Robert Frost's poem "The Housekeeper" calls on many New England themes and qualities; they are as follows:
1. The housekeeper is hardworking. She says "I can sew" (line 8), even though she is incapacitated in other ways.
2. The housekeeper disdains luxury. She says, "Lord, if were to dream of everyone / Who shoes I primped" (lines 13-14). She clearly has no use for luxuries herself.
3. The housekeeper is matter-of-fact about her need to move away from her home. She says, "Of course I can't stay here" (line 37).
4. The housekeeper, like many New Englanders, mourns the passing of time. "No one will ever live on it again," she says in line 53 about her old home.
5. The housekeeper advocates a stoic attitude. She says of John, the man of the house, "He's like a child" for letting family problems interfere with his life (line 58). She believes in going forward, no matter what her family's problems are.
6. The housekeeper believes in the redemptive power of nature. She says of John, "I thought the growing things would do him good" (line 63).
7. She's a tough character who has a gun (line 69) and isn't afraid of John or anyone else.
8. She believes in women's independence and the rightness of women leaving if they are mistreated (line 80). She says that if Estelle didn't want to live at the house, she was right to leave.
9. She's a freethinker and thinks it's all right to live with someone without being married (line 89-90).
10. She believes in women's rights and says that because her daughter has done the work on the farm, she's entitled to control the money (lines 116-117).
11. The housekeeper is a realist. She accepts that her daughter won't return (line 191-192).
12. She is observant. She knows when John is coming back home and what he'll say (line 213).
No comments:
Post a Comment