A1. Explain
Explain the significance
of the 'road' as the central idea of the poem
Answer:
Answers
The poem, 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost deals with the difficult situations that a man faces in his life. It talks about the choices that one has to make in life and the consequences of such life. Many times we regret the choices made by us but whatever is done once, cannot be reversed.
Answer:
The precise meaning of “The Road Not Taken” has been contested ever since it was written over a hundred years ago. But in thematic terms, it is difficult to argue against its being primarily concerned with the essential role that choice plays in our lives.
In existential terms, to be human is to choose. Try as we might, we cannot avoid making choices of one sort or another right throughout the course of our lives. And the speaker in Frost's poem is undoubtedly aware of this. Confronted by two divergent paths in a wood, he has made the fateful decision to choose the road less traveled. He's certain that, in years to come, when he looks back on this decision, he will realize that it “made all the difference."
Precisely how this decision will make all the difference is unclear; but then, one should bear in mind that this is a future event we're talking about here, and so the speaker himself doesn't yet know what significance it will have. It's possible that the speaker will not be fully honest in the future when he reflects on this moment. Perhaps the speaker's choice of path won't have actually made much difference in his life—indeed, it doesn't seem likely that such a small decision would. From this perspective, the speaker's certainty that his choice will have significance perhaps is a commentary about how humans wish to ascribe meaning and significance to their decisions.