The Drover's Wife Quotes

An exposed and desolate house set in the untamed outback is the setting of ‘The Drover’s Wife’. Lawson describes the two-roomed house as being “built of stringy bark”. Similarly, he identifies the environment around the house, such as “bushes… of rotten native apple-trees” and a “waterless creek”. Lawson further explains the surroundings and her isolation in this quote “Bush all round- bush with no horizon…the country is flat”, here Lawson has used the word “no horizon” to state that there is nothing in the distance. This allows the reader to visualize the bush as being clear, flat and empty. These quotes demonstrate that the family is poor and lives a difficult life because the house is made of stringy bark; this offers discomfort and no protection

Lawson explains that “his wife and children are left here alone” for months at a time or even years. This has affected his family because the wife has to do all the jobs alone, including protecting herself and the children from the obstacles, such as a snake. In the 1880’s, man is the protector of the family, but now she has to take that role and deal with the asperities of life in the desolated area. Furthermore, the wife is anxious about her husband, however, more worried about her children from the difficulties she has to face daily. After fighting all the hardships alone, she has become more independent, resilient, brave. Therefore, ‘The Drover’s Wife’ explicates that the wife and family’s lives are more arduous than the drover’s because they have to deal with complications all alone without a man to protect

Lawson distinctively uses literary techniques, including similes, adjectives and descriptive writing in the short story, so the readers can easily visualize the personal experience of ‘what it's like for the drover’s wives to live’ in the untamed outback in the 1870’s. Lawson uses similes, such as "... she runs out, points a stick at the birds as though it were a gun." This quote displays her courage and inventiveness; the quality of being smart and clever, that she thinks stick as a gun to scare the birds. The gun creates images in the reader’s mind as she has to protect herself and the children against nature. Lawson distinctively used descriptive writing to emphasize the feeling of desolation and lifelessness, such as the bushes are hanging depressed around the ‘waterless creek’, which signifies that the wife and the family are alone without a man for protection. Furthermore, Lawson uses adjectives to describe other words in specific details, such as, “everlasting, maddening sameness of the stunted trees”. The quote explains the grotesque and trailing environment she must endure. Hence, imagery techniques are used to understand the character’s situation and feel empathetic to all the drover’s