Edith Wharton Shows Love Can be Stupid in Ethan Frome Essay

After her and Ethan Frome’s wreck though, she becomes what Zeena was and experiences what she went through. She becomes that resentful and despaired person, that the younger version of Mattie is majorly differentiated from. At the end, irony is displayed because Zeena seems to regain some of her health and beauty while Mattie lost all of hers.

Ethan also values Mattie very much. For example, when the pickle-dish broke, Ethan made it his mission to fix it by getting glue so Zeena wouldn’t get mad at Mattie, “He thought that by soughting out again with the lumber as soon as he had finished his dinner he might get back to the farm with the glue before Jotham and the old sorrel had had time to fetch Zenobia from the Flats…” (p. 83). In addition, Ethan refused to let Zeena get rid of MAttie and told her, “You can’t put her out of the house like a thief-a poor girl without friends or money. She's done her best for you and she’s got no place to go to..”

In the book, Mattie starts out as a lazy teenager who needs to be told what to do by her over controlling mother, but throughout the story, she becomes more responsible and adult-like. For

In the final chapters, Ethan and Mattie enter the Frome household. Wharton describes that the living room has "the deadly chill of a vault after the dry cold of the night." This quote represents the deathly sled run they are about to experience. Ethan and Mattie pursued their love life to the point of death due to desperation. Ethan felt trapped in his marriage with Zenobia and found an escape in the beautiful, young Mattie Silver. He chose to die with Mattie for an escape to his isolated, unhappy life, but it only backfired in the end.

That makes him stand between what he want and what he need and all he wants, just to stop at thinking. And Ethan's thoughts become his biggest barrier to reaching happiness. Ethan loves Mattie. Ethan dreams about the happiness of him and Mattie. We know that when Ethan says, "I guess we'll never let you go, Matt," he whispered, as though even the dead, lovers once, must conspire with him to keep her; and brushing by the graves, he thought: "We'll always go on living here together, and someday she'll lie there beside me.". But there is no way that comes true when he becomes passive in front of Zeena. When Zeena figures out what is wrong in her family, and try to indirectly force Mattie to leave the farm, Ethan is passive with his feeble reasoning cannot protect Mattie. Then, Ethan plans to flee with Mattie. But once again, another thought comes up to Ethan's mind as an excuse for his passivity, and make him flinch. The narrator states, " If he gave the farm and mill to Zeena what would be left him to start his own life with? Once in the West he was sure of picking up work—he would not have feared to try his chance alone. But with Mattie depending on him the case was different. 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 an unlikely chance—it was doubtful if she could clear a thousand

Ethan ends up falling in love with Mattie. Mattie offers the warm qualities of a relationship that Zeena|

In the story Snow White , the huntsman is ordered to kill Snow White, but instead he tries to help her escape from the queen’s envy, the reason for this being “Because she was so beautiful, the huntsman took pity on her…”(Grimm 1). Zeena, the evil witch in Ethan Frome, tries to get rid of Mattie because she is jealous of her. Ethan tries to help Mattie, like the huntsman, by attempting to convince Zeena to let her stay. However, Zeena refuses, using her health as an excuse. The Elizabeth Ammons essay about Ethan Frome’s fairy tale similarities states how Ethan takes pride in subduing Mattie when she is frightened, almost like how the huntsman subdued Snow White’s fear by letting her live. Ethan begins to show his prince-like properties when he falls in love with Mattie Silver, similar to the prince in the beginning of the movie Snow White. He often expresses his hopes to run away with Mattie, but sadly never receives the happy ending that he had hoped for. Ethan makes an attempt at a solution when he and Mattie make the decision to go sledding into an elm tree together. Unlike the prince in the story, Ethan never gets to be with Mattie, and only makes things worse when the injuries sustained from the crash changed Mattie’s personality

In the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the minor character Mattie Silver serves as a foil towards the main character Ethan Frome. Throughout the novel, Ethan is a man who faces many challenges in his path causing what little happiness he has to vanish therefore illuminating the work as a whole. One may realize the faults of Ethan’s ways through theme, symbolism and irony.

