The Death of the Hired Man is a notable literary work by Robert Frost. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the main text, key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary Devices, Quotations, Notes, to various questions of The Death of the Hired Man.
What message do you get from the death of the Hired Man?
The Poem “The Death of the Hired Man” was written by the great American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963). This is a long narrative poem about death and subsequent guilt. It was first published in 1914.
The key concept of the poem: The poem speaks of a poor former employee who leaves his employers at a reasonable time and returns to his poor condition. It further explains how his master’s cold reaction leads him to death. The poem also talks about the effects of forgiveness and power.
Death as representative: The poem focuses on the unfortunate death of a poor man who dies helplessly on his master’s farm. The poem begins with a conversation between a rural couple. Wife Mary tells her husband Warren that their former employee has returned to apologize.
Mary wants her husband to forgive their poor laborer, although Warren does not want to take Silas back because he has always disappointed him. Thus, it is now understood that just moments before death, man can find his faults like Silas and become a poor candidate for an apology.
Representation of ideal mentality: Mary constantly tries to convince her husband that Silas is in a miserable condition and comes to us to die. Since Warren has not seen Silas during his illness, he is still angry that Silas has broken promises in the past several times. He simply does not want to give a second chance to someone who has already broken his faith.
On the other hand, the woman does not give up and finally persuades her husband to take this poor man inside. Unfortunately, when Warren goes to get Silas, Silas has already died. So, here it is evident that a human being of a good mentality can even change a stubborn mentality to a sympathetic mentality.
Now, we can conclude that the poem’s message is that timely forgiveness can save a man’s life.