Use of Symbols/Symbolism in the Poetry of Robert Frost

Robert Frost takes the familiar objects as the subject matters of his poetry but makes them highly suggestive and symbolic to represent some universal wisdom. Frost’s poetry abounds in  all familiar things like pastures and plains, mountains and rivers, woods and gardens, groves and bowers, fruits and flowers, and seeds and birds etc. But Frost treats all these elements of nature differently from the English romantics. Though Frost is forever linked to the stone-pocked hills and woods of New England, he treated some themes that have universal appeal.

Robert Frost worked individual poems into a larger unity by presenting in them a recurrent speaker ,a wise country person living close to nature and approaching life in a spirit of compassionate realism.Many people assumed that this speaker was Frost himself ,but in fact it was a brilliant artistic creation ,a persona or mask . In addision he wrote many dramatic monologues whose speakers were New England farm people. The poems in which he makes use of the familiar aspects to suggest a symbolic meaning are Mending Wall, The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods by Snowy Evening, Birches etc.

In the poem 'The Pasture', we are introduced with a farmer who is engaged in day to day farming life. The Pasture describes simple, every day pleasures on the farm. Here the speaker says he is setting out on an ordinary farm chore to clean the pasture spring of leaves, and perhaps wait for the water to clear. But in deeper sense the poem shows the process of purifying human hearts from sin.

Pasture symbolizes the world. To clean the pasture spring means to purify the heart and soul from sin. Leaves symbolize the sins that lie inside the heart. ’Wait to watch the water clear” means wait until the clear from sins.’To fetch the little calf” means to guide the people who still have weak faith. ’It totters when she licks it with her tongue” means God will send his messenger to guide the ordinary people. So, God will not directly give enlightenment to them.

In the poem ‘Mending Wall’, for example, Frost portrays a typical farming work in the context of New England. The New England farmers built walls as boundaries to their farms. These walls often became weak and broke down. So, they needed mending. The poem Mending Wall is also a poem about two neighbors and a wall. The wall acts as a divider in separating estates-apple and pine trees. It is a very common picture of farming life where the people believe that "Good fences make good neighbors." But the suggestiveness of the poem is very modern in its approach. The poem is based on the modern theme of isolation. Modern men built boundaries and made themselves isolated from each other. Frost’s metaphysical treatment of this physical and psychological isolation is also an evidence of his modernity. In “Mending Walls”, Frost juxtaposes the two opposite aspects of the theme of the poem and then leaves it to the reader to draw his own conclusion. The conservative farmer says:

Good fences make good neighbor

and the modern radical farmer says:

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,  

But the question remains unsolved. And it is up to the readers if they will keep the wall or pull down it.

'Stopping By woods on a Snowy Evening' is another poem, in which the familiar things finally become highly suggestive. Apparently, the poem describes the evening walk of a rural farmer, may be the poet himself. But out of his evening walk beside a snowy woods, the traveler discovers a truth universal in appeal.

 

In the poem “Mowing” the poet as a laborer identifies himself with his scythe. The narrator works in the field on a hot day.  He notices that his scythe seems to be whispering as it works. Instead of dreaming about inactivity or reward for its labor as a person would, the scythe takes its sole pleasure from its hard work. It receives satisfaction from “the fact” of its earnest labor in the field, not from transient dreams or irrational hopes. The narrator follows the scythe’s example: seizing on the pleasure of hard work and making hay.