An ineffective hero, known as a tragic hero, possesses many characteristics. Ineffective heroes are doomed from the beginning, but most importantly, are wounded physically or emotionally, in most situations, as a result of their own flaws. Ethan Frome of Edith Wharton's novel, Ethan Frome, possesses characteristics of an ineffective hero. He suffers from the beginning of the novel, stuck living with his sick parents, and as a result of his flaws, he marries Zeena and falls for Mattie, resulting in both his physical and emotional fracture. However, Ethan cannot succeed and ultimately suffers, as a result of his neediness.

Edith Wharton uses Mattie to express isolation and being lonely. She comes to the country with ribbons in her hair and more joy in herself. She wanted to free Ethan from the terrible society he lived in. Life in Starkfield is bleak and boring. No one comes outside or enjoys themselves. This is mainly why Ethan wants to escape the barren and poor neighborhood. Ethan is also isolated as well. He opposes society mainly because he cannot be with the one he loves and he doesn’t want to ruin his marriage to Zeena as well. When Zeena falls ill, she goes to the doctor for a couple of days and returns only to find her expensive china now ruined. Angry, she tells Ethan that she needs more hired help and plans to send Mattie away. Upset, Ethan did not know what to do . He decided to write a letter to Zeena telling her to run the farm and be by herself. However, he

When Mattie is to be sent away, Ethan and Mattie grow desperate looking for a way out of their impossible situation. They decide that it is better to die in a sledding accident together than live their lives apart. Ethan hesitates slightly, “But in a flash

Isolation is used as a means of developing relationships between the characters, whether friendly or hostile. An obvious relationship that is formed is the one between Ethan Frome and Mattie Silver. Mattie was brought in by Zenobia, or Zeena, Frome as an assistant around their house. Ethan, being isolated from most other people that would bring him happiness, quickly begins to fall in love with Mattie. This is made clear early on, stating, "The girl was more than the bright serviceable creature he had thought her. She had an eye to see and an ear to hear; he could show her things and tell her things, and taste the bliss of feeling that all he imported left long reverbations and echoes he could wake at will" (Wharton 32). Due to the fact that Ethan had no one else but Zenobia in his life, Mattie was the only person keeping

Tracing back to the year that changed Ethan Frome’s life forever, the reader finds themselves outside of a church where Ethan Frome is mesmerized by the sight of this girl, Mattie Silver, who is actually his wife’s sister. When Mattie

Ethan and Mattie went sledding one day and went down a couple of times and the last time they were about to go down he was talking about how much he loved Mattie and it was in the tone of a goodbye which hints they are attempting suicide. They start sledding down and hit a tree which did not kill them but seriously injured them and without the medicine and tools we have today they would have to live that way forever. Dialogue from the book and movie indicates that it was suicide which was; ”She put her lips close against his ear to say: "Right into the big elm. You said you could. So 't we'd never have to leave each other any more." "Why, what are you talking of? You're crazy!" "I'm not crazy; but I will be if I leave you."” (Wharton). The author then implicates the ironic twist into the story, Mattie unable to walk and Ethan barely able to walk, live the rest of their lives under the care of Zeena who is now healthy. From the beginning of the book Zeena was the unhealthy one and being taken care of, but now nearing the end after the “accident” she is the one taking care of Ethan and Mattie which gives her a bit of a bittersweet feeling, thinking they deserved it for treating her the way they did before the

Mattie even though she is not stuck in an unhappy marriage, realizes that she can never aspire to be much in life. Normally during this time period it was normally the man who was in control of the woman, however in Ethan Frome that is not the case. Zeena plays the role of being in control of Ethan, for example “Why should he not leave with Mattie the next day, instead of letting her go alone? He would hide his valise