Like many individuals in today 's society, Ethan Frome merely wished to achieve his aspirations and pursue lifelong contentment. However, Frome 's over ambition created more complication than achievement. Frome processed many extraordinary qualities, such as his intelligence and benevolent nature. Though his moral character possessed merit and his actions were of good intent, this is what ultimately drove him to a tragic end. From early adulthood, Frome’s nature took precedence over him. He postponed his own education in order to tend to his parents until their demise. He then fell in love with his mother’s caregiver, Zeena, who he later felt obliged to marry. Once Zeena became ill, her cousin, Mattie, became her caregiver. Frome soon
Ethan Frome takes place in Starkfield, Massachusetts, in the late 1890s to the early 1900s. One of the three main characters Zenobia, better known as Zeena, is Ethan Frome’s wife. Zeena and Ethan came to be a couple when Ethan’s mother became sick and Zenobia came to assist her. After Ethan’s mother passed, Ethan felt lonely and did not want Zeena to leave. Ethan fell in love with Zeena and later married her, although she was seven years older than him.
Ethan Frome’s mother becoming ill was the first step toward the destiny that would keep Ethan in Starkfield forever. This destiny required his wife, Zeena, to become sick as well. It was necessary for Ethan to remain there since it would lead him to meet Mattie Silver, who would push him even closer to his fated downfall. Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie’s destinies were tangled together because of the conjoined circumstances that surrounded the three of them.
In conclusion, throughout the novel, Ethan Frome is never truly able to carry out his own free will. He seems to be forever bound to Starkfield and his demanding life. Even at the beginning of the book, Ethan always seemed to be imprisoned by the difficult situations that he is put into, causing him to be inevitably stuck in the deep rut that is his life. Overall, if Ethan had been able to exercise free will during the course of the storyline, there is no doubt that, at the conclusion of the book, Ethan would have ended living a considerably more joyful
Then, when it comes to the big “smash up”, Ethan gets hurt pretty badly which symbolizes the almost irreversible consequence of him trying to escape his own sour circumstances. After the accident, the sled gets broken which is quite important because it shows Ethan’s dreams shattering right in front of him. Generally, the symbolism in Ethan Frome resonates throughout the entire novel, amplifying the themes of loneliness, regret, and mighty power of shattered desires. Wharton employs an incredibly unique narrative technique to enhance the tragic aspect of Ethan Frome’s lifestyle.
Ethan cared for both of his parents right up until their deaths’, even postponing his education. Throughout his affair with Mattie he is constantly thinking of Zeena and how it would affect her. Even when Mattie and Ethan are about to sled into the tree, Ethan is thinking of his horse being hungry when he says “he’s wondering why he doesn’t get his supper…” (Wharton 71). His selflessness and the way he worries about others is his tragic flaw.
In Ethan Frome, the first chapter is a prologue that is composed in the first person view of an unknown narrator that tries to ascertain Ethan’s story in Starkfield. Once the narrator enters the Frome household, the point of view changes to third person omniscient, and the story within a story begins. After that story ends, the epilogue returns to the first person and the point of view of the unknown narrator. It is the prologue and epilogue that serve as the framework of Ethan Frome, and the chapters between the two that is the main story. Another literary technique found in the narrative is the ever abundant examples of metaphor and simile.
Throughout the romantic struggle, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome sacrifices himself to be happy with Mattie Silver but in the process he paves his path towards infinite limbo. Ethan Frome is introduced as a man who is battered and withering. Upon going into his backstory, we discover his true self. A man who is in a marriage with a woman he has little to no feelings for, Zeena. Mattie Silver is the new woman who he has his eyes on and for her he sacrifices everything but just saves enough to withhold his integrity and obligation.
Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome was truly a book ahead of its time, being the center of controversy, it pushed what was standard of most novellas at the time, and and especially what was expected from woman. Set in the stark winter of New England, Massachusetts it tells us the tragic story of our main protagonist Ethan Frome. Ethan lives a normal life with his wife Zeena until Maddie Silver, Zeenas relative moves in creating a tension between everyone in the house. This created obstacles for Ethan since he really needs to think who his heart was really with and who he needed to fight for. Ethan Frome is a very difficult book to read because the reader had to endure a domino effect of Ethan, Zeena, and Maddie’s impetuous decisions, leading to the
While everyone has a right to their own happiness, the truth of the matter is that it is not always easy to reach. While a person can struggle their entire life searching for happiness, some may never find what they’re looking for or may never be satisfied with what they have in front of them. The character Ethan, in Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a story of full of unlucky love and fate. Ethan stumbles upon a gravestone with his name on it, except this man had a wife, Endurance. This leaves Ethan wondering what his own gravestone with his wife, Zeena, will one day say.
A long time resident of Starkfield, the protagonist Ethan Frome shows he is considerate by caring for and helping others. He first shows this trait when he gives up his desire to live in a city to support his ill mother. Though he has a strong wish to leave Starkfield, he respects his duty and cares for his mother. Ethan also shows this attribute to Zeena, by looking after her and contributing to her medicine while she also falls ill. Zeena is again thought of by Ethan when the pickle dish breaks.
Ethan Frome, the story of a man with a difficult romantic triangle between his wife and her cousin constructed by Edith Wharton. The tragic outcome of the story was slowly created throughout the story due to the faulty actions of Zeena. Some of which fell under the categories of playing pity games, attention seeking exertions, and improper/poor decision making within the entire story. I believe without the faulty acts taken by Zeena within the relationship and close surrounding subjects between herself and Ethan, there would have never been a “seed” to sprout from. Throughout the story Zeena played plenty of pity games giving Ethan more motive to feel uneasy in regards to their relationship fundamentals.
“Is fate getting what you deserve, or deserving what you get?” (Jodi Picoult). Ethan Frome, written by Edith Wharton in 1911, embodies this quote. In Ethan Frome, all three main characters, Ethan, Mattie and Zeena have made decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. Ethan and Mattie had an inappropriate relationship behind Ethans significant other, Zeena 's, back which caused each of them to be emotionally distraught.
In a final scene from Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton draws a timeline leading up to the main character, Ethan Frome, and his love interest, Mattie Silver deciding to take their lives rather than letting the rules implied by the society of Starkfield force them to part, their decision in turn contributing to the theme that confinement from pressure from society can drive citizens to their torment. Contributing to the novel as a whole, this scene also highlights Ethan’s built up misery by displaying his willingness to die in order to escape his unwanted marriage to his ailing wife, Zeena. To begin with, as a resident in Starkfield, a town whose residents, obviously unadjusted divorce, consider seven year of marriage as “not so long”, Ethan feels
The nature of the Frome’s marriage was made transparent when Ethan fell in love with another woman. When the novel begins, Frome demonstrates his cowardice when confesses that he
Ethan Frome's tragedy was completely caused by his own