22 pages • 44 minutes read
Robert FrostThe Death of the Hired Man
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1914A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Persuasive Power of Mercy
Warren and Mary debate mercy versus forgiveness. With Silas’s health in decline, Warren still cannot forgive Silas’s spotty work record, how he abandoned work without completing it. He broke a contract with Warren: “What help he is there’s no depending on. / Off he goes always when I need him most” (Lines 17-18). Warren will not consider a second chance.
Against Warren’s practical and unyielding code is Mary’s giving and forgiving ethos. Mary deals with Silas as he is, takes into account his humanity and his declining health. She extends hospitality to Silas when he arrives unannounced, and she defends Silas against her husband’s arguments. Mary cautions Warren not to challenge Silas’s certainty, despite his health, that he is able to work. Mary cares little for the offenses of the past—Silas’s abandoning his work or Silas’s petty feud with Harold or even Silas’s problems with his brother. She understands only that Silas is alone, broke, homeless, and dying. Warren yields to Mary’s code of mercy—but too late.
The Definition of Home and Family
Warren’s definition of home is clear in Lines 122-23: “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, / They have to take you in.” He remembers that Silas has a wealthy brother with a home nearby and wonders why Silas hasn’t gone there instead. Mary considers his definition and clarifies that home is “Something you somehow haven’t to deserve” (Line 125). There is a clear contrast between their concepts of home. Warren’s perspective reflects family obligation but not family love; family may not want to help, but they have no choice. Mary’s point of view is that a family’s love should be unconditional; it should be given without being earned.
Mary’s vision is as simple as it is compassionate—be kind to each other. Mary understands that Silas has returned to close out his life, square his own accounts, and fulfill the contract he broke with Warren. If this is where Silas has come to die, then by Mary’s reasoning, this is home. They are family enough.
The Reality of Mortality
Given the cultural drift from God and the dehumanizing world of the industrial age, Frost regarded death as a quietly terrifying event. Off stage, as Mary and Warren debate his fate, Silas dies. Mary understands “He has come home to die” (Line 114). After a hard life of backbreaking farm work, Silas prepares to die with dignity. His speech is jumbled. He moves with difficulty. He huddled against the autumn cold, leaning against the barn too proud to knock at the door. He does not beg Mary or Warren for help. He refuses Mary’s offer of a warm bed and instead sits in the uncomfortable kitchen chair. He insists that he has not returned to accept charity but rather to help with late autumn chores. Silas concedes he broke his contract with Warren and fought with Harold Wilson. He wants to partner again with Harold and contribute to the world by teaching Harold practical skills: “He thinks if he could have another chance / To teach him how to build a load of hay—” (Lines 89-90). Silas is heroically squaring his accounts.
Silas nevertheless dies alone, off stage, distanced from Mary and Warren, his brother, and even from the reader. The simplest gesture of compassion—Mary allowing him to sit by the kitchen stove—is not enough to interdict death. Despite Mary’s kindness, despite Warren’s grudging decision to help, and despite a brother living just 13 miles away, Silas dies alone, vulnerable, and helpless, as everyone must.
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