limited by our surroundings and by availability. Ethan Frome, the main character of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, was born into a poor family stricken with bad luck. Their mill and farm were all they had to their name. Later, with Ethan damaged and his sickly wife Zeena acting as a caretaker for her crippled cousin, the Frome family could not escape their poor life in Starkfield, Massachusetts. The Frome family struggled even in the time before Ethan and Mattie ruined themselves in their botched lovers’…

Armesto once said, “Every hero is somebody else’s villain”. Every individual who considers someone to be a hero can also be portrayed as a villain. In the novel, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton she portrays her male protagonist as both a hero and a villain. As a result, the reader can view the plot as any other human who can make mistakes. Ethan Frome a tragic hero whose greatest challenge is finding true happiness in his life. This observation presents the question: how can an individual play both roles…

Edith Wharton’s brief, yet tragic novella, Ethan Frome, presents a crippled and lonely man – Ethan Frome – who is trapped in a loveless marriage with a hypochondriacal wife, Zenobia “Zeena” Frome. Set during a harsh, “sluggish” winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan and his sickly wife live in a dilapidated and “unusually forlorn and stunted” New-England farmhouse (Wharton 18). Due to Zeena’s numerous complications, they employ her cousin to help around the house, a vivacious young girl – Mattie…

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton opens to a bleak New England winter in Starkfield. The novel’s protagonist, Ethan Frome, resides here. Ethan resided “in Starkfield for too many winters.” In fact, the author projects the image of a hell through her description of Starkfield. The city’s name finds its root in a word used to describe a barren or naked place. The author also compounds the image of a barren wasteland by having the story take place in winter, which in the New England region acts as a crippling…

Feminism is a key role in the book Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. In the novel Ethan Frome feminism is established through a parallel between Edith Wharton's life and Ethan Frome her novel. Feminism is defined as “the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.” It could also be described as women's rights. In literature there is always a goal. Edith Wharton had a goal of promoting feminism. After Edith Wharton got married she started writing many…

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is set in a small New England town in the early twentieth century. It revolves around three main characters: Ethan Frome, a rural farmer; Zeena Frome, his chronically ill wife; and Mattie Silver, Zeena’s cousin who lives with them in a serving capacity. These characters each have their own journey through this story, but those journeys entwine and affect everyone else with the actions each character takes. Ethan Frome as the title character perhaps has the most important…

Setting Analysis of Ethan Frome By: Mary Thompson Ethan Frome Analysis In Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, setting is an important element. The setting greatly influences the characters, transportation, and activities. The setting takes place in a small town called “Starkfield”. Starkfield is a town that is just like its name, it is boring, barren, severe, and harsh. Starkfield is known for its many harsh winters that leave the inhabitants bitter and in harsh condition. Starkfield…

Just how important is loyalty in a marriage? Set against the hollow countryside of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton sets out to answer that question. The novel is centered on a troubled, complicated man named Ethan who finds himself torn when forced to decide whether he should be loyal to his tyrannical, sickly wife Zeena, or give into his feelings for the young and attractive Mattie Silver, who is also Zeena’s younger cousin. Throughout the story, Ethan’s loyalty is tested by his growing…

oppose society due to the surroundings that they face and the obstacles that they encounter. Set in the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is the story of a poor, lonely man, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie Silver. Ethan the protagonist in this novel, faces many challenges and fights to be with the one he really loves. Frome was trapped from the beginning ever since Mattie Silver came to live with him and his wife. He soon came to fall in love with her, and out…

Massachusetts, Ethan Frome lives a life of poverty. Not only does he live hopelessly, but “he was a prisoner for life” to the economy (Ammons 2). A young engineer from outside of town narrates the beginning of the story. He develops a curiosity towards Ethan Frome and the smash-up that he hears about in bits and pieces. Later, due to a terrible winter storm that caused the snow itself to seem like “a part of the thickening darkness, to be the winter night itself descending on us layer by layer” (Wharton 20)…