The Death of the Hired Man

“The Death of the Hired Man” tells a story—as such, the unfolding narrative follows the traditional sections of any story: the exposition (Lines 1-32) that provides the background to Warren’s relationship with Silas; the conflict (Lines 33-105) in which husband and wife discuss the difference between obligation and responsibility; the resolution (Lines 106-161) in which Mary convinces Warren to soften his objections to treating Silas with some compassion; and the denouement (Lines 162-175) in which Warren discovers that Silas is dead, and Frost exposes the irony of compassion in a darkling world where death is forever imminent.

Lines 1-32—in which Mary confronts Warren to warn him that Silas has returned unannounced—provide critical background to the problems between Warren and Silas that in turn establish the emerging tension between husband and wife. Warren dominates this section and is immediately confrontational. Warren dismisses the former farmhand with a self-righteous code of duty and fairness: “I’ll not have the fellow back” (Line 12). In reminding Mary about Silas’s past failings, his unwillingness to stick to a job, and his casual indifference to the expectations of a contract, Warren defines himself as unyielding, unwilling to forgive, and certain only that he owes this vagrant nothing.