Poe said that a short story is like a house, take one brick out and none of it will make sense (Griffiths, Lecture). This is because the short story, unlike a novel, is contingent on every detail within it, from setting to characterization to conflict. Henry Lawson’s short story “The Drover’s Wife” follows a heroic woman protecting her children during a snake attack in the midst of a thunderstorm. Set in the bush, it offers a surprising depiction of the strength and fortitude of the unnamed woman in the face of many conflicts and troubles. In bush stories, women are often shown as weak and in need of masculine protection, but Lawson’s depiction of gender opposes. As gender is a social construction, Lawson’s heroic woman …show more content…
In a series of recollections, the protagonists takes the reader through various trials and tribulations. First of these is a bushfire, which the main character fought while her husband was away (Lawson 23). The fire demonstrates a major disaster that “threatened to burn her out” (Lawson 23). Lawson uses this disaster to show his main character’s ability to fight off destruction. Interestingly, Lawson dresses the woman “in her husband’s trousers” (23). This cross-dressing represents the mother taking on the role of the traditional male in protecting the household. Another disaster is that of the flood. The woman tried to fight off a flood threatening to destroy a local dam. Lawson shows the woman working in harsh conditions: “She stood for hours in the drenching downpour, and dug an overflow gutter to save the dam across the creek. But she could not save it” (23). However, Lawson undermines his own rejection of stereotypical gender roles in both instances. In the case of the fire, men arrive to help her, which she needed to succeed (Lawson 23). In the case of the flood, she fails without help. This need for help and failure, however, represents the harshness of the bush rather than the weakness of the protagonist. The scenarios are set and described in such ways that a male would have failed equally as a female. The main character does …show more content…
This absence shapes the story because Lawson depicts the strength of the woman on her own. Because of the nature of short stories in making every word count, absences become as important as what is in the story itself. Males appear numerous times throughout the story, but none consistently stay to help the main character. One example of this is the brother-in-law, who lives nineteen miles away (Lawson 22). Despite the lack of constant supervision, the brother acts as a supplier of provisions for the mother (Lawson 22). This undermines Lawson’s depiction of the woman as an independent and self-sufficient woman, but it also demonstrates the poverty and isolation that the woman and her family face. While it is true that without that brother-in-law she may not survive, the woman barters to some degree with her own brother-in-law: “The brother-in-law kills one of the sheep occasionally, gives her what she needs of it, and takes the rest in return for other provisions” (Lawson 22). This transaction essentially transfers the role of provider from the brother-in-law to the woman, with the brother-in-law acting only as an intermediary. Lastly, the husband never makes a direct appearance. Lawson leaves the patriarch out to display how unneeded he is to the survival of the family. A flood left them nearly out of money and resources, and he only has