In the poem 'Two Tramps in Mud Time' Frost has taken notice of both the bright and dark aspects of nature. Beneath the apparently beautiful calm there is lurking turmoil and storms:

Be glad of water, but don’t forget

The lurking frost in the earth beneath

There is a famous poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. On the surface, it is a poem about a traveler who feels tempted to go into the woods which are “lovely, dark and deep” and to stay there in order to enjoy their strange beauty and charm, but who is not able to carry out his wish on account of the realization that he has promises to keep and miles to go. But the poem has a deeper, symbolic significance. The words “promises”, “miles”, and “sleep” have deeper meanings. “Promises” and “miles to go” imply duties and responsibilities. “Sleep” symbolizes death. There are the promises which he has made to himself and to others, or which others have made on his behalf. And there are the miles he must travel through other kinds of experience before he yields to that final and inevitable commitment-death. We are not told that the call of social responsibility proves stronger than the attraction of the woods, which are "lovely" as well as "dark and deep’. The dichotomy of the poet's obligations both to the woods and to a world of promises is what gives this poem a universal appeal.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

The closing stanza of the poem is especially symbolic. The poem symbolically expresses the conflict which everyone feels between the demands of the practical life and a desire to escape into the land of reverie.

 

The poem “The Road Not Taken” was also based on the poet’s personal experience. It was based on his visit to the woods of Plymouth, New Hampshire in 1911-1912. But the poem symbolizes the universal problem of making a choice of invisible barriers built up in the minds of the people which alienate them from one another mentally and emotionally, though they live together or as neighbors in the society. At the heart of the poem is the romantic mythology of flight from a fixed world of limited possibility into a wilderness of many possibilities combined with trials and choices through which the pilgrim progresses to divine perfection.

 'Apple Picking' describes the feelings, of a man who has been plucking apples from the apple trees. He's describing how he takes them off the tree and places them in a bucket and sends them off. His is a tired apple picker. He cherishes the apples like they were jewels. After a long day’s work, the speaker is tired of apple picking and feels sleep coming on.

Similarly the Birch trees in “Birches” symbolize man’s desire to seek escape from the harsh suffering man to undergo in this world.

The poem Design is saying that god is both good and evil and has a design for all things big and small. The whiteness of the flower, spider, and moth represent purity. However the scene itself could be construed as evil. But since everything is under god's design he must have designed it to happen that way. Perhaps he is saying that everything can be looked upon as good or evil depending on your perspective.

In the poem ’Fire and Ice”, fire symbolizes the heat of passion while ice represents the cold hate. The extremes of both passion and hate have the power to destroy and annihilate the world.

Robert Frost’s insightful yet tragic poem “Out, Out--” employs realistic imagery and the personification of a buzz saw to depict how people must continue onward with their lives after the death of a loved one, while also hinting at the selfish nature of the human race, whom oftentimes show concern only for themselves.

Frost begins the poem by describing a young boy cutting some wood using a buzz-saw. The setting is Vermont and the time is late afternoon. The sun is setting and the boy's sister calls him to come and eat supper. As the boy hears its dinner time he gets excited and cuts his hand by mistake. Realizing that the doctor might cut his hand off because of this, he immediately asks his sister to make sure that does not happen. By the time the doctor arrives it is too late and the hand is already lost. When the doctor gives him anaesthetic, the boy falls asleep never to wake up again. The last sentence of the poem which states that "since they [the boys family and the doctor] were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" shows how although the boys death is tragic, people move on with their life.

Robert Frost as a New England Poet or Everyday 'New England Farming Life' in the poetry of Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost,the folk philosopher,is the most cherished nature poet of  New England,America. New England or more strictly speaking that part of it which lies north of Boston ,provides the rural context within which Frost’s most characteristic poems presented. It is this rural world which provides him not only with the setting ,but also with the objects ,the incidents ,the events and the characters he writes about. But Frost treats all these elements of nature differently from the English romantics. He takes the familiar objects as the subject matters of his poetry but makes them highly suggestive and symbolic to represent some universal wisdom.Thus,though he is forever linked to the stone-pocked hills and woods of New England, he treated the themes that have universal appeal.

Except for the brief period of his stay in England ,Frost was himself a farmer all his life ,from early boyhood down to his ripe old age .Poetry was his vocation ,but farming was his avocation.He combined the two and this gave him an intimate knowledge of the life the farmers and hence arises the truthfulness of his depictions of rural life.

