Advanced International Journal for Research

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The Failure of Empathy in Robert Frost’s Dramatic Poems A Cognitive–Affective Reading of Emotional Misalignment

Author(s) Sabnam, Dr. Binay Shanker Roy
Country India
Abstract Robert Frost’s dramatic poems are often praised for their psychological depth and realistic portrayal of human relationships. However, critical discussions have largely emphasized isolation, grief, and communication breakdown without closely examining the repeated failure of empathy between Frost’s characters. This paper argues that Frost’s dramatic poetry repeatedly stages moments of emotional misalignment, where characters are unable or unwilling to recognize, interpret, or respond to one another’s emotional states. Drawing on a cognitive–affective perspective, the study examines how empathy fails not because of emotional absence, but because of competing emotional frameworks and perceptual limits.
Focusing on selected dramatic poems such as Home Burial, The Hill Wife, A Servant to Servants, and The Housekeeper, the paper shows that Frost presents empathy as fragile, effortful, and often incomplete. Characters possess emotional awareness, yet they misread or dismiss the inner worlds of others. This misalignment produces ethical tension, emotional distance, and relational collapse. Unlike sentimental or confessional poetry, Frost’s work resists emotional harmony and shared understanding, emphasizing instead the cognitive difficulty of feeling with another person.
By integrating close textual analysis with concepts from affective cognition, this study reframes Frost’s dramatic poems as explorations of failed empathy rather than mere miscommunication. It argues that Frost exposes the limits of emotional understanding as a central condition of human interaction, offering a nuanced account of how empathy can falter even in moments of shared suffering.
Keywords Empathy failure, Emotional misalignment, Cognitive–affective reading, Dramatic poetry, Robert Frost
Field Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In Volume 6, Issue 5, September-October 2025
Published On 2025-09-14
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E-ISSN 3048-7641
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