Jack Mitchell (character)

John "Jack" Mitchell, often referred to only as Mitchell, is a recurring fictional character in the short stories and sketches by Australian writer Henry Lawson. He is widely considered one of Lawson's most memorable characters.[1]

Description

Mitchell is a "shrewd, kindly, swagman."[2] In the story "Enter Mitchell", Lawson describes him as "short and stout and bow-legged, and freckled, and sandy. He had red hair and small, twinkling grey eyes, and ‒ what often goes with such things ‒ the expression of a born comedian."[3] Mitchell is usually depicted as a traveller, often accompanied by a companion with whom he shares stories.[2]

Manning Clark characterised Mitchell as follows:

Jack Mitchell knew a thing or two; he had been around. He had the sardonic wit; he expected little from life; he expected nothing but brief pleasure and then never-ending pain from a woman; he knew only one real pleasure in life, in which he let them see how the bushman could "one-up" all comers; he let slip hints of his melancholy, and his conviction that things would never be any different."[4]

Lawson created two Mitchell stories, "Some Day" and "A Camp-fire Yarn", by changing the character name from Marsters to Mitchell, and a third by re-titling "That Swag" to "Enter Mitchell."[5]

Interpretation

Critic John Barnes suggests that Mitchell functions as a persona rather than a fully developed character, replacing the author as narrator and storyteller, an "instrument by which Lawson can create states of feeling and so define his sense of being human."[2] He has been likened to the Romantic outcast figure of The Wanderer.[2] Lawson's Mitchell stories explore the domestic consequences of the bohemian lifestyle.[6] In the 1925 story "Mitchell on Matrimony", we learn that Mitchell's wife has left him, and Mitchell suggests to his companion that husbands should be more considerate of their wives.[6]

Published stories

Jack Mitchell appeared in the following Henry Lawson stories, among others:

References

  1. ↑ Manning, Charles (1991) "Henry Lawson", lecture at The University of Melbourne. Collected in Speaking out of turn: lectures and speeches, 1940-1991, Melbourne University Publish (pub. 1997), pp. 181-196
  2. 1 2 3 4 The Penguin Henry Lawson Short Stories (first published 1986); with an introduction by John Barnes, Camberwell, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia, pp. 1-16, 221-6
  3. ↑ Henry Lawson (1896) "Enter Mitchell" While the Billy Boils. Angus and Robertson: Sydney, Australia. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Manning Clark (1985) "Heroes" Daedalus, 114(1): Australia: Terra Incognita? (Winter, 1985), pp. 57-84. Retrieved 5 April, 2016.
  5. ↑ Paul Eggert Biography of a Book: Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils Sydney University Press, p101.
  6. 1 2 Marilyn Lake (1986) "Historical reconsiderations IV: The politics of respectability: Identifying the masculinist context" Historical Studies, 22(86): 116-131. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
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