Coleman Rohde

10/11/21

Death of a Hired Man

Since the times of Aristotle the tragic hero has been central to any tragedy. In fact,

Aristotle strictly defines a tragedy as needing the tragic hero because he argues that it evokes the

necessary qualities of fear and pity in the audience which drives the study forward. However, in

“Death of a Hired Man” Frost attempts to evoke pity and fear surrounding the death of a rather

unremarkable and unheroic individual in order to demonstrate that it is not the hero that makes

the tragedy but the pity and fear that the tragedy can establish.

Frost achieves this through revealing the character’s attributes mainly through dialogue

and actions relating to Silas, the “Hired Man”. For example, Warren states that “What good is

he? Who else will harbor him / At his age for the little he can do?” Warren’s dialogue serves to

demonstrate his crass nature relating to Silas. Silas, a man on his deathbed, is being insulted by

his most frequent employer because Warren harbors anger towards Silas due to Silas’s . His

character is being insulted as he is dying by one of the few people who are even relatively close

to him. Warren pities Silas but it is an ugly pity which lacks understanding. It is an insulting pity.

Ironically, this pity is exactly what Silas was trying to avoid by choosing not to stay with his

successful brother. On the other hand, Mary demonstrates compassion towards Silas in her

dialogue. For example, Mary states, “A miserable sight, and frightening, too—You needn’t smile

—I didn’t recognize him—” Mary’s dialogue is markedly different from Warren’s dialogue

because her pity is genuine and derived from a sense of sympathy and positive relation towards

Silas. She has pity for him because he does not seem himself, not because he is a no-good

person, as Warren regards him. Warren pities Silas out of spite whereas Mary pities Silas out of
kindness. Most of the pleasing imagery is centered around Mary’s dialogue and thus a strong

positive connotation is associated with her dialogue. Thus, in this way, the audience is made to

reflect the Sympathetic pity of Mary which is the type of pity usually reserved for a hero, not

some poor worker to decide to uninvitingly choose to die at an acquaintance's house rather than

face the same crass pity from his brother.

Ultimately the dialogue between the characters reveal how home is the place where

people take you in unconditionally but unconditional acceptance is rare to come by. For example,

Mary states that, “Do you think / If he’d had any pride in claiming kin / Or anything he looked

for from his brother, / He’d keep so still about him all this time?’” Warren reveals through

dialogue that because Silas’s brother is more accomplished than him he would take him in on the

condition of his humiliation. Thus home is a place to go where there aren’t conditions which

seek to belittle. However, this acceptance is very difficult to find. Silas can’t find it with his

brother and, in some sense, he can’t find it within Warren and Mary’s home as well. Even though

Silas attempted to escape belittlement by his brother believing to find a home with Warren,

Warren rejects him much like his brother would, carrying resentment towards him and thus

asserting his superiority over him.

The story and dialogue also serve to demonstrate how you reap what you sow. As Warren

states, “Harold’s young college boy’s assurance piqued him.After so many years he still keeps

findingGood arguments he sees he might have used.” Silas is obsessed with a college boy,

Harold, who seems to have made more out of his life than he has and wishes he could have

taught him his trades and skills. However, Silas has very few trades and skills to teach. His lack

of education has not only put him at a disadvantage compared to his co-workers but his family,

friends, and acquaintances as well.