Desire Vs. Morality And Duty

Ethan believes his free will comes from being with Mattie. He continues doing his farm work and stays with the woman he had married in an act to repay a family debt. In the book he thinks “ And what of Zeena’s fate? Farm and mill were mortgaged to the limit of their value, and even if she found a purchaser -in itself and unlikely chance-it was doubtful she could clear a thousand dollars on the sale”(74). When he thinks of Zeena he realizes his fate is to be trapped in a unbearable and boring life. This realization hits him

She provides the conflict by causing Ethan’s inner turmoil. She helps move the story along because of the thought she evokes in Ethan such as the thought of leaving his wife. However Ethan’s morals would never let him actually leave his wife supporting the theme of Moral Isolation

In the book Ethan Frome, the characters are caught between what is right and wrong. Mattie has a torn desire to be with her sister’s husband and Ethan does not stop her because he feels the same way. The theme for the book is duty and desire. Ethan has a desire towards Mattie because she does not complain and is thought of as

Zeena was nasty and treated everyone so badly. Her nasty words and her tone really got to Mattie but not so much Ethan. “Zeena made no reply: She did not seem to hear what he had said” (Wharton 51). She is a selfish person and she does not listen to what anyone else says but herself. Also, Zeena automatically switched up on maids too quickly. “But when Zenobia's doctor recommended her looking about for someone to help her with the house-work the clan instantly saw the chance of exacting a compensation from Mattie” (Wharton 48). It was not necessary to switch up on maids that quickly but Zeena did not care at all and she did it anyways leaving Mattie upset. Lastly, Zeena seemed to be a hypochondriac. “Zeena had always been what Starkfield called “sickly” and Frome had to admit that, if she were as ailing as she believed, she needed the help of a stronger arm than the one which lay so lightly in his during the night walks to the farm” (Wharton 32).Zeena always had the intention of being “sick” but she was not sick enough to hire a maid or being able to control Ethan. She could of took care of herself without a problem. If Zeena was not so moody, selfish, and disrespectful, this could of changed the

Secondly, Ethan Frome has had many failures within his life such as his marriage to Zeena. One may ask how is Zeena and Ethan’s marriage a failure? Ethan only marries Zeena after she could not nurse his mother back to health and she ends up passing away. When Ethan mother dies, Ethan is in a sullen mood or funk and in turn

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.

For at least the young Ethan Frome, his desire to make others happy is a defining feature of his personality. The seemingly contented man introduced to readers contrasts with the unfortunate description of his education: “his father’s death, and the misfortunes following it, had put a premature end to Ethan’s studies…” (14). Even in his youth, Ethan prioritizes the needs and wants of others over his own. While dropping out of school was inevitable once the funds stopped flowing, his decision not to sell the family farm and remain in Starkfield is the most socially acceptable thing to do. With the whole town of Starkfield watching, Ethan accepted his duties as a son and eventual husband. These obligations corned Ethan, so much so that he was not able to elope with Mattie. Although Ethan despises his wife, his concern for her is demonstrated when he thinks: “and what of Zeena’s fate?...how could she keep the farm going?” Even when he’s about to leave her, Ethan is still worried about her prospects and position in society. In this respect, Zeena personifies all inhibitors of dreams: time, money, education and ability. Ethan’s failure to get away from Zeena is indicative of his resignation to fate.

Ethan Frome, who this fictional biography is about, is dominated by his id, or inner child and consequently makes very impulsive, childish decisions. His first major mistake that the reader learns about was his hasty decision to marry Zeena. Wharton explains,

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).

Ethan is troubled as his life begins to shift drastically, his father was kicked by a horse and became mentally ill. With that he had to take over the farm, mill, as well as both his parents. After a while his father passed away and his mother too had grown mentally ill, now he had to do all the house work (Edith Wharton pg. 40). He needed help taking care of his mother so his distant cousin Zenobia had come down to help him out. His mother ended up dying leaving him all alone, with this he had seen Zeena as his escape, so he asked her to stay and later they got married. As time grew Zeena grew ill and silent, which left Ethan no one to speak with, everyone in town pitied him and tried to avoid him. Ethan was detached from his own reality, home, and

Juxtaposition is used to put two characters side by side and depict the similarities and the differences of them. Within the novel, Ethan Frome, Zeena and Mattie were two contextual characters whose individuality stood out. By studying Zeena’s and Mattie’s attitudes towards life, their roles as women in the late 19th century, their age, appearance, and their treatment of Ethan and each other throughout the novel, the reader can more deeply comprehend not only the similarities and differences of these two characters, but the function their differences serve as well. A person’s attitude towards life determines how successful they will be in life.

Zeena is Ethan’s cousin who originally came to nurse his sick mother. Ultimately, the two get married after his mother’s death, and Zeena blames her questionable illness on Ethan’s mother, claiming “For I’d `a` been ashamed to tell [Dr. Buck] that you grudged me the money to get back my health, when I lost it nursing your own mother!” (97). While Ethan is evidently unhappy in his marriage and has been hurt by Zeena, this does not excuse the rest of his behavior. He is unfaithful to his wife, not only with her family and caregiver, but with a young and naive girl whom he takes advantage

Ethan had “taken a year’s course at a technical college at Worcester, and dabbled in the laboratory,” however later ended his schooling because of “his father’s death, and the misfortunes following it” (Wharton 24).His action in giving up his proud studies is an example of what makes Ethan a tragic hero as he feels obligated to pursue his family’s farm instead of following his dreams through college. Not only is he troubled by leaving college for the farm, but Ethan is also unhappy with his relationship with his wife, Zeena. Zeena they were both happy until within a year of their marriage Zeena contracted an alleged illness and she becomes bitter. “He felt a chill of such forebodings,” within Ethan’s diminishing marriage with Zeena as she has become a burden (Wharton 63). Since Ethan is not capable in revealing his feelings about Zeena, it leads to the downfall of Ethan’s miserable relationship with her. than Frome begins to live a life of tragedy that evolves into suffering by the action of unthoughtful

Although Frome can be held responsible for his moral inactivity, he can be considered a morally inadequate man in his present state. His inadequacy, however, was not a constant in life or a sudden occurrence-- it snowballed from his youth and finally solidified through the ‘smash-up’. His earlier experiences in a university and the joy it brought him was quickly interrupted after a year by his sickly parents. The unfortunate circumstance forces Ethan Frome to move back to the depressing Starkfield he had just escaped. His parents’ illnesses bring along Zenobia, who would be another future, unseen oppression along with Starkfield. For years, Ethan lives in depressing conditions that decline as time goes on. The chance to finally leave them behind, however, comes in Mattie, Zenobia’s cousin and maid. Ethan’s inability to act on this chance of escape finally seals his fate when Mattie is paralyzed and he is critically injured. Although jinxed with unfortunate circumstances, Ethan Frome’s life could have been bettered if one small step or action was taken by him for himself with the intention to create personal joy or pleasure.

In this case we are introduced to Ben Freeman, an employee at the Provincial Power Corporation (PPC) for the past three years. Ben has found himself in the ethical dilemma of whether or not to steal the five hundred dollar holiday bonus fund from his work. Ben desperately needs this money in order to pay off his gambling debt and protect his physical wellbeing from the gangsters he borrowed from. His plan is to steal the holiday bonus fund and frame one of his coworkers Sue Macdonald in order to divert suspicion away from him. Ben knows that if he is caught stealing the money, he will surely lose his job.