Both Mary and Warren are thinking that Silas thought of them as family and their land as his home. Warren mocks her when she said Silas has come home and she responses with Yes, what else but home? It all depends on what you mean by home. Of course he's nothing to us, any more than was the hound that came a stranger to us out of the woods, worn out upon the trail. Mary's statement suggests that she think that Silas has been worn out by life and that he arrived on their farm tatter and broken. Through out the poem Mary has expressed sympathy and empathy for Silas. Her whole purpose for meeting Warren at the door is to ask him to be kind to Silas. She observes that Silas a miserable sight, even frightening. He is mumbling in his sleep and appears troubled by the days when he was working with Harold. Mary state I sympathise. I know just how it feels. Warren's feelings begin to soften at this point. He asks Mary if she believes that Silas has better claim on us you think than on his brother?

Frost elicits great sympathy from the reader. I felt the Silas' shame. I felt Mary's concern for another human being. I understood Warren's frustration with Silas. The poem is a wish that Silas had had a better life; one filled with respect, an education,...

When Warren slipped to her side, caught up her hand and waited, I felt their vulnerability, their gratitude for being so lucky to have one another, and their sadness brought on by the death of a person who cared so much for them.
Frost effectively used a poem to tell a story with many layers. He wove two individual's feelings to create the third character. One must wonder if Mary's and Warren description of Silas is true. But does Frost really tell the full story? Did he purposely have the reader assume that the expression of Silas' feeling through Mary was accurate? Was Silas broken and unhappy as Warren and Mary believed? Did their minimal respect for Silas contribute to his deterioration? Without having Silas speak for him self, a reader can either accept or reject Mary and Warren's Silas. If a read accepts their description the story makes sense. If the reader rejects the description, the reader is left to wonder why Silas has returned to Mary and Warren's homestead.

We all hear and see the same things but interpret them very differently. Ultimately Frost asks the reader to explore the everyday assumptions they have of about others and reflect on their treatment of others based on their assumptions.