Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Frost, Robert, --1874-1963; Frost, Robert, --1874-1963;

Abstract

Since Robert Frost created dramatic narratives and lyrics in which men and women characterizations are explored, many studies of such poems have concentrated on the treatment of men-women relationships. In the first chapter of this thesis approaches of various critics are presented as are a statement of the thesis and an overview of the poems explicated. This study is primarily intended to analyze the women as such and to examine their development as personalities possessing certain characteristics. As the thesis develops, Frost's compassion for and psychological insight into the female psyche and his portrayal of unique personalities with diversified characteristic female traits come to the fore. The evidence of such traits, the existence and development of Frost's women as individuals, and Frost's awareness of the make-up of women and his compassion for their suffering are drawn from the poems themselves. The poems included are as nearly totally representative of the Frostian poems which depict or hint at prevalent female traits as possible. Because the intention of the thesis is to examine Frost's women, an arbitrary division of positive and negative qualities is used to keep the analyses from becoming extremely complicated in order to more easily arrive at the dominant traits of each expressed quality. Although positive aspects consist of love, joy, and hope and negative attributes center around hatred, sorrow, fear, and despair, this study points out that a diversity of traits dwells in all of Frost's women. about Frost's women as a whole. In the chapter on positive qualities the final remarks point out that the woman's need to love is shown as a great driving force in her life. Furthermore, pleasurable moments from the male-female interrelation and reciprocal love give rise to the little joy the woman may portray in a Frost poem. Hope for Frost's females is kept alive by love despite the impossibility of a perfect union. The chapter on negative qualities concludes that for most of Frost's women suffering is secondary to love and, if sorrow must accompany affection, they accept it as a necessity. Two other important conclusions are that when Frost's women disrupt love with hatred or fear, they prevent development of a meaningful intimacy with their lovers and isolate themselves, or when they lack trust or sureness of love or flounder with guilt feelings, they despair and find life unendurable. The general conclusion of both chapters is that Frost portrayed women who love, suffer, and often isolate themselves from their lovers and that Frost developed each woman as an individual personality. In the final chapter, on the basis of explications of the poems and of conclusions drawn from the poems, the thesis discusses Robert Frost's philosophy of life. His vision of life involves a realistic understanding of men as individuals who must solve their problems and grasp a meaningful revelation of life by living it.

Year of Submission

1970

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of English Language and Literature

First Advisor

George F. Day

Second Advisor

James Hearst

Third Advisor

Ned Ratekin

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1970

Object Description

1 PDF file (120 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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