Henry Lawson: Short Stories Literary Elements

Short-short fictional stories known as either “yarns” or “sketches” of a type sometimes called frontier fiction or local color

Australian frontier in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s as the country was gaining its independence from Britain

Various. Some stories feature a conversational third-person narrator while others adopt a first-person perspective. Lawson’s work is a chronological example of a writer working toward master of a narrative technique and the later one goes into his career, the more fine tuned and developed his technique of the “involved narrator” who speaks conversationally as if knowing the characters personally but is also capable of expressing their thoughts.

The general tone that Lawson’s narrators adopt is one best characterized as a kind of lightly handled sardonic irony. The mood varies wildly from strictly humorous to a sober reflectiveness to adventure, but always present is the force of irony which forces the reader to parse what is really be said.

Varies from one story to another, though two character recur in enough stories to be considered Lawson’s primary protagonists: Jack Mitchell, very often referred to simply as Mitchell in the stories and Joe Wilson, who is the main character in a series of stories of his own. The antagonists vary as well, but one might well posit the main antagonist of these stories are the forces of nature which play such a significant role the Australian frontier on which most of the stories are set.

Lawson’s stories are not really about conflict or even major dramatic moments. The conflicts that do arise are not generally the true focus of the narrative, but act more as a metaphor for inner turbulence. Among the more conventional case of conflict in Lawson’s fiction (such as they made me termed) are Mitchell returning home after eight years just one day after his family has been mistakenly told he was dead, a pet dog endangering lives when he runs around with a cartridge of explosives in his mouth, and a wife alone with her kids in battle against a dangerous snake.

The concept of a climax seems so foreign when discussing Lawson’s works as to be practically inapplicable. The most memorable and well-known example of an actual plot-driven climax in a Lawson story is probably the successful execution of the snake by the loyal family dog in “The Drover’s Wife.”

The truth is there really is not a lot of room for foreshadowing in most of Lawson’s stories—and certainly not in many of his best—because they are so short. “On the Edge of a Plain” is arguably his finest accomplishment and clocks in at less than 550 words. One of the closest he gets to foreshadowing occurs in the opening paragraph of “The Union Buries its Dead” which starts with the recollection of a scene from the previous Sunday when some friends were by the river and saw a man on horseback inquiring about the depth of the water. “The joker of our party said it was deep enough to drown him, and he laughed and rode farther up. We didn’t take much notice of him.” Just two pages later the irony of the foreshadowing is revealed when the funeral scheduled for a stranger in town turns out to be horseman.

“A Child in the Dark, and a Foreign Father” begins with the exclamation “New Year’s Eve!” From there the story proves to be a relentlessly sad and depressing semi-autobiographical story of a truly dysfunctional family. The closing line is simply the “And so the New Year began.” The quality of understatement masks the full breadth of meaning which is that each year is going to bring to them the very same old problems and misery they continually experience. There nothing new nor any hope for something new in their lives.

The setting of the story “down a hard road the crossing at Pipeclay Creek” is generally interpreted as an allusion to where Lawson grew up that hints of the autobiographical nature of the story. The same holds true to the allusion of Norwegian heritage of the family since the name of the father is Nils and Lawson’s father was from Norway.

The dominant imagery pervading Lawson’s stories and unifying many of them is the descriptions of the Australian Bush. Setting is the engine driving so much of the narrative; much more so than plot machinations. An example is found in “Water Them Geraniums.” “Things always look bright in the morning—more so in the Australian bush, I should think, than in most other places. It is when the sun goes down on the dark bed of the lonely Bush, and the sunset flashes like a sea of fire and then fades, and then glows out again, like a bank of coals, and then burns away to ashes---it is then that hold things come home to one.”

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One of the Lawson’s most popular characters is the taciturn and mysterious Mitchell. In the story “Mitchell: A Character Sketch” there is a funny display of parallel construction that helps to introduce and situation the basic character of this Jack Mitchell:
“I don’t suppose,” said Mitchell; “I don’t suppose it’s any use asking you for a job?”
“Naw.”
“Well, I won’t ask you,” said Mitchell, “but I don’t suppose you want any fencing done!”
“Naw.”
“Nor boundary-riding?”
“Naw.”
“You ain’t likely to want a man to knock round?”
“Naw.”

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The title character of “The Loaded Dog” is endowed with a personality throughout that connects him to the human characters with whom he hangs out. One of the most direct examples of personification occurs at one of the most dramatic moments in the story: “The dog grinned sardonically down on him, over the edge, for a moment, as if he thought it would be a good lark to drop the cartridge down on Jim.”