Edith Wharton's Use Of Setting

Because of the setting in this novel the activities in Starkfield are sparse. For many citizens there is little to do because the heavy snow falls keep the citizens in with lack of transportation. The activities they do are mostly during the spring which is extremely short, consisting only of a few weeks or possibly

The Winter is the opposite of summer, during the winter not only does the winter change but the town's appearance. The houses that once looked artificial were exposed and looked abandoned. “Winter comes down savagely over a little town on the prairie...The roofs, that looked so far away across the green treetops...they are so much more uglier then when their angles were softened by vines and

Hawthorne describes a cold and gray day.  This description gives the reader a sense of isolation as well as slight depression.  However, the mention of a slight breeze that ruffles the canopy of the forest just enough to let in little flickers of sunshine conveys a fleeting ray of hope that seems to coexist with the gloominess in the scene.  In many scenes during the book, moods or prevailing feelings are established through descriptions of the natural surroundings of the characters.  This aspect of Hawthorne's writing makes the book deeper and more emotional.

“There was no way out- none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light to be extinguished”(Wharton 29). Miserable routines caused by terrible occurrences trappes Ethan Frome every single day. Edith Wharton opposes the idea of following any routine. Wharton expresses that routines and cycles prevent a person from expressing their own desires or achieving their personal goals in life. These cycles prohibit a person from seeing changes within their environment and possible opportunities that could improve their life. Even if a person breaks free from a routine, an endless amount of reasons exist to pull them back in. Ethan Frome momentarily escapes from his daily routine to pursue his education, but not far into this break he has to return in order to help his family. Ethan Frome somehow found a way out of his miserable routine, but failed to take that exit; resulting in a life much worse than before. Finding a way out seems like a reasonable solution to escape bad situations, but taking such a great risk to completely change one’s entire life, seems nearly impossible for any citizens of Starkfield. In the novella, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton exemplifies how routines deny a person from reaching their full potential through the constant pull Ethan and other members of Starkfield receive to follow their normal, average routine and not follow their desires.

When Harmon states that Ethan has been in the town of Starkfield too many winters leads to the narrator finding out that Starkfield and the town members become emotionally buried under the snow covered blanket of Starkfield?s winters. Winter in Starkfield is depressing and cold and it seems to rub off on the residents of the town. People of the town say he is cold and depressing, simply because he has been in Starkfield too many winters.

References to winter in literature may refer to despair, anguish and death. During winter, the reality of war is brought to light to the students at Devon. Many students opt to join the war instead of finishing their

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 force, equivalent to a substantial army besieging a weak defenseless town. In sharp contrast to this desolate area, lies Mattie. Wharton first introduces the reader to Mattie, when she wears a bright “cherry colored scarf.” (12) Wharton

In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton uses light/dark and warm/cold imagery to indicate the emotional sense of comfort or lack thereof is associated with observable experiences in daily life. In general, it is more satisfying to be in a well-lit, warm space; there is no fear of what lurks in the shadows and the temperature is pleasurable. Meanwhile, dark, cold environments invoke a sense of apprehension and discomfort. Ethan’s saw mill is said to “[gloom] through the night,” and his landscape is described as “grey and lonely” (Wharton 20). The dark, barren landscape symbolizes Ethan’s disgust with the life he leads, also comparing the unavoidable winter to the permanence of his life in Starkfield.

In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome there are many symbols that are used to represent the many emotions or moods present in the novel. The setting of story is in Starkfield, Massachusetts in the middle of winter which is an occurring symbol in story and, how it effects the people in Starfield especially Ethan Frome and his family. The winter represents the different circumstances that appear in the novel such as Starkfield which is seen as a dull, dark, and quiet place full of mostly poor people. The people of Starkfield aren’t full of joy and seem to be very sluggish and unfriendly.

They say the winter is a metaphor for solitude; however, my winter was everything but solitary. I longed for Christmas Carols and holiday cheer, instead I got the sound of doors slamming and children fighting. I expected normal; my mom, my dad, and my brother. Instead I received my mom, my dad, my brother, aunt, and three cousins in a sardine packed house.

One Writer’s Beginning is not the only novel that I am guilty of merely scratching the surface of, connections can be made to all summer reading novels. Snow Falling On Cedars by David Guterson was the next task on the list, and had it not been for the AP Lang class, I would have not noticed themes in the text. While Gutterson provides loaded quotes to reveal themes, for example “there was a place in him she could not reach where he made his choices in solitude, and this made her not only uneasy…(92)” I was unable to identify any and thus consequently overlooked quotes as filler and transitions. After meticulous assignments in the class, I am today able to take this quote and derive the importance that silence plays in the development of characters.

The harsh conditions of the Alaskan winter affected about every action in the story. The setting is the man’s enemy in the story and he loses the battle. Even though the setting never changed, the conditions seemed to continuously become worse.

Cliff awoke, hungover, and thought how this latest round of transition in life seemed to have some sense of finality within its scary little claws. Include the regret and frustration of his uncharacteristic decision to date an older woman with four kids, and Cliff’s disenchantment with life dominated his every move. And now, with autumn in the air, he wasn’t looking forward to another New England winter- especially not like he used to. Short, sun-lit days, drinking, and pretending to be calm and happy gets really old and depressing.

But if they tried to warm their noses against the clumpy lapels of their mackinaws, the freezing moisture felt even worse, and they gave it up and merely pointed out their breath to each other as it whitened and then vanished” (Bishop 289). Emerson and Cato are facing discomfort at the hands of the brumal conditions, having been conspicuously described. Due to the fact that their provisions are scarce, we are left to assume that they may not be able to make it through the unrelenting bitterness of the cold. We were ascertained that Emerson and Cato gradually “grew numb and cold” and that they felt immense pain. The freezing moisture also had proven to get worse and with no attainable sources of head we are yet again left to assume that death is to be expected. “ The Farmers Children,” is built on the premise that two boys find themselves in the cold with scare provisions. Clues are presented to us as readers throughout the story as to whether or not the boys will survive amidst the affliction that they are currently facing. The use of foreshadowing enhances our attentiveness as to what is to come.

Edith Wharton, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer is markedly unique, insisting on order, form, standards and disciplines which curb the romantic individualism. In addition to her fifteen novels, she has to her credit, seven novellas, and eighty-five short stories, poems, books on design, travel, literary and cultural criticism, and a memoir. Her writing is classical and it reveals the instability of human nature, the impossibility of perfection of human beings and the doctrine of inevitable material progress. In The Custom of the Country, Wharton has combined her view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant and natural wit in the incisive depiction of a notorious woman, Undine, unraveling her sociological