In the poem 'The Pasture', for example, we are introduced with a farmer who is engaged in day to day farming life. The Pasture describes simple, every day pleasures on the farm. Here the speaker says he is setting out on an ordinary farm chore to clean the pasture spring of leaves, and perhaps wait for the water to clear. This was a typical life style of most of the farmers of New England.

The title of the poem ‘Mending Wall’ suggests a typical farming work. The New England farmers built walls as boundaries to their farms. These walls often became weak and broke down. So, they needed mending. The poem Mending Wall is also a poem about two neighbors and a wall. The wall acts as a divider in separating estates-apple and pine trees. It is a very common picture of farming life where the people believe that "Good fences make good neighbors."

In the poem “Mowing” the poet as a laborer identifies himself with his scythe. The narrator works in the field on a hot day.  He notices that his scythe seems to be whispering as it works. Instead of dreaming about inactivity or reward for its labor as a person would, the scythe takes its sole pleasure from its hard work. It receives satisfaction from “the fact” of its earnest labor in the field, not from transient dreams or irrational hopes. The narrator follows the scythe’s example: seizing on the pleasure of hard work and making hay.

Concept of Nada in 'A Farewell to Arms'

Nada is a Spanish and Portuguese word meaning "nothing", used in English with the same meaning. The concept of Nada constitutes one of the central themes of Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms. In this novel Nada is symbolized by darkness or death. In other words death or darkness suggests the total annihilation expressive of pessimism. Hemingway’s code heroes try to avoid this ‘nada’ or the engulfing pessimism. The Hemingway hero is a restless man, doesn't like the night, often will sleep through the day and stay awake during the night. The darkness of the night represents nothingness, the state in which things will be when one is dead, absolute oblivion. Darkness and sleep must be avoided, for in these states there is nothingness, "nada." Hemingway's discourse on "nada" is his way of exploring the darker side of his spiritual self.

In A Farewell to Arms, Frederick Henry is Hemingway’s code hero, who represents certain images that are often connected with the concept of the code hero. His actions are often identified by certain definite movements or performances. Frederick Henry is often called a restless man. He stays awake all night so as to be with Catherine Barkley, who is on the night shift.

The nada concept had been a part of Henry's life from the beginning. Henry stood up nights because the night is a representation of evil and death to him. If he is not asleep, he can avoid having to deal with it. Henry also is accompanied by Catherine during nights at the Ospidale Maggoire. To Henry there was almost no difference in the night except that is was an even better time with Catherine. Catherine, who is already a code hero, has values which transcend onto Henry at the Hospital.

During the day, Henry sleeps but Catherine has to work, so she stops coming to him on nights. Henry is left to stay up, alone on nights. Also, he does not ask Catherine to come stay with him thus controlling his desires to make love to her. From this point in the book, Henry disciplines himself. During those nights together, they made love and talked. When he first saw Catherine, he was after sexual pleasures from her instead of the prostitutes in Gorizia. He never realized that he was in love untill some time later. Also, when he is in the course of a battle with Manera, Gavuzi and Passini, he began to eat food. Henry enjoys the food he eats, the love he makes and the wine he drinks whenever he pleases to, as a code hero does. Henry showed his loyalty to the individuals and small groups in his life, and near the end of the novel he showed grace under pressure.

Hemingway’s concept of nada will be better understood if we compare Henry with another Hemingway code hero found in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”. Here the hero is a lonely old man. The old, hearing impaired man is a nightly patron at a small caf where he enjoys indulging himself by carefully sipping alcohol as he tries to cope with his loneliness and isolation. His nights are especially lonely for he has no wife. His niece, the one who cut him down after he, in despair, tried to commit suicide, is the only one in his life to care for him. The old man, after realizing life has no meaning for him, enjoys the caf setting because he can be near two waiters who essentially let him alone, get drunk with dignity, and forget he is dying of old age. The old, nihilistic man, craving the well-lighted caf and his saucers of brandy, manages to cope and show grace under pressure, like a true code hero, despite the fact that he knows his life means nothing in this world, and he is soon going to die.

