The poem "The Death of the Hired Man" is a dramatic narrative poem. It describes the death of an old servant (hired man) in the house of his master, Warren. Warren and his wife, Mary, have sharply divided opinions on the old servant, and their attitudes to him are diametrically opposite. It vividly describes the humane considerations of Mary, and the cruel feelings and unkind considerations of Warren, for their old servant Silas, who comes back to their house after quite a long time in a very weak condition of health, and dies there within a short time after his arrival.
Main theme:
Silas, in the poem "The
Death of the Hired Man' is a representative of the poor, downtrodden humanity.
He is the old servant, a hired farm laborer of Warren and Mary. He had no
"fixed wages"; He was paid only when he worked in different
agricultural seasons. So, he demanded "fixed wages" from Warren. But
Warren refused. He said, "I cannot afford to pay/Any fixed wages, though I
wish I could." So Silas left his job, seeking another man who could pay
him "fixed wages". But on some days, he returned to Warren's house,
very old and weak. Mary, Warren's wife, gave an account of the return of Silas.
On her return from Rowe's, she found Silas huddled against the barn door and
fast asleep. He was in such a miserable condition that she hardly recognized
him. She dragged him to the house, gave him tea, and tried to make him smoke.
She also asked him questions about his recent whereabouts, but he did not say
anything and only kept nodding off. Hearing this, Warren expressed his grudge
against giving Silas shelter in his house. He was dissatisfied with him for
various reasons. In his opinion, Silas was no good. He could do very little at
such an old age. And there was no dependence on what he could do. Whenever he
needed him, he always went off. But Mary had a sympathetic attitude towards the
old servant. She said that Sias had come back to clear the meadow of Warren.
She told Warren that the old servant had come home to die, and Warren did not
need to fear that he would leave him again. Warren argued with Mary about the
question of what home is. Mary defined home as something ‘you somehow haven't to deserve." After
their argument, Warren went to see where Silas was. He found Silas dead.
Silas’s sense of self-respect comes out
through the conversation between Warren and Mary. His taciturnity is a means of
preserving his self-respect. When Mary finds him huddled against the barn door
fast asleep, she drags him to the house, gives him tea, and tries to make him
smoke and talk about his travel. But to all the questions of Mary, he merely
keeps nodding off and says nothing. This is how he preserves his self-respect
in his own humble way. His inflated self-respect (almost pride) prevents him
from going to his rich and prosperous brother, A somebody-director in the bank".
Warren, who lacks insight, says that Silas could have gone to his rich brother
in his bad days. It is Mary who understands. Silas says that he is "just
the kind that kinsfolk can't abide". Silas does not like to demean himself
by seeking his brother's help. Being a practical man, Silas has no respect for formal
education. Harold, once his co-worker at Warren's farm, was a college boy. He
had knowledge of Latin, but he was not efficient at his practical work. Silas
wished he could teach him "how to build a load of hay". Thus, Silas
has been depicted as a man of self-respect.
The role of women is not so prominent as that
of men in Frost's poetry. We find women characters in the poems. "The
Death of the Hired Man", "Home Burial", "West-Running
Brook", "Out, Out-" "The Hill Wife"; etc. Of these
poems, "The Death of the Hired Man" gives us a significant female
character, a housewife named Mary. Mary, the wife of Warren, is a sharp
contrast to him. She is very sympathetic towards Silas, their old servant, who
is meant to work in the fields. When Silas comes back after his travel in
search of a higher-salaried job, Mary can guess that Warren may treat him
cruelly, because he left their house in time of need. So she tells her husband,
immediately after he returns from the market, not to be unkind to Silas. She is
extremely alert and manages her husband in such a way that he does not get the opportunity
to maltreat Silas. She argues with her husband in favour of Silas. Her womanly,
rather mother-like, attitude to Silas is evident in her solicitation for Silas.
She is quite aware of Silas's worthlessness as an old man, but still she tries
to save him from the possible rough treatment of her husband. She pleads with
Warren to give him shelter in his old age. Thus, Mary appears as a woman of
kindness and a broad mind.
How the theme is presented:
The poem is written in blank verse, with variations. Blank verse seems to be
the fit instrument for the subject and theme of the poem.
Poetry having dramatic qualities can be called dramatic poetry. In a dramatic poem, some elements of drama are expected to be present: the use of dialogue, monologue, vigorous diction, blank verse or the stressing of tense situational or emotional conflict. There may be some other dramatic elements in a dramatic poem, but the degree or amount of their use is minor or negligible. Most of the poems of Robert Frost are found to possess the main dramatic qualities mentioned above. We will discuss the dramatic qualities of a few of Frost's poems; it is not possible to discuss most of the poems because of the lack of space permitted here.
The Death of the Hired Man"
possesses many of the dramatic qualities mentioned above. The poem may be
called a dramatic dialogue, considering its dramatic qualities. The poem
describes the death of an old servant in the house of his master, Warren.
Warren and his wife, Mary, have sharply divided opinions about the old servant
Silas, and their opinions are diametrically opposite. It vividly describes the
human considerations of Mary and the cruel feelings of Warren for Silas. There
is little physical action. Other elements of drama are not very prominent,
except dialogue, the use of blank verse and the tense situation and emotional
conflict between the husband and the wife. The opening lines present the
immediate situation: Warren was dissatisfied with Silas, who demanded some increase
in his salary, and, being refused, left his job with Warren. So Warren does not
desire that Silas should come back to him. Mary has sympathetic considerations
for the old servant and is in favour of giving him shelter. So, there goes an
altercation between them, involving a lot of dialogue. In the course of their
altercation, Warren tries to justify his attitude of denying shelter to Silas
by saying,
"Home is the place where,
when you have to go there,
They have to take you in."
But Mary immediately refutes by saying,
"I should have called it
Something you somehow don't to deserve."
The tense situation involves them in a tense
argument. To portray the scene, Frost uses blank verse, which seems to be the
fit instrument for the subject and the theme of the poem. He uses vigorous
diction characteristic of his language. The most important quality of his diction
is its clarity and brevity. His words are carefully chosen with an eye to their
sense and sound. He expresses his ideas with utmost economy. Thus, most of the
qualities of dramatic poetry are present in the poem.
Quarrel between Warren and
Mary: In the quarrel over the question of how home should be defined, the
reader gets a clear view of the subtle difference in opinions of Mary and
Warren. The quarrel is described with superb skill. The couple, Mary and
Warren, were incidentally discussing what they mean by home while discussing Silas's
coming back to their house after a period of his search for a job elsewhere.
The above lines are uttered by Warren in defining home. The question of their
house being Silas's home arose when Mary told Warren that "he (Silas) has
come home to die". Warren took exception to Mary's statement of his coming
"home". Mary's statement implied that since Silas had been a servant
in their house for a long time, and he had grown old as a servant there, she
regarded their house as Silas's home. During his existence as a servant in
their home for a long time, Silas must have developed an intimate relationship
with them. In such circumstances, a servant becomes quite like a member of the
family. And for a member of a family, a house is a home whether he is fit for
it or not. That means, if he is to be regarded as a member of the family, the
house becomes his home whether he deserves it or not, whether he has or has not
qualities sufficient for being a member of the family. The idea of home, as expressed
by Mary, was objected to by Warren. Warren puts emphasis on the worth of the
person; in this particular case, he means Silas. So, when somebody has worth,
he has to be accepted and taken in by other members of the family. Warren's
statement tallies with his attitude to Silas, their old servant. Warren did not
regard Silas as a member of their family. He did not have the requisite
qualities for being a member of their family, because Silas left him when he needed
him most, and a servant who leaves his master in times of need cannot be
regarded as a member of the family. So, according to Warren, their house was
not Silas's home.
Simplicity and clarity: The most obvious quality of Frost's poetry is simplicity of thought and clarity of expression. Thompson points out that Frost's poetry is very much akin to that of Wordsworth. Frost has particularly emphasised the concern for catching, within the lines of his poems, the rhythms, cadences and tones of human speech. Frost wrote in the natural colloquial language of New Englanders. He wanted to catch all the nuances, inflexions and intonations of their language. Corvelin Weygandt says, "All rural New England shares a laconic speech, a picturesqueness of phrase, a stiffness of lip, a quizzicality of attitude, a twistiness of approach to thought, but there is a New Hampshire slant to all these qualities, and that you find in the verse of Frost.") In Frost's poetry, generally, the speech syntax is loose, punctuated by parentheses, pauses, breaks, ellipses, halting measures, sudden ejaculations, abrupt beginnings, and sometimes sudden ends. At the beginning of the poem, we find Mary meets her husband in the doorway to put him on his guard, and says to him, "Silas is back", and "Be kind". Within these two very short expressions, we get a whole picture of the situation, which becomes clear after a little while.
Frost has used his poetic devices successfully
in the poem. It gives us a realistic picture of rural life in New England. "The
Death of the Hired Man” gives us a picture of life in North of Boston.
Here, the central character, Silas, is an old farmhand who has offended Warren
by leaving them during busy days, not once but many times- labourers were so
much in demand. Mary, the wife of Warren, tries to persuade her husband to pity
Silas, forget the past, and help him in his broken old age. Warren, who is more
tied to practical considerations, objects that the old man is unreliable and
will be of little use to them in his old age. He can find no reason why he
should take back the man who again and again comes to work on their farm only
to leave them for higher pay, just at harvest time, when he was most needed.
Warren, however, does not understand Silas's character, his self-respect
(almost pride), which did not allow him to seek help from his prosperous
brother. Again, Mary's definition of home brings into focus a universal message
that justice should be tempered by a spirit of charity and mercy. In this poem,
Frost does not portray the whole of New England. He deals only with that part
of Boston with which he is particularly familiar. The industrial sites and
fishing villages are ignored by him. In fact, he takes one particular kind of
locality to stand for New England as a whole; the regional or rural elements
are traced in this poem.
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