Character Analysis of the Woman in Frost's "Home Burial"
This paper examines how Robert Frost reveals the character of the grieving woman in his poem "Home Burial" through layered narrative techniques. Beginning with the narrator's clinical observations, moving through the husband's limited perspective, and culminating in the woman's own words and actions, the paper traces how her grief, resentment, and emotional isolation are progressively illuminated. The analysis argues that while her rage toward her husband stems partly from his lack of emotional intelligence, it may also reflect a deeper, pre-existing ill-will that surfaces under the pressure of loss. Ultimately, the woman emerges as someone who both needs and refuses the comfort of shared mourning.
- Introduction: Grief and Character in 'Home Burial': Thesis: woman's grief and husband's emotional limits
- The Narrator's Clinical View of the Woman: Narrator frames woman as hesitant and haunted
- The Husband's Perspective and Her Emotional Withdrawal: Woman recoils from husband's rationalizing approach
- Her Own Words: Resentment and the Refusal to Share Grief: Her speech reveals deep resentment and self-isolation
- Conclusion: A Character Revealed in Fragments: Character emerges through layered narrative perspectives
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- It tracks characterization chronologically through the poem's own unfolding structure — narrator, husband, and finally the woman herself — giving the analysis an organic, text-driven shape.
- It balances sympathy for the woman's grief with critical fairness, acknowledging that her resentment may not be entirely justified, which adds interpretive nuance.
- Direct quotations from Frost are integrated fluidly and supported by secondary scholarship (Jarrell), grounding the close reading in a broader critical conversation.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates layered close reading — the practice of moving systematically through a text's narrative voices to show how characterization accumulates. Rather than summarizing the poem, the writer isolates specific moments of dialogue and description and explains what each reveals about the woman's psychology, using textual evidence to build an interpretive argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a thesis framing the woman's grief and the husband's emotional limitations, then proceeds section by section through the poem's perspectives: the narrator's detached observation, the husband's puzzled assessment, and finally the woman's own impassioned speech and flight. The conclusion synthesizes these layers, drawing on Randall Jarrell's criticism to reinforce the reading. The structure mirrors the poem's own dramatic progression.
Introduction: Grief and Character in 'Home Burial'
In Robert Frost's "Home Burial", the woman at the center of the poem is doubly grieved — haunted both by the death of her child and by the lack of compassion she senses in her husband's apparent callousness. At least, she perceives it to be callousness. As the poem plays out, it becomes increasingly clear that the man is simply short-tempered and lacking in emotional intelligence: he possesses none of the sensitivity that a grieving woman might hope for from a partner. However, it may also be that her anger toward him stems from some deeper, pre-existing grudge — an ill-will that surfaces most forcefully only when she is frustrated by his attempts to intellectualize her grief. In "Home Burial," insights about the woman's character are conveyed through the poem's dialogue and description — snippets that begin first with the narrator, then the husband, and most fully with the woman herself. This paper traces how her character is illuminated to various degrees through these successive perspectives as the poem progresses.
The Narrator's Clinical View of the Woman
At first, the woman's character is viewed clinically from the narrator's point of view. She is introduced to the reader through the narrator's description of her "starting down," "looking back," and taking a "doubtful step" — as though she does not know where she is going or what she wants to do (Frost 2–4). Her husband, who views her as skittish, afraid, uncertain, and alarmed, then gives his own assessment: she is "up there always," seeing something from the window that makes her behave so strangely to him (Frost 7). Of course, it is the grave of their child that she sees, and it brings back the painful memory of how he buried the child while she wept — and how, when he came inside afterward, he spoke of trifling matters as though he had buried a dog. She is beside herself with grief and rage when he tries to discover what has provoked her. When he realizes that it is their child's grave visible through the window, he attempts to pacify her — but she resents him and does not want to open her heart to him.
Conclusion: A Character Revealed in Fragments
The woman's character is revealed in fragments — first by the narrator, then by the husband, and finally by her own words and forceful actions. She is a person who needs to grieve but who does not want her husband near her while she does, because she resents him for failing to grieve as she did from the beginning. That resentment only intensifies her grief, for she can neither release it nor share it with him, nor will she show him how to enter into it. She shuts herself off and runs out into the world away from him — because, as far as she is concerned, she has tried to make him understand, and he, in his stubborn pride, has refused to receive what she believes she has offered (Jarrell). As Randall Jarrell recognized in his reading of the poem, her heart cannot carry this burden any longer and must seek escape. She is a character defined by what she cannot share and what she will not surrender — a figure of grief made more desolate by its own refusal to be consoled.
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. "Home Burial." Web. 2 Oct. 2016.
Jarrell, Randall. "Robert Frost's 'Home Burial.'" Modern American Poetry. Web. 2 Oct. 2016.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.