Thus, Hemingway develops his concept of nada through Henry-a restless man.  By restless is meant that he often stays awake at nighttime and sleeps all during the day. The reason for this is that for Henry sleep itself is a type of obliteration of the consciousness. Night is a difficult time for Henry because night-itself the darkness of night- implies, suggests, or symbolizes the utter dark-ness that man will have to face after death. Therefore Henry avoids nighttimes. This will be the time he will drink; this will be the time he will carouse or stay awake. In many novels he will spend the night making love with someone and only at the crack of dawn will he then desire sleep.

Father-son Relationship in Arthur Miller’s play 'Death of a Salesman'

In many literary works, family relationships are the key to the plot. It is also a common feature of the American plays written during the first half of the 20^th century. Through a family’s interaction with one another, the reader is able decipher the conflicts of the story. Within a literary family, various characters play different roles in each other’s lives. In the Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman, the interaction between Willy Loman and his sons, Happy and Biff, allows Miller to comment on father-son relationships and the conflicts that arise from them.

Death of a Salesman gives us a pen picture of Willy Loman and his relationship with his sons Biff and Happy. Willy would like to be able to count on his two sons, but he knows he can’t. The older one is Biff who is a failure in his life, and the younger one Happy has a steady job. But nobody of them can meet the demand of Willy. Thus there are ups and downs in their relationship in different stages of their life. Though the father-son relationship was quite well at the beginning, it becomes soared with the passage of time and the gap is never bridged up.

As unfortunate as it is, there are many instances where a father favors one son over another, which leads to social conflicts within the less-favoured son. In most cases it is the oldest son that is being favoured while the younger son is ignored. Usually the father doesn’t even realize what is happening. He simply gets too caught up in the successes of his eldest son and he may even try to live out his life through his son’s experiences. Because Willy has dreams of grandeur for Biff, Miller subtly shows how Happy is overlooked.

Biff is the favourite son of Willy and when he was growing up, Biff had idolized his father and Willy had thought Biff could do no wrong. Willy believes and makes Biff believe that any one so confident, so gorgeous is certain to attain success in life. However, at one stage, there relationship collapsed. But Willy bears a good opinion regarding Biff and always believes that Biff has the ability to develop a business of his own.

During most father-son relationships, there are certain times where the father wants to become more of a "player" in his son’s life than his son believes is necessary. The reasons for this are numerous and can be demonstrated in different ways. Miller is able to give an example of this behavior through the actions of Willy Loman. When Biff comes home to recollect himself, Willy perceives it as failure. Since Willy desperately wants his oldest son, Biff, to succeed in every way possible, he tries to take matters into his own hands. "I’ll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time" (16). The reason that Biff came home is to find out what he wants in life. Because Willy gets in the way, matters become more complicated. Partly due to Willy’s persistence in Biff’s life, they have conflicting ideas as to what the American dream is. Willy believes that working on the road by selling is the greatest job a man could have (81). Biff, however, feels the most inspiring job a man could have is working outdoors (22).

When their two dreams collide, it becomes frustrating to Willy because he believes that his way is the right way. If a father becomes too involved in his son’s life, Miller believes friction will be the resultant factor. Thus, their relationship reaches such a point that Biff can not bear Willy. The frustration of Biff begins and he no more feels comfort with the presence of his father. He always tries to keep himself away from him and in a conversation with his brother Happy he says-“why does Dad mock me all the time?” When he finds that he is not fit for any job his criticism goes on towards his father’s upbringing- “You blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody.”

Willy and Biff are often found passing a happy time, behaving with each other like friends. They share their dreams, hopes and aspirations. Willy tries to make Biff a prominent man in the country. He is so fond of Biff that he overlooks the latter’s bad habits. He totally ignores Biff’s habit of stealing; on the contrary, he seems to encourage it. In course of time, stealing becomes so habitual for Biff that it works as one of the principle causes of his downfall. Again, Willy also does not pay heed to Biff’s education. Willy thinks that education is not necessary for success. Willy does not show any interest in Bernard’s warning that Biff is doing bad in exams. On the contrary, both Willy and Biff humiliates Bernard and mocks at him. Thus, although Biff is a good football player and athlete, these qualities alone are not enough in the business world. Biff is, in fact, devoid of the good family training which his father might have given him.

