The speaker of Mending Wall allies himself with the insubordinate energies of spring, which yearly destroy the wall separating his property from his neighbor’s: “Spring is the mischief in me,” he says (CPPP 39). This alliance at first has the effect of setting the speaker against the basic conservatism of his neighbor beyond the hill, who as everybody knows never “goes behind his father’s saying”: “Good fences make good neighbors.” But the association of the speaker with insubordinate natural forces should not be permitted to obscure an important fact, which has been often enough noticed: he, not the neighbor, initiates the yearly spring repair of the wall; moreover, it is again he, not the neighbor, who goes behind hunters who destroy the wall in other seasons and makes repairs. So if the speaker is allied with the vernal mischief of spring and its insubordinations, he is nevertheless also set against them in his efforts to make the stones of the wall balance and remain in place: “Stay where you are until our backs are turned!” he wryly says to the stones. Here, in fact, the speaker is rather like those of Frost’s earlier poems “Rose Pogonias” and “October,” each of whom, in imagination at least, attempts to arrest the naturally entropic and destructive forces of nature in the hope of achieving a momentary stay against confusion. In “Rose Pogonias,” for example, we read:
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We might also regard “Mending Wall” in light of what Frost says in his 1934 letter to his daughter Lesley about the doctrine of Inner Form. The “neighbor beyond the hill” is all on the side of conformity, the speaker of the poem (at least by his own account) all on the side of formity. Frost himself—and here we should perhaps distinguish him from his speaker—stands at the dialectical intersection of these two opposed terms, for as he says in “The Constant Symbol” about the “discipline[s]” from “within” and from “without”: “He who knows not both knows neither.”
Works Cited
Richardson, Mark. The Ordeal of Robert Frost: The Poet and his Poetics (Illinois). 1997
Free Glass Menagerie Essays: Realism
The Realistic Feel of The Glass Menagerie
Tom Williams in the play The Glass Menagerie writes about a time when his family struggles. Many people can relate their problems one way or another with Williams. Though the play had a very realistic feel to it, many people enjoy fairytale endings.
The play is very well written, but I would change the ending. The ending was depressing. The whole family worked so hard on preparing for the gentleman caller. Amanda, Tom’s mother completely redecorated their home and picked out beautiful clothes for Laura and herself. The whole play led up to this moment, of Laura meeting a nice gentleman caller. Conveniently it was the boy she had a crush on all through high school. Whom, she always fantasized about being with. At first it seemed he was interested in her also. They should have had him and Laura become romantically involved. Eventually get married and have kids. This would have been a much happier ending. Not only would Laura be happy, but Amanda and Tom would be too. Amanda would finally not have to worry about her daughter anymore, because she would be taken care of. Tom would be happy because he too, would no longer have to worry about his sister. This is more like a fairy tale ending, but it would have been much more interesting and inspiring if Laura did become married to the gentlemen caller. Laura had such a rough time with her life, this would have given her hope that she never had.
The entire play is a family struggling which can be compared to many of our own lives. The play isn’t fantasy like at all. It is realistic, and that’s what is good about it. Tom was struggling to taking care of his mother and sister, which can be compared, to the way families live today. Laura is disabled and very insecure of it. Amanda is just like any mother, she tries hard to help her children have a secure future. Another hardship for Tom and his family is that their father is no longer in the picture. He abandoned the children at a very young age. These examples can be compared to our own lives. Instead of the play being about people with no problems, it’s about “real people.” Everyone has problems and struggles, maybe not exactly as Tom’s family does, but we can relate with similar problems.