Social and Psychological Effects of Death .
I am going to look at the characters from Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and characters from Robert Frost's poem "Home Burial", and take a look at the emotional struggle that these characters go through from a psychological perspective and the different ways these characters handle death in their own unique but somewhat similar ways.
We must first understand the character's problems in the poem "Home Burial". The central issue in this poem is the death of a child, and this problem has not been addressed by the parents whose lives are in strange suspension. Both the characters, a husband and wife, have gone through grievance; however, they have not mourned the loss of their child together because each is at a different state in the grieving process. The husband and father came to accept the tragic loss of his child, as well as he took on the initiative of burring his child. The wife and mother; on the other hand, is distraught over her husband's steadfast attendance to the task she witnessed through the window of their house. His energy and "carelessness" at a time when she was shaken and immobilized by grief was incomprehensible and made it even more difficult for her to cope with. This poem shows the impact of loss and the need for communication or discussion of loss by those involved. If no reconciliation occurs, the loss intensifies to become destructive, and that could eventually tear apart their bleak marriage. The couple also wishes to remain in a socially isolated environment. Proof of this comes from the fact that they live out in the middle of nowhere, thus explains why the father buries the child in their yard. Also, the couple do not want any one else to know or hear of their quarrels, "There's someone coming down the road!" .
Now let's go on and look the mental anguish the characters posses from "The Story of an Hour".