However, the incident which is mainly responsible for the collapse of the father-son relationship is Willy’s love-making with a Boston girl. Biff travels to Boston to meet his father but he finds in the hotel room that his father is passing his time with a girl.  Biff goes to Boston to tell his father that he has failed his exam and Willy needs to talk to his teacher for Biff’s readmission. However, when Biff discovers his father’s betrayal to his mother, he loses his interest in education and job. Here also we find that Willy is largely responsible for Biff’s failure in securing a good career. Besides, the Boston incident sours the father-son relationship permanently.

Miller attempts to show the conflicts that occur as a result of a father not teaching his sons any morals. Willy ingrains in Biff’s head that a person can do anything as long as they are popular. Because of this belief, Biff develops an addiction to stealing. The reason he lost his job with Oliver was because he stole basketballs from him. He has trouble all his life because he steals. "I stole myself out of every good job since high school" (131). It is this reason that has caused all his problems with Willy, and Willy is to blame because he never told him differently. Happy also has a sour relationship with Willy because of the lack of values he has. Willy always tells them that being popular is the best quality to have. Happy meets some women at the restaurant where he and Biff are supposed to meet Willy. When Willy starts to fall apart on them, Happy tries to ignore him so that he won’t look bad in front of the women. "No, that’s not my father. He’s just a guy" (115). Willy never instils family pride in them. It is this reason that a gap exists in their relationship with him. Arthur Miller’s ability to have characters interact with one another allows him to comment on father-son relationships and the conflicts involved.

 

But Willy on his part always tries to do something for his boys and does never want to depend on them. He commits suicide as it will bring twenty thousand dollars of insurance which will help Biff to make a good fortune. And the son’s respect is shown after his death when Happy says-

“Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It’s only dream you can have-to come out number-one man.”

“Death of a Salesman” as a Morality Play and Willy Loman is the Everyman

Arthur Miller’s “Death of a salesman” can be read as a morality play written on a very contemporary theme. In a sense Willy Loman is the Everyman in a capitalistic society. For regardless of his excesses, virtually everyone can find a bit of themselves in the doomed protagonist of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman." The play cannot attain the stature of a genuine tragedy because of its extreme social awareness nor can it be a social drama because it is fitting to call it a social tragedy and it is. Social tragedy is a modern kind of tragedy in which the conflict between the central protagonist and society is depicted and the protagonist becomes the victim of society’s ill-treatment. 

Arthur Miller in his drama “Death of a Salesman” depicts the conflict within the family and the conflict between protagonist and the society. He is misfit in the capitalist society. He is the victim of a social injustice and this social injustice causes his tragedy.

Willy Loman, the protagonist, has been working in a company for almost thirsty-six years. He introduces the firm in many cities. He often says to his colleagues that he is a vital man for the firm. It is only due to Willy's effort that the firm has been introduced in many cities of America.

Willy Loman in his life, keeping David Singleman’s charming personality as a model before him, dreams of success which is for a big house, a beautiful car and a good job which earns him a lot of money. But despite his head-long service for thirty-six years, he is unable to achieve his goals of success. He is misfit in the capitalistic society in which for being successful one has to be practical and hardworking, whereas, a dreamer like Willy Loman is sure to be a victim of failure. At the age of sixty three he is working on commission and his salary is so little that he cannot pay his installments of insurance and of other households. He often has to borrow money from Charley to pay his installments.

His own failure in achieving his goal of success and his son’s failure in getting settled is frustrating and maddening him. He is in the verge of mental collapse. He cannot concentrate on his car driving and smashes his car for two or three times. Willy makes up his mind to see his employer, Howard, and ask him to give him a non-traveling job in New York and to increase his salary.


