Evening Essay, Research Paper
In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, the immense beauty and power of nature is used to enhance the sense of procrastination that is felt towards death; leading to the complete abolishment of time. The indescribable beauty of nature has the ability to control the responsive state of an individual, whereby a loss in the sense of reality heightens the complete awe and wonder of the sheer beauty. The driving force behind all that is unaccomplished in this world is procrastination; which can overtake even the strongest of wills and desires. Although time is regarded as a vital factor in life, it can often be diminished by a single encompassing power. Even the simplest things are able to persuade and convince people to act out against the norm.
The enchanting wonder of nature has the ability to control the thoughts and feelings of a person; causing them to lose touch with all that is real to that person. The daily, conscious decisions to continue life are almost diminished by the “lovely, dark, and deep” woods. The stunning woods represent the peace that is longed for by this man. However, man and nature are two separate things, and their worlds cannot be intertwined. The choice between the two is a difficult one, but the everlasting peace that nature presents is often turned to. This imagery of nature is used to parallel death, whereby the solemnity and peace that depicts nature, in turn, depicts death.
The power of procrastination is strong enough to destroy even the strongest of wills. The man is pondering whether or not he should succumb to the “sleep” he desires, which symbolizes ending his life. He is at a major crossroad in his life, where he is undecided on choosing the peace he longs for, or continuing on with his journey. Procrastination is often looked at as a negative attribute for prolonging things more than they should be, but in this case, it ends up convincing a man to carry on with his life. Procrastination was able to persuade the man to pay more attention to the journey he is embarking on, rather than focus so much on the final destination (death), which will happen when it is meant to happen.
Time is often regarded as the essence of life, controlling when and how things are accomplished. However, a single power that is strong enough to lessen the awareness of time is a unique and powerful thing. In this case, the force of nature attempts to convince the man to end the importance of time in his life, and disregard the “promises” he must keep. Eliminating time from one’s life can provide a large relief and assurance of peace, but, in turn, the loss of time represents the complete loss of reality. The epiphonic experience that the man encounters, enables him to grasp on to time and make it a priority in his life.
The control that nature possesses is able to highlight the positive side of death to this man, forcing him to stop his journey. However, the immense power of procrastination is able to override such an idea, making it seem less tempting and more troublesome. Although nature and life seem to go hand in hand, both contradict each other in the logic of this man. The undefaced beauty that the woods present entices the man to end his journey and move on to his final destination of death, whereas the purpose of life is to continue on and pay close attention to the journey, while not focusing as much on reaching the conclusion.