Imagery And Symbolism In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton published her novel Ethan Frome in 1911. Throughout Wharton’s novel, readers can see where she builds up patterns of behavior, and especially imagery. Symbolism can allow the charecters to express more clearly to the readers. Her attention to small details and use of structure shows Ethan’s complicated life to the readers. Ethan Frome has a lot of characteristics throughout Wharton’s novel. A few things that stand out the most throughout the novel are winter, the missing ‘L’, and the elm tree, and these are the three symbols used by Edith Wharton in her novel Ethan Frome to describe Ethan’s characteristics.
First and foremost, winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts, is a symbol for Ethan’s loneliness and confinement. In the eyes of the narrator, Starkfield winters were bad enough to make life miserable. In Ethan’s case, his unhappiness

This can also symbolize how overtime Ethan has become worn out by being isolated in such a cold place. The narrator speaks and says that he “the saw that the unusally forlorn and stunted look of the house was partly due to the loss of what is known in England as the ‘L’: that long deep-roofed adjunct usually built at right angles to the main house, and connecting it, by way of store rooms and tool house, with the wood shed and cow barn” (22). The narrator then describes to the readers that “The ‘L’ structure is the heart of the farm and represents life connected with soil” (9). The ‘L’ itself is a symbol of life. This signifies warmth and hope. The absence symbolizes the lack of life in the Frome’s house. The narrator explains that “Ethan seems sad talking about the loss of his ‘L’” (13). Without the ‘L’ this disconnects the farmer from not only his land but also his neighbors too. Ethan is an empty shell and his farm demonstrates that too. The ‘L’ is gone just like Ethan’s hope for life and happiness is missing until Maddie comes