The Drovers WifeThe Drovers Wife The Drovers Wife is considered as the supreme work in 19th Australia literature that written by Henry Lawson. The Drovers wife is a book that about the typical hard-work Australian bush-woman. The main description of this essay will be the analysis of that wifes behavior on sex and gender aspect. In The drovers wife, the writer wrote a picture of a strong and brave bush woman living in the isolated Australia outback whose husband always stays away from home because he is a drover. At the beginning of this book, the author reviewed us some information of the bush womans harsh living environment and the main conflict of this novel: Beyond all the obstacles she must overcome by herself, the woman have to kill that snake; otherwise the snake will kill one of her children or the dog. It is after author described this major storyline that begin the narration of a bush womans bush life. The characterization of the drovers wife draws the most attention. Living in the bush without her husband, she should struggle against many unhappy catastrophes, but as the story proceeds, the “gaunt, sun-browned, skinny woman is presented with her fortitude, ingenuity and endurance step by step. Lawson displays them mainly by the womans retrospective thoughts of a sequence of events, including the fights against a bush- fire, a flood, the mad bullock, the crows and eagles, even a bushman in the horrors. The life for her is tough; she is as quoted from the article: used to the loneliness. She is used to being left alone, one of her children even died while she was long. She had to ride for nineteen miles with carrying her died child for assistance. When she felt hurt or tears spring to her eyes; her husband was never there. This description completely and perfectly reflects the extreme hardship and difficulties of the Australian bush life led by that woman. But as poverty and loneliness as she is, she never collapsed. Lawson gives a detailed and realistic portrait of a womans life in the bush, such as the copy of the Young Ladies Journal. She maybe poor, but she never forgot to dream to be a lady. This drovers wife maybe lonely, but she had her few pleasure to thinkher special Sunday afternoon. She would take as much care to make herself and the children as they were going to the block in the city. Living in that jungle environment, the woman is doughtiness, independent, ingenuity and fortitude. She could feel glad when her husband returned, but she did not gush or made a fuss about it. She is content and Optimistic, she was satisfied with the food, the husband and her kids. It is because her surrounding were not womanly that made who she was, A strong, independent, endurance, strong-minded, optimistic woman, even with all the hardship and monotony in the life. After all the good quality Lawson had described the drovers wife, at the end of the story, the wife hugged and kissed her son for he said hed never become a drover. This little detail somehow shows the failure and mental breakdown of the wifes heart. It is because of the end of the scenery is pessimistic and fragile of the woman that revealed the masculism and the dual disposition of woman in Australia. The author also not gave a name for his characters, not only because the hard bush life is a universal concern, but also indicated the image and status of male and female are socially acknowledged. To sum up, the achievement in characterization is distinguished. Whats more crucial is the heroine. During that period, people always used male as their protagonist. The identity of female are usually wife, daughter, even a prostitute. For a long time, women were even excluded from Australias history. But The Drovers Wife on the other hand, revealed so many great merits of female, in someway stand out as one of the notable landmarks in the progress of the improvement of womans status. 刘玥 Elsa 11107 1101134152