61 pages • 2 hours read
Stone Yard Devotional
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Background
Geographical Context: Monaro Plains
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal death.
Stone Yard Devotional is set in a town on the Monaro Plains, a distinct environment in Australia. The Monaro is characterized by its relative desolation, and the landscape itself plays a role in the novel. The name Monaro draws meaning from its landscape and represents the Aboriginal history of Australia: “The name ‘Monaro’ is of aboriginal origin, meaning a high plateau or high plain” (Stanger, Andrew. “The Monaro Plains.” Mountain Journal). The high plateau of the Monaro provides a dry landscape with extensive views of the surrounding area. This allows the protagonist to look out into the distance and meditate on her life. Her view is largely uninterrupted, its geological history clearing it of any excess: “This seemingly desolate land, also known as the ‘Treeless Plain’ has little rainfall, poor soil and cold nights. Formed over millions of years with numerous volcanic flows, this region has been swept clean of boulders and rocks during the Ice Ages” (“Sydney Australia Tourist Guides.“ Australia Tourist Guide). By using the setting of the Monaro Plains, Charlotte Wood creates a connection between the protagonist’s personal journey and the land around her. The protagonist comes to the abbey in the Monaro to escape her life and start over in isolation. She strips her life to its most bare to find who she truly is, without the distractions of the world around her. She feels this reflected in the surrounding area and finds new meaning in the nature she grew up in.
Literary Context: Monastic Novels
The protagonist in Stone Yard Devotional goes to a local abbey to escape her life and undergo a journey of self-discovery. The protagonist chooses to live in a place such as this not because of any religious devotion or fervor, but rather because of the lifestyle it offers: one dedicated to peace, contemplation, and harmony with the natural environment, in stark contrast to the economic competition and consumerism that characterize the protagonist’s life in the outside world.
The insular, fervently religious atmosphere of an abbey or monastery has long appealed to novelists, who often find in this environment a fertile ground for suspense and mystery, as seen in Rumer Godden’s Black Narcissus (1939), Muriel Spark’s The Abbess of Crewe (1974), and Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose (1980), to name a few. Stone Yard Devotional is something of an outlier in the genre in that it largely takes the contemplative atmosphere of the abbey at face value, rather than looking for political machinations, simmering hostilities, or sexual tension just beneath the seemingly placid surface. Seeking refuge from the stresses of modern life, and particularly from the despair induced by runaway climate change, the protagonist of Stone Yard Devotional finds in the abbey a protected space for introspection and healing.
Environmental Context: Mice Plague
In Stone Yard Devotional, the protagonist and the sisters of the abbey must contend with a horrible plague of mice. This unstoppable wave of mice reflects real events that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly during 2021. In New South Wales in Australia, the mouse population boomed, causing mice to overrun areas and force farmers to face a unique problem. There were many reasons for this explosion in the mouse population, though the most important factor related to the climate: “Ideal weather conditions for breeding and a bountiful harvest followed devastating bushfires and a years-long drought” (“Australia Mice Plague: How Farmers Are Fighting Back.“ BBC, 7 July 2021). In the aftermath of climate disasters, mice had the perfect conditions to prosper. This plague, caused by extreme climate, reflects the protagonist’s own anxieties about her work at the Threatened Species Rescue Centre. Her experiences dealing with the mice at the abbey also reflect the real experiences of Australians dealing with the plague of mice. The BBC News article cited above describes how the mice rendered one man’s house nearly uninhabitable: “They took over his house in Dubbo in northern New South Wales. They were everywhere, hundreds of them, coming under doors, running loudly in the loft, leaving a revolting stench, not least by dying in inaccessible cavities.” The mice are an attack on the senses, their presence impossible to ignore. The protagonist is haunted by the sound of them scurrying across and over everything. She and the sisters struggle at times to handle the mouse infestation, running short on supplies, much like they did in reality. Improvisation is key for the sisters when confronting the plague of mice, as they use Richard Gittens’s help to dig a pit and convert one of their cabins into a safehouse for food.
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