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
life though the use of colour, salience and visual metaphor. Therefore both composers use there own form to convey meaning through distinctively visual images.
Henry Lawson creates a distinctively visual image for the responder of extreme isolation and hardship though stong element of descriptive language.
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
name.
As with Lawson, Drysdale has used techniques to illustrate the effects of isolation on an individual. However, the salience of the subject in the frame and her clear facial features which stare out at the viewer encourages them to have an immediate personal connection with the subject though the eye contact.
The size of her in proportion to the rest of the frame suggest her dominace over the environment. The use of light and shade to illuminate her face acts as a focal point pushing the responder to engage with her as an individual, who despite the difficulties is still standing strong, in this way the texts both reflect the drover’s wife as a woman of substance.
Strength of the drovers wife character is further reinforced by Lawson though the use of flashbacks were she recalls past events such as bush fire, dam floodings and a child’s death. Different time frames create distinct tension and allow the responder to visualise the danger the character faces.
The use of short sentences further builds the tension of the climax of the story. In this point of the narrative. As the mother and her children wait for the snake to emerge “the dog lies still and the woman sits as one facinated”, “the snake comes out a foot further”.
Lawson effectively places the reader in the scene though the effective use of auditory imagery inviting us to experience the necessary violence of the snakes death at the hands of the drovers wife. “Thud, thud – the snake’s back is broken in several places. Thud, thud – its head crushed”.
This use of onomatopoeia evokes a strong visual image of the dramatic scene, as the drovers wife kills the snake that has held her family hostage. This makes us feel as if were can hear the sounds in our head and we are apart of this brutal act.
While Lawson has used these language elements in a intense way to create the visual image, Drysdale’s distinctive visual portral of isolation and a difficult environment is effectively conveyed though colour and visual metaphor.
Drysdale incorporates the iconic ochre coloured ground that reaches the the horizon but dulls the tone to suggest an evironment which saps the energy and life out of it effectively establishes a hostile environment.
The visual metaphor of the ‘Skeletal trees’ suggesting isolation, death and a barren ladscape is in stark contrast to Lawson’s listing of “The everlasting, maddening, sameness of the shunted trees.”
Lawson and Drysdale show how powerful distinctively visual images of characters and environment can be established though language forms and features and visual forms and features. These forms and features lead the responder to feel, see and connect to two different views ofone woman’s experience of living in the outback.