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Symbolism In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

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Sometimes one’s surrounding can display how their lives will be as they continue to grow. Author Edith Wharton uses “Ethan Frome” to make a point about the naturalism in literature, the specific point being one’s future has the potential to be shaped by the environment that they live in. In Ethan Frome, symbolism was utilized to show how the life of the character, Ethan, was indirectly determined by many aspects of his own surrounding. The cemetery in which Ethan’s ancestors are buried foreshadowed Ethan’s inability to leave Starkfield and gain a better and more promising life, unlike the one he was living. This is unfortunate and heartbreaking in a sense as it also meant that his hopes and dreams had been destroyed as well. Another symbol …show more content…

With Maddie’s entrance, the Frome house became even more in turmoil as Ethan starts to fall for Maddie, even though he was still married to Zeena. There is the possibility that someone reading may feel sympathetic towards Zeena but I think many people will think she indirectly asked for her marriage to be irreversibly broken as she never truly showed that she loved Ethan nor did she go out of her way to create a happy home environment. Though she did love him deep down in her heart, she was unable to obtain his heart as easily and without effort as Maddie did, even though she was around him more. Ethan was so unhappy in his marriage, he was willing to die with Maddie and leave Zeena behind but fate is a cruel mistress because not only did Maddie and Ethan survive, Maddie actually became a younger version of Zeena which led to the end of the love he had acquired and the beginning of a more depressing and barren

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