John "Jack" Mitchell, often referred to only as Mitchell, is a recurring fictional character in

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

and sketches by Australian writer

Henry Lawson Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial perio ...

. He is widely considered one of Lawson's most memorable characters.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

Description

Mitchell is a "shrewd, kindly,

swagman A swagman (also called a swaggie, sundowner or tussocker) was a transient labourer who travelled by foot from farm to farm carrying his belongings in a swag. The term originated in Australia in the 19th century and was later used in New Zealan ...

."''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 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." Mitchell is usually depicted as a traveller, often accompanied by a companion with whom he shares stories. 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."Manning Clark (1985
"Heroes"
''Daedalus'', 114(1): Australia: Terra Incognita? (Winter, 1985), pp. 57-84. Retrieved 5 April 2016.

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."Paul Egger
''Biography of a Book: Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils''
Sydney University Press, p101.

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." He has been likened to the Romantic outcast figure of The Wanderer. Lawson's Mitchell stories explore the domestic consequences of the

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lifestyle. 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.Marilyn Lake (1986
"Historical reconsiderations IV: The politics of respectability: Identifying the masculinist context"
''Historical Studies'', 22(86): 116-131. Retrieved 5 April 2016.

Partial bibliography

*" Mitchell: A Character Sketch" *" On The Edge Of A Plain" *" 'Some Day'" *"

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" *" Our Pipes" *"

Bill, the Ventriloquial Rooster "Bill, the Ventriloquial Rooster" is a sketch story by Australian writer Henry Lawson. The sketch is one of many to include Jack Mitchell the swagman as its main character and narrator. The story concerns a rooster that Mitchell's family once own ...

" *" Enter Mitchell" *" Mitchell Doesn't Believe in the Sack" *" Another of Mitchell's Plans"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Jack Literary characters introduced in 1893