Inheritance Hannie Rayson Analysis

In ‘Inheritance’, Hannie Rayson has created a view of the world that stretches beyond the narrow bounds of its Mallee setting and into the murky depths of Australian pysche. Relationships in the bittersweet contemporary 2003 play are destabilised by conflicting beliefs of who is Allandales’s rightful heir. This comes about as bitter octogenarian twins Dibs’ and Girlie have the family come back to the small country town of Rushton to celebrate their birthday in the beginning of act one. The impending death of Farley Hamilton propels the issue of Allandale’s inheritance into the foreground. Branches of the family are set against each other and amid all this there is the identity, place and entitlement of Nugget Hamilton.
When Farley dies, the fact of the will emerge; values and loyalties are tested and vicious family in-fighting follows. Dibs tears up the will as she finds out that her stubborn husband, Farley has left the family to Nugget, his son from liason with an Aboriginal woman. Dib’s then signs the farm over to her nephew Lyle who personifies the struggle of a contemporary man in the drought stricken Australian bush. Lyle is
In many instances we are shown Lyle’s inadequacies as a farmer. This is first seen when he has over stocked the land and his regular attempts to involve Nugget in the purchases of machinery, telling him to ‘take a risk for one in his life’. We are also aware that his drinking and temper are out of control as he asks a sheep ‘what are you fucking looking at?’ Lyle resents Nugget and attempts to humiliate him, calling Nugget a ‘fucking shit arse coon’ and accusing him of being ‘piss weak’, because he too is aware of Nugget being the ‘real farmer’ despite Lyle being born ‘premature just on harvest,’ which according to his mother Girlie makes a prosperous