William Wordsworth in his poem The Idiot Boy, chooses a bizarre story to convey a message. The story makes me wonder whether The Idiot Boy was really so idiotic... . Lines : "All like a silent horseman-ghost, He travels on along the vale" indicate something deeper than just a mentally challenged boy unconsciously running away. The meaning of the word "vale" can be interpreted as a valley or mortal, earthly life. Johnny is somewhat like a ghost to the rest of a society because of his differences from the regular people. He is sort of a "unnatural" being even to his mother. Johnny uses the situation in which he has a horse to throw himself at the natural world and let the natural help him forget his mortal life on earth where he might not experience the sense of belonging. In this dangerous, in his case, situation he rides on the ridge of life and death to experience freedom and the sense of belonging among what is natural. By taking the horse and riding into the forest and through the town Johnny expresses his will to leave all the troubles behind, the dying neighbor, the worrying mother, the, probably not very understanding, society. Johnny wanted to leave the world in which he is an "idiot" and be in a place where he could explore himself without the prism of idiocy which is forced upon him by the society. Many people can relate to Johnny, not because of his disorder but because of his dream of getting away from the problems, opinions, the society and experiencing own understanding of who we really are as individuals.
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