Ethan Frome Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, Zenobia ‘Zeena’ Frome serves as the chief antagonist. Zeena is portrayed as a malcontent, apathetic wife who adds to her husband (Ethan Frome)’s feelings of imprisonment and stands as an obstacle to his desires. While readers come to support or empathize with Ethan’s dreams for a life outside of Starkfield, full of adventure and passion, Zeena is vilified and often loathed by readers. Ethan paints her as a villain because she, coupled with crushing poverty, blocks Ethan’s deepest desires. However, while portrayed as the novel’s villain, Zeena does not actively seek to ruin Ethan’s life, her nature as a villain is much more unintentional. Throughout Ethan Frome, the perspective of the narrating Ethan

Abraham Maslow was an American philosopher who was born in the early 1990 's in Brooklyn, New York. He was one of the leading theorists that promoted humanistic psychology during his era. Maslow sought to understand what motivates and inspires individuals. He theorized that individuals possess and hold a group of motivation and incentive systems not related to plunder or insensible desires. Maslow declared that people are motivated and provoked to attain certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on. The earliest version of Maslow 's hierarchy of needs includes five motivational needs, often viewed as hierarchical levels inside a pyramid. The five stage representation can be separated into basic needs and growth needs. The deficiency or basic needs are said to motivate and stimulate individuals when they are unmet and not fully attained. Also, the desire to fulfill and accomplish such wants and needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are denied. Once these needs have been relatively satisfied, an individual may be capable of reaching the highest level of the pyramid called self-actualization. Maslow though that self actualization is a state that exists when an individual is acting in harmony with his or her full capabilities. In Cormac McCarthy 's novel, The Road, we will examine the character 's physical journey towards self-actualization on Maslow

So, it can be seen that Zeena and Mattie do have common feelings for Ethan Frome. She probably has resentment and dislike for Ethan From and even herself since it was her idea to crash the sleigh into the oak tree. Also, since her youthfulness was cut short because of an accident and there was no everlasting love that followed it.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow created Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a list of necessary needs in order to live with healthy mental. The levels are physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. Physiological deals with survival needs which include food, shelter, and water. Safety is the need to be secure from danger, a shelter or safe environment. Love is the is need for affection and belongingness, friends and family. Esteem is the personal worth, success and achievements. Self-actualization is actualizing one’s potential and what you are capable of. According to Maslow, the most important level is physiological and is needed for survival.

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.

Zeena appears to use her illness as a way to manipulate others to do things. Ethan usually does things to please Zeena. He is taking care of her and feels as if he cannot run off and abandon her. Zeena is controlling over Ethan and wants him to do whatever she pleases. She went away to see another doctor to get a second opinion on her illness and used Ethan’s money to pay for the treatment that she was prescribed even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to do the treatment. As the relationship between Ethan and Zeena becomes worse, Zeena is able to sense the relationship between Ethan and Zeena and becomes

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.

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

The story of “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton bring many different themes into question and conflict. One of these ideas is the dispute between ethics and morals versus personal desire. In the story, Ethan wants to leave Zeena because she is shrewish, while Mattie is kind, gentle, radiant, and a perfect match for Ethan. Ethan's desire to leave Zeena for Mattie is therefore completely understandable. Yet, because Ethan knows that society standards in this time period would cause him to be severely judged as a man who abandoned his wife. The author uses variety of literary tools to help contribute to the theme morals and ethics versus personal desires. The setting, character, and plot contribute to the theme morals and ethics versus personal desires.

Everyone in the world wants to be happy in life, but most of the time that doesn’t really happen. Many people usually face hardship in their life for them to become happy in the long run. Henry David Thoreau once said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them,” which mean some people keep their struggles quiet. Men fake their life until they reach a grave and realized they did nothing in life. This relates to Ethan because when the argument happened between him and Zeena he than expresses his frustration towards her. In the book, Ethan Frome Ethan lives a tragedy life. Ethan has a lot of complex problems like Ethan marrying Zeena and him not able to stand up for his wife. After Ethan and Zeena get married, Zeena becomes an annoying, selfish and sick wife to Ethan.

Edith Wharton, in her novel Ethan Frome, places such an importance in the setting, specifically the locations and climate, that it seems to function as another character. However, upon closer examination of the prologue, it is easy to see that the setting is actually a reflection of Edith Frome’s emotional state. Wharton’s attempts at linking location and climate to Ethan are aided by her skillful use of a number of rhetorical devices ultimately underscoring his brokenness, isolation/imprisonment, and hopelessness. In the prologue, Edith Wharton uses a variety of rhetorical devices, such as diction and similes, to highlight the reflection of Ethan’s brokenness in the setting. Ethan is described as “the ruin of a man,” “bleak and unapproachable,” and “bent out of shape,” which all create an image of damaged goods.

Many people aim to please society because of the fear of getting reprimanded by others. Most people don’t pursue their dreams because of the concern of what their peers might think of them or how others will view them for the rest of their life. Ethan Frome faces many of the same conflicts such as whether to stay by his sick wife’s side or run away with her cousin, whom he actually loves and has feelings for. Edith Wharton uses many symbols, such as the red colored items, the household cat, and the pickle dish, in Ethan Frome indicating the deeper meanings of the characters’ situations.

To achieve self-actualization, or in easier term: happiness, one must go up the five stages of “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” by Abraham Maslow. The challenges society faces to be successful today are similar to the struggles of the characters in Mary Shelley’s, “Frankenstein.” Everyone has a common goal: prosperity. In Victor Frankenstein’s case, first he accomplishes the first stage of the pyramid by meeting his physiological needs thanks to his father’s wealth. Then, he completes the second stage of safety and stability through schooling and his pursuit of knowledge. Victor has also met the third stage of belonging and love with the help of four important beings in his life. When it was time to reach the fourth stage and accomplish something worthy of recognition, Victor crosses paths with failure. This failure destroys Victor and his ambition, causing him to take a U-turn down the mountain of success. Although Victor Frankenstein lived an eventful life, he could not manage to fully climb up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs because failure to achieve the next stage can result in descending the pyramid and having to start all over again due to discouragement.

Ethan Frome is an unfortunate individual who is trying to better himself, but in order obtain his goal, Ethan took advantage of Zeena, a nurse who is helping Ethan’s mother . There is a saying what goes around comes around and the action that he takes ends up doing the opposite of what is intended. His selfish acts are the result of his hunger to move forward, yet he still feels the guilt from his actions and tries to balance out his selfish with selfless acts, as a result Frome lives his life chained down by his own mistakes.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is used to analyze motivation of consumers, which are composed of 5 five stages. From the lowest level to the highest one respectively are physiological, safety, belongingness, ego needs, and self-actualization. (Solomon and Barmossy et al., 2006)