Throughout the novel, Wharton juxtaposes Ethan's feelings for Mattie and Zeena through
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.
Doomed to remain in an ever-stagnant state of being like that of the bones of his past ancestors deep in the frozen ground of cemetery that houses them. As his own antagonist, he forces himself to be frozen in his death while still breathing by never taking a risk to change his fate of ending up being buried beside his wife in Starkfield while he longed for another. Whether progressive or detrimental, Ethan time and time again refuses to take his life into his own hands and make decisions to change it. In the end, Ethan truly is a dead man walking, accepting his life as it was and simply waiting it out until it’s
There warn’t ever anybody but Ethan. Fust his father—then his mother—then his wife.” Winter is the obstacle that has been holding him back from success, but if the winter and Zeena are so much alike then it is actually Zeena keeping him from moving away. In a way, Zeena is like a ball and chain clasped on the ankle of Ethan. As a result, it defines her cold, bitter inner
Because Zeena will return home the next morning, Ethan needed to repair the dish before she noticed; however, the weather tampered with his plans to repair the dish. Ethan left home in the sixth chapter of the novel, confident that he would return on time. Unfortunately, one of his
After undergoing months of physical therapy, Ethan returns to the farm to finish high school with Hannah. Later, things are not going well for Ethan, including his leg injury, his breakup with Hannah, and his parents divorce. Years after, Ethan goes off to college, and Bailey stays on the farm with only visits from Ethan on the holidays. Bailey gets older and his health worsens, he is weak and naps often. Ethan’s mom takes him to the vet and Bailey is put down
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.
“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
He could have left caring for his mother/Zeena to someone else, and lived his own life. He would never be lonesome if he lived in a big city, and he could have possibly been wealthier. The story introduces this idea by having one of the introductory characters say, “Most of the smart ones get away.” (Prologue) This ties in with the idea of Ethan’s conformity being his downfall.
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.
In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, setting plays an important role. The novel takes place in the fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, in the winter and most likely during the early 1900s, a time better known as the Progressive Era. The Progressive Era brought about change and innovation in many areas, such as education and transportation. This change doesn’t really occur in Starkfield, however. Due to poor transportation, the residents of Starkfield become stuck during the harsh winter, and the majority of the rest of the year in this isolated town.
In Edith Wharton's famous book Ethan Frome, main character, Ethan Frome’s story is a personal tragedy. His own decisions he makes are his own fault. But what is his tragedy? Well, to a certain understanding, his tragedy is that in the present day, he is always dreary and not as happy as he could have turned out; in other words, one could say that his tragedy is that he is unsuccessful in happiness. Although one may argue that the tragedy wasn’t all Ethans fault, and that the weather of new england caused it, that certainly isn’t true.
In Edith Wharton’s most remarkable novel, Ethan Frome, the main character, Ethan Frome, is in love with a prohibited woman… his wife's cousin. His wife, Zeena, is a sick woman who has a villainous essence to her and an irrevocable hold on Ethan. Mattie Silver is Zeena’s cousin and the woman Ethan is infatuated with. Through Ethan’s eyes, Mattie is described as youthful, attractive, and graceful basically everything Zeena isn’t.
Edith Wharton’s classic novel, The Age of Innocence, is interesting for a number of reasons, including what it tells us about New York society in the 19th century and its insights into how humans tend to deceive each other. However, one of the most fascinating aspects of the novel is its use of the limited-omniscient, third-person narrative point of view as a means of telling the story, where the point of view given is Newland Archer’s. This strategy offers the reader an opportunity to see how one person’s point of view is always limited, as Archer is often shown to not fully know what is going on in an ironic way. Focusing on chapter XVII of the novel, this essay will argue that Archer’s limited knowledge, and the strategy of telling the story
