Literal Analysis Of Joyce Carol Oates 'Lovely, Dark, Deep'

Literal Analysis of “Lovely, Dark, Deep” “Lovely, Dark, Deep” is one of the 13 short stories that were written by Joyce Carol Oates in one of her literal works known as Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories, which was first published in Harpers in November 2013. “Lovely, Dark, Deep” primarily focuses on the life of a former poet by the name Robert Frost. It tells how Evangeline Fife, a young journalist, goes to interview Frost during the summer of 1951. As Fife arrives at Frost’s home, she finds him sleeping on his porch. At first, Fife appears calm and ready to listen to Frost and to get as much information as she can. However, later in the interview, Fife turns into a prosecutor, as she starts asking hard and complex questions about Frost’s life that makes him recall some of his regrets in life. Fife’s challenging questions provoke Frost into an aggressive character in the story. How Frost is presented by Oates in the story makes “Lovely, Dark, Deep” one of the controversial stories that has received fierce criticism from both readers and scholars. Therefore, the paper analyzes Frost as a character in “Lovely, Dark, Deep”. Frost is portrayed in the story as a cruel, immoral and racist man.
The story depicts Frost as a
It shows the negative side of the character through an interview that is conducted by a young journalist. Frost is a racist, cruel, immoral, self-centered, and a bad father to his children, including his wife. The author is trying to honor Frost by depicting him as a vulnerable man who had a lot of weaknesses despite his great achievements in life, especially as a poet. Nevertheless, in order to fully analyze the character, the author should have presented both the negative and positive aspects of Frost. Although Frost has questionable behaviors in the story, Oates is unfair due to her one-sided presentation of the