The Death of the Hired Man

Warren and Mary debate mercy versus forgiveness. With Silas’s health in decline, Warren still cannot forgive Silas’s spotty work record, how he abandoned work without completing it. He broke a contract with Warren: “What help he is there’s no depending on. / Off he goes always when I need him most” (Lines 17-18). Warren will not consider a second chance.

Against Warren’s practical and unyielding code is Mary’s giving and forgiving ethos. Mary deals with Silas as he is, takes into account his humanity and his declining health. She extends hospitality to Silas when he arrives unannounced, and she defends Silas against her husband’s arguments. Mary cautions Warren not to challenge Silas’s certainty, despite his health, that he is able to work. Mary cares little for the offenses of the past—Silas’s abandoning his work or Silas’s petty feud with Harold or even Silas’s problems with his brother. She understands only that Silas is alone, broke, homeless, and dying. Warren yields to Mary’s code of mercy—but too late.

Warren’s definition of home is clear in Lines 122-23: “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, / They have to take you in.” He remembers that Silas has a wealthy brother with a home nearby and wonders why Silas hasn’t gone there instead.