The Death Of A Hired Man Analysis

This passage in “The Death of a Hired Man” by Robert Frost represents the theme and purpose for the entire poem. Warren and Mary are an ordinary, rural couple who find themselves in a bit of an altercation with each other when a former employee shows up in their lives for the last time. At the beginning of the poem Mary discovers Silas, one of their former farm workers, in desperation lying against their barn. She sees that Silas is dying and is in desperate need of a place to go. Mary immediately pleads with her husband, Warren, to allow Silas to stay with them, but he insists that he will not take him in again. In years past, Silas had been extremely unreliable to Warren and would leave just when he needed him most, so after many times of taking in Silas, Warren decides that he is someone else’s problem. It is clear that both Warren and Mary have been characterized very specifically at the very …show more content…
Indubitably, Mary views a home through its emotional meaning, while Warren views a home as a physical place. This passage helps paint the picture for the way that males and females are characterized in reality, and this is why Frost creates his characters the way he does. Being the female character that Mary is, she sees how Silas comes to her and husband in a time of desperation, and she is empathetic to Silas and his needs; and being the male character that Warren is, he is blinded to Silas’s condition because of his previous experiences with him and is hesitant to help him because of his unreliability in the past. Mary bases her actions off emotion, while Warren bases his actions of rationalization. The theme and purpose of “The Death of Hired Man” is found in this passage when Frost contrast “empathy and justice” and “emotion and rationalization” through a typical male and female