English Essay
Dylan Osborn
English 111H
T/Th 11:10
Dr. Monda
The Influences on the Religious Beliefs of Robert Frost and Thomas Hardy
In today’s world violence and hardship are not difficult to come by. Whether one looks at the poverty stricken villages of Africa or even the poor areas of America, called the land of the free, there are millions of people who endure a great deal of misery everyday. After reading detailed biographies about the authors Robert Frost and Thomas Hardy, it is obvious they experienced an excessive amount of pain and grief while they were alive. Over the years, both authors suffered from losing those whom were closest to them, and these tragedies influenced their religious beliefs. Although these grim events affected Frost’s religious views differently than Hardy’s, both authors used poetry to express how they felt. In Robert Frost’s “Design,” the question that is being asked is whether or not God is involved in preparing “the assorted characters of death and blight” to aid a spider in the killing of an innocent moth, which leads to deeper questions of God’s role in human grief (line 4). This is very concurrent with Frost’s opinion about religion because he was always changing and questioning what he believed in. Similarly, in Thomas Hardy’s “Hap,” the reasons for agony in a human’s life are considered, but there is no answer to be found, and the speaker arrives to the conclusion that it is just chance. The religious ideas in this poem are also very similar to Hardy’s, because he eventually became an atheist and did not believe in religion or the existence of a God. While in both poems the speakers are questioning if there is a higher being permitting hardship, Frost’s speaker is curiously observing this disturbance from afar, while Hardy’s speaker is desperately begging for a reasonable explanation to his own personal anguish. For Frost, there is no explicit answer to his questioning about God and his benevolence, which
English 111H
T/Th 11:10
Dr. Monda
The Influences on the Religious Beliefs of Robert Frost and Thomas Hardy
In today’s world violence and hardship are not difficult to come by. Whether one looks at the poverty stricken villages of Africa or even the poor areas of America, called the land of the free, there are millions of people who endure a great deal of misery everyday. After reading detailed biographies about the authors Robert Frost and Thomas Hardy, it is obvious they experienced an excessive amount of pain and grief while they were alive. Over the years, both authors suffered from losing those whom were closest to them, and these tragedies influenced their religious beliefs. Although these grim events affected Frost’s religious views differently than Hardy’s, both authors used poetry to express how they felt. In Robert Frost’s “Design,” the question that is being asked is whether or not God is involved in preparing “the assorted characters of death and blight” to aid a spider in the killing of an innocent moth, which leads to deeper questions of God’s role in human grief (line 4). This is very concurrent with Frost’s opinion about religion because he was always changing and questioning what he believed in. Similarly, in Thomas Hardy’s “Hap,” the reasons for agony in a human’s life are considered, but there is no answer to be found, and the speaker arrives to the conclusion that it is just chance. The religious ideas in this poem are also very similar to Hardy’s, because he eventually became an atheist and did not believe in religion or the existence of a God. While in both poems the speakers are questioning if there is a higher being permitting hardship, Frost’s speaker is curiously observing this disturbance from afar, while Hardy’s speaker is desperately begging for a reasonable explanation to his own personal anguish. For Frost, there is no explicit answer to his questioning about God and his benevolence, which
Cited: Scott Bryson and Roger Thompson. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 342. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Word Count: 8950. From Literature Resource Center. Modern Age 42.4 (Fall 2000): p358-371. New York: Norton, 2008. 131. Print. New York: Norton, 2008. 140-141. Print. Kim, Donguk. "Thomas Hardy 's Search for New Philosophies in LIFE AND WORK." Explicator 68.4 (2010): 253-257 Apr. 2011. Thomas Hardy Journal 20.1 (Feb. 2004): p38-48. South Atlantic Quarterly, Autumn. (1974): p445-459. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978. Word Count: 2507. From Literature Resource Center. Waggoner, Hyatt Howe. "THE HUMANISTIC IDEALISM OF ROBERT FROST." American Literature 13.3 (1941): 207 Web. 12 Apr. 2011.