Essay Comparing Ethan Frome And Age Of Innocence

In Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena become caught in a love triangle. This resulted in tragedy instead of Ethan and Mattie living in happiness together. When Ethan was attempting to decide whether to leave Zeena or allow Mattie to leave, he should have figured out a way to leave Zeena fairly well off while leaving with the one he truly loved: Mattie. Maybe he could have persuaded someone wealthy to marry Zeena or her family might have taken her back when Ethan left. Zeena was an awful wife and she should have expected Ethan to leave because she knew he loved Mattie and that she was not kind to him. Zeena was not the only one at fault. Mattie should have handled herself differently. Even though she was taken over

Just after Zeena informs him of Mattie’s forced departure, he thinks, “Now she had mastered him and he abhorred her. Mattie was her relation, not his: there was no means by which he could compel her to keep the girl under her roof.” Zeena is the master of the house, not Ethan. Around Zeena, Ethan’s masculinity is threatened, which was unheard of for the time period. Also note how Wharton uses the phrase ‘her roof’ to stress that Zeena is the one who wears the pants in the relationship. At a different part of the book, Mattie breaks the pickle dish and relies on Ethan to fix the problem. In addition, “She did not even ask what he had done…he had never known such a thrilling sense of mastery.” Ethan feels like the man of the house with Mattie, his masculinity is strengthened, and he isn’t being ordered around like someone’s dog. Wharton does this to add to Ethan’s yearning for a better life with Mattie and to be permanently rid of his

With reference to at least two characters in the novel Ethan Frome, show in detail how Wharton uses setting to reflect character.

The first factor which adds to Ethan’s tragic fate is time. The book is mainly set in the nineteenth century and in those times things like divorce and adultery were less acceptable. Ethan would have felt morally wrong to leave this wife working on a poor farm or just leaving her money. Ethan’s birth into a poor family and in the time he was born, meant that he couldn’t really do anything so he was left unhappy. There was no welfare state in the nineteenth century America so again Ethan had to accept the burden of looking after his parents and wife, paying all of Zeena’s medical ’needs’ with no help. Ethan must have found

To make matters worse, a year after Ethan and Zeena married, Zeena became very ill and then Ethan chose to take care of her even though he was in love with Mattie. Zeena eventually tells Ethan she hired a new girl and she would be staying in Mattie’s room which infuriated Ethan. Ethan was noble because he was there for Zeena and he always let Zeena have her way. The final reason why Ethan stayed with Zeena is because he felt that withholding his love for Mattie, he is sparing Zenna’s emotions and feelings (Wharton 13). This shows Ethan is noble because he is protecting Zeena and hiding their love for one another. Ethan wanted to protect Zeena and not make her feel unwanted or alone.

The Novella of Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, is a tragedy. Ethan Frome suffered tragedy because of his character flaws, errors in his judgment, and forces beyond his control. Ethan Frome married a woman, Zeena, he was lonely and not truly in love with her. When her cousin, Maddie comes to live with them Ethan becomes infatuated with her. When Maddie has to leave, Ethan and Maddie decide to kill themselves so they never would have to leave one another. In the novella of Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, Ethan is a unique character who suffers a downfall due to character flaws, and errors in judgment, and most important forces beyond human control to in which he gains wisdom.

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.

Throughout the novel, Ethan Frome’s sense of responsibility lives strong enough in him to forget about his own happiness with Mattie, to stay with his wife Zeena, and to take care of the town when all of the others have passed away. In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, Ethan’s sense of responsibility to his wife and land prevents him from achieving true happiness and causes his ultimate emotional death.

Felipe 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 where someone could feel sympathy for him, but also show contempt? It is this emotional reaction that the reader has for the protagonist that makes this more appreciable by a contemporary audience.

Ethan Frome and his wife, Zenobia (Zeena), never really know what true love feels like because they are both very lonely people. They meet when Zeena is caring for Ethan’s mother; due to their loneliness, they mistake the bizarre feeling of companionship for love. Ethan marries Zeena, not because he is in love, but because he does not want to be alone and he feels like he owes it to her for everything she is doing for him. She is aware of this and claims, “...you grudged me the money to get back my health, when I lost it nursing your own mother! And my folks all told me at the time you couldn 't do no less than marry me after—” (Wharton 83). In addition to Zeena saying that Ethan

Edith Wharton grew up with a well-to-do family in New York, which raises the question of why she chose to write her characters of Ethan Frome as poor working-class. Wharton was criticized for Ethan Frome by reviewers who accused her of not being able to understand those below her on the social level. However, Edith Wharton also received heaps of praise for Ethan Frome because she seemed to have a strong understand of the New England region and its poorer inhabitants. Ethan Frome is considered to be Wharton’s darkest novel.W.J. Stuckey points out, “Despite this surface breadth, this impressive range of social observation, Wharton’s novels have a rather narrow thematic

Newland wishes to shorten him and May’s engagement, but continues to secretly see Ellen. Newland loves and wants to marry May because it is socially acceptable, but also desires to run about with Ellen without feeling they are being scrutinized. While walking in the park on a Sunday afternoon with May, Newland is “proud of the glances turned on her”, enjoying that she is envied by others and he has May all to himself (Age of Innocence 70). Newland frequently ponders if he should tell May about his visits to Ellen, but instead, he merely begins to “talk of their own plans” avoiding the subject completely by discussing the long engagement.

The Age of Innocence, written by Edith Wharton, is about the upper-class society of New York City in the 1870’s. The novel follows the life of an upper-class lawyer named Newland Archer. He is going to wed May Welland, who comes from another upper-class family. As the novel progresses Newland starts to become intrigued with May’s cousin, the poor Ellen Olenska. Ellen is called “poor” because she is shameful in the eyes of the society that surrounds her. Ellen left her husband and moved back to New York City to be with her family. Divorce is not acceptable in the 1870’s high society like it is today. Newland tries at first to protect Ellen from the bad reputation that she will perceive if she divorces

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is a book that gave the word “love” many other meanings, such as impossible, meaningless and incomplete. There were many unbearable obstacles that Countess Ellen Olenska, one of the main characters, had to face because of love. She was treated badly by many people and always longed for love but never obtained it. With everyone cursing her, betraying her and hurting her, there was one person who was always there for her. Newland Archer wasn’t only sympathetic towards her; he also began to fall in love with her. The love she always wanted. He was the man who truly cared for her and always helped her make decisions. Out of all the selfish people in New York who

This stands in stark contrast to what Miss Elizabeth Bennett wants. Mrs Bennett wants her daughters to marry because it’s thea only way for them to solidfy that they will have food on their plates and a roof over their head. Mr. Collins is Mr. Bennetts brother and is set to inherit his estate when he dies. He comes to visit in the middle of the book and his main intentions are to ask on of the daughters to marry him and to observe what he will in time own. Mrs. Bennett says in response to all this “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousnd a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” (57, Austen) The single man she speaks of his Mr. Collins, the Bennett kids uncle. Austen describes Mr. Collins as a self retious kind of man who thinks he is above the Benntt’s just because he is set to inherrit their estate. This gives him a villeness quality. Austen is commenting on the blindness of Mrs. Bennett to the qualitys of Marraige. She only shes Mr. Collins as money but Elizabeth sees him as a bad person to spend the rest of her life with and theirfore turns down his marraige purposal. Which causes trouble between her and her mother. This is the best example of the contrast in what the two women see as the meaning of Marriage.