The main theme within "home burial" is the contrasting emotions between man and wife. The death of their child allows us to see how Amy and her husband differ emotionally, physically, and mentally. Other than the obvious tragedy of the loss of their child, they also experience the tragedy of the loss of love and free will. The child's death causes sorrow and unspeakable pain to Amy. While, her husband is hurt as well, he bottles up his emotions. Containing his emotions caused the husband to feel the need to move on from the anguish they recently had to face. This conflict of emotions causes Amy to think of her husband as a "blind creature" (line 16) who wouldn't be able to understand her emotions. Amy's unwillingness to share her feelings with her husband causes him to feel angry and hurt.
Our very first introduction to the husband is one of a domineering intimidating force.
English: Managing emotions - Identifying feelings
Figure 15 from Charles Darwin's The Expression of ...
English: Emotions associated with angerIn the opening verse his presence obviously invokes a sense of a fear in Amy. Upon speaking to her, her facial expressions went from being terrified to dull and caused her to sink in her skirt. Shortly after, Amy shows us that she is unable to share intimate feelings with her husband when she refuses to answer his forceful questions.
From the opening verse, we can conclude, that Amy is intimidated and threatened by her husband. The husband's presence instantaneously terrifies her. We later learn that her unwillingness to answer his questions has been a problem in the past when he pleads "Amy! Don't go to someone else this time". (Line 41) This shows that not only has she not trusted him with her emotions in the past, but we can also infer that the husband is generally controlling, intimidating, and threatening.
Later on in...