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
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