# Malachi Duggan — While the Billy Boils character guide

> Malachi Duggan in While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** old Malachi Duggan, Malachi

**First appearance:** 0044-the-story-of-malachi

## Snapshot

An old Irish selector, hopelessly gullible and terrified of four-syllable words, who becomes the station's favourite butt for practical jokes.

## Who they are

Malachi is a shabby, sandy-haired bushman who has never left his native scrub except for one dazed visit to Sydney, which he can only describe as 'a caution.' He hates high-flown language and the opposite sex with equal passion, and the boys exploit both by writing him threatening letters in a feminine hand. His patient refrain, 'Now, none of your pranktical jokes,' marks him as the collection's gentlest victim, a man whose credulity the reader both laughs at and pities.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/malachi_duggan
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters