Highwayman

In “Typhoid Fever,” Seamus says that there is a similarity between what happens to Frankie and what happened to the highwayman. What is the similarity? Do you agree with Seamus’s conclusion? Why or why not? Explain how Frankie’s situation might be compared to a romantic story, and how it is different.

The similarity is that the poem can be applied to match their situation. Like the Highwayman in the poem was drawn to Bess, the landlord's daughter, Frankie was drawn to Patricia (not entirely in the same circumstances, but drawn to her because she was the only company he could have and could keep him entertained). By stretching the connection, as the Highwayman and Bess fell in love, Frankie's relationship was drawn closer to Patricia as she enticed him with poetry.

Though this is probably not revealed in the story, in the poem a stableboy (ostle) betrays them to the authorities (like Nurse Kerry turns them in to the nuns). Patricia dies soon after as well.

The main similarity, I believe, is that Francis had created a relationship with the girl in the next room, who could very well drop dead the next day. It was a very unhealthy relationship, to say the least, and a forbidden one as well. In the same way, the Highwayman fell in love with the landlord's daughter, which was a forbidden romance as well. In this similarity, Frankie's story can be seen as "romantic"