The Road Less Traveled

Passage:

"The feeling swept over me that I had truly left Darlington Hall behind, and I must confess I did feel a slight sense of alarm - a sense aggravated by the feeling that I was perhaps not on the correct road at all, but speeding off in totally the wrong direction into a wilderness. It was only the feelings of a moment, but it caused me to slow down. And even when I had assured myself I was on the right road, I felt compelled to stop the car a moment to take stock, as it were. I decided to step out and stretch my legs a little and when I did so, I received a stronger impression than ever of being perched on the side of a hill. On one side of the road, thickets and small trees rose steeply, while on the other
I could now glimpse through the foliage the distant country-side."

In this passage Stevens speaks of his emotional state when leaving Darlington Hall and how leaving on this journey away from everything he knows and loves physically causes him discomfort and pain. The way Stevens speaks of leaving Darlington Hall is similar to a teenager leaving for college for the first time. This speaks to how Darlington Hall was not only a place of employment to him, but that it in fact holds intense sentimental value similar to a parent in a sense.


When analyzing this passage further the reader can recognize the tone of the passage as one of love, love for Darlington Hall, along with longing, a longing for the life he once had when Lord Darlington was alive. Due to the tone the reader can recognize the fact that Stevens holds the belief that after leaving on this journey away from Darlington Hall, nothing will ever be the same again, he views his departure as the end of his past life of employment at Darlington Hall and the beginning of his new life, which brings up the doubt that he is heading on the wrong path.

When Stevens says "the feeling that I was perhaps not on the correct road at all, but speeding off in the totally wrong direction into a wilderness." Stevens is not only speaking of the literal road he is driving on, but the road he is choosing in life, his choice to leave Darlington Hall in pursuit of personal matters which are a parallel to the "wilderness" essentially him giving in to his inner desires.