"Darkness and Fear in Frost's Poetry"
...l soon escalate: “ . . . now’s the time to have it out with him While we know definitely where he is. Let him get off and he’ll be everywhere Around us, looking out of trees and bushes Till I shan’t dare set a foot outdoors” (43-47). After discussing the reasons as to why her ex-lover would want to stalk her, the woman cautiously advances towards the bushes where she spotted the stranger and calls out “what do you want?” Startled when someone replies “Nothing,” she clutches fearfully to Joel. Eventually, the stranger recognizes her fear and replies: “ ‘You seem afraid/ I saw by the way you whipped up the horse/ I’ll just come forward in the lantern-light/ And let you see’ ” (72-74). However, no one ever clearly appears in the light. After questioning the stranger further, he replies that he is merely out for a walk with his son and that he is stopping for the night somewhere further down the road. Somewhat satisfied, the woman turns to walk back home and says to Joel: “You understand that we have to be careful. This is a very, very lonely place-- Joel! She spoke as if she couldn’t turn. The swinging lantern lengthened to the ground, It touched, It struck, it clattered and went out.” (89-93). The poem abruptly ends here and the reader is left to guess the fate of the woman and Joel. From the details given in the last two verses, it would seem as though the stranger has attacked, or even killed, the couple. The outcome, however, will never be known. The poem is successful, then, in making the reader aware of terror amid the darkness. In “Storm Fear” and “The Fear” darkness, when accompanied by loneliness, leads one to have feelings of fear and dread. Most importantly, however, is that: If nature and human nature have the power to reduce man to a fearful sense of his own smallness, his own lostness, in a seemingly indifferent or even malicious universe, then one suggested way to confront such fear is to imagine life stripped down to its most naked forms in order to decide what is left to go on with, and to weigh the question as to whether the possible gains are worth the necessary cost. (Thompson 19). The reader should already be acquainted with the speaker’s “fearful sense of his own smallness” in “Storm Fear” by the speaker’s utter hopelessness. Therefore, the speaker, as evident in his actions, recognizes his fear and imagines life “stripped down to its most naked forms.” What is not established, however, is any decision on the part of the speaker as to whether or not it is “worth the necessary cost” to overcome this fear. What the reader is left with in “Storm Fear,” then, is an unclear conclusion because the speaker seems to surrender to the situation. In “The Fear,” however, the speaker does make such a decision as evidenced when the woman bravely decides to attempt to confront the stranger. Thus, she has weighed any costs (i.e. an attack from the stranger) in order to obtain a possible gain (i.e. peace of mind). Unfortunately, the reader is never certain of the outcome of her decision due to the ambiguous conclusion of the poem. It appears as though the woman and Joel have indeed been attacked by the stranger, but this cannot be said for certain. Frost continues to explore the element of darkness in “The Hill Wife”: a poem presented in five parts. Most importantly, the reader will see how the speaker not only confronts fear by actually experiencing life stripped to its very core, but makes a decision concerning any possible gains for confronting this fear. Unlike “Storm Fear” or “The Fear,” the outcome of the speaker’s decision is clearly established in the conclusion of this poem. As mentioned above, this poem is presented in five parts. In part one, which is from the point of view of the Hill Wife herself, the sense of loneliness is established; in parts two and three, loneliness grows into fear of human nature; in part four, the fear of nature’s unpredictability is established; in part five, the wife makes a decision regarding whether or not to confront her fears and continue with life as it has been to this point. Throughout the poem, loneliness manifests itself into fear of darkness. The first part of the poem serves to establish the sense of loneliness felt by the wife and her husband. This feeling of isolation and loneliness is established in the opening lines of the poem when the wife despondantly says to her husband: One ought not to have to care So much as you and I Care when the birds come round the house To seem to say good-by; Or care so much when they come back With whatever it is they sing. (1-6) Obviously, the couple are so lonely that even the mere presence or abscence of birds makes a significant difference in their daily lives. Such natural occurances would probably go unnoticed by those who live in contact with others. By the second part of the poem the couple’s loneliness has manifested itself into fear of the unknown. The reader is witness to the precautions the couple makes when returning to their home in the dark evening. Such action as rattling the door lock in order to frighten away an unlikely intruder indicates a sense of paranoia on the part of the couple. Further paranoid precaution is revealed in the final lines of part two: “And preferring the out- to the indoor night/ They learned to leave the house door wide/ Until they had lit the lamp inside” (8-10). There seems to be no rational reason for such precautions, for they obviously live far away from the contact of others. Nevertheless, the couple are cautious as a result of their growing sense of fear: Why they (the couple) learned to take the named precautions is never explained. Rational explanation dissapates fears. Lack of knowledge, failure to see clearly because of darkness is the very stuff upon which fear is built. So, the husband and wife learned to give warning because, well because . . . because . . . They learned to give warning! Clearly the loneliness is beginning to have its effect. (Doyle 56) The “effect” of loneliness, according to Doyle, is obviously the couple’s ever-increasing state of paranoia. The couple’s sense of paranoia reaches its climax in the third part of the poem. Here, one is witness to the wife’s fear of human nature as she responds to her husband about the recent appearance of a stranger at their home. This stranger, who is apparantly a lone drifter, merely requests food from the couple. After being g...