Analysis Of Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

In Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, setting is an important element. The setting greatly influences the characters, transportation, and activities.

Ethan Frome written by Edith Wharton was an astounding yet surprising novel. The theme that really stood out the most in this story was courage. Throughout the story Ethan has to build the courage to deal with his feminine conflicts that change his outlook towards other characters. The discussion of characters and their choices will take place throughout this essay too.

People have many dreams that they want to accomplish during their lifespan on earth. However, not all of the dreams can be fulfilled. The dreams and desires of a person can be hindered by interfering forces which might be external, social and environmental factors, or internal like lack of will. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton demonstrates how social factors, including rules and expectations, and environmental factors such as weather and landscape, hindered the protagonist from accomplishing his dreams. These factors together with his lack of will, played a major role in the tragedies of Ethan.

Ethan Frome also has a sense of duty to stay with his current wife Zeena. Ethan wishes to leave Zeena immediately and to run away with his true love Mattie, but he knows that Zeena could not possibly support herself on her own. Edith Wharton shows this by writing, “…that Ethan drew a meager living from his land, and his wife, even if she were in better health than she imagined, could never carry such a burden alone” (Wharton 96). This distinctly explains that Ethan’s sense of duty conquers once again and controls him to stay with his bitter wife Zeena. Most have a universal opinion that Ethan has to stay with his wife Zeena. Another author agrees with the fact that Ethan’s plans to run away with Mattie have become thwarted by saying, “But immediately his plans are set afoot, things begin to close in on him again: farm and mill are mortgaged, he has no credit, and time is against him” (Howe 132). The author states that Ethan’s small estate will not support Zeena, and so Ethan’s sense of duty prevails over him again.

Many people 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 of love with his own wife. He was basically trapped in the instances of his life, society’s affect on the relationship, love, poverty, illness, disability, and life.

His struggles are exacerbated by his surroundings such as Zeena his wife, the bleak Starkfield landscape, and his home which often takes on an oppressive quality. Mattie was Zeenas cousin and Ethans lover. This novel shows how even though Ethan and Zeena are married; Ethan loves Mattie more than he could possibly love Zeena. "It's bad enough to see the two women sitting there - but his face, when he looks around that bare place, just kills me" (Chapter 10).

Literature is compiled of a multitude of ways the phrases can be interpreted by the one invested into the story through different views and experiences. In Edith Wharton’s novella Ethan Frome, symbols are evident throughout, but every one of them can have numerous meanings depending on the angle a reader makes. The symbol of the pickle dish can be derived to symbolize the unhappiness and delusion in someone’s life and rebellion from the familiar every day actions.

Ethan Frome was highly motivated by Mattie Silver. He dreamed of being with her and not with his wife Zeena. His motivation reflected his behavior towards his family and friends and most of all Mattie. Each time he looked at her, he felt that they were meant to be together forever. He even thought about running away with her to the west and starting over again. His marriage to Zeena was a forced marriage because of her services given to Ethan's mother when she was sick and dying.  Frome could not hold back his emotions for Mattie Silver and each chance he had, he expressed them to her. Although he felt guilty about lying to Zeena just to be with Mattie, he could not help his actions he was so in love.

In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, one major critical theory revolves around the psychological criticism. The novel revolves around this critical theory because Wharton wanted the reader to observe how the setting becomes dependent on the emotional state of the character and vice versa. Throughout the novel, Wharton makes changes to the environment to represent Ethan’s fondness for certain characters. On the contrary, Wharton displays how the setting directly influences Ethan’s mental state. As the reader perceives this influence that each character has on Ethan Frome, they can develop an understanding of the relationships established in the novel. This critical theory will be expressed throughout the literary analysis paper, specifically in the Novel Summary section and Literary Criticism sections. The following text will analyze the drastic changes in the environment and compare it to Ethan’s mental state.

   "Dependent personality disorder."(Morris)  To people who suffer from this disorder, making a decision is virtually impossible. It is only by getting assistance from others that they can make even the simplest of choices. When some of these people come together, they rely on each other to help them with decision-making.  Unfortunately, the codependency created by this situation frequently makes it impossible for these people to separate. In fact, they often become so interdependent that subconsciously they increasingly act in ways that will maintain the status quo. In Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome, the three major characters are so dependent on each other that no matter

After reading the book Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the character Ethan was very different. He lived a very confused and depressed life. Ethan lived in a small town called Starkfield with his wife Zenobia (Zeena) Frome. Ethan had to drop out of school and come back home to be a caregiver for his family. Ethan was a weak and strong character in the novel.

In all situations in his life, Ethan Frome makes decisions based on his kind and caring

Robert Armitage discusses Edith Wharton’s life in his essay, Edith Wharton, A Writing Life: Marriage, so that the reader can evaluate how Edith's personal experiences affect the characters in Ethan Frome and the novel as a whole. Armitage does not specifically give examples of parallelism between Wharton’s life and her novel, Ethan Frome because his essay only tells the story of Wharton’s life. However, he does believe that Wharton’s stories distinctly reflect “the shape of her life and the movements of her thought” (Armitage).

Ethan Frome, from Edith Wharton’s novel, exposes his desires to be with Mattie through his conflicted nature and loneliness. Ethan Frome exposes his desires to have Mattie through his conflicted nature. First, throughout the book Ethan is conflicted with having to choose to stay with his wife, Zeena whom he does not love or leave her for his true love, Mattie. This conflict exposes his desires to have Mattie, because he is even considering leaving Zeena to be with her. During the book when Ethan Frome is conflicted, this shows how much Mattie means to him, especially when he first contemplates leaving Zeena. Next, Ethan Frome exposes his conflicted nature when he must decide if he will be with Mattie forever by committing suicide with her or

In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton illustrates Ethan's perpetual lack of control over his destiny through Nature which binds him to Starkfield with no hope of escape. Nature always has control over his life, and even when he attempts to take back any control over his life, it unrelentingly oppresses him. In the prologue, Wharton establishes that Winter dominates Starkfield like a military, blockading the people into isolation. Nature's winter surrounds the people and sends the "wild cavalry of March winds" to assist "the storms of February" that