The Death of a Hired Man by Robert Frost - Essay Example

The Death of a Hired Man by Robert Frost, published in 1915 is a conversational styled poem where Mary and Warren (wife and husband) have a conversation about their ex-employee Silas. Silas left their farm at such an odd time that all of the work is left unfinished, and the husband and wife are figuring things out at the barn. The funny thing is, Silas makes his return in winters when there is hardly any need of a helping hand. The poem is a fantastic example of what Cicero said about a man taking on multiple roles, “In the master, there is a servant, in the servant, a master.” If the master is deserted in a way where his servants run away leaving work unfinished and scrambled, the master will start working like a servant – circumstances decide who is the servant or the master. More so, even a master is responsible for work and answerable to another master. Just like in a corporate hierarchy or political ladder, there is always someone above someone, hence making the master a servant. So the question is, how come Mary and Warren become servants? It is not hard to figure out, after reading the first stanza, things become quite clear as Silas is found sleeping besides the kitchen door, “Silas is back” (Frost, 1915), after he ran away from work when someone offered him pocket money. Now he’s back and apparently “changed” (Frost, 1915). But Warren isn’t ready to take him back, he is furious at him for running away. So when Silas runs away, which ‘servant(s)’ maintain the household? Who makes the haystack and keep things in order? As the Latin word ‘famulus’, the origin of the English word ‘family’, meaning servant to the household, Warren and Mary both serve the household – they’re not the real masters, the household is. Being a servant doesn’t mean one is serving another master, a person that should exist in physical form. Even the most powerful man in the world can be a servant, a servant to his own principles, goals, responsibilities – even family! Silas runs away during summers when there is hardly any help around, and that is when Mary and Warren have to become servants – servants to their own needs and wants. This not so ‘helping hand’, Silas, comes back during winters when there is hardly any need for a servant, so basically he’s just a financial burden for Warren’s family. There is another element that manifests itself in the poem, not an obvious one. Apparently the servant is Silas, who seems like a work shirker, not because he hates working but probably he’s not a young man who would carry out the tasks around the house round the clock. When Mary finds Silas sleeping besides the stove, she drags her to the house, gives him tea and tries to make him smoke to he would relax and talk about his travels – so who is serving whom here? Is it that Mary is the servant of her morality, her ethics or of humanity in general? Yes, because if she were the real master, she wouldn’t have been serving an ordinary barn worker. Death of Hired Man is a long poem with a small story but throughout the poem, there are many references as to how Warren and Mary become servants, sometimes to their moral causes sometimes to household, sometimes to the voice of reason; for instance When Marry explains why the old man came back, Warren doesn’t believe her. Silas had been avoiding hard work and now Mary tells him that Silas is back because he wants to ditch the meadow for Warren, the husband doesn’t believe her. Moreover, Silas also has a proposition, he wants Warren to call Harold Wilson, a fine young man who had helped work things out at the barn. Silas wants to join forces with the young man so he would be better able to clean up the barn, put things right around the hay and do work efficiently. The plan is to put Wilson to hard work that the old man can’t handle anymore and he himself would sit on the cart to “build the load” (Frost, 1915) and Wilson would be alongside him to “pitch it on” (Frost, 1915), that’s his idea as they had been doing the same sometime ago. So now the ‘servant’ is telling the ‘master’ to make arrangements for him – that’s how things turn around. There are many investors and owners of companies that have total control over their enterprises but still their servants (CEOs, financial officers, investment strategists etc.) make propositions and instruct them how and where to invest, so the master learns from his servants. Silas is back to rest his head in the lap of his master, not Warren, not Mary, but the house, he is the servant of the house not of a human. That’s what keeps him going, that is why he numbers and tags haystacks to keep references so he won’t make a mess of his work. He probably thinks that this is how his master, the household would look good. This is what Mary conveys to Warren; “…he has come home to die” (Frost, 1915), and Warren mocks at the word “home”, probably thinking that Silas isn’t worthy of calling home his master. If he would really consider home his master, a place he would peacefully die in, he would not have left it in the first place. At this there is an argument between husband and wife, which is in fact establishing the authority of the house, the real master, and what the master does to his servants, how it takes care of him. Even when a dog returns to a place, if it’s a ‘home’ it’s supposed to take it in and the dog is supposed to serve it – that’s the relationship of master and servant. This part of the poem is beautiful in the sense that it establishes absolute authority of the house over the family. If someone comes home, the family (the servants) of the house, are supposed to take the returnee in, it’s an obligation, an order from the house to its servants – the family! Towards the end of the poem, it becomes quite clear; servant is also a master and the master, a servant. Silas dies as the silver cloud hits the moon, and Mary, the moon and the cloud stand, in an alignment as if soldiers of a higher authority, servants of a greater master, all part of a family. Source Frost, Robe. "The Death of the Hired Man." Bartleby. N.p., 1915. Web. 09 Apr. 2013. . Read More