Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Essays

The play, “Summer of the Seventeenth Doll” by Ray Lawler is set in Australia and talks about times in the 1950s. In the play, one sees that, Lawler gives audiences rich insights into the societal structure, code of conduct etc typical of Australian life set in that period of time. The play talks about a group of ordinary people who are struggling to stay young as do not acknowledge the reality that they are aging. In their desperate bid to escape the inevitability of the consequences of change, the

Even I can guiltily admit to using these phrases, as a joke to my brother when he gets sentimental over small things.However, I hadn’t really thought about where it all came from. Recently I went to watch the classic Australian play ‘Summer of the Seventh doll’ written by Ray Lawler; it occurred to me while watching this play that wearisome

suburban sprawl and modernisation has lessened the need for men to be innately masculine however society still expects men to be men. This paper will discuss and compare both literal and figurative references to masculinity in both the Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and Johnno. It will firstly look at the assumption of society that men of the bush are more masculine by nature, it will then discuss the role mateship plays in masculinity, this will be followed by looking at how the changing typography

Question 1 Barbara Baynton’s characters demonstrate a contrast with gender stereotypes as she is described as bringing her “subjective obsession” to her writing where she portrays men as being violent and unsympathetic to women, cowards, weak and carless (Iseman 20). This contradicts the traditional bush legend identity of a masculine hardworking, caring man, as seen in Peter Hennessy’s character in “The Chosen Vessel” and in the “Squekers Mate” where the men are seen to be weak, violent and carless