Henry Lawson paints a picture of Australian bush life at the turn of the century by telling a anecdote sketched out of his own experiences in his short story "Joe Wilson's Courtship", and by doing so explores both societal courtship protocol as well as the burgeoning notions of Australian mateship and manhood. Through the use of reflective passages characterised by their nostalgic tone and Lawson’s extensive use of dialogue, the first person narrator reminisces about how his mate Jack helped him to pursue his courtship with Mary Brand and the ensuing proposal of marriage.
For example, the setting is established not only by descriptions of the surroundings, such as the "wide, old-fashioned, brick-floored verandah" but also through conversation, where colloquial language, such as that present in Jack's statement "No, by Gum! I forgot that. But never mind...I'll tell her that you got two years hard for horse stealing", indicates the conversational style of male bush workers. The story is also characterised by a powerful sense of emotional sensitivity, for example when Lawson introduces the arrival of a rival suitor from Sydney as a complication to the plot, a simile is employed to convey the extent of the narrator's anguish: "I was worse than a wall-eyed bullock with the pleuro". But such sensitivity is tempered by the masculine code of mateship and bravado that that influences human interaction. For example, when Lawson has Romany insult "Possum" as a further complication to the plot, Joe remarks that "It seemed an understood thing with the men that if I went out first round Jack would fight Romany." The cool and collected tone of Joe's words serve to reinforce the notion that men were supposed to be tough and support each other against outsiders and the perils of bush life with both stoicism and dignity. In this way Lawson elicits a sympathetic reaction from the reader, who is made to understand that in this world violent fighting to preserve both personal and community honour was a necessary part of the Australian mateship ethos. That society's standards impacted greatly on the way people interacted with each other is also evident at the necessary climax of the plot, where Mary refuses to kiss Joe "because I-I don't - I don't think it's right for- for a girl to-to kiss a man unless she's going to be his wife." The use of hyphens indicates not only her crying but also her hesitancy and unwillingness to flout established social mores and thus gives the reader added insight into the paramountcy of societal conventions in the Australian bush world.
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