poem ‘The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock´ (hereafter ‘Prufrock´).…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through Quindlen’s use of imagery, she appeals to the audience’s emotions by connecting in a personal way, first describing looking over a loved one’s cold corpse. “They go back over the plowed ground of his short life, and…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lawson longs to leave the harshness of his surroundings and such negative feelings towards the bush are expressed within his short stories. Sacrifices are to be made whilst living in the outback and this is clearly demonstrated through the strong development of the character, the drover’s wife. The symbol of the ‘Young Ladies’ Journal’, represents the wife’s feministic side which she has left behind in order to brave and survive the environment. ‘Her surroundings are not favourable to the development of the “womanly” or sentimental side of nature’, helps the audience to visualise the precise character of the wife, adding to the understanding of the merciless conditions she has grown such accustom to that she would feel ‘strange away from it’. The vastness and ruthlessness of the countryside is also highlighted through the use of repetition and unequivocal language. Illustrating a baron domain in which ‘There is nothing to see... not a soul meet’, effectively focuses on the broad surroundings of the drover’s wife. To further develop the negative, distinct experience of the outback, Lawson bluntly describes the harsh environment as a ‘bush with no horizon’. This unequivocal language evokes an atmosphere of endless monotony. Negative adjectives describing the surroundings of the drover’s wife help the audience to distinctively visual image from a dry and parched location - ‘stunted,…

    • 1750 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In ‘The drover’s wife’ Lawson creates powerful images by employing distinctively visual language that enables the responder to feel the hardships that others face. Concrete sensory description is effectively used to create a beautiful image when The Drover’s wife sits to watch the snake all night. ‘A green sapling club laid in readiness on the dresser by her side, together with her sewing basket and copy of the young ladies journal.’ The journal is symbolic of the approach she takes in not letting the bush take away her femininity. Juxtaposing to this, the club is symbolic of what she needs to do, it displays her innovative ways and her ability to be content with her lifestyle. The sewing basket acts as a ‘bridge’ between the two as it represents both sides of the woman. Images of a resourceful, cooperative and woman of sophistication are conjured up in the responders mind. One is able establish a relationship of commendation with the drover’s wife whilst despising the Australian Bush for what it puts her through.…

    • 769 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Disticivley Visual

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Drover wife is about a Drover (a farmer or someone that herd livestock such as cows and sheep) who goes away for a long period of time working while his wife and their 4 children live all by themselves out in the outback. Throughout this story she is experience many different harsh experiences living in the outback. During this story, she is portrayed as a tough, determined woman facing many difficult challenges by herself including floods, drought and disease. This gives the reader an impression of her courage and strength. Lawson describes the Drover’s wife as a ‘gaunt, sun-browned bush woman.’ This makes us as responders, imagine a woman who has had a hard life and been struggling. The Australian bush is effectively described throughout the story with the use of visual imagery. The harsh conditions of Australia are brought to our attention by ‘Bush with no horizon, for the country is flat.’ The author describes how there are no distinctive features. The bush is portrayed as an unfriendly places ‘nothing to relieve the eyes’. The author also illustrates how hard it is to survive in the outback ‘the bush consists of stunted rotten apple trees’. Lawson uses descriptive language and adjectives to illustrate the house the family lives in. ‘the two roomed house is built of round timber slabs and stringy bark’ it describes how the primitive house is small and home-made.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Distinctively Visual

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There is a sense of isolation in the description of the Drovers Wife, a sense that she and her family are cut off from the rest of the world also that the house they live in reflects this sparseness.…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ballad and Paterson

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages

    depict their very unique perspectives on the world and people. Through techniques such as juxtaposition, textual form and creation of interesting personalities, both composers convey specific views on class difference, personality and place.…

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Much like many hardworking Australians, Henry Lawson failed to make it happen in the city, so he took a journey inland. This journey inland is a reflection of most of Henry Lawsons work, depicting the hard life of the country. Giving a different, realistic perspective to the usual laid-back image of the country lifestyle. ‘The Drover’s Wife’ written by Henry Lawson shows a hard-working mother willing to do anything for the protection of her kids, whilst her husband goes droving. Staying up at night to look out for a snake, fighting bushfires, dangerous men and trying to fight farm illnesses.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Distinctly Visual Essay

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A distinctively visual text influences our view of the world, and object or a person by the composer presenting us with new ideas and emotions that let us see from another point of view. Henry Lawson is an Australian writer that has the ability to twist his readers into his stories so they understand the true feelings and emotions of the characters. He presents us with the idea the bush is a negative place to live. But all Australians have a connection with it.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Often in poetry the technique of imagery is relied on heavily to present the reader with a visual stimulus that allows the poet to express a set of complex ideas. Poet Gwen Harwood utilises certain everyday images to illustrate the tendency of society to categorize the roles and expectations of females in the 1950’s. Some of her works such as ‘In the Park’, ‘Suburban Sonnet’ and ‘Dichterlibre’ draw on images of bickering children, household chores and tiresome motherly figures in order for the reader grasp some of the intangible concepts presented in the poems, such as the struggle for female independence in a patriarchal society and the social inequity experienced by the housewives and mothers of the 50’s. Harwood’s poetry gives voice to these drained women and entices the reader to take notice of the restrictions placed on a young mother by society’s expectations.…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Drovers wife shows the harsh landscape of the australian outback through the tough times the drovers wife has to endure by herself to survive. The perception of her is that she is a protective mother and a persistent battler against the diasters of the australian outback. The use of alliteration “no undergrowth, nothing to relieve the eye…nineteen miles to the nearest…civilisation” shows the drovers wife as being desolated and isolated from society.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics