The Antagonist In Mending Wall

The way in which the “bad side” is portrayed in Mending Wall by Robert Frost is one of the most interesting parts of the poem. As background, the narrator’s neighbour is described as old-fashioned and traditional but in a very negative manner. Firstly, he uses a very clichéd phrase “good fences make good neighbours” which gives him a stereotypical and unoriginal character. This phrase makes the neighbour seem unintelligent because in the context of the poem it is illogical. The narrator asks if such a phrase is not for “where there are cows” and states that there are no cows in the area which this wall separates. Furthermore, the fact that he is saying it in a literal sense also makes the phrase illogical.
Frost portrays the neighbour as a brutish caveman to hyperbolize his traditional nature. He refers to him as an “old stone savage” and says he “walks in darkness”. The latter phrase literally means that his side is unexposed to the light yet metaphorically it shows that the neighbour is dimwitted and from the dark ages. “Old stone savage” very effectively hyperbolizes the notion of the neighbor as being traditional. This is just more effective than just saying the neighbour has traditional values. Yet, it also exposes the narrator as prejudiced and imperfect – which is also a thoroughly developed aspect of the poem. Although I cannot fully analyze this here, this is exemplified by such contradictions in the narrator’s actions such as his rebuilding the wall every year despite attacking the process. No one would actually believe their own neighbour – who occupies similar land and lives in their time – is an “old stone savage” which ironically shows the narrator to be ignorant himself.