Jack Mitchell (usually referred to only as 'Mitchell') is a recurring fictional character in many short stories and sketches by popular Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. Mitchell is a shrewd, kindly and philosophical swagman. Often believed to be a version of Lawson himself, a persona rather than a fully-developed character, Mitchell replaces the author as narrator or teller of yarns in a number of stories, allowing Lawson to create perspective. Mitchell is on the track, a man on his own except when he finds a mate to travel with; one could suggest that as a literary creation he is related to the Romantic outcast figure of The Wanderer. Mitchell's stories give glimpses of his past, but the manner of telling and the related small actions that are described work together to have the teller reveal more than he realises. Mitchell is not so much a character to be explored in connected stories as an instrument by which Lawson can create states of feeling and so define his sense of being human. In Lawson's sketch "Shooting The Moon", Mitchell muses "but I kept the shooter, and if he hadn't send it I'd have been the late John Mitchell long ago." It is, therefore, likely that Mitchell's birth-name was John, though this is rarely mentioned in other stories, and Lawson has been known to often refer to his characters by nick-name.
Published Jack Mitchell Stories
Jack Mitchell appeared in the following Henry Lawson stories, among others:
- ""
- "On The Edge Of A Plain"
- "'Some Day'"
- "Shooting The Moon"
- "Our Pipes"
- "Bill, the Ventriloquial Rooster"
- "Enter Mitchell"
- "Mitchell Doesn't Believe in the Sack"
- "Another of Mitchell's Plans"