He considers himself a vital man for the firm but he is not aware of the fact that in the capitalistic society a man is needed so long as a man can raise profit for the firm. The sooner he is incapable of raising benefit for the firm, the sooner he is fired out. Willy realizes the fact when instead of considering his plea on the humanitarian grounds, Howard fires him out. Howard totally ignores his forty years service for the firm. As Willy can no more raise benefit to the firm so he is no more wanted at all. Howard says:

“I cannot take blood from a stone.”

Willy realizes that he is not a vital man at all for the firm and speaks the beautiful line, a satire on capitalistic society, that these capitalistic profiteers eat the fruit and throw the peels away.

To conclude we can rightly say that “Death of a Salesman” is a modern social tragedy in which conflict between man and society has been depicted. Willy Loman, the protagonist, becomes the victim of social injustice which compels him to commit suicide.

Criticism of ' the American Dream' in 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller

To pass a laborious life and also die an inglorious death from frustration is the typical picture of the life of an individual in a third world country.But it is absolutely an unlikely happening for a citizen of America,the land of plenty and wealth.Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman presents a  very similar situation and thus indirectly poses a challenge to the American dream,that to be an American is to enjoy a life of plenty,equality and happiness. No American should get lost and die an unlamented death.

The American Dream' is based on the 'Declaration of Independence': 'We believe that all men are born with these inalienable rights - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' This 'dream' consists of a genuine and determined belief that in America, all things are possible to all men, regardless of birth or wealth; if you work hard enough you will achieve anything. However, Miller believes that people have been 'ultimately misguided' and Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, is a moving destruction of the whole myth.

The tragedy of Willy Loman, says Arthur Miller, is:

    “Willy gave his life, or sold it, in order to justify the waste of it…”

Willy represents Every low-man in America. Hence, it is a tragedy of every American. The play is really a challenge to the American Dream because it is the tragedy of a man troubled by the society. Willy believes in American myth that “Success is obtained by being well-liked”. His dream ends up in nightmare. So the play challenges to new American capitalistic concepts.

American dream means the dream of becoming rich overnight. The scale and merit of success is money, big house, a costly car and other material things. Nobility, truth, honesty are not merits. Values have been changed through this dream. Instead of hard work and courage, there is salesmanship. It implies fraud, the ability to sell a commodity regardless of its intrinsic uselessness. The goal of salesmanship is to earn a profit.

So, in these circumstances, man ceases to be man and spiritually he is hollow. He constantly wears a mask hiding his deceptive frauds. The only reality, the only goal is that of material success. The same situation happens with Willy Loman. By this way, Willy, to a large extent, represents Every Low-man in America. His fall, his death reflects the total break down of the concept of salesmanship, an integral part of America setup.

Willy believes that life’s problems can be solved by looking “Well-liked”. But he does not realizes the fact that the age in which he is living, the good looks does not matter, what matters is the wealth you have. By wealth you can buy anything. All relations are useless before almighty dollar. He receives his severest blows when he needs the greatest amount of love and care. He is unable to travel extensive. He makes a request to his young employer to relieve him of such a tiring burden and give him a comfortable job. But, for the capitalism businessman no moral or legal obligation can be biding. To him, Willy is commercially as useless as the peels of a fruit. So, he says:

    I can’t take blood from a stone.

In fact, “Death of a Salesman” is a red light for American society. It shows that all Americans adopt one million ideas and dream for success. Everyone wants to become the president of America, but when he fails to achieves his dreams, he becomes frustrated. Willy’s suicide is a caution for such modern values.

Eugene O’Neil comments on the failure of American dream in following lines:

    “I am going on the theory that the United States, instead of being the most successful country in the world, is the greatest failure”

In conclusion we can say that Miller in “Death of a Salesman” has tried to show the failure of American dream. Implicitly, he tells us tht man is not a machine, he has emotions too. Thus placing all the values on riches is wrong. The whole situation he sums up in Biff’s remark who says on his father’s death.

    “He had the wrong dream. All, all wrong.”