Northanger Abbey vs. "The Drover's Wife"

   While reading and discussing Henry Lawson’s “The Drover’s Wife” in class, I found myself repeatedly comparing the wife to the characters in Jane Austen’s piece, Northanger Abbey. I compared her strong will and sense of duty to Isabella Thorpe’s focus on all things frivolous and desire to be comfortable, and to Catherine Morland’s consistent naivety and almost childish view on the world that she had just recently met. 

   The drover’s wife, while not given a name, is the mother, and complete livelihood of “four ragged, dried up looking children.” (1035). While the description Lawson gives of the life she leads is dismal, she is accustomed to them and she seeks comfort not in trying to marry into a different class, like Isabella, but by the mere survival of her family and their livestock. The lifestyles that these two women lead are almost too different to compare, even if the time periods are similar. The drover’s wife has been through so much more than Ms. Thorpe, for example, while the drover’s wife, “is not a coward,… recent events have shaken her nerves.  A little son of her brother-in-law was lately bitten by a snake, and died.  Besides, she has not heard from her husband for six months, and is anxious about him.” This concern of the wife is so real and threatening everyday, while Isabella’s main threat is finding out that the man she intends to marry doesn’t have enough money to support her lavish living style. Every part of the wife’s life is another encounter with deprivation, and Isabella lives in possession of all she could ever need, yet still wants for more. 

    Catherine Morland is every bit naive as the drover’s wife is experienced. While Catherine is out searching for the next paranormal occurrence, the wife is looking for a dangerous snake that could disrupt her whole life. The drover’s wife has lived such a hard life, that it is difficult to imagine Catherine being aware of these types of hardships at all. Speaking of the loneliness she has endured, the wife describes that, “…this bush woman is used to the loneliness of it. As a girl-wife she hated it, but now she would feel strange away from it.” (1037). While Catherine’s options for her life unfold, with all the comfort of the world around her, the drover’s wife kills a snake and no option but to continue on this way perpetually.