Setting Note #1: The setting in the beginning of the novel is shown to become a character. This is because the brightness and the weather outside reflect that Zeena is gone so Mattie and Ethan are happy. They are happy because they finally get to spend some time alone with each other. When Zeena is with them, the weather is dark and stormy, so it is ironic that the weather changes because of this. Character Note #1: Zeena is seen as a static character in this quote. This is because throughout the entire novel, Zeena’s personality does not change at all. She is always bitter because she is very ill and blames everyone for her discomfort. For example, Zeena says that she is “too mean” to sleep. She is also very self-centered and does not care about anyone else except for herself because she is in pain. Point of View Note #1: In the beginning of the novel, the point of view is shown through the narrator in first person and the narrator is unreliable in …show more content…
It gives the readers to ability to see that Mattie used to be cheerful but now she is just like Zeena because of the “smash-up”. It shows the effects of what happened in the story and it gives the reader knowledge to understand the true meaning of this situation and why it happened. Theme Note #2: The theme: “We should not have our head up in the clouds, but instead face reality and learn how to make the best out of every situation” connects to this quote because it describes how when being in the clouds, it clouds our mind with visions that will most likely not come true. It shows that if we get our hopes up, that will only lead us to our demise. This is shown in the novel because constantly Ethan faces this struggle. He will never be able to get rid of his wife Zeena and he will never have a happy ending with
1. The Grapes of Wrath was written by John Steinbeck and is historical fiction. 2. Tom Joad who has recently been released from prison for manslaughter goes back to his family farm in Oklahoma. He becomes acquainted with a preacher named Jim Casey.
Ethan Frome, who has to face multiple conflicts throughout the book with his nonstop dream to be an engineer which is crushed due to the illness of, Zeena, his cousin, but who also happens to be his wife. Also a love begins to grow mid way through the book between a girl named Mattie and Ethan, even though he is still married to Zeena which ultimately leads to the distance between their love. In the book Ethan Frome, the feeling of isolation in Ethan and Zeena becomes more prominent, while anger grows between Ethan and Mattie from having denying their love, which contributes to the many mistakes and downfalls Ethan has to face throughout the book.
In the case of Ethan, he is a wanderer in a society that relies heavily upon each other. When his niece goes missing, his drive and bravery leads him on the search for her, but also leads him into conflict with newfound urge for revenge. This contradiction of feelings for both characters is
Right after the dish breaks, Ethan said that Zeena would have to blame it on the cat. In chapter 7, Ethan blames the cat which caused Zeena to “turn her eyes to Mattie” (Wharton, chap 7). This could also mean that Zeena blames Mattie for breaking the dish and relationship. In chapter 6, Ethan gets the glue to fix the dish. Symbolically it could mean that he found a plan or a way to fix his relationship.
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.
The sky, swollen with the clouds that announce a thaw, hung as low as before a summer storm.” Throughout the novel, there is also a very visible overarching theme of determinism. Determinism, the theme in this novel, is the philosophy that all events are caused by an individual’s environment and prior events outside of an individual’s control. One example is Ethan’s marriage to Zeena. He married Zeena because “he was seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm,” (59).
In this quotation, Wharton highlights the fact that Ethan is unhappy with his original decision to marry Zeena. When Ethan asks Zeena to marry him, his desire for her is out of loneliness due to his mother’s death. Later on in the novel, however, Ethan realizes that he does not love Zeena and that he wants to begin a relationship with Mattie. Ethan has the choice to discard his true feelings, stay married to Zeena, and forget about Mattie. Despite this opportunity to avoid divorce and hardships, Ethan agrees to commit suicide together with Mattie in order for them to live happily in their afterlife together.
”(Wharton 3). Because of his loneliness, he asked Zeena to marry him without thinking it through. He had no feelings for her and desperately hoped it would make him feel better. While being married to Zeena, his unhappiness peaked and caused him to fall in love with another girl who was the Fromes’ maid, Mattie Silver. Romance was in the air and most definitely not between Zeena and Ethan.
Both Zeena and Ethan have varying responses, however both showing some commitment to repair their union. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton utilizes a broken pickle dish, to represent the views of espousement, and the representation of their varied human actions. Ethan and Zeena Frome’s marriage represents a union based on obligation rather that love. Throughout the story, Ethan is a weak and submissive husband under the control of a domineering wife.
Ethan chooses his duty to Zeena over his dream with mattie he would receive when proposed with the option of moving to the West, he decides against it because of what he owes to Zeena. He doesn 't knows if she would not be able to support herself and that clouded future is why he doesn 't agreed to leave. Again, Ethan chooses between duty to Zeena and seeking his personal dream when he and Mattie were going to take their lives so they would not have to live without each other. Throughout his time with Zeena, he was forced to choose between duty to his family and his dreams. He could have left and continued his dream of being an engineer but instead he married her do to a sense of payment for what she had done for his mother.
For Ethan Frome this is a terrible situation since he doesn’t love Zenobia and her cousin Mattie doesn’t love Ethan back. He is basically staying in a house all by himself during the cold nights of the New England weather. In this quote said by Ethan Frome "when winter shut down on Starkfield and the village lay under a sheet of snow perpetually renewed from the pale skies, I began to see what life there—or rather its negation—must have been in Ethan Frome's young manhood. " he understands his life has no meaning during the harsh winter season. Until February comes around he nothing to live for.
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’s bad choices of leaving school, feeling lonely and marrying Zeena and then also being avoidant when he wants to leave her. Obviously, Ethan Frome’s tragedy is all caused by his personal decisions. One of many ignorant choices Ethan makes is when his mother gets ill, somewhere in the beginning of the story. During this time, Ethan dropped out of college.
This is a key point in understanding the narrator’s character and the overall meaning of the
Reading Gilgamesh was important because it gives the reader insight and an understanding of what was important to the people who lived during the time that Gilgamesh was written. It also allows us to see how things have changed from what we are used to reading to what we could have been reading before. Repetition in a story can sometimes seem a little annoying to the reader. However, I think it could be a very important characteristic when reading certain material.