The Futility of Emotion
Robert Frost 's “Home Burial” exemplifies many social and cultural gender stereotypes, and seems to portray the struggles many, if not every couple faces when these stereotypes hinder a relationship. The central conflict in the poem is the death of a child, and Frost uses this a springboard to help describe universal relationship issues, specifically communication. To preface the entire story, Frost decides to name the wife Amy, while not giving the husband a name clearly putting the immediate focus on the female character; however, I believe much of the social commentary is centered around the male. The unnamed male in this poem represents all men 's struggle with the often overlooked expectations society has created …show more content…
During the story Amy, the wife, brings up her husband 's absence of mourning by quoting him as saying “‘Three foggy mornings and one rainy day Will rot the best birch fence a man can build.’” She implies that he is a cold man for being able to worry about everyday issues immediately after burying his child. However, The man quietly made this statement having just dug his son 's grave, too absent of mind to clean his boots (“...stains on your shoes Of the fresh earth from your own baby’s grave...”), or replace the spade he used for the task (“...You had stood the spade up against the wall Outside there in the entry...”). The statement about the fence seems to be a convoluted expression of regret and sorrow when his body language is taken into account. Many times anguish does not reveal itself as sorrow, but rather repression. This represents the dichotomy of man; that a man is to repress his emotion else he is less of a man, and yet he will be considered cold when he …show more content…
It seems as though Frost chose to embody this cultural hurdle in his male character. The male in the story says to his wife “Don’t go to someone else this time. Listen to me. I won’t come down the stairs.” and he “He sat and fixed his chin between his fists.” I believe the man was struggling to calmly work through his own emotion, all while attempting to avoid belittling her own emotions in the interim. This epitomizes the mindset of someone who is depressed; He feels as though he cannot express himself, because he understands the feeling well enough that he would not wish the feeling upon his wife. Another very prominent symptom of depression are uncharacteristic displays of aggression. When someone is forced to stifle their mental state their thoughts and feelings tends to compound; This makes them liable to release all of these sentiments in an irate fits. I believe frost used the husband 's threatening outburst, in which he said “I’ll follow and bring you back by force. I will!—” Robert frost seems to have purposefully used this single outburst as a contrast to the husband’s calm demeanor throughout the story. This divergence seemingly serves as a method of conveyance of the idea that the husband struggles with depression. As I
Robert Frost 's “Home Burial” exemplifies many social and cultural gender stereotypes, and seems to portray the struggles many, if not every couple faces when these stereotypes hinder a relationship. The central conflict in the poem is the death of a child, and Frost uses this a springboard to help describe universal relationship issues, specifically communication. To preface the entire story, Frost decides to name the wife Amy, while not giving the husband a name clearly putting the immediate focus on the female character; however, I believe much of the social commentary is centered around the male. The unnamed male in this poem represents all men 's struggle with the often overlooked expectations society has created …show more content…
During the story Amy, the wife, brings up her husband 's absence of mourning by quoting him as saying “‘Three foggy mornings and one rainy day Will rot the best birch fence a man can build.’” She implies that he is a cold man for being able to worry about everyday issues immediately after burying his child. However, The man quietly made this statement having just dug his son 's grave, too absent of mind to clean his boots (“...stains on your shoes Of the fresh earth from your own baby’s grave...”), or replace the spade he used for the task (“...You had stood the spade up against the wall Outside there in the entry...”). The statement about the fence seems to be a convoluted expression of regret and sorrow when his body language is taken into account. Many times anguish does not reveal itself as sorrow, but rather repression. This represents the dichotomy of man; that a man is to repress his emotion else he is less of a man, and yet he will be considered cold when he …show more content…
It seems as though Frost chose to embody this cultural hurdle in his male character. The male in the story says to his wife “Don’t go to someone else this time. Listen to me. I won’t come down the stairs.” and he “He sat and fixed his chin between his fists.” I believe the man was struggling to calmly work through his own emotion, all while attempting to avoid belittling her own emotions in the interim. This epitomizes the mindset of someone who is depressed; He feels as though he cannot express himself, because he understands the feeling well enough that he would not wish the feeling upon his wife. Another very prominent symptom of depression are uncharacteristic displays of aggression. When someone is forced to stifle their mental state their thoughts and feelings tends to compound; This makes them liable to release all of these sentiments in an irate fits. I believe frost used the husband 's threatening outburst, in which he said “I’ll follow and bring you back by force. I will!—” Robert frost seems to have purposefully used this single outburst as a contrast to the husband’s calm demeanor throughout the story. This divergence seemingly serves as a method of conveyance of the idea that the husband struggles with depression. As I