BY HENRY LAWSONPresentors: Nur Al Fhatihah bt Abd

HadiNurul Ain bt Mohd Zairi

THE HOUSE THAT WAS NEVER BUILT

• Born: 17 June 1867Grenfell Goldfields, New So

• uth Wales, Australia• Died: 2 September

1922 (aged 55)Sydney, Australia

• Occupation: Author, Poet, Balladist

• Spouse: Bertha Marie Louise Bredt

• Children: Joseph, Bertha

HENRY LAWSON

• Henry Lawson attended school at Eurunderee from 2 October 1876

• but suffered an ear infection at around this time.

• It left him with partial deafness and by the age of fourteen he had lost his hearing entirely.

• Lawson later attended a Catholic school at Mudgee, the master there, Mr. Kevan, would teach Lawson about poetry.

• Lawson was a keen reader of Dickens and Marryat and novels such as Robbery under Arms and For the Term of his Natural Life; an aunt had also given him a volume by Bret Harte.

• Reading became a major source of his education because, due to his deafness, he had trouble learning in the classroom.

• In 1883, after working on building jobs with his father in the Blue Mountains, Lawson joined his mother in Sydney at her request.

• At this time, Lawson was working during the day and studying at night for his matriculation in the hopes of receiving a university education.

• However, he failed doing his exams.

• In 1896, Lawson married Bertha Bredt Jr., daughter of Bertha Bredt, the prominent socialist.

• The marriage was ill-advised due to Lawson's alcohol addiction.

• They had two children, son Jim (Joseph) and daughter Bertha.

• However, the marriage ended very unhappily.

• In 1949 Lawson was the subject of an Australian postage stamp.

• He was featured on the first (paper) Australian ten dollar note issued in 1966 when decimal currency was first introduced into Australia.

HONOURS

• Famous works by Henry Lawson:Book of short stories:• While the Billy Boils (1896)• On the Track (1900)• Over the Sliprails (1900)• The Country I Come From (1901) Poetry • In the Days When the World Was Wide (1896)• Verses Popular and Humorous (1900)• When I Was King and Other Verses (1905)• The Skyline Riders (1910)

CRITICISMS

• Readers response• Socialism• Psychoanalytic• New Criticism

FORMALIST/ NEW CRITICISM

First person point of view • "I" serves as the narrator in the short story.• The narrator just expressing his own thoughts

throughout the short story.• T.E: “I was now on my way to attend the

funeral of one of my father's blood from whom I had parted in anger” (page 6)

• T.E: "Why!" I exclaimed, turning to the driver, "was that house burnt down?“ (page 6)

Characters• The narrator • Young Brassingtons/ bushman• Mrs. Brassingtons/ wife• Driver• Publican

Setting • Solong• The campsite/the house that was never built

site

Theme• Insanity • The bushman suffering because of his marriage

was destroyed after 2 weeks of being husband and wife.

• His wife left him for another man and he turn into madness.

• T.E: “he was mad on the idea that he could build the house himself, and then he had moods when he imagined that the house had been built and he had married and had reared a family” (page 8)

Literary DevicesMetaphor • The writer describing something by referring

to it as something different and suggesting that it has similar qualities to that thing.

• The narrator describing the old road like a ghostly and haunted street.

• T.E: “ It was a ghostly old road, and if it wasn’t haunted it should have been”. (page 6)

Imagery • The writer tries to give the reader a clear image

of that particular situation.• The narrator is on his way to his relative’s funeral

at Solong. • He was describing the scenery along his way

back.

• T.E: “There had been heavy rain and landslips all along the branch railway which left the Great Western Line from Sydney just beyond the Blue Mountains, and ran through thick bush and scrubby ridgy country and along great alluvial sidings--were the hills on the opposite side of the wide valleys………..” (page 5)

Symbol• The bushman always repeated the same

things to emphasize his resentment. • He thought that it was unfair for him

READER RESPONSE CRITICISM

Irresponsible

• Wife husband T.E: "One yarn is that the girl wasn't any good;

that when she was married to Brassington, and as soon as they got to Sydney, she met a chap she'd been carrying on with before she married Brassington (or that she'd been married to in secret), an' she cleared off with him, leaving her fortnight-old husband. That was one yarn.” (page 12)

• After 2 weeks of marriage, his wife leave him for another man.

• He must be very frustrated with his wife irresponsible actions and suffering the whole life because of her.

• He turn into madness because he hopes that the marriage would end happily

Confuse

• The narrator the bushman• The narrator was confused on what the

bushman told him because he could switch his personality in short time

• At first he talked like a mad man but then suddenly he talked like an educated man.

• T.E: “ One thing I noticed about him; when he spoke as a madman, he talked like a man who had been fairly well educated (or sometimes, I fancied, like a young fellow who was studying to be a school teacher)”. (page 10)

Symbol• The bushman always repeated the same

things to emphasize his resentment. • He thought that it was unfair for him because

he was suffering from a bad marriage.• T.E : “The house that was never built” (page 6-

13)• In general, the house symbolize his

unsuccessful marriage.

READER RESPONSE CRITICISM

Irresponsible

• Wife husband T.E: "One yarn is that the girl wasn't any good;

that when she was married to Brassington, and as soon as they got to Sydney, she met a chap she'd been carrying on with before she married Brassington (or that she'd been married to in secret), an' she cleared off with him, leaving her fortnight-old husband. That was one yarn.” (page 12)

• After 2 weeks of marriage, his wife leave him for another man.

• He must be very frustrated with his wife irresponsible actions and suffering the whole life because of her.

• He turn into madness because he hopes that the marriage would end happily

Confuse

• The narrator the bushman• The narrator was confused on what the

bushman told him because he could switch his personality in short time

• At first he talked like a mad man but then suddenly he talked like an educated man.

• T.E: “ One thing I noticed about him; when he spoke as a madman, he talked like a man who had been fairly well educated (or sometimes, I fancied, like a young fellow who was studying to be a school teacher)”. (page 10)

Psychoanalytic Criticism

• The bushman character (young Brassington) was described as a little mad when he first spoke to the narrator.

• T.E: – There was madness in his tone at that time, the

last ‘No!’ was sounding…– He was mad on the idea that he could build the

house himself….

• Besides the bushman, his wife was also admitted to an asylum

• His wife’s mother and grandmother was also admitted in the asylum

• It was said that madness was hereditary• The wife died after one year in asylum.• T.E:– Her mother had been in an asylum, so had her

grandmother– Some madness is heredited.– She died in a year in a ‘sylum.

Symbolism

• The house that was never built– the house was supposed to be build and be

among the grandest house at Solong– It would be a wonderful thing to see a two-

storied house there in the bush– Symbol of happiness and richness in the

bush– It is also a symbol of marriage

• The bush– Symbolize the simple life–No complications–but people have higher expectations in the

rich people in the area compared to the city