# Laban — New Hampshire character guide

> Laban in New Hampshire by Robert Frost.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** this Laban

**First appearance:** 0007-the-grindstone

## Snapshot

A named local figure in the New Hampshire poems, one of the small-town men whose plain existence the narrator sets against the state's loftier claims.

## Who they are

Laban belongs to the cast of New Hampshire specimens — one each of everything, as the poem says, kept in the state's show-case and not for sale. He is the sort of neighbor whose name the narrator drops without explanation, assuming a shared world of farms, crossroads, and long memory. His presence reinforces the poem's insistence that the state's real character lies in such men, not in Presidents or Daniel Webster.

## Relationships

### [Eliza](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_hampshire_se/characters/eliza)

_family_

Eliza and Laban are likely married or closely related, sharing a household and daily interactions.

### [Son](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_hampshire_se/characters/son)

_family_

Laban is the father of Son, with a traditional parental relationship involving guidance and authority.

### [John Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_hampshire_se/characters/john_smith)

_social_

John Smith and Laban are acquaintances, possibly meeting through community or work.

## In the story

### [Place for a Third](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_hampshire_se/chapters/place-for-a-third)

Laban, Eliza's current husband, tries to honor her wish by seeking a separate grave or burial with her first love.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_hampshire_se/characters/laban
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_hampshire_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/new_hampshire_se/characters