intro
In Vertigo, Amanda Lohrey reveals how grief, though painful and consuming, can ultimately drive resilience. In the novella’s first part, Lohrey uses vivid, unsettling imagery in both urban and rural settings to mirror Anna and Luke’s collective human experience of grief, highlighting resilience as essential to rise above their environment. In the second part, she contrasts their coping mechanisms, showing how their individual ways of managing grief affect their resilience and strain their connection. By the final part, a looming bushfire acts as a turning point, forcing Anna and Luke to confront their grief together, reigniting their shared human quality of resilience and symbolising a rebirth in their relationship and an acceptance of their loss. Overall, Vertigo suggests that grief, although isolating, can deepen shared resilience as individuals adapt, support each other, and find renewal even amid devastation. This interplay between grief and resilience shapes the couple’s journey, showing that, paradoxically, only by facing pain can they begin to rebuild.
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In the experiences of grief and loss shared by Anna and Luke, Lohrey demonstrates how the collective overcoming of emotional burden is not linear, motivating the couple’s seemingly paradoxical move to Garra Nalla. Initially, Lohrey uses the dismal imagery of “paint on the ceilings cracked and peeling, and the rooms dark with a sombre brown varnish” in their external setting to reflect their inner experiences of turmoil and despair as they are almost ‘deteriorating’ from grief. This pathetic fallacy suggests that Anna and Luke’s internal emotional decay is mirrored in their external environment, reinforcing how tightly grief can bind individuals to their surroundings and thus motivate change. Despite their hopes of eluding grief by moving to rural Garra Nulla, Lohrey utilises a biblical allusion when describing “But this is not Eden, this is drought country. Seven years of drought,” reinforced by the repeated line, “Seven years of drought: it has begun to sound biblical; a curse,” emphasising the adversities Luke and Anna continue to face together even in their rural escape. Lohrey introduces a parallel narrative when Luke reads Sir Treve’s memoir, The Land That Is Desolate, reflecting his individual attempt to cope by connecting with others’ experiences of grief and endurance. Lohrey’s subtle reference to the “promised land” reinforces how resilience can be sparked through the hope of eventual transformation, despite the bleak present. Despite their efforts to evade the grips of grief, the haunting vision of their child, metaphorically “whirling around in the dust or darting mischievously among the weed piles,” further conveys their shared yet unspoken grief, forming a bond that paradoxically both connects and isolates them. Through a physical attempt to escape the emotional burden of loss, Lohrey conveys the complexity of grief in its unifying and isolating nature, challenging the reader to consider the non-linearity of human responses to despair.
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The anomalous navigation of grief individually by Anna and Luke deepens Lohrey’s exploration of grief as a complex human experience, highlighting how shared experiences do not always correspond with individual coping mechanisms or attitudes. Lohrey displays how conflict and separation arise as a complication to the individual attempts at resilience, using third-person, omniscient narration to explain how “His detachment is infuriating. It’s alright for Luke, the heavy sleeper, but now almost every night her sleep is disturbed”. This contrast in experiences mirrors the inconsistencies in healing from grief, from which resentment grows. Lohrey explains how “Luke always did have a way of blotting out distraction, of drawing the world in around him on his own terms,” symbolising how he recovers by filtering the world through his own lens, suggesting a more introspective form of resilience. For Anna, however, Garra Nalla symbolises a tumultuous place where “she seems to bleed out into it, as if she is a part of one giant membrane that holds land, sea and sky together”. Creating an image of the environment’s harshness through simile, Lohrey mimics her internal struggles with grief and resilience, anomalous to Luke. As such, Anna’s resistance to face her grief is shown in the rhetorical question, “What would it take for them to return to the city?”, portraying the individual tendency to flee rather than face uncomfortable realities. Lohrey introduces the She-oaks as symbols of Anna’s growing resilience as she plants trees to combat soil erosion: “Since the winds are eroding the topsoil of her garden, it makes sense to plant more trees.” Here, Lohrey uses nature as a metaphor for Anna’s slow journey toward recovery, rooting herself despite adversity as she begins to find solace and strength through her surroundings. These contrasting coping methods create tension, illustrating that resilience is personal and can strain relationships when individuals approach it differently.
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In the final part of Vertigo, the impending bushfire acts as a dramatic catalyst, forcing Anna and Luke to confront their grief collectively and reunite in the face of new challenges. In “the smoke cloud is expanding, seeping out into the sky like a release of octopus ink,” Lohrey uses vivid imagery to convey the couple’s shared experiences of fear and the power of external forces to reignite human connection. The intimate line, “She puts her arms around him, steadying herself… they hold one another for a very long time,” uses tactile imagery to show the couple’s reconnection as they find comfort in one another. Thus, fire, with its power to both destroy and rejuvenate, is used by Lohrey to symbolise the transformative journey through grief and resilience. Though still mourning their child, the fire allows Luke to express and begin to accept his grief, a necessary step toward healing as he realises that “he’ll never see that bird again, and he still doesn’t know its name”. Through the symbol of the dead bird as his son, Luke’s acceptance of his grief, despite his melancholy tone, conveys his resilience and healing. Anna’s dream, where “the boy is in the open doorway waving,” symbolises acceptance of their loss as they come to terms with their son’s death; this image underscores the peace that comes after grief. Toward the novella’s end, Anna “picks up her pill packet and drops it into the white plastic bin beside the sink,” depicting how her acceptance of grief motivates her to move forward and be hopeful for another child. Thus, Lohrey exposes the importance of human qualities of endurance and hope through the motif of the She-oaks, of which “Miraculously, none of them…in the garden burned”, highlighting the power of resilience in the face of grief. With the bushfire as a catalyst for change, Anna and Luke rebuild their relationship, finding renewal and hope after the destructive force of grief.
conclusion
Overall, Amanda Lohrey illustrates that resilience is not a simple victory over grief, but a process of acceptance, adaptation, and renewal. Through Anna and Luke’s journey, Lohrey shows how grief can isolate and strain relationships, yet paradoxically foster growth and connection. As they confront the forces of loss, from decaying surroundings to the transformative bushfire, Anna and Luke find strength in their pain and support in each other. Ultimately, Vertigo reveals that resilience emerges not from avoiding sorrow, but from embracing it, enabling the couple to rebuild their lives on shared understanding and hope. Lohrey’s work invites readers to reflect on how hardship, when confronted, can bring about new beginnings and help individuals forge deeper connections to both their environments and